So Sean and I have to say we are super sorry about our slow posts. We've been writing, but we have not had the guya to sit in front of the computer for a couple hours uploading pictures. So here's the latest update... well, a few really. I hope you enjoy. - Chris
"Sean here, reporting from Piazza Navona in Roma, Italia. We're way behind on posts, so I've got a run down of the last couple of days in Vienna, then Florence, and the first couple of Rome days for you."
Vienna _____
Even though we're almost a week out of Austria, it still burns brightly in our memory. We did our fair share of Museums and sightseeing, and finished up with catching up with one of my
students from 8 years ago, now a husband and newly minted father. Even now, approximately 3 weeks into the trip, I'm starting to accept the limitations of my attention span regarding museums. I'm aware of the world masterpieces two rooms away that I won't see, such as VanderMeer and Klimt, but getting to see new art is really the point, isn't it? Neither Chris nor I have any history of Art History classes, Art Appreciation 101 or anything like that. It's hard to appreciate the appraisal of brush strokes when it seems, even up close, that there's no brush strokes to be seen. Some of the these painters were we good, even up close, my mind is working to convince me it's not a painting. In Vienna, we saw the Unteres Belvedere, the Summer Home of the man who was one of the great war strategists of the Hapsburg Empire. Can't remember his name, but the Belvedere Palace(s) were his, and made even the Hapsburgs jealous. Chris really liked all of the Baroque details, so I guess we'll be looking for a place in Seattle with a lot of cherubs and filigree. Chris is smiling, but not disagreeing.The show there was called Schäfende Schönheit, which translates to “Sleeping Beauty”. It was a lovely exhibition, loosely tied to the concept of painting of sleeping women, but the real kicker was that it was a intermuseum exhibition between the Belvedere and the Ponce Art Museum in Ponce, Puerto Rico. We went to this Museum during our Honeymoon (really it was sort of an accident; we were looking for an English language bookstore to buy the next couple of books in the “Wheel of Time” fantasy series by Robert Jordan. We circumvented the island for this purpose, and took in the museum while in Ponce. It was a great museum, but we learned in Vienna that the curator is one of the world's great collectors/gatherers of a very particular period of art pieces, which is why this particular exhibition worked with his collection. Once again, no details, sorry. But you can check both the places out here. The most important (and most impressive, I thought) piece was “Flaming June”. Definitely one of those pieces that are so much better in person. I remember the depth of field as really astonishing me.
We only had about on hour for the upper (Oberes) Belvedere, so we didn't even pretend to hit 
everything. We missed the Klimts and the Schieles, which says something. You can't swing a dead cat in Vienna without hitting a Klimt or a Schiele. The entrance, with it's four Atlases holding up the ceiling, and the white stucco detail of the arches in the same room were notably special. Other than that, we didn't seem much. We just looked around on the way to the Cafe. The weather was really shitty that day, so we just grabbed a seat overlooking the gardens and sipped some coffee and hot chocolate, nibbling on a couple of very decadent american-style coffee shop cookies.
The other museum we did spend a bit of time at was the National Art History Museum (Kunsthistorisches Museum). We tried to go to the Natural History Museum, but it closed every time we looked at it wrong. The NAHM is a monster, a Hapburg enterprise originally created specifically to house their art collection. In that way it really is lovely. We saw a museum in Florence at the Medici palace that used to be a living space, and the different was clear. I really think the NAHM is, in and of itself, a great reason to go to Vienna. We saw a lot of stuff there (there was an exhibition of Dutch group portraits that was really cool), but the coolest was the ancient sculptures. Chris took some pics, but we're not allowed to post them on the internet, so just ask to see them when we get back. There's a big collection of Roman sculptures, Greek sculptures, and ancient Egyptian sarcophagi and sculptures. Our favorites here was a set of “funny face” portrait head sculptures. Once again, getting up close with these pieces really impressed upon us the facility of the unnamed sculptors of ancient Rome.
Austria was an all around pleasure, and I got to send it off with a visit with Tom and Verena. Tom was a student of mine and Verena is his wife. They had a baby 3 months ago named Samara. I skipped out on Chris for an afternoon to visit them in Prinzendorf, a little town about 10 minutes NE of Mistelbach. We got some (more) schnitzel with garlic bread, a couple beers, and Verena's mother sent me on my way with 2 liters of Rosé landwein.
Italy --------
Italy, unfortunately, has been pretty frustrating. After another couple of days of negotiating its cultural bureaucracy, we're finding that, for a country so seemingly lax about so many things, they're big on the small things. It's hard to get latitude, and I'm feeling a bit like 1984. No way I'll be getting away with anything big with how I refuse to conform with their small rules. I told Chris the other day it sort of feels like a game of Mao, but when you make a mistake because you don't know the rules, they fine you and call you an idiot. Then they tell you that you got off easy. Then they walk away in their loafers with no socks, rolled-up jeans, pink and white
checked button up shirt over a red t-shirt with a pink and blue pin-striped blazer, and, of course, huge sunglasses. Florence, after first impressions, turned out to be a very full historical experience. After the drama of getting into our room for the first time, we managed well, and the location was great. Just down the street Palacio Strozzi, some easy internet, and really centrally located to a lot of sights and museums. We did the Palazio Pitti Museum and the Boboli gardens attached to it. The Pitti has about 8 museums, and we ended up spending 44 euros between the two of us that day to see the “Caravaggio and his followers” exhibit and the gardens (and the Living Porcelain exhibit up at the top of the gardens. Of course, we like the Viennese porcelain the best. The weather was very reasonable while we were in Florence, and Chris got lots of chances to wear her Jack Wolfskin vest at night.
Regarding the language, I definitely have become much more shy now that I'm not in a German speaking country. We got a little beginner Italian language guide, but it seems to me that the language is naturally such a fast moving thing, that I don't really have a chance of picking up anything more than ordering cappuccinos (dui cappuccini, per favore).
Florence was really great because the houses/palaces have these interior courtyards that often
date to the 1500's and still have frecos and such in various stages of repair. And the churches! Some of them are huge, and you expect so much, and they don't disappoint. But more often, in Florence, the courtyard and the façade don't really indicate the glory waiting within. We've found one of those in Rome, the only gothic church in Rome. It's got one of the Egyptian obelisks out from set upon a Bernini statue of an elephant, and a plain white façade. Once you enter, however, you're treated with a full sized cathedral with brilliant ceiling painting with vivid blue background, a Michelangelo sculpture up at the altar, and about 20 inset booths and some chapels around the edge of the entire cathedral, each with nonsecular works of astounding beauty, in excellent condition. And lots of cool skulls, which I foto'd fer y'all. Finishing up Florence, we can't leave without mentioning the Duomo. Holy awesome. It's a monster, almost empty on the inside, and it dates from the 1200's. It takes a good 7-8 minutes to walk around the thing. We did get suckered into a crappy tourist dinner in a little piazza off the side of the Piazza del Duomo, but we got to take the wine home, and it was pretty good. I did get into an almost daily gelato habit once we hit Italy. Menta, baby! And they have a bridge, like in Venice, all stores going right across it. Really impressive antique jewelery and such.
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