Friends, Romans, Countryman, lend me your ears... home tomorrow

I forgot to say that some where on this trip we did the Spanish Steps and the the Trevi Fountain, we wandered the bars and night spots of Trevestare and ate an enormous amount of pizza and I drunk quite a lot of red wine - we are on holiday innit!!

The airb&b has delivered yet again although it said quiet location with garden and actually its on a very busy road and the outside area is tiny. but we have sat outside in among the trees having a night cap and it was all molto bello...

We had three very long days travelling and sight seeing, so day 4, our final day, was supposed to be very laid back - late rising, slow brekkie, and finally out to explore the modern art museum. After so much classic history its interesting to hit modern art and be brought back to the present.

Its a great gallery - wonderfully spacious and after yesterdays complete manicness at the Vatican sooooo peaceful and empty of people -and full of really interesting art. it was a great mix of contemporary work dating from early 20th century to present day. Not all of it was my cup of tea, I had to walk through a room exhibiting dead horse corpses hanging from the roof a piece apparently titled ''we are all flesh'' the animals came from the abattoir no creatures were harmed in the making of this art work.. I didn't like it!

I cant find a credit for this but am looking - they were just amazing sculptures

I did love a lot of the work though there was lovely Klimt and some more beautiful sculpture. I was intrigued by some of the very modern art - the stripey elephant with a tiger coming out of its bottom.

http://lagallerianazionale.com/mostra/bric-brac-the-jumble-of-growth/

BRIC a brac the Jungle of growth by Gerardo Mosquera and Huang Du.

I really loved the lions outside the museum, all very majestic and just lying there, watching and playing - there were more lions beautifully drawn onto the wall inside the gallery looked like they were done using pencil and graphite.

I did find credit for this but have lost it will update as soon as I find it....

There were many stunning pieces by Modigliani, Miro, Boldini, to name but a few .... quite a number of works by various impressionists dotted about - an (in my humble opinion) average Warhol and lots more - really worth a visit...

Klimt

And then that was the end of our relaxing day... it had been our intention to have a picnic in the park and relax, read a bit sketch a bit haha ... but somehow we ended up wandering again - right back into town - being fairly aimless because we were beginning to lose the will to sight see - we did find a very nice place for lunch but really we were being hopeless and eventually recognized this, gave up and headed home via a supermarket for food in case we felt we wouldn't venture our again.

And this was indeed the case - we sat in the garden among the pomegranate trees and ate a nice supper drinking beer and wine and enjoying a very balmy evening.... the traffic raced by on the other side of the hedge but we soon got used to it, its an early start to head to the airport and home and we have had a brilliant few days and I don't think we could have fit any more exploring Rome in!! (about 30 miles wandering in 3.5 days!!!!)

Rome has been wonderful, three days of intense culture - this is the problem with short breaks there is no time for a day off - but its been very splendid and time enough to relax and look at the hundred of photos I have taken over the coming chillier months!

Alesund

Our final destination stop was Alesund. This is a very pretty town in southern Norway built on a peninsula. All the houses are painted pretty colours and a lot of the architecture is all very Art Nouveau based. This is because the town itself was completely burnt to the ground In 1904 by a fire for which they never found the original cause. The whole town had to be rebuilt and this became a huge National Effort and a lot of prominent and up and coming architects flocked to the town to stick there 20 pence in. Consequently the town is very heavily Art Nouveau which was very fashionable at the time. There is this wonderful Museum just off the harbour which is a very beautiful Art Nouveau house. It has amazing panelling, doors, wallpaper, and it's all furnished with beautiful art Nouveau Furniture. It also house a collection of of enameled Art Nouveau Trinkets,boxes, spoons, jewellery, very very beautiful. There is an interesting collection of old books and paintings a...

Isle of Bute

Another Landmark Trust tick - this time Ascog House on the Isle of Bute - stunning as always... a very comfortable warm accommodation for the usual 8 suspects. This time we had a wee tower house for Dr Fred and myself - a lovely bedroom up the stairs with a big window and a bathroom al to ourselves - having said that all the other bedrooms in the big house were large and serviced by two bathrooms so there was no hardship for any visitors! The grounds of the house were very extensive with ponds and secret passages - hidden paths and we even spotted a deer late afternoon - there were lots of old features - ornate staircases and a lovely hidden door which I did a quick sketch of. Bute provided quite a lot of entertainment as well - the weather was kind and we did a a muddy wander down the south of the Island taking in St Blanes Monastery and Kilcannon Bay. The views were spectacular and it was fabulous to be out in the fresh (and it was fresh on the tops) air and we...

The Blue Dot

Excellent evening spent at the first Blue Dot festival held at Jodrell Bank. Clever use of the radio telescope as back drop for the main stage... there were some major teething issues which hopefully will addressed if this event happens again - mainly access and parking.. it was a nightmare approach to the festival and fortunately as we were only doing one night we decided to ditch the car and chose to walk the last mile and half into the site... what a relief as if we had queued we would most certainly missed Public Service Broadcasting which was one of the reasons we were going.. anyway we caught them and then enjoyed fantastic set by Underworld - danced much of the night away in the rain - my trusty solfest poncho almost kept me dry.. it was a splendid evening and the telescope looked brilliant when lit up when it got dark. There was a rather fab "installation" called a luminarium, lack of site information - another hiccup meant we were really lucky to catch it just ...

Planet Ruby Starrs

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