Day 15

[unforth]

Well, I've managed to sit in front of this computer long enough today that I really don't feel like writing any thing else any more, but fortunately there wasn't much to today.

Went to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum of Modern Art. Not some place I'd have gone if mom didn't want to, not sorry I did. There was a section on the Italian Futurists which was actually pretty cool, with a few paintings that I liked a lot - unfortunately, not in the gallery book, they had there own very heavy, large, hard cover book that cost 50 euros and had way too many pics in black and white so I really wasn't interested... All in all a very impressive collection of modern art, a couple wild Picasso's, some interesting sculptures, some of the most unusual (but still uninteresting) Jackson Pollack's I've encountered, a lot of Max Ernsts, none of which I liked, some shadow boxes by a guy named Cornell that I actually did like a lot, a few neat Calders, including one I thought was pretty awesome, it was a lake! A typically bizarre Dali. A lot of the big names of modern art, but an interesting selection of their work that really showed Ms. Guggenheim's taste. Also, an exhibition of works by an artist named Gottlieb that I didn't get all until I commented that I didn't get them to mom, and the very nice guy working in the gallery had a chat with us, and made some excellent and clearly well-educated-about-art comments, and as a result I felt that I got a lot more out of the rest of the exhibit. All in all, I got more out of this place than I ever thought I would have, and I'm not sorry that I went for all that I generally avoid modern art.

From there, we wandered back to the hotel by way of some local shops, at which I supplemented my growing collection of Christmas presents for people - heck, I'm actually DONE with one or two people now! And since then, I've been sitting here, playing on the internet (mostly working on craft-related networking things. It's a good thing that I think this might actually help, cause while it's fun, it's also very, very time consuming.
Last chance for specific requests from Italy! Otherwise, if I found something I thought you'd like you're in luck, and otherwise, you're not! :)