to visit or not to visit

In the past year there has been a lot of talk, discussion and thinking about how to bring more visitors to the National Gallery of Canada. This conversation has hit a certain high note this year with the on-going and numerous, I should say countless cuts to various budgets ordered by our dear Leader Stephen Harper has slowly but surely destroyed many areas of service to Canadians. Many agree that we have entered an age of Corporatist politics, where Corporations are people and their voices count whereas the average taxpayer does not. This means a slow but certain degradation of anything and everything the Federal government does.

In the case of all our National Museums they are Crown Corporations, meaning that they receive a lump sum each year and the rest of their financing must come from the public through sales of tickets and other items such as memberships or donations. It has to be understood that for decades the main source of funding came from the Federal government who financed almost everything. Including building infrastructure and maintaining existing building, renovations, landscaping etc... the public was used to the Providential State stepping in at every turn to maintain these national institutions. Not understanding that they did not pay anywhere near enough taxes to support it all.

In other countries depending on their national history either the King or Emperor maintained private museums of their own collection, i.e. the Hermitage, the Prussian Royal Collections, the Saxon Royal Collection or the collections of the Bavarian Royal House or the Vatican Museums which until not so long ago where not open to the public.

In the USA it was Andrew W. Mellon who was the creator and founder/builder of the National Gallery in Washington DC.  Mellon bought the main European art works from the Bolchevics in Russia after 1919 who were selling off treasures of the Tsars and the Hermitage to finance their endeavours. In turn upon his death he donated to the American Nation all of it for the enjoyment of future generations. In the USA the Spirit with a capital S of endowment and gifts is well and alive, in Canada not so.

In Canada our National Museums were a government creation, unlike the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal which was a private sector creation. In 1905 our first Canadian Museum in Ottawa was the Geological Society of Canada located in a castle like structure named the Victoria Memorial Museum on Metcalfe Street, it is the very popular Museum of Nature today.

The National Gallery had one small room in the basement of that building. Ottawa was a very small town at the time and the development of the museums in general was overseen by Civil Servants. There were some wealthy donors but they were few, unlike cities like Montreal where a well established group of British and Scottish well to do families had their Clubs and Art Circles.

The situation only began to change in our National Museums with the Trudeau (father) era 1968-1982. He had a personal interest in seeing new National Museums built and started a dialogue with the public to get them to involve themselves in the development and enhancement of the collections.
He saw a program similar to the USA where endowment funds and donations would drive museum expansion and not government funds.

The old Lorne building (1959-2012) former seat of the National Gallery until 1987, named after Governor General Sir John Douglas Sutherland, Marquess of Lorne. 

The main idea was that donors would form circles of friends and actively support all the activities of a Museum in particular. This happened with the building of the new Canadian War Museum in 2005, an idea which came about with Barnie Danson (1921-2011), a veteran, member of Parliament and Minister of Veterans Affairs who gathered supporters and to this day continues to thrive on that idea.

The New National Gallery of Canada building opened in 1988, the design alone created a buzz and people where fascinated with it. On the opening year close to one million visitors came to see it.
However this was not a sign that the public was more interested in art in general because suddenly there was a new building dedicated for the first time to our National Art Collections.

National Gallery of Canada (1988)

Whereas in the case of the Canadian War Museum where every Canadian, Veteran or active military is sought after and welcomed, the National Gallery had an image problem very often based on false assumptions and opinions. The public had and has to this day the overall impression that it is a place for the elite and the wealthy. Amongst our French speaking population it is seen as an English institution not open to others. Nothing could be further from the truth but it is a tough perception which will not die easily. Thus an empty museum with the lowest attendance record of all our National Museums including the currently closed under renovation Science and Technology Museum.

The Alarm bell has been ringing and the Board of Directors of the National Gallery have decided that something must be done. I remember prior to 1988 when the National Gallery was located in the old Lorne Building on Elgin Street, a converted office building, the museum was empty then. It was a small dark crammed display area. Not really enticing to promoting the arts and it had that academic approach in the display of the art collection.

This academic approach to the collections is still very present and that is a big turn off for a lot of people in this day and age, when education and intellectual pursuit is ridiculed and seen as worthless in Canada by a clear percentage of the population which includes our Prime Minister who was often quoted in the last 10 years with negative comments towards Arts and Culture. The Media in general has not helped either, a certain popular press is quick to pounce on any type of art which is not appealing to the masses, this includes contemporary, modern and lesser painters of any era.
The tone of the articles is always the same, ''Your tax dollars bought that thing your 5 year old kid can paint'' This type of populist attack which appeals to the lowest common denominator is very popular and sells well.

The other problem, and this is one of society in general, the lack of conversation in Canada about what kind of society do we want to live in. Everything in the last 10 years has come down to the notion of not wanting to pay taxes, having lots of rights and no responsibilities for anything or anyone, the promotion of excessive consumerism, not needing education, i.e. traditional schools, we need more babysitting services instead, not needing arts or culture which is seen as too expensive as long as we have big name sports team and stadiums and prioritizing shopping malls and highways.
As one of our Conservative politician put it so succinctly, ''We are not in Europe here, we don't need that stuff'' meaning arts and culture. A good example of this current political way of thinking is the sudden announcement two weeks ago of the renovations and rejuvenation of the National Arts Centre of Canada on Elgin Street. This is a much needed project however if you look at the details you will quickly notice that we are renovating all the public areas, bar, restaurant, lobby, parking and toilets, nothing is done to the concert halls themselves. This does not mean that more people will be coming to the performances.

The same is true with block buster Art exhibits, one quick solutions to bring people in. Two years ago we had a Summer exhibit of works by Van Gogh, which gave the National Gallery the highest attendance records in decades. However other Summer shows by equally great names like Monet and Renoir have failed miserably to attract record numbers. We did have a show organized with the Tate Modern London in 2010 entitled Pop Life with artists like Andy Wharhol, Jeff Koons and many others, it was a flop despite being a North American exclusive. The cost also of mounting theses big name exhibits has become exorbitant, one cost is the insurance, transport and logistics. Such exhibits need a minimum work of 5 years in planning.
It would appear that Ottawa, the region and as a tourist destination fails to promote/market its museums or maybe the interest is just not there in the Ottawa Valley.

The National Gallery could for starters become more visitor friendly, while retaining a certain academic approach could vulgarise and popularize exhibit space, market the museum as open to the public and at the same time tell the public at large of what we have in our collections. Many Canadians are not aware of the vast richness and diversity of our collections making the National Gallery of Canada one of the truly great world museum.  Maybe the public in general should be asked to support financially the NGC and make a donation upon entry or at any other time. Why rely only on big name donors who are a few hundred at most.

Given that our public often has no information or knowledge on art and may not know artists beyond a famous name and is unable to recognize a work of art by any artists it is crucial to bring things down to a level that is inviting and inspire the imagination. Before we jump to the conclusion that our National Gallery is not at the level of museums in Europe like the National Gallery London or the Louvre in Paris or any other museum in Italy or Germany, we should remember that Europe suffers from the same problem. The Louvre director was saying recently that if it was not for 5 works of art everyone wants to see, the museum would be empty, same phenomenon in Rome, St-Petersburg, Vienna, London or Berlin. Because we live in an anti-education age, the dawn of a new Middle-Age perhaps, the attention span of the public is extremely short, they must be brought to climax quickly because they have other things to do.

The secret of our success in Ottawa depends on how far we are willing to go to reach
a public who is difficult to please or simply unaware of the beauty around them.

Reading and then more reading

As you probably know by now I have very diverse taste in my reading, currently I finished a short biography on the Painter and father of German realism in painting Otto Dix, entitled Otto Dix, The art of life by Philipp Gutbrod.  A fascinating man who led an incredible life in Germany, acclaimed as a great artist and condemn by others dodged by controversy and terrible dangers for himself and his family during the Nazi dictatorship to received accolades and honours after the War but was generally ignored by the Art scene. I wish I could have met him.

I am also reading Teaching in the Art Museum by Rika Burnham and Elliott Kai-Kee. This to help me in my volunteer work at the National Gallery of Canada. A very good guide to develop techniques  on interpretation of art works and how to entice the public in participating and looking at pictures.

I started on a novel entitled to Wake the dead by Marina Belozerskaya, her book is the history of archeology as she follows a man Cyriacus da Pizzicolli also known as da Ancona,(1391-1455) a merchant who has a keen interest for all things antique especially the monuments of ancient Greece and Rome. He wrote but never published many manuscripts on ancient monuments and was read by many powerful people of this time, friend of Popes and Princes, he was highly respected. The story is around 1421 when the Renaissance in Italy was about 120 years old and the Popes in Rome where returning from  their exile in Avignon and rebuilding Rome. There was no archeology before the Renaissance and little knowledge of what the classic Roman or Greek had been like before the start of the Middle Ages around 500 AD. It's an easy read and it is fun.

I am also reading about Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrona, daughter of Tsar Alexander III and sister to the last Tsar Nicholas II. She fled the Revolution in 1920 with her family to Canada and lived until her death in 1961 in Toronto. The family still lives in Toronto today and are active within Romanov Circles promoting the restoration of the Dynasty in Russia. This book entitled; 25 Chapters of my life: Memoirs of my life,  is a diary of the Grand Duchess and her life in Russia when her father was the Tsar and then under her brother and the violent end of the Monarchy and aftermath. It is an interesting read as it gives you an idea what life was like at the Imperial Court.

I also finished reading the short stories of Prince Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Professor and the Siren. What an incredible writer he was and it is so sad that his greatest literary success came after his death and that he wrote only in the last years of his life. Imagine what a success he could have been during his lifetime. He is the author of one of the most famous modern Italian novel The Leopard. Lampedusa is the archetype of the Sicilian nobleman, stuck in the past and unable to move forward or even wondering why he should move at all. I remember one passage where he explained that all the Nobles in Sicily and there were quite a few, did not see any reason to change after Sicily was annexed by Italy in 1870. They had lost everything but since they were Princes, they did not see why they should change just because now they were part of Italy. Many cloistered themselves in their Palaces in Palermo and continued to live as if nothing had happened, life became more and more financially precarious but it never occurred to them to find a job.  This was his world, educated, erudite, well traveled, it is and was the dilemma of Sicily then and now. Not really belonging to Italy and no longer part of a greater Kingdom with ties to Spain.
I find him a fascinating character and his writing is beautiful.

I have many other titles waiting for me to read and I have to be more disciplined in my reading schedule.

Theatre Festival Ottawa

Ottawa with the summer season approaching has several Theatre Festivals. You are not at a lost in the City if you want to go to a play. We have an amateur theatre which is 100 years old, The Ottawa Little Theatre on King Edward. The comedian Rich Little started with them. There are other venues, with professional actors like the National Arts Centre which offers one season of English theatre and one season of French theatre, different plays and different audiences. The Great Canadian Theatre Company known as GCTC also offers great plays and we have season tickets with them. Then there are all the other groups which come to town from all over Canada. We also have comedy clubs. The scene is rather full. I have not mentioned the musical scene but on that score we also have numerous festivals for all taste.

A few days ago we went to see a play by the Toronto Video Cabaret which is part of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival. www.magneticnorthfestival.ca

The Video Cabaret presents plays on the history of Canada and it is set up as if the stage was a video screen with lighting providing sharp angles like a video screen presentation would. The play was entitled The War of 1812 based on The History of the Village of the Small Huts.
This is apparently what the word Canada (Kanata) means in Native language.

The plot shows all sides USA, Canadians with the British in the background and the Natives, some of the characters are seen in a better light like General Brock or Tecumseh, others in the role history gave them. The story plot is described this way: After 3 years of bloodshed on land and lake, the Yankees have burned York (Toronto), the Yorkees have burned Washington, and everyone has burned the Natives. Peace is signed in 1814 and nothing has changed between Canada and the USA but the Natives lose all their lands south of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

It was very entertaining and we enjoyed it immensely. The play was presented in the Arts Court which is the 1870 seat of the Court of Justice of the City of Ottawa and the counties. Many years ago the building which is quite large and made of massive stone work was converted into a theatre venue, on any given evening 3 to 4 events are going on. The Saw Gallery is also located there. The Prison Yard at the back is where the last public hanging in Canada, that of James Patrick Whelan took place in 1868 in front of a crowd of 5000 people. The yard is open and mostly used as a parking lot. He was accused of murdering Thomas D'Arcy McGee, a politician, Father of Canadian Confederation and a friend of Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald.

  

back on the ranch

Well back home and back to the business of the Museum, I mean the National Gallery of Canada.
Before I left for my European vacation, I had completed the program for the new season and had done up the brochure.
Today I had a look at the brochure mock-up for our ''Mercredis culturels'' Wednesday Art lectures (in French) for the new season starting in September.  Did some proof reading and I am told it is going to the printer this week or next. I also re-wrote some letters and instructions we give to invited lecturers.

I now have to prepare a lecture on a topic of my choice that I could present in case of emergency when a lecturer for whatever reason backs out at the last moment. It did happen once this past year and luckily my predecessor, in this volunteer job of coordinator, had a film to show which turned out to be interesting and instructive.

I do have a topic picked out for this emergency lecture (its a secret) based on a book I read recently, so I have to put together a PowerPoint presentation which will mostly be photos, no text. I will comment and the photos will accompany-support what I am saying.

I am also currently working at completing the program of the Season 2014-2015, so I have two years of programming done for the lectures. There is a lot of public relations involved in this type of work, you have to be able to talk to people to get their interest and get them to agree to do a lecture. The lectures are on Art and Culture or on an area of expertise in Art, can be restoration, conservation, museology, an artistic movement in time, a school of painting, etc... I am trying to get new and different topics not presented yet. The general public and members are always looking for something new, so it is a challenge to come up with something innovative.

I also have to go and see the new summer exhibit which opened just a few days ago entitled Sakahàn (pronounced Sagahan) International indigenous art. Canada and Ottawa feature many of our First Nations artists in this show, including from Ottawa, Algonquin artists.
The website of the National Gallery has the details: www.gallery.ca

We are celebrating 25 years since the opening of the new buildings of the NGC at Nepean Point in 1988. Buildings designed by architect Moishe Safdie. Entrance to the NGC is FREE on Thursday's from 5pm to 8pm.

 

Canal Rideau, Ottawa

Travel to Italy anyone?

A few weeks ago I became an associate with a group of people who are promoting Italy as a travel destination. Our group offers Italian language courses, Cooking classes and Wine tours in Italy. We can also offer guide tours of Italian regions, advice and services on villa and apartment rentals in Italy, preferred hotels to fit your budget and what ever other services you might need if you wish to travel to la bella Italia.

We are all Italian speakers and we have all lived in Italy, some of us even have family there. Our advice is based on sound knowledge of all aspects to ensure that you will find enjoyment in any part of what we have to offer.

Have a look at the website

 If you want any questions on the information on the website you should mention my name as the associate who referred you, Lorenzo. You can contact me directly here and I will forward any request you may have or you can contact Stefania at the following email: stefania@esploritalia.com

Marcus-Aurelius, Campidoglio, Roma

Piazza Venezia, Roma

Conference at the National Gallery of Canada

I was invited to attend a conference today in the auditorium of the National Gallery of Canada organized by the Director of the NGC and the French Embassy. The theme of this conference was entitled ''Visions: Art Museums in the 21 Century'' a discussion on the transformation and challenges facing museums today and the role of directors.

Invited guests where Xavier Dectot, Director of the new Louvre-Lens (pronounce Lance) in the small city of Lens (pop 36,000) in the Nord du Pas de Calais, which is near the Belgian border, an old coal mining area.
This new museum will open on 4 December 2012 designed by a team of Japanese architects, it is enormous and sits on 22 hectares of land formerly known as Pit no.9. It is an all glass building, each single pane of glass measures an impressive 6.80 meters or 22 feet in length.
The other guest speaker was Laurent Salomé, Chief Curator at the Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Grand Palais in Paris. who spoke on what they were doing to bring more people to the museums.

Paul Lang, Chief Curator of the NGC was hosting and Marc Mayer, Director of the NGC was present as was the French Ambassador and his spouse. There was probably about 150 museum members present. The conference was in French with English simultaneous translation.

It was interesting to hear both guests who painted a difficult picture of the realities of Art Museums today, the average French Citizens goes only once per year to any museum. Only 50% of the population of France actually goes to visit a museum. Most people who visit museums are women over 50, usually retired with some money and a University diploma. The challenge for the director in attracting visitors to the New Louvre-Lens is as follows; the new museum is situated in an economically depressed area, the coal mines all shut down in the 1970's, largely a young population, poorly educated with high levels of unemployment. Lens in its description reminded me of those mining company towns in novels like Germinal by Emile Zola. The construction of the new Louvre-Lens follows the democratization and decentralization of museums, a movement which is popular in Canada and now being copied in France. So what will be on show at the Louvre-Lens will be borrowed for 5 years from le Grand Louvre in Paris. It will also feature temporary exhibits and contemporary artworks.

Canada and France have numerous collaborative efforts in the organizations of exhibitions and studies. This brings about a sharing of exhibits touring cities around the world, to save money and to generate revenues for each museum. Our guests bemoaned the fact that in France the budgets for Culture have been slashed severely. We were told that we should be thankful our Canadian Government which reduced the budgets of all National Museums has not been more drastic in comparison.

Reliance on private donors and private funding for exhibits is now the game and multinational companies are being courted assiduously, they are taking up where national governments have left off. In the last 15 years major exhibits have been funded almost 100% by private enterprise in Canada but also now in France and probably elsewhere in the world. Though our French guests admitted that there was still a big debate in France between generations of Curators on the merit of having private companies finance Art exhibits, many see that as cheapening the process.

Attendance is also down in Museums and I can vouch for that, I can see it at the NGC in Ottawa but also at the other National Museums like Civilizations and the National War Museum how very few people visit everyday.  Xavier Dectot was saying that if you took out only 3 famous art work at the Louvre, people would probably stay away, he mentioned the Venus of Milo, the Mona Lisa and the Victory of Samothrace. Entire galleries like the one devoted to the 17th century painter Nicolas Poussin are deserted. We saw that in Italy where people went to a museum to see one art work and ignore the rest, comes to mind the David by Michelangelo in Firenze.

The French are promoting now something we have been doing in Canadian Museums for a long time which is to make use of technology to promote museums, sending docents out to schools to promote art works and interest in the arts in general. Offer school teachers free programs to help them with their class curriculum. I was pleased to hear our guests compliment Canada and the NGC for our modern approach in trying to attract the public back to our museums.

I was relieved to see that our problems in Canada are the same elsewhere, a factor of a changing world and interest and falling educational standard. They are not insurmountable but a major challenge for any  museum director.

I also learned that a major retrospective of the work of Marie-Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun will be held at the NGC in 2014. She is said to be the most important female painter of the 18th century in France. She was the official painter of Marie-Antoinette. She also worked in Italy, Russia at the Court of Catherine II, in Switzerland and in England. There has never been a retrospective of her work.

Marie Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun (1755-1842)







  

That European feeling

Will and I were talking recently about going back to Canada and how it will be difficult to re-adapt ourselves to life in North America. It comes down to a feeling, un état d'âme, a view of life and of its priorities. There are important differences between Europe and Canada, in Europe there is a certain attachment to traditions, history, the arts and culture. There is a certain respect for knowledge and experience. People are more attached to their society and their group, maybe it is the age of the continent, its ancient history, traditions which are connected to the beginning of Western culture.

Berlin, Charlottenburg

Not that in Canada you do not find similarities with Europe, there are lots of similarities but life and how it is lived is very different. In Canada people are in a hurry, the idea of being efficient or being cost effective, of multi-tasking, of managing every minute of your time are very important. Taking time for a coffee break or having lunch is seen as a waste of time. How often you see managers scheduling a meeting at lunch time. You do not leave on holiday before the end of the day or take an extra day off during a major public holiday. Those are not values you find necessarily in Europe or at least they are not at the same level of importance in every day life.

Dresden, Saxony

Europeans see life differently and this is what suits us so much about living here. Family, friends, socializing is important. Arts and culture are important, appreciation of food and wines are important, people have time for conversing. It is all in the approach, how you see things and what is important, compared to a career and alway trying to accumulate stuff.

In many ways returning to Ottawa will be a big adjustment. Maybe we are just more European in out look. A question of appreciation in living well versus rushing through life.

Afternoon in Gazi, Athens

Gazi is truly a neighborhood transformed, from an ugly industrial area to a new youthful look. You will find numerous new Greek cuisine restaurant offering a new twist on many Greek dishes and also new creations which proves that any national cuisine can re-invent itself. There are also numerous cafés and meeting places, a coffee and drink culture which is so central to life in Greece.  A new young Greece look and it is also the Gay area of Athens, lots of beautiful people. From Syntagma Metro station go to Keramikos metro station in Gazi. I have been there several times and always enjoy my visits, so different 
this area of Athens is compared to the Plaka, Monasteraki or Psirri.

In this photo you can see the Acropolis in the distance.

Cultural world

When I was a kid, Walt Disney had developed a sanitize theme for the world with a little song which became sort of the theme song of his amusement park. It's a small world after all, was the song that was supposed to make everyone feel warm and fuzzy and happy and bring world peace and understanding to all. I disliked the idea and its presentation and the sugar sweet way in which it was presented, somewhat like those nauseating Christmas TV specials when it was proclaimed that it was Xmas all over the world and everyone wished for roasting chestnut, roasted turkey and snow.

Even though I was just a kid, I knew this could not be and it made no sense to me in the same way the song by Disney was plain dumb. Sure it made some people see the world as less of a threat if everyone is the same and wear funny costume like at a masked ball. I was lucky enough to start traveling at the age of 12 and soon realized that the Irish in Ireland had nothing to do with the North American stereotype or the French or the British for that matter.

When I joined the work force, I was and have been fortunate to travel the world and see that people are not all the same and do not wear colorful costumes unless it's a show for silly tourists longing for something safe. This is what makes the world interesting; we are all different and not necessarily dangerous, just different.

Different languages, different eating habits, different philosophy of life, different beliefs, different colour, just different. On the whole humans are not violent, everyone just wants to get along and be respected.

This is why most conflicts today come down to a fundamental lack of respect for the other party and wanting to reform them, to bring things to them, be it democracy, fundamentalist Christian values, globalization aka North American values, standardized norms and practices or our understanding of what is important. But I also noticed that in Asia, China loves to push its neighbors around under the idea that they represent all of Asia, being so big. Same in Africa or in Latin America, in Europe, France and Germany dominate the EU. So it is a fairly common trait amongst humans, always trying to tell the other guy what to do.

A few years ago, a colleague from that great Republic asked me why Canada did not ditch the Monarchy and have a Republican system instead. Canada being a Constitutional Monarchy, the great Dominion. My colleague obviously did not know his own history and how the history of our two countries was so vastly different. To this day we maintain very different attitudes on many topics, like gun control, same-sex marriage, gays in the military and strong banking control, to name a few topics his country is still struggling with.

But he was all ready to tell me the errors of our ways and how we could just be like his country. I pointed out to him that me and my fellow countrymen had no wish to be like him and his countrymen.

Then today I got a phone call out of the blue, from someone I met in Egypt 21 years ago. I had lost track of him and his family in the last 7 years and it was quite a surprise to hear him on the phone from Abu Dhabi. It reminded me how his family and he had been so very kind to me while I lived in Egypt. His parents were teachers, very decent and kind people. His mother was a great cook and she always prepared meals to feed an army whenever I visited them in the Fayoum south of Cairo. He and his brother were just nice and fun to be with, through them I learned a lot about Egypt and its people and my view of the country was shaped in many ways by what I learned talking with them. In the same way, when I lived in Jordan I met many Palestinians and Bedouins and was amazed how different they were as two people despite the fact that they lived in the same small kingdom in a mix of Christians and Muslims.

My time in Asia and Africa also taught me the same thing, people are different and they may even think very differently than I do as a Westerner but in the end their ideas are just as important and valuable as any western idea or value.

This is why I am often distressed when I hear politicians saying things along the lines of; we are bringing them democracy and rule of law, as if other people in other countries had lived until now in a state of lawlessness.

By reading about other civilization, one can see the wealth of human experience. But I wonder why we prefer to see only our point and not the other fellow's. Maybe if we reflect on it quietly we can come to a better understanding.

More of Palermo

I thought I would show a few more pictures of Palermo, of the people, the food, the streets, so picturesque and on a human size. Buildings are 5 to 6 floors high no more, pedestrians have the right of way and everything is within walking distance so no need for a car. People know their neighbours. Restaurants and shops are family owned. The big box stores are all on main street and nowhere else, no shopping malls, you shop where you live. Fresh produce markets are located in all neighbourhoods and you can get everything you need.
This is not to say that Palermo is without social problems, there is poverty and the Mafia still has a hold on business but that hold has been shaken and is not as before, young people have a different approach and think differently. Sicily is well worth a visit and a beautiful one it will be.
All photos here have been taken in Palermo, be its ancient church steeple or the market at Porta Cardini or marathoners in front of the Opera house Teatro Massimo.

Privilège, Privilegiato

It has been a busy time in Rome of late. We have been to the Rome ICE bar on Via della Madonna dei Monti near the Roman Forum. Then last weekend we walked along the Via Appia Antica a wonderful road, known as the Queen of Roads (Regina Viarum) built by Appius Claudius in 312 BC making the road 2322 yrs old with its original paving stones intact.

Today was the highlight a private visit made possible only because we knew someone who could ask for special access to the Casina of Pope Pius IIII in the Gardens of the Vatican. This Casina built in 1553 as a pleasure retreat for the Pope is never open to the public and no one is allowed to visit period, the only people allowed in are the staff and special guests invited by the Pope. It houses today the Pontifical Scientific Academy, along the lines of the Academy of Athens in antiquity and is headed by an Archbishop. You can imagine our delight at being allowed to enter and visit the building. We could only enter by one door in the new wing and exit via the garden, we could not sit, nor touch anything, any pictures we took cannot be published. I wish I could show you the inside it is marvelous, the colored marbles alone on the floors are unique. Our guide was Nancy de C. who is extremely knowledgeable and makes any visit truly interesting.

We entered the Vatican State by the Porta Santa Anna on Via Di Porta Angelica, this is the official entrance to the Vatican State and is used by people who come on business to the Vatican, meeting an official, etc... but it is not a gate for the public. We walked along the drive between buildings, on our left above us the Palace where the Papal apartments are located, and then through a large courtyard with a fountain with the coat of arms of the Borghese Pope and then under a large archway and up a coffered brick ramp which led us just outside the walls of the Sistine Chapel, the effect of brightness inside the chapel is created by high powered lights aimed at the outside windows, (see picture). Then a sharp turn right and we are behind the basilica of St-Peter and in the Vatican gardens. Even in cold weather and heavy rain the gardeners were busy. There it was the Casina.

Set amid the Vatican Gardens, the Casina was begun in 1553 by Pirro Ligorio and Sallustio Perruzzi, and completed between 1560 and 1562. This villa consists of four separate sections, with two pavilions and two arched gateways or Propylaea, connected by an oval inner court like an ancient nymphaeum, decorated with statues in the round, high reliefs, bas-reliefs, festoons, friezes, escutcheons and frames in stucco, where putti ride on waterspewing dolphins. It was here that Pius IV used to enjoy moments of peace and solitude. Also his nephew, St. Charles Borromeo, then Cardinal Secretary of State, held his famous literary dinners in the evenings. All this came to an abrupt end in 1565 when the new Pope Pius V closed down the Casina and it remained in a decaying state until 1920.

Since 1926, it has been used as the seat of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which encompases both the Academy of the Sciences and Social Sciences. The Pontifical Academy of Sciences consists of eighty scientists (Sciences and Social Sciences) selected from around the world who are appointed for life by a sovereign act of the Pope.

The aim of the Academy is to promote the progress of the mathematical, physical and natural sciences and to advance the understanding of the history and philosophy of Science.

A very good day despite the cold and rain.