Monday, December 12, 2005

palimpsest or grand tour? 1

London was a frequent starting point for Grand Tourists, and Paris a compulsory destination; many traveled to the Netherlands, some to Switzerland and Germany, and a very few adventurers to Spain, Greece, or Turkey. The essential place to visit, however, was Italy.


From the Metropolitan Museum

The Grand Tourist was typically a young man with a thorough grounding in Greek and Latin literature as well as some leisure time, some means, and some interest in art.


London: Art collector Charles Saatchi's new London gallery will open with Tessa Farmer's "Swarm" -- an exhibit of miniature skeletons and dead insects.

The fake tiny human skeletons sitting on the back of a dead dragonfly will hang from the ceiling of Saatchi's new gallery at the Duke of York headquarters building.

Farmer, 27, uses tree roots to make the skeletons of her "evil fairies," which have wings along with three fingers and four toes each.

Paris: is buzzing

It was 25 years ago that Mr. Paucton got the idea of keeping bees on the roof of the Opera, where he worked in props, after talking to a member of the in-house fire brigade who was raising fish in the basement (don't ask ...).


Rome: Tomb Raider not a computer game.

"This is one of the most brutalized digs in Italy. The tomb raiders are here almost every day," he said, looking across the arid site in the Puglia region in Italy‘s heel.

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