From Raphael to Filippo Lippi, an artful day

On Sunday March 31, Martin and Anna flew back to Stockholm and we had a quiet day in the hood punctuated only by a long walk in the nearby countryside and a session at our local driving range and practice putting green.  On Monday we set off to visit the Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola, having checked the web site for opening and closing days, and found it closed.  Following a stroll around Caprarola and a morning coffee we decided to check out the nearby Golf Club Nazionale. Jane, who lives in our GPS, performed brilliantly and instead directing us to the proper entrance to the club she took us off the main road onto some kind of service road the width of a golf cart path which wound through the golf course including right in front of many tees where incredulous golfers stared at us in disbelief.  The path ended up at a golf school where they directed us to the proper entrance to the club.

Today, we visited the Palazzo Barberini which houses a fine collection of masterpieces by the likes of Lippi, Raphael, Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto El Greco and Caravaggio, shown below with Judith taking the butcher knife to Holofernes.

Lunch was at restaurant whose name suggested food from the hills of Emilia around Bolgona.  Lynne got worked up when, half way through our pasta dishes, one of the staff took the Parmesan cheese off the table.  In my best Italian, I asked another waiter, who appeared to be a Bengali, why the cheese had been lifted.  He just smiled a me and walked away.

After lunch we walked past the Palazzo Quirinale, where Obama met the President of Italy last week, and arrived at the Scuderia (the stables) to visit an exhibition of the work of the Mexican artist, Freda Kahlo.  She was an amazing woman and a superb artist.  She was twice married to Diego Rivera and her other aquaintances included  Leon Trotsky and Andre Breton. She is shown here with Diego.