CHASING PAINT

travel light, pay attention

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Trips
    • London 2022
    • Vienna
    • Amsterdam
    • LA
    • Lisbon
    • Madrid
    • Paris
    • Prague
    • Preparation
    • Rome
    • St. Petersburg
  • Contact Me

Suit Up & Show Up

March 20, 2016 by Virginia Parker Leave a Comment

Spent time this weekend sorting through my suitcase packing list. Most of it stands from the last three trips – same amount of time on the road, at the same time of year. The main difference is the expected weather conditions for a city located at about the same latitude as Oslo, Stockholm, and Helsinki, and as far north as Alaska.  Last year in April it was cold, wet and rainy in Prague, and colder, wetter and rainier in St. Petersburg. This requires clothes that will withstand the elements;  a hoodie and a scarf won’t do.  My system is always layer up, so I’ve added a couple of henley-weight long sleeve shirts, thorlo socks, mittens, my knit viking hat,  and a lightweight but toasty Mountain Hardware jacket. A pair of waterproof mid-calf boots, a sleek, warm, rain-proof coat, and a serious umbrella will keep me dry.  When you pack as light and tight as I do, I’m hard-pressed to fit it all into my main carry-on size case and my compact fit-under-the-seat sized carry-on. I’m hoping to spread it around the two cases, stuff socks and knickers in the boots, use space bags to squeeze down the rest.

{"focusMode":0,"deviceTilt":0.007226034006800219,"whiteBalanceProgram":0,"macroEnabled":false,"qualityMode":3}

I gained a little room because my iPhone doubles as my map, camera, alarm, translator, guides, and flashlight. My iPad is my library, thanks to my Kindle and Nook apps, as well as in-depth museum guide apps. It can do most of the same tricks my iPhone can do. There are no Apple stores, but there are Apple products for sale, so if bad fortune befalls me (like push comes to shove on the metro and thieves make off with my auxiliary brains) I can hope to replace them.

I’ve been setting clothes and shoes aside, ready to pack when the day came. I choose dark  colors to get the maximum wear out of least number of items. Bonus: it all but eliminates time spent dithering over what to wear, because it doesn’t matter. The answer is always what’s clean (or clean enough). Last year raspberry was my accent color.  This trip I’m adding a couple of blue shirts and socks to my perennial black and gray. The new coat is a soft gray-blue, and my very nice umbrella is sky blue with puffy white clouds.

Packing is pretty Zen. Everything I think might work is heaped on chairs and dresser tops in the guest room, then it’s process by elimination.  If I need four long-sleeved shirts and have ten that might work, I pick the four that compliment each other  best. I set each item on the guest room bed, marking it off the list as I go. I try on things that look fine, but might not fit or feel right, to be sure. When I’d gone through it all, I  launder everything, with a second rinse cycle. I’ve discovered the hard way that walking eight hours a day chafes my tender skin if there’s any trace of laundry detergent left in the denim. And yes, my pants – all three of them – are black or dark gray denim.  I am visiting cultural capitals, not the country side, not the coast, not resorts. Blue jeans feel too casual, black jeans seem just that bit more formal and appropriate.

Of course, everything looks better with a cavalier.Maddy laughs

 

Filed Under: Prague, Preparation, St. Petersburg Tagged With: clothing, packing, Prague, preparation, St Petersburg, strategy

The Eternal City

August 2, 2016 by Virginia Parker Leave a Comment

Next spring I’m traveling to Rome, and taking six weeks to wash the dust of the world from my soul. My primary goal is to thoroughly explore the Vatican Museums. It’s a challenging prospect; this bastion of papal privilege is filled to the brim with the best art that power and wealth could accumulate, but housed in a venue conceived and built for the delectation of a very limited audience. As a building, it was neither planned for nor concerned with the priorities and comfort of multitudes tourists.
As I see it, the three most daunting obstacles are

  1. The one way system. There are set routes through the museum and no backtracking is permitted.
  2. The paucity of bathrooms. I’ve read there are four. Holy cow.
  3. The surge of tourists, art lovers and pilgrims alike, that can transform the experience of viewing art into something resembling an overcrowded TSA line.

I am going to have to bring my A-game in terms of strategy. I hope I am equal to the task.

Retrato_del_Papa_Inocencio_X._Roma,_by_Diego_Velázquez
“Troppo vero!”

The beauty part is Rome is covered up in amazing venues. Not only is every church door is worth opening, there are private museums I plan to visit and revisit. Caravaggio’s The Repentant Magdalene and Rest on the Flight into Egypt would be more than enough to bring me back to the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, but they also have Velázquez’s portrait of Innocent X.  

Filed Under: Preparation, Rome Tagged With: Anticipation, Caravaggio, museum, museum strategy, preparation, Vatican Museum, Velázquez

Two Weeks In Trastevere

August 14, 2016 by Virginia Parker 2 Comments

I’ve wanted to stay in Trastevere since my first visit to Rome. We followed my niece through the cobbled streets along twisting alleyways, listening to the rats dive into the river Tiber,  until we found the restaurant, da Luce (now Hosteria Luce).

I’ve since eaten there three times and painted one of the meals.  Although bloggers and TripAdvisor all lament that Trastevere is no longer what it once was (and who among us is?), that it has become a tourist-infested, rowdy students, all-night party zone, I was hoping to find something that would work for me. I looked up Hosteria Luce online, and they’ve tarted the joint up with chandeliers and schmancy cuisine, but maybe they still make spaghetti cacio & pepe. Here’s hoping.

da Luce Trastevere 07

After prowling various apartment vacation rental sites, and getting some interesting feedback on TripAdvisor, I found several promising apartments. I  exchanged emails with a Trastevere couple.  One poster warned to stay away from two ‘party’ piazzas and the busy main highway, and with the magic of Google maps I could determine the flat I liked wasn’t on those piazzas or near that road. After not sleeping in Madrid, I’ve learned to read reviews carefully and do my due diligence. I even I PM’d one of their last guests (formerly from our neighborhood in Atlanta – small world) who assured me noise was not an issue.

I rolled the dice and booked it for the first two weeks of my trip, when Robert is joining me. I hope I have chosen wisely – an apartment not on a square or piazza, tucked away on a pedestrian street, with a small balcony and a fair amount of space. It’s one block and an alley away from Hosteria Luce.

Trastevere Espresso Finito, oil on canvas
Trastevere Espresso Finito, oil on canvas

Filed Under: Preparation, Rome Tagged With: apartment, preparation, restaurant, Trastevere, Tripadvisor

Boston Uncommon

September 26, 2016 by Virginia Parker Leave a Comment

Blame it on the  Museum of Fine Art, Boston.

This is the second time they’ve hooked me with one of their bewitching lures – an exhibit of works by William Merritt Chase, prolific painter and teacher.

Of course I know and admire his work. Of course the show opens in October and closes in January.

I teetered on the brink for a few days. It’s a tight window and bad timing – we’re already traveling and gone for a week in November, the family’s here for Christmas, and with setting off for Rome scheduled for February, how can I possibly go?

Boston’s winter weather is frigid. The hotels are frighteningly expensive.

But at the same time as this show, there’s an illuminated manuscripts exhibit at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum. Not to mention, but I must, an exhibit of 100 pieces of Nubian gold work at the MFA.

The deciding vote was cast by intense yearning. Also, tick-tock, it makes no sense to put anything off. I should go while I still can, while my knees still bend and my eyes, however blearily, still see. Who knows what challenges tomorrow may bring? Seriously, what am I waiting for?

Yesterday and today I’ve been playing with the pieces, juggling exhibition dates, prior plans, Robert’s schedule, flight cost and room expense/availability.

Mid-October, every place I’d like to stay is booked, November ditto, plus dizzying prices. I played around with some early December dates, but the B&Bs were still booked up and the hotels are, well, too costly for me. AirB&Bs were surprisingly thin on the ground and seemed sketchy.

No surprise, $300-400 rooms plummet to $108- $195 after New Years. I figure it’s not going to get any colder in January – or not that much colder – and boy, is it ever cheaper. The sweet spot for me is Jan. 4-11th.

I’m looking at a big hotel across the street from Boston’s main public library (murals by Sargent),  a compact boutique hotel known for helpful service, and three B&Bs. No matter where I stay, I’ll be Ubering through the snowflakes, thank you very much. When I am done being ravished by art, I want a soft, warm place to land.

Nude Resting
I found a thrifty Delta flight, but I’m making myself wait until Tuesday to pull the trigger since so many sources claim that’s the best day to get the best deal.

There was a happy moment when realized my Russian gear – those impervious snow boots and mountain-climber-grade warm coat – will be perfect for Boston in January. Another good reason to go! It’s a return on my initial investment, right?
Reflection

Filed Under: Boston 2017, Preparation, Short Trips Tagged With: Anticipation, preparation, WIlliam Chase

Tickets & Tours

February 15, 2017 by Virginia Parker Leave a Comment

The last thing I want to do in Rome is stand in line. It’s why I’ve never been tempted to go to Disneyworld and why, from my very first trip to Florence in 2001 back when ‘internet cafes’ were a thing, I reserved tickets in advance to the Uffizi and the Academia.

I know that advance tickets to the Borghese Gallery are a must, and a wise choice for a few other venues too, like the popular archeology-meets-virtual-reality venues Domus Romane and Domus Aurea. With a little bit of Google Translate help, I booked tickets for all three. Given the length of my stay, I knew once wouldn’t be enough for the Borghese, so I booked a second visit later in the month at a different time of day, the better to see the art in a different light. Most of the work that interests me was made at a time when the world was lit only by fire. Art was seen in the light from candles, hearths, torches or, for the truly unlucky, bonfires.

I decided to take a couple of tours for a different perspective than my own. A friend saw the Eternal City from the back of a Vespa and that choice intrigued me for multiple reasons. First, a scooter can go where a car cannot. Second, experiencing Rome riding bitch on the back of a scooter has got to be more intense than watching it go by outside a car window. Third, yes, I saw Roman Holiday at an impressionable age. Fourth, fifth and sixth,  it’s something I wouldn’t do on my own, am unlikely to ever do again, and that I won’t forget in a hurry.

After some investigation online and an exchange of inquiring emails, I settled on a four-hour Scooterama Vespa tour. Good press, consistently high user ratings, the option of a street art tour, and the founders’ first date was a Bruce Springsteen concert. That last one is what we call a sign.

For the sheer pleasure of conjoining music and my favorite museum in Rome, I bought a ticket to Sounds & Visions of Caravaggio, which combines an English language art tour with baroque musical performances at the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj. As I mentioned in the last post, I picked up a tour of the Palazzo Colonna that I’m excited about. it reminds me of the Cerralbo Museum in Madrid. It should be visually lush.

The biggest hurdle, in terms of horrific lines and crowded conditions, is indisputably the Vatican Museums. I visited them eight years ago and, though I was not rushed, I still moved far too quickly along a Vatican-assigned route. I saw enough to know I wanted to come back and view the art at my leisure.
I decided to use the strategy that has served me so well for the Louvre, Prado, and Hermitage; I became an official supporter, a Patron of the Vatican Museums of Art.  Among the privileges of a Patron are unlimited visits, and early entries at 8am through a separate entrance for patrons. I have a special Patron pin to wear and have submitted the dates I plan to visit – about three weeks total – so my name will be on the gatekeepers approved list. That’s my biggest ticket and tour in one. It’s the reason I’m coming to Rome.
Patrons also get to chose a private tour from a selection of guided tours and I chose the restoration labs. Usually the last thing I want is someone talking to me when I am viewing art unless it’s audio guides, which dependably deepen and enrich my experience. More importantly, I can turn them off. But a restoration lab is a mystery to me and I know I’ll be fascinated by whatever the guide has to say.
There are other perks, like discounts in the gift shop and cafe. There’s even an opportunity to attend an audience with the pope. I assume by that they mean somewhere in the melee, but not in the nosebleed seats.
I’ll avoid the Sistine Chapel for the same reason I dodged the Mona Lisa and The Garden of Earthly Delights. These superfamous paintings attract a scrum of the selfie-obsessed. Hey, glorious works abound that can be viewed without having to throw your elbows and use up all your fouls.
I’ve been through the Sistine Chapel, and know for a fact that I can barely see the ceiling, even under optimum conditions. But please don’t think I lack appreciation for this sacred space baptized by the sweat of Michelangelo’s brow. If I got accidently left in the chapel alone for half an hour, no doubt you’d find me sprawled on the floor, looking up with an expression very like Bernini’s Saint Theresa in Ecstasy.

 

Filed Under: Preparation, Rome Tagged With: tickets, tours

Destination Vienna

July 14, 2019 by Virginia Parker Leave a Comment

After much deliberation, I’ve settled on Vienna to be the companion city on the London trip. It has one of my favorite museums in the world, the Kunsthistoriche.

I adore the collection and the many velvet sofas, so welcoming for the weary traveler. The painting below (a sketch I did of a Rembrandt self-portrait, propped on a sofa alongside the grand staircase) came from my time there

Liechtenstein Garden Palace is another very happy memory, in particular, the library with its bronzes of Greek poets and philosophers, and the lavishly illustrated books, illuminated ledgers of the flora and fauna of the family estates.

The sole drawback to Vienna is my memory of the incessant smoke. It rained every day I was there, and every restaurant, cafe, and pastry shop had a thick, choking pall of smoke. I ate take-out food on the street, and breathed clean air in the museums and subway. I had begun diligently seeking out alternatives to holding my breath for two weeks but the universe had a better plan. The legislation to make public venues like restaurants and cafes smoke-free is back on track. Yay!

I’ve done a few days of preliminary research for my Theory of Everything document; listing the museums, churches, palaces, cafes, attractions, and pastry shops. Each venue is a line item with the name, address, days and hours open, ticket cost, and website URL. This is pure fun. While I’m on the websites I check the upcoming exhibitions since museums plan far in advance.


I’m researching two of my favorites activities from trips past – scooter tours and food tours. Got suggestions?

I’ve looked at dozens of places to stay and have it boiled down to six places for – three hotels, a B&B, and an apartment. Weighing space vs cost vs convenience. I’ve initiated the Vienna Google map; seeing where the lodgings are in relation to the venues I’m most interested in.
Round trip airfare from London runs $137-200, depending on time of day.

I’ll have my usual fun, making daily itineraries for rain or shine, and one with Robert in mind, in case he decides to join me. I live in hope. ;D

Research has changed. Fifteen years ago, I’d go the library and bookstore and check out multiple guide books. Ten years ago all the fresh information moved online. Five years ago I read blogs by individual travelers and expats, along with Rick Steves, Fodors, Eyewitness, Lonely Planet, and Rough Guide, and listened to podcasts. This time I’m finding the freshest boots-on-the-ground information on Youtube. Be aware while the quantity is enormous and the quality is erratic. I sift through dozens of them to find the gems.

One of my favorite presenters on Vienna/Now is Adia Trischler. Also love the My Perfect Day in Vienna series. Fire up the closed caption option and enjoy.

It feels great to be in trip planning mode again.

Filed Under: Preparation, Vienna Tagged With: Vienna

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4

Trips

Archives

March 2023
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  
« Apr    

Recent Posts

  • Street Scenes, British Museum, Frog
  • Robin Arrives
  • St. Paul’s Cathedral, Remember the Ladies.
  • Raphael and Nancy
  • Lost and Foundling, Dickens House Museum
  • British Museum, British Library
  • Around the World in 70 Minutes, Raphael Drawings
  • Soanes Museum, Parmigianino Reprise
  • Westminster Abbey
  • Courtauld Gallery + Tate Modern
  • Cupid, You Little Rascal
  • Consider Eternity

Recent Comments

  • Virginia Parker on Cupid, You Little Rascal
  • Michael Ridgway Jones on Cupid, You Little Rascal
  • JAY on Consider Eternity
  • Virginia Parker on Rome: Look Down
  • Tzippi Moss on Rome: Look Down

[easy-image-collage id=2199]

Copyright © 2023 Virginia Parker · Log in