| 1. 恋文 |
| 2. good night |
| 3. 恋文(Instrumental) |
| 4. good night(Instrumental) |
their glass- and lace-making traditions, fishing villages, and glittering
church mosaics.
Then, for Day 11, flip-flop the second day described in Chapter 21’s
“If you have two days” itinerary — spend the morning in the museums
such as the Peggy Guggenheim and Ca’ Rezzonico, and then the early
afternoon simply lost in Venice’s enchanting back alleys. Be sure to find
yourself in plenty of time to hop on a late-afternoon train to Florence
(see Chapter 20), arriving in time to check into your hotel and grab a
late (10 p.m.) dinner.
For Days 12 through 14 follow my two-day Florentine itinerary in
Chapter 20. You get Michelangelo’s David, the Uffizi Galleries, the Pitti
Palace museums, Fra’ Angelico’s frescoes in San Marco monastery, the
Medici Tombs, the cathedral and its dome, Bargello sculpture gallery,
and the shop-lined Ponte Vecchio spanning the Arno River.
Starting with an early-morning train to Rome (Chapter 19), spend Days
15 through 18 exactly as Days 12 through 15 in the preceding section,
with one addition: on the morning of Day 18, take your bags to the train
station to check them at the left-luggage office and to book a couchette
for the overnight train to Paris before heading out to Tivoli for the day.
Leave Tivoli by 4 p.m. at the latest so that you will be back in Rome by
5 p.m. — enough time to pick up some picnic supplies for dinner on the
train. The Paris train leaves around 7:30 p.m.
Spend Days 19 through 22 in Paris (see Chapter 13), following the schedule
for Days 5 through 8 under the two-week itinerary in the preceding
section.
Most flights from Paris back to the United States leave in the morning or
early afternoon, so spend the morning of Day 23 getting to the airport
and the day flying home.
Two Weeks in Europe for Lovers of Art
For this trip, you can work out the daily sightseeing schedules on your
own, depending on what best floats your artistic boat. Most cities have
two-and-a-half days of sightseeing time budgeted, which should be
enough to give the major museums a good once-over.
Head to London (see Chapter 10) for Days 1 through 3. Your first order
of business should definitely be the medieval, Renaissance, and baroque
masterpieces of the National Gallery. The other great art collection is
the Tate Gallery, now divided between two buildings, one on each side
of the Thames; the original neoclassical gallery covers the British greats
and the vast new space in Southwark, the Tate Modern, concentrates on
international art in the 19th and 20th centuries
While at the National Gallery, you may also want to nip around the
corner to stop in by the National Portrait Gallery (same building, different
entrance). Although the collection exists more for the historical
interest of its subjects, some artistically fine portraits reside here as
well (especially by Holbein, Reynolds, and Warhol).
No museum buff should miss the Victoria & Albert Museum, which has
London’s best sculpture collection (Donatello, Giambologna, and Bernini)
and a fascinating exhibit on artistic fakes and forgeries, in addition to
miles of decorative arts.
If you’re into Christopher Wren’s brand of Renaissance architecture,
you’re in luck — the city’s full of it — but his greatest hit is St. Paul’s
Cathedral. And I can’t imagine a trip to London without calling on the
British Museum, at least briefly, where you can get the best overview of
the ancient world’s art forms (Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Assyrian, Asian,
Indian, and Islamic).
On the morning of Day 4, catch a Eurostar train to Paris (see Chapter 13).
Spend Days 4 through 6 in the City of Light, exploring the treasures of
the Louvre over a full day at least. Fans of Impressionism and French art
in general should devote at least two-thirds of a day to the Musée d’Orsay.
Paris has so many smaller art museums that choosing from among them
can be difficult and squeezing them all in can be nearly impossible.
Whole museums are devoted to single artists (Rodin, Picasso, Delacroix,
Le Corbusier, and Dalí), and others are devoted to eras — such as the
medieval at underrated Thermes de Cluny, or the modern at the incomparable
Georges Pompidou.