Wednesday 23 April: Baroque good; contemporary, not so much

Wanting to continue to explore the art in Rome, but looking for something a little different, EA and I decided that today we would visit MACRO, the new museum of contemporary art in Rome. Now, the city has had a large museum of modern art, with master works from the late 19^th and the 20^th centuries, for a long time. MACRO is a new museum devoted to very recent art. We took a convoluted series of transportation (bus, metro, bus) to the museum, only to discover that it is still under construction, although open with a couple of exhibits. Since the admission was one euro, we went in. The two installations we saw were large wood and metal things that looked like partially assembled furniture. Beth described it as the discount section at Ikea. I am actually a fan of contemporary art and design, but I was not impressed, nor was EA. To give them credit, the place is still under construction, and the idea of a contemporary art museum in a place filled with antiquities is a great idea, so I’ll check it out again in a couple of years.

The weather being fine, we headed for some of the outdoor Baroque sites of the city, eventually making our way to the Spanish Steps. Pics at www.flickr.com/danielcmack show the azaleas out in full bloom! After checking out a nice kitchen store, Beth and I decided, on a lark, to stop at the Spanish Steps McDonald’s. I have used Mickey D’s in Rome for bathrooms before, but we decided to get fries and a Coke too, just to say that we did. I somehow ended up with a cheeseburger that I didn’t pay for. It really is a crime to eat there when there is so much good food around, but it was fun. The place was filled with Italian teenagers in full goth and punk drag. I especially enjoyed seeing fifteen year old boys with rings of black eyeliner and funky haircuts. I can’t talk, considering the way I wore my hair twenty-five years ago, but there is a new fashion here for teenage boys, a Mohawk combined with a mullet, and it looks really bad. The girls were mostly in black, with mini skirts over tights, and black nails. Fun!

The high point of the day came when we got to the Trevi Fountain in late afternoon. I have described the mayhem that is Trevi before, and we were not disappointed. Tourists, Romans hanging out, and the unavoidable hawkers of stupid rubber toys filled the tiny piazza, dwarfed by the magnificent fountain. Beth and I each threw in our coins (over the right shoulder, back to the fountain, without looking) and made it in, thus ensuring our return to the Eternal City. It’s worked every time for me so far! Check out the pics on Flickr. We then spent a long time just hanging out and people watching. The crowd was a lot of fun, everyone having a good time, laughing and taking each others’ pics tossing in their coins. Every now and then someone would reach into the fountain to splash water on a friend or to cool their feet. This would draw the immediate attention of the police, who would then blow their whistle and yell not to go into the fountain (I guess Fellini had special permission). It reminded me of the lifeguard at the public pool when I was a kid and we’d act like idiots in the water.

EA and I eventually headed home by way of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, but the gates were locked and we missed the Mouth of Truth. Dinner at home that night: salad and carry-out pizza. The day had been an enormous amount of walking, so early to bed amid the din of Trastevere.