We are planning a visit to Rome next month, and planning is well under way. A good part of this afternoon was spent on line, researching public transport and making bookings in galleries and other places we particularly want to visit. I want to do some research in preparation for a lecture to which I’m committed on the Italian modern painter Renato Guttuso. Also, we have never been to the Sistine Chapel, and it will be good to renew acquaintance with some old favourites in the Villa Borghese.
It has been hard to think about a holiday because of the salience of my various medical problems. (My second cataract operation takes place tomorrow.) As all of this stuff moves away from the centre of attention it is possible to begin to attend to things artistic once again.
Talking of which: a couple of days ago I posted a piece about the likely reception by children of my Dottore della peste. It has been gratifying to get some feedback on this, and to discover that children can respond very positively to things about which their parents are anxious. I have noticed in the past that children can respond very directly and immediately to art which puzzles their parents. They just respond, without asking themselves how they are supposed to respond. I hope that my own responses to the things I will be seeing in Italy will be just as unmediated and spontaneous.