I really wanted to visit the new Maxxi museum of Contemporary Art so, in the late morning, we set out to find it. The Maxxi has a special showing of the work of Andrea Pazienza, an artist who revolutionized comic books in Italy, similar to R. Crumb in the US, but also did painting and other works. “The exhibition explores the relationship between word and image through notebooks, drawings, comics, and graphic works.” At first I thought the show would be boring but I really enjoyed it. Some of it was joyful but there were also works of politics and depth. Here’s a typical early work:

There was a whole room set up with large scale cut outs of his characters and surroundings with sound effects:

The quote above is interesting because Pazienza died at 32 of a heroin overdose. There is no Italian word for overdose. They just say overdose, even in the literature.

Here’s where the contrasts come in, the view from the window in the museum:

And the brand new park a block away:

From there we headed, just a few blocks to the highly recommended Basilica di San Bernardino. We actually entered through a side door and didn’t realize where we were for a while. The church features a stunning blue and gold ceiling which you could stare at all day. I also spotted this poorly lit Della Robbia in a side chappel:

All along the nave, the displays for the Good Friday procession were lined up and we could enjoy them up close. Here’s one:

We exited the front door of the Basilica to a beautiful city/mountain view.

From there we headed to La Malandrina restaurant, where they played great music, and had an excellent lunch of artichokes, roast lamb, chicory greens and a bright yellow (from saffron) potato puree. There is local saffron grown near here, and it appears in many dishes.

We did a quick grocery run and came home. We both understood we were in for the day. Floridians just can’t get accustomed to being outside in the low 40’s with no sun and the cold wind.

I made us an easy dinner of stuffed pasta from the store and sauteed zucchini.

Aside from the weather, it was a wonderful day.