After returning home, we set Kathy and Jack off on today's excursion. Then, since my knee was feeling a little better, I went to have a workout at the gym. It had been a week and I was going a little stir-crazy -- in sympathy with Josh perhaps. Afterwards, I did the marketing before going to pick my cousin up in front of the Synagogue. Together, we all drove to RIS to pick up the kids.
When Charlotte emerged and informed me that math class had been cancelled today due to special meeting, and that she never saw Mr. Murray despite looking for him, I was furious. Apparently, he was now in a meeting, and so we decided to wait around a while to see if he would emerge. Once it was clear we couldn't wait any longer, I left a note for him in his mailbox asking him to call me. He never did.
This evening, we were going to serve cocktails to a woman whom we'd never met before, but who was visiting Rome from Chicago. A few weeks ago, I received an email from "Karen" who goes to the same esthetician I use in Chicago. She was coming to Italy with her boyfriend and wanted to get some insights. She also offered to bring something over from Chicago, if we needed. Well, it turns out, Josh had inadvertently shipped some shirts from Banana Republic to our apartment in Chicago (instead of to my friend's house in Boston to bring back from my Boston visit). It was Josh's lucky day. Karen agreed to swing by our apartment in Chicago and pick up Josh's shirts. Today, she was delivering his shirts, over cocktails, at our villa in Rome. Funny what kind of encounters a visit to the esthetician can bring about...
It turned out that Karen is a lovely lady. Although after her vacation here in Italy, she is not returning to Chicago. Instead, she will move to LA to be with her boyfriend. We had a fun chat over drinks in our garden, and then we invited her to join us to see MAXXI. Thursday evenings, the new Contemporary Art Museum of Rome which is called MAXXI (Museo Nazionale delle Arte di XXI Secolo) is open late and we had been meaning to check it out. Tonight, we'd planned to take Kathy before going out to dinner. And, Karen came along.
When we arrived, it was clear there was an event going on -- people spilled out into the street and a line formed into the courtyard. Everyone seemed to be holding an invitation of some sort. When Josh and Kathy approached the front gate, they learned that indeed there was an MTV party being held at the Museum tonight. But somehow, we were permitted to enter. Better still was the fact that we were allowed to go to the front of the line because Josh was on crutches! Guests still needed to buy admission into the museum. But later, there would be a live performance in the courtyard of some band none of us had ever heard of.
The Museum, designed by Iraqi born Zaha Hadid, just opened earlier this year in the Flaminia neighborhood. It's another controversial structure in Rome, and in walking through, none of us much cared for it. Nor, did we care for the artwork. By way of comparison, the Punta della Dogana in Venice along with the Palazzo Grassi, were both much more intelligently laid out, and had much greater impact both in terms of their collection as well as the architecture built to showcase it. The layout at MAXXI is intentionally left unstructured, and oftentimes the space did not make the most of the artwork on exhibit.
Anyways, after walking through MAXXI, it was time for dinner. Karen was meeting her boyfriend in Piazza Navona, around the corner from where we would be having dinner, so we gave her a ride. When we dropped her off, we told her to come by Ristorante Montevecchio so we could meet her significant other. As it turns out, they ended up joining Josh, Kathy and I for dinner. Her boyfriend, a documentary film-maker, had just participated in a film festival in Bologna earlier in the week. His most well-known work was a film called The USA vs. John Lennon about America's attempt to have Lennon deported. It was a very enjoyable dinner, and was made all the more interesting when Roberto Benigni walked in with his wife for dinner. Now I can leave Rome -- I've seen Benigni and my experience is now complete! He was so friendly, tipping his baseball cap "buona sera."
It turned out to be quite a long evening too; it took quite some time before our meals were served (not surprisingly, we noticed that Roberto and his wife who came in after us, were served right away). In the end, the owner apologized and offered us coffee, after dinner drinks, and dessert...but it was late, and there weren't many takers. We still had to walk over to Piazza Navona to show Kathy the beauty of this Piazza lit up at night. It was midnight by the time we got home.
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