Quick t(r)ips: Rome and Wexford
Life's far too short and much too busy to go everywhere so thank God for the Internet, I say. Take my surfing last night. I began in Rome, where I stopped at the Palazzo Ruspoli on the Via della Fontanella Borghese. Until 23 February it's hosting "The Borghias: The Art of Power", a truly must-see exhibition.
As we all know, the Borghias were the most decadent of Italy's great Renaissance families and in the period 1400 to 1500, when the world was on the threshold of the modern era, they intrigued, fornicated, poisoned and governed with an exuberance that has not been matched since. The exhibition presents masterpieces by Botticelli, Pinturicchio and Benozzo Gozzoli, as well as rare manuscripts and precious furniture. Filippino Lippi's Santa Maria Maddalena (1498-1500) is sensational and you shouldn't leave the site without gazing at length upon its harrowingly beautiful depiction of human frailty.
And then, with a click of the mouse, I was in Wexford, that lovely Irish coastal town, which devotes itself for two weeks each autumn to operas most people have never heard of. This year there's Mercadante's Il Giuramento, Martinu's Mirandola and, best of all, Manon Lescaut — not the well known settings by Massenet or Puccini but that of Auber. So, if you're fed up with Le Figaro and you're bored with La Boheme, the Wexford Opera Festival is were you'll recover your appetite for music and life. Speaking of which, the site mentions a "Late Nights" series introduced by a woman wearing a shortened Shakespearean costume being admired by three fluffy rams. The old Borghias would have approved.
