Suffice to say I am very aware of my complete ineptness at keeping up this blog, but I hope you will forgive my repeated tardiness, and sit back and read the update of my life in the last month and half.
Firstly, I will finish my tales of Prague with Mom! We went on an incredible tour of the Jewish Quarter of Prague and saw no less than 5 different synagogues, each with an express purpose and individual history. We visited the New Old Synagogue where supposedly the Golem, a figure/monster from Jewish folktales told to many when we were young, who protected the Jewish people during an attempted purge in the Middle Ages. One, the Pinkas Synagogue, had the names of every Czech Jew killed in the Holocaust written on the walls in large red letters. Sadly, we were able to find the names of a few people from a family (we do not know if or how closely we might be related) with the surname of Melamed. To see these endless lists was another way to realize the depth with which the Nazi really annihilated the Jewish population of so many countries. This journey through the Jewish Quarter ended with a trip outside of Prague to the concentration camp outside the city which most of the Czech Jews passed through on their way to the killing camps such as Auschwitz and the like. To actually walk through one of these camps was an absolutely new experience and one that I have yet to be able to put fully into words, but will try to at a later date if I can.
The day we were leaving Prague, we had some time in the morning before we were catching our flight back to Florence, and we decided, of course, to go to a museum. We went to the Contemporary Art Museum, and lets just say we got a HUGE shock at their collection. Not only do they posses one of the most famous Klimt's in the world, but they also have an absolutely INCREDIBLE collection of Picasso works, including two of the most beautiful Picassos I have ever laid eyes on! If you go to Prague, at any time in the future, GO TO THIS MUSEUM, you will not regret it!
After a trip full of ups and downs, we returned to Florence for a rather tranquil week before heading to Rome the next weekend to celebrate Mom's birthday, I will not say which one, and spent the weekend in a time honored Melamed-Johnson tradition of chasing after..... you guessed it.... Caravaggios!! In the space of two days, not only did we enjoy a kind of "private" tour of the Sistine Chapel and a lovely dinner with Claire at a great restaurant called Le Sorelle, but we also managed to see no less than 8 Caravaggios and get pretty lost on the way :)
Mom left soon after that, and it was pretty hard to get back into the grove of things, so I had a rather slow week after that. But, as it always does, life once again became the hectic full-pace marathon that it has been for most of my time here. In quick succession I went to Venice, saw the wonders of Tintoretto and Titian, headed to Paris, experienced a live concert in a Parisian den of inquity then proceeded to a Picasso/Manet exhibit before almost missing my train home to Florence, after this I went to Rome and once again was able to marvel at the Sistine Chapel, not quite believing my luck at being in the Galleria Borghese for the third time in one year, and then headed home to write 12 and then 5 pages of research on Giorgione and Bernard Berenson, respectively.
Phew. That gets me up to speed to last Wednesday. I will conclude this post now and hope that you guys are still reading this!!
I miss everyone and would LOVE to hear from you, even if it is just a hello. please write me at melamed.johnson@gmail.com.
I eagerly await updates on your own lifes, and your opinions on mine!!
All the love,
Lydia
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