Painting in:

Rome & Tuscany, Italy

I really didn’t know what to expect, I’d heard both good and bad reports from others who had ventured to the Eternal City. I found Rome to be a treasure, an amazing historical, diverse, friendly place to visit.

The best way to see Rome is on foot and in open-topped tour buses that continually loop through the city. Buy a 24-hour bus pass then get ready to be amazed. We boarded a bus opposite St. Peter’s Square then stayed on for the full circuit.  Doing this enables you to have a better understanding on the layout of the city and what sites you’d like to go back to later. Earphones are provided on the bus to listen to the narrative as you pass through the city. The circuit takes about 1.5 hrs. to complete and the bus stops to drop off and pick up at most landmark locations.

Line-ups to get into the Vatican are long, especially in the morning. Go around lunchtime, as the lines are shorter then. We took a guided tour through the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel.  You don’t have to go with a tour guide, you can go on your own – and I would highly recommend going on your own as the tour operators whisk you through at a trot, stopping at the highpoints and quickly moving on. Although you will be lining up for a long time if you go in on your own, once in, you will have the luxury of being able to take your time to really enjoy the experience.

A fun thing to do while at the Vatican is to visit the Vatican post office, which is situated on the right-hand side as you exit St. Peter's Basilica. Buy a couple of postcards and mail them to your friends, or even yourself from the Vatican City. When you get home you’ll have another souvenir, a cancelled Vatican City postage stamp.  You don’t have to pay or line up to access the post office or “Official Vatican Gift Shops”, just make your way up towards St. Peter's Basilica on the opposite side of where everyone is lining up to go into the church.

We spent a day on foot, walking Rome with our sketchbooks. We must have walked 20 kms throughout the day. It was our best day in Rome. We discovered piazzas and streets off the beaten track that were truly a taste of Roman life. Settling down in one piazza, we stayed for over an hour sketching the people of Rome. The Jewish Ghetto is a must-see, I had the best Gelato there – sesame seed… delicious.

Tuscany was our plein-air painting destination. It’s as beautiful as what you see in the glossy calendars, the countryside is spectacular.

The two-week painting portion of our trip was in a workshop organized by Seattle artist, Teresa Saia. The workshop included accommodation, most meals, and bus transportation to painting locations, some demos and a 24-hour guide/translator.

The weather was not with us. It was cool and rainy, we were constantly watching the sky and painting outside was a challenge. Most days, despite the weather we were able to get the easels up and paints out for a successful bout of painting. We were in Tuscany during the middle of May, if you plan to go, you may want to move your holiday up a week or two to the end of May where better weather would be more likely.

Guy and I enjoyed the camaraderie of the group, we made some very good artist friends on this trip and look forward to painting with them again in the future.

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