My TV crew and I are often charged a lot of money to film inside great museums and palaces on days when they are closed to the public. While sometimes a headache, this comes with the joy of being all alone with great art. Recently I’ve been aroused (artistically) while alone with Klimt’s The Kiss in Vienna. In Paris, I’ve stood silent and solitary in the splendor of the gloriously Gothic Sainte-Chapelle, the mysterious Mona Lisa, and the exquisite Unicorn Tapestries. In Italy, I’ve been all alone in a room full of Botticelli paintings, with Bernini’s Apollo Chasing Daphne, with Leonardo’s Last Supper, and with two masterful Davids: Donatello’s and Michelangelo’s. Each experience was a kind of artistic climax, leaving me craving a cigarette. Where have you experienced the majesty of Europe’s culture all alone?
