Rome, Italy — MAXXI

The art galleries are some of the few attractions open in Rome on New Year's Day. We decided on MAXXI (Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo), in part because the building extension is designed by Zaha Hadid. We'll be seeing another of her buildings in Baku on our next trip.

So after breakfast we headed out. The walk there went through Piazza del Popolo, much less crowded in the early hours. They were taking down the NYE stuff in the square. Apparently, the Roman thing to do on NYE is to walk from Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo. This is normally crowded with tourists on an average day, I can't image it at NYE.

Heading north from Piazza del Popolo, we were in non-touristy areas, with just locals walking their dogs. It took about an hour to reach MAXXI from our hotel.

Took some pics of the Hadid extension, and then entered. I found the temporary exhibit, THE STREET. WHERE THE WORLD IS MADE, the most interesting. It was a nice break from all the historical stuff we've otherwise been seeing.

The museum restaurant was closed for renovations (or something). There was a street food truck just outside the entrance, serving freshly-cooked pastas. Ordered a couple different pastas, and while I waited for the order, Heather bought some red wine from the coffee shop inside the museum. Ate our lunch in the remaining sunshine in the modern plaza (it was about 2pm by now). Got a couple espressos and cookies for dessert. Not bad for a street food lunch.

We had dinner at Ai Bozzi yet again, this time with a reservation. (There's not much open on New Year's). Kept to their seafood specials which were excellent. Also had their homemade pistachio gelato again for dessert.