I was treated to a rather exceptional experience this week, granted a private audience with Mona Lisa herself. Usually surrounded by crowds (when the museum moved her to a different wing for the Da Vinci exhibition in 2019 they had to completely update their crowd control and security protocols) it was rather surreal to see her smiling face up close and reflect on her history (more than I can do justice to here). Not to waste time in the empty Louvre I also spun past the crown jewels, waved at the unfinished Michelangelo masterpieces, stood spellbound in front of Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss and craned my neck admiring the ceilings for so long I needed to see an osteopath. But the icing on the cake was a few minutes with Winged Victory of Samothrace in a silent Daru staircase.
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