Paris, Beautiful but Exhausting!

We were still young enough to make use of the student discounts on train tickets. So, leaving Rome in the evening, we found ourselves in magical Paris the next morning. I think a great deal has been said about this city, which in my view remains the only one comparable to Rome in terms of the number and quality of its monuments, the extent of its so-called "historic centre" and its undeniable charm. What I can say is that in 1992 Paris was a much cheaper city than Rome — and, from what I'm told, than it is now. The Parisians, who have a reputation for being cold and aloof, turned out to be, for us, kind and hospitable hosts... and I'm talking about people we met in the street when asking for directions or something. We ate mostly in brasseries, wonderful salads for the most part, but also meat and soups.

We also walked our feet off like mad, managing to see a huge amount, even many lesser museums and all sorts of things; what struck us most was the Orangerie, a little gem of a museum, housing the Oval Room, with Monet paintings as big as the walls, which the marvellous painter made expressly as a gift for his country. But why aren't we proud to be Italian, and why don't we have artists who make similar gifts to Italy? We should learn from the French — I've thought so for years now. We saw, besides the usual Louvre, Musée d'Orsay and Eiffel Tower, the Army Museum with Napoleon's Tomb, the Panthéon, the Museum of the Middle Ages, the Picasso Museum, the City of Science and Technology (still unsurpassed, for me, in its field), the Sainte-Chapelle, the prisons, countless churches, the Défense district, the Centre Pompidou, Versailles and the Château de Vincennes...

and we walked so much, to the point of exhaustion, through the streets and the parks. As soon as we arrived we bought a tourist card to get into the museums, also skipping the queues, and for public transport and... after 2 days we had already got our money's worth! So, super convenient! For us it wasn't the city of love, but certainly a city that's easy to love, yes.