Queue up: Peter Bjorn and John’s “Blue Period Picasso”

Today was dedicated to the great artist Picasso. We signed up for a LivTours walking tour of the old city and Picasso museum.

We used this company three times when we were in Italy, and were very pleased. Tour groups are limited to 6 people, but we were the only ones today, so it was a private tour for 2. Sindra, our guide, walked us around for an hour, and showed us all the things we missed yesterday when we ambled along behind Mark and Cat.

We got to peek into the artist cafe that Picasso liked to hang out in as a young man. On the wall was one of his sketches along with many others by his artist friends. Unfortunately, the cafe went under in less than a few years. It was run by an artist, who didn’t really have a head for business.

I had been to the Picasso museum 30 years ago when I spent a month backpacking through Europe, and it was one of the highlights of my trip. It is so different now from how I remember it. Picasso created the museum, by purchasing 5 different side-by-side palaces and building gallery spaces on the second floors of each and then connecting them. With the exception of a few pieces, the entire museum is from his personal collection.

Sindra walked us through the chronology of his life as an artist and helped us connect the inspirations and critical moments in his evolution. Peter read a quote, “Picasso painted like an old man when he was young, and like a child when he was old”, or something like that).

She showed us the painting he did at the age of 15 that was submitted to a contest, which he won. It was the painting that made his father (an art teacher and painter), realize his son was better than he was, and he stopped painting after that.

The grand finale of the tour was three gallery rooms filled with his different interpretations of Velazquez’s painting Las Meninas (which we also saw in Madrid). It was mind boggling to see all the variations he created based on this one inspiring painting. He would isolate different elements of the painting, and paint them over and over in different ways.

And, in other noteworthy news, I got to put on my hip city outfit this afternoon when the sun came out and it was actually warm. This is important, because I have been toting it around in my backpack for almost 5 weeks, and was worried that it was all for naught.

©Copyright 2025. All rights reserved. No reproduction of text or images without permission.