Just met Julius Caesar in an ice cream shop next to the Trevi Fountain! Thin, grey haired and with his plastic guide card, Gulio Cesar swore his name was real and told us, in the days before the swarming tourists, he had once guided Anthony Quin and Hedi Lamar around Rome. Rome is swarming with Romans and tourists today – around the Trevi, down the streets, towards the forum, and beside the band stand for a free concert tonight by Claudio Berzonni. We got away and were almost the last into the Van Goch exhibition at the back of Victor Emmanuel’s monument. The explications are rather repetitive, but it was fantastic to see his evolution, out of his Dutch paintings and the influence of the Barbison school, into that full explosion of semi-mad colour. It showed his influences, putting Pisarro, Gaugin and others among his work, but the space is rather odd. Still, for an artist struggling for a unique, eternal style, yet with some contemporary meaning, it was great to see and see it so well attended too.