Whoever is not going skiing this winter but is traveling to Rome instead should be hurrying to go and visit Museo Praz in Palazzo Primoli. That is the private residence bordering on cabinet of curiosities of the Italian literator and art historian Mario Praz, who wrote his magnum opus The Romantic Agony in 1933. A cult book with references to the morbid and erotic motives in the art and literature of 19^th century Europe. A book that I always revert back to, that I pack for holidays by default, and whose quantity of exposed erudition never ceases to amaze me.

If you should be in Paris, don't forget to stop by the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature. Central Le Marais. This museum with stuffed animals and hunting still lives is brushed up with works about nature, done by contemporary artists such as Jan Fabre, Jeff Koons or Walton Ford. Most interesting are the oil paint sketches by the 18th century hunting painter Alexander-François Desportes (1661-1743) if you ask me, with the artistic portrayal of a Hoopoe in particular.