To finish off my requirements for my "Fine Arts" degree a few years ago I had to take a year of Art History.  Figuring I knew all I ever wanted to know about art, plus the fear of falling asleep while watching endless slides in class, I delayed these classes to the very end of my program.  Much to my total and utter amazement, I found out that I indeed knew NOTHING about Art History, and was quite quickly converted to having an obsessive compulsive fascination with understanding the history of great art.

Having poo-pooed most Prehistoric, Ancient, and Egyptian art in the past, as well as a lot of Religious, Renaissance, and Modern art, I realized how much I had missed out when I had the opportunity to see this stuff on previous trips, and on the other hand what I had missed out in realizing the historical significance and meaning of many great pieces of art that I did see.   As a result, I was determined to go back to western art centers and see for myself these works of art and architecture with a newly gained perspective.

Going through my text books, I've identified 150+ pieces of art and architecture that we studied, that are located in Rome, Paris and London, and I plan to see them all.