The Mona Lisa

This is Steve, having been coerced into writing a post about our visit to the Louvre. Like most everyone else, one of the first things we did was go to see the Mona Lisa.

 And I was struck by how the piece is treated more than the painting itself. It is on its own wall behind a glass cover, and there is a barrier that keeps everyone about 20 feet away (not to mention a pair of attendants sitting on either side). With every other painting, you can more or less get as close as you want - you could even touch most pieces if you were willing to risk arrest.

Also, I noticed that the first thing many people did was turn around to take a selfie with the Mona Lisa behind them rather than look at the painting itself. So I slipped off to the side to take a picture of the people taking pictures.