It’s a fortuitous thing that the Spot Challenge is taking place in January. Because during the warmer days, cities like Rome, Athens, and Paris are swarmed with tourists eager to eat crepes and buy magnets. Rome in January is actually a magnificent city. The air is crisp, the skies are blue, and streets are more manageable without all the overbearing group tours. The Italian location for Gagosian (just few blocks away from Fontana di Trevi) is actually our favorite of Larry’s properties so far architecturally. It’s a gorgeous, curved room that happened to host the smallest spot on display in the world…the 1 x 1/2 inch, yellow wonder from 1996 (pictured). It’s very tiny and very refreshing after this week’s big spot overdrive. Roberta at Gagosian recommended the staff favorite Enosteria for lunch and that’s where we ate the best damn gnocchi on planet Earth. Few blocks away, we strolled into Spagna square that hosts about 6,000 Bulgari stores and famed Valentino headquarters.  And yes, we couldn’t resist the Coliseum this time around. It was for the most part eerily empty, so we really got to see the super VIP emperor section up close. Caesar would probably buy 300 spot paintings just for the hell of it. Geneva was our third first time destination on this journey (Hong Kong and Athens being the others). We always had this vision of this city being ruled by mighty Patek Phillipe and vital banking folks. And in some ways it is, but we also discovered from a friendly bunch at the city’s spot central that the art world is on the upswing. After we tested out some nice interior furniture in the space, Greg from Gagosian gave us our very own sub-challenge: a map with about a dozen openings (!) on Thursday evening alone. We made it out to seven. We’re very impressed by Atelier Hermes’ one night pop-up show that served clementines and champagne for treats. Atelier is a local prestigious design and art school that put together a strong, cloud inspired efforts with interactive juggling work by Gabriel Carmona (pictured) and Eleanore Claboux sculpture (also pictured) standing out the most. We also enjoyed a big artist group showing at Meitterrand + Cramer, with Paul McCarthy’s Gold Butter Dog being our favorite. In general, young people (many English speaking) filled the Remor and the Swiss Odeon and the energy was palpable in comparison to more subdued Athens for one. Well, we guess the reason that the Swiss managed to re-energize Miami with Basel. You can never count their aesthetic out.

Out of all the cities on our crazy global tour, Paris probably feels most like home to us after New York. We’ve been there countless and countless of times, sampled every macaroon there was to sample, and visited practically every museum at least once. So the four-hour visit on Friday morning made us believe that the finish line and home was that much closer and realistic. Gagosian on Rue de Ponthieu couldn’t be in a better location. It’s just steps away from the Grand Palais, neighbors with French Christie’s, and we still hold their recent Richard Prince show close to our hearts. A grand Parisian staircase and lots of natural light complement the vast three-floor space. The spots felt very serene here and the second floor mini-library of Damien’s dominance was fun to flip through as well. We had to time to see other art but a stroll through the Tuileries led us to our second Kusama park installation of the trip (Beverly Hills was the first). We also had nice morning Meurice tea with fashion friends still in town for Paris Fashion Week (Givenchy and Galliano shows were scheduled for Friday night) and a champion’s breakfast at Angelina next door.  Then listening to Kanye and Jay-Z’s Ni**as in Paris we took a cab to Gare du Nord…one step closer to the English finish line!

When we actually decided to take this crazy journey (in the middle of a night on January 11) one thing was clear: we wanted to end our adventures in London. It's obviously a crucial year for British art, with Damien unsurprisingly leading the elite, royal dog pack on this side of the pond. It also felt right to end the trip in London, because that's where most of the spots were born. We weren't planning to be in at our final destination so soon originally. We wanted to check in the hotel, possibly see National Portrait Gallery, and then hit the remaining Gagosians on Saturday morning. But thanks to unrelenting supporter text messages and more than few e-mails (and a very helpful attendant Sebastian at EuroStar upgrade desk in Paris) we boarded an early train to St. Pancras. Two hours earlier than expected. It felt epic to be greeted by the Olympic rings in the station and our pulses started running once we realized that this nearly 8-day journey was coming to an end. But in a very epic way. The Britannia location is only five minutes from Paris express and the pit stop turned into a real celebration. First, we got to meet most of the staffers working on this blockbuster show (there are at least a dozen!), then they generously applauded us, and after we posed for many pictures. And then more photos. It's only then that we understood that we finished this crazy thing first. Still, the final cab ride to Davies with our driver Peter felt jittery. Maybe it was the realization that this undertaking (comprised of more miles in one week than you'd want to imagine) was ending after a twenty minute cab drive. At Mayfair, Davis' godmothers Jade and Emma greeted us with cold bubbly (with new friends from Britannia joining us there too) and a serious Damien merch themed goody bag. We got our historic final stamp, posed for more photos, and then got to absorb the intimate, final spots show, filled with exhilarating, tiny (mostly circa 1996) fellas. How did it feel to finally end this passage? Well, we crashed for the first time in 8 days at our nearby hotel at Oxford Street. But only for sixty minutes. Then we felt proud, relieved, spent, happy, hopeful and alert…while answering dozens of friends’ e-mails and updating the Twitter board. But art journey will continue tomorrow with more shows here in London…with absolutely no stamps on the line.