Where the heart is (and where it definitely isn't)

There may be something appealing about the traditional concept of the poor artist starving in a gloomy little attic from a Spitzweg painting, but in modern times they are more likely to live, work and struggle in a 4 room apartment, ten storeys high somewhere in the outskirts of the city, which doesn’t necessarily have to be worse or less romantic than the 19th century setting of Puccini’s Bohème – less smelly perhaps, equipped with running hot and cold water, central heating and electricity. From the outside it may seem like the ugliest, least suitable place for any artist to live in, but in the end it’s still the inside that matters - where the heart is.