“THE END IS WHERE WE START FROM”
In my last post about my visit to Cinque Terre I tantalised my readers with the following words : “I was on the home stretch of Journey 2. I had one famous sight to see (i.e. Cinque Terre) then it would be a slow return via Italian countryside to Courcheval, through the Mont Blanc tunnel, … Continue reading
CINQUE TERRE – WHERE POETS ALSO WALKED
Leaving lovely Lucca and Tuscany behind, I was on the home stretch of Journey 2. I had one famous sight to see then it would be a slow return via Italian countryside to Courchevel, through the Mont Blanc tunnel, to my home in France just outside Geneva. It would be on this last, leisurely leg … Continue reading
LUCCA – LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
For me, Lucca was a love at first sight that grew and grew into total adoration. Rarely has a town captured my heart so and filled it with joy. Part of its appeal is that Lucca is small, compact and self-contained within its city walls, full of history and beauty at every turn with … Continue reading
SIENA – IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF GHOSTS
Quite recently I read a book on Michelangelo by Irving Stone called ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’ that brought the man, his art, his times and his contemporaries remarkably to life. Evidently Stone spent years in Italy researching his subject, working in a marble quarry, as an apprentice sculptor, and reading Michelangelo’s 495 letters which … Continue reading
THE SURPRISING GIFTS OF ASSISI
In Assisi I was to receive a soulful gift, a joyful gift and a life lesson. But not in the way you might expect. For these events did not occur in one of the many churches there, nor in the famous Papal Basilica di San Francesco – one of the most impressive, expensive and art-abundant … Continue reading
LORETO & MARY’S SACRED HOUSE
There is a legend – that after the crusaders were expelled from Palestine in 1291, angels carried Mary’s house in Nazareth away to safety. This was the house in which she had been visited by Angel Gabriel who revealed that she was to carry the son of God. This was the dwelling in which she later … Continue reading
ITALY MOURNS
One cannot journey around Italy for months without being affected by its beauty, its culture, its people and its charm. On Italy’s day of national mourning I wish to convey my condolences to all Italians and express my sympathy to those who were and are bereft and hurt by Wednesday’s devastating earthquake. -+-
THE CHARM OF AUTHENTIC ITALY
As I left the heel of Italy to meander slowly home to Geneva I had a rich choice: south-west to Sicily and a boat to Genoa; travel up the west coast of Italy through Naples, Pompeii and Rome; or follow the lesser known east coast for a while. What do you think I chose? Yes, … Continue reading
NOT ‘DOWN AT HEEL’ IN ITALY!
Neither my words nor my photographs can portray the utter “over-the-topness” of the baroque architecture of Lecce in southern Italy. The building façades are so ornate and flowery with their statues, curlicues, gargoyles and festoons, that the style has its own name – “barocco leccese”. I was staying right down in the stiletto heel of … Continue reading
DUBROVNIK – WHITE CITY, RED ROOFS
I looked down at the orange-red terracotta roofs of Dubrovnik from the city walls and remembered the statistic that two out of three were replacements as they had been hit by missiles in the attack on Dubrovnik in 1991 when around 2,000 shells were fired on the city. Almost three-quarters of the buildings were … Continue reading
Journey with me too 