VISIT TO ENGLAND, FRANCE AND ITALY
I will start with selected diary entries, followed by some reflections on the trip.
ENGLAND May 2012
11. They all met us at London Airport and drove us in bright sunshine to Cockleshurds Cottage for delicious soup lunch, then Tim drove me to Little Trowle.
12. We woke early and took Misty walking to a hilltop view of Long Leat House, appropriately called The Gates of Heaven. After a pub lunch at the Barge Inn on the Kennett and Avon canal Tim and I met up at Bradford’s Tithe Barn with Joan, and Chris, Madeleine, Faith, Anya, Maya and the twins (I’ll now call them the family). Joan and I to Little Trowle with Tim for curry with Zsolti, Helen, Millie (named after Great Granny) and Hattie-Belle.
13. Chris’s 50th so we all met up for lunch in Cockleshurds garden in hot sunshine along with Chris’s family from Essex: Audrey, Paul, Amanda, George, Bethany, Stan and Cynthia. Back to Little Trowle.
14. Cold and rainy. Tim and I watched The Barchester Chronicles (excellent. We have the DVD in Sydney).
15. Visited Mother’s and Kathy’s grave. Back to Cockleshurds.
16. Persistent cough so I slept while Joan visited Caroline in the Vicarage. Later Joan and I and Faith and Anya caught the train to London to stay in John and Ann Buckley’s flat.
17. Entrance fees to the sights of London, many used to be free, are now astronomical, and also we were short of time. So the four of us walked past Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, over Westminster Bridge to the London Eye, Festival Hall, National Theatre, Tate Modern and the Globe. We saw the girls off at Paddington, returned to Tate Modern, but unfortunately missed Avril there.
19. Now back with Tim for dinner at The Poplars. Then, radiators on full bore for me!
20. Back to Cockleshurds. I slept while everyone else went to maypole dancing!
21. Monty the neighbouring cat woke us early wanting breakfast. Tim and Misty came to say goodbye, and Chris drove us to Bristol airport.
ITALY May June 2012
At Venice airport headlines reported a Terramoto, an earthquake nearby, perhaps that is why the bus got us to Padua in 5 minutes, in good time for a leisurely spaghetti con vengole.
22. Hotel good so we extended from 2 to 5 nights and revisited the Palazzo della Ragione.with its ship’s keel of a ceiling, the enormous wooden horse and three rows of Giotto all round the walls, and I take out my sketch pad. The Ragione was the hangout of lawyers and I warmed to Saint Anthony when I read that he had tried to take out a class action in favour of debtors who went insolvent through no fault of their own.
23. Saint Anthony died here aged 40 and almost immediately miracles grew up concerning his tongue and other body parts on display around the Cathedral. Tourist throughput is enormous these days and so in the Scroveni chapel we are shunted in groups via a video presentation prior to a mere few minutes in the chapel. Years ago, when there was more time and space in Europe, Joan had soon cracked the biblical code for the 330 wall to wall Giottos and had her own tour group of Americans following her. Scroveni, a shrewd land investor and money lender, built this chapel to absolve himself of those sins. Outcome unknown.
26. It is not far from Padua to Venice by train. Then, quite accidentally, we got on the right vaporetto, sailed past our tour ship, Aegean Odyssey anchored at the Dorso Duro, had lunch on the quayside, trundled our luggage aboard and signed on for the voyage. That night San Marco, with its over the top Byzantine architecture, was illuminated specially for our ship’s passengers.
27. Next morning we went to mass in perhaps Joan’s favourite church from years ago, the Jesuati further along the Dorso Duro, where my attention diverted itself from the homily in Italian to the magnificent Tiepolo paintings on the ceiling. Crossing the Dorso Duro to the Grand Canal our luck was in: a regatta in full swing. We then battled dense, surging site-seeing crowds, subtracting so much of the ancient magic of Venice that we were glad to get back to our new mobile home which then floated away into the Adriatic that night.
MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE
The largest group of passengers were Americans mostly rich republicans, including a tour group calling themselves The Road Scholars. The rest were from England, Scotland, Canada, and Australia. The ship travelled at night arriving at a different port each day. Ravenna for the 6th century mosaics, Split to hear the most beautiful Dalmation acapella singing, Trogir which was sold to Venice in 1409, Kotor Bay, Europe’s most southern fjord, where a monk ran to the church bell to respond to our ship’s siren, Corfu where cricket is the traditional sport, Taormina in Sicily with Mount Etna smoking, Pompeii where the population was once lava-treated by Mount Vesuvius, Rome for its vast Colosseum, the Pantheon with a 2000 year old concrete dome, and a pizza alongside Bernini’s fountains, Florence for the Botticelli Birth of Venus in the Uffizi while, outside, a madhouse of tourists flowed like lava from the Ponte Vecchio.
Most nights there were lectures. On the Grand Tour (Beckford, whose tower you can see from Cold Ashton, took his harpsichord with him), Edward Lear, Popes and Emperors, Baroque art, Van Gogh in Arles. Our last shore visit was to Avignon where we jumped ship a day early in order to meet up with the family at Uzes, our favourite French medieval town. The family camped on the Gard above the Pont du Gard, the last but huge relic of an aqueduct that once carried water from springs in Uzes 27 kms to the Roman city of Nimes. There were now nine of us in the Land Rover heading South, past Mount S. Victoire which Cezanne could never stop painting, and into Italy.
ITALY AGAIN
At Lucca our ways parted, the family driving across the mountainous spine of Italy while we flew high over it from Pisa to Lecce via 2 taxis, 2 flights, 2 coaches and 4 tarmac buses. At Lecce Sophie took us on an architectural and gastronomic tour of the city while handsome waiters called out “Ciao Sophie, come stai?” When the family caught up and there were now ten of us we hired a villa, incomplete and without much linen, but with a welcome swimming pool. We went to Gallipoli for a windy swim, Alberobello to see the most beautiful village in Italy, to Locorotunda to see the trullis, the little conical stone houses, and to Rome to come home via Singapore.
I made 18 paintings on Trip 2012. Here are some
A corner in Trogir, Taormina city gate, Avignon Bishops Palace
Uzes rooftops, Uzes Ducal Palace, Lucca city gate
Lecce Roman city, Lecce tiles, Trulli houses
Collectively, we must have taken, and shared, hundreds of photos. Here are three of mine
.
Pont du Gard, Twins with proud Dad,
The swimming lesson