Blog - People In Mind
The Heart of Tuscia
Tuscania is off the beaten track, almost a forgotten city. Not too long ago we discovered it by chance when seeking a different route from Rome to Tuscany from the usual one by Lake Bolsena. The name suggested it had been founded by the Etruscans. Inhabited since the...
Cardinal and Garden par excellence!
When I first started looking at Italian gardens, the monsters at Bomarzo were hidden in undergrowth and known only by word of mouth. They were difficult to find, neglected and lost in oblivion; visited only if you managed to find out where they were. The same could...
Cardinals and Gardens
My computer has been out of service for days. It started with the screen turning upside down for no reason at all, like the screen on my camera going milky for no reason too – I didn’t drop it but had it strapped to my wrist! On our way to explore three cardinal...
What is Tuscia
There was talk about Viterbo being the capital of ‘Tuscia’. I wasn’t quite sure which area it referred to. Today was the day we would venture out into this area, moving east to explore the hilltop towns of Lugnano and Amelia, better known to some as a girl’s name, now...
Viterbo – City of Popes
Four hills, not seven like Rome. Four settlements, some from more than 700 BC years ago, divided by gorges, rivers and streams. Water, the essential element for survival, sunshine, good volcanic soil – all were here. Fertility, and the settlements expanded into a...
The ‘mysterious’ Etruscans
I’m involved teaching a group that has arrived in Rome Fiumicino airport to explore Tuscia and the Papal States – unknown, unspoilt Italy. No tourists – except us. Italian visitors, and a quiet, welcoming atmosphere that I remember from my first visits to Italy before...
Roman Aftermath
We couldn’t complain that on our last day in Jordan we experienced a sand and rain storm. In these strange and ancient lands, stony plains spread out east of Amman, yet by the Dead Sea, at Wadi Rum and Petra there were rocky mountains and hills, all of...
Rival Treacheries
What more could we seek after our two days at Petra? Our return to the tomb-temple called the Treasury was a quiet way to rethink our whole time there. Our path was marked by candles in paper bags on each side, about 4 metres apart. The event was organised by the...
Rival treacheries
What more could we seek after our two days at Petra? Our return to the tomb-temple called the Treasury was a quiet way to rethink our whole time there. Our path was marked by candles in paper bags on each side, about 4 metres apart. The event was organised by the...
Petra Unleashed
In the afternoon some of us were offered the chance to return to Petra on our own but with the same ticket (£55). We walked downhill, past a few olive groves and many more temple-tombs high in the rock face, some with weather-beaten reliefs, probably angel figures...
Where the Trading took place – Little Petra
Canny, these tour operators! To keep the headline cost down and lure the would-be travellers, so many crucial visits are termed ‘an optional extra’. How could one visit Jordan without seeing Little Petra, the ancient settlement nearby and not tread the earth where...
Petra the Mysterious
I keep on thinking of these tombs as temples – to the Afterworld. Innumerable, all carved into the soft sandstone striated with different hues, or sandy as one expects with sandstone, or the rose-red stone Petra is famous for. The variety never ended. Variety in the...
Petra – in trepidation
Tell your friends that you are going to Jordan, and they’ll respond, ‘Petra!’ either with gleeful satisfaction or longing. So would it match up to expectation? Our guide was fully aware of this. He explained that we would start at 8.30, not at 8 as on our programme....
North along the Royal Highway to Petra
Perhaps unwisely, I opted for all the optional activities, this morning for one I wasn’t sure whether it was worth the bother - to go in the Yellow Submarine. Words from, I think a Beatles song, echoed in my head. It was a sunny breezy day and we were promised sights...
The Desert Adventure and Seven Pillars of Wisdom
A late breakfast followed by a dip in the rift valley inlet – that sounds more dramatic than the northern tip of the Red Sea – gave a tang to our late morning start. In the early afternoon our small coach set off westwards in the direction of Egypt, to Wadi Rum....
The Dead Sea and the Promised Land
The plane arrived at midnight, an hour late; our tour escort took 40 minutes to find our visas, and we were then informed it would take an hour to reach our hotels on the Dead Sea where we were in two hotels. It was 3 in the morning before we settled into our...
Arrival – Between Africa and Asia
In just under an hour we’ll touchdown in Amman. Why Jordan, bordering Israel to the west on the other side of the Jordan River, and the tragic war zone of Syria to the north? It’s precisely because of this, because of my fascination with the ancient civilisations of...
Slow to Kindle Enthusiasm
Long before Goldfinch was chosen by my book group, I was offered it on Kindle for 99 something – pence or cents, that would hardly break the bank, though my friend in Santa Barbara, California, tells me that Donna Tartt is a millionaire. No wonder, even after such a...
A Place for Fairy Tales
On the weather map we were at the edge of rain clouds yesterday afternoon. We ventured north for our Sunday walk undeterred, not sure where we would end up. I remembered that over a decade ago, perhaps more, we went to Howsham Hall. Every Christmas we always invited a...
Readers Creating
All writers must be thrilled when a reader points out a nuance or theme or anything positive that they haven’t noticed. In a world of knee-jerk criticism, this gives a sharp sensation of pleasure. It’s what Linda Bamber must be feeling with any feedback for her...
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