by Valerie | Oct 6, 2015 | Italy, people
I wrote this nearly a month ago. Then the screen on my computer slipped, dropping all controls out of sight. It could not be repaired. Nothing is lost – all stashed away in the Cloud – but I was without the internet until now. This is written on an old stand-by... by Valerie | Jul 25, 2015 | history, Italy, museums, people, travel
One Easter in Italy we were preparing supper we heard chanting. I turned off the flame under the pasta water; we pulled on jackets and followed the sounds and lights moving across the valley. The sun had not set and we could just make out a group of people holding... by Valerie | Jul 16, 2015 | art, General interest, history, Italy, museums, people, travel
Everyone who has been to Venice has looked out from the Piazzetta, the Doge’s Palace on the left and Sansovino’s magnificent library on the right, over the bevy of gondolas across the lagoon to Palladio’s San Giorgio Maggiore. It is marooned on an island – seemingly... by Valerie | Jul 1, 2015 | art, General interest, history, Italy, museums, people, poetry, travel
Not long ago I was leaning against a wall warmed by the sun and reading a dog-eared copy of Keats’ poems. I have visited the house in Rome where he died – the Keats-Shelley Museum – many times, and each is profoundly moving in a different way. That is why I return... by Valerie | Jun 24, 2015 | art, General interest, history, Italy, museums, people, travel
Our long affair with Giambattista Piranesi began when I gave John a book with etchings of Rome. I wasn’t at all sure whether I should have done this. The collection had been given to me by a former boyfriend, but it was to change his life – and mine. Many hours were... by Valerie | May 1, 2015 | art, General interest, history, Italy, people
Every spring I traipse into a thirteenth century castellated building and follow the signs to ‘Tributi’. For many years I climbed up worn stone steps to the second floor, but now they have fitted a slim lift into the stairwell following decades of complaints from the...
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