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 | Apr 1, 2015 | art, General interest, history, Italy, museums, people, travel
Of all portraits of popes that fascinate me, one stands out above all others. Shudder at the sheer power and frustration of Titian’s gnarled Farnese Paul Iii , and the fear of the cardinals around him, now in the museum in Naples. He was the pope who ordered the... by Valerie | Aug 19, 2014 | art, Italy, museums, people, travel
We climbed up the side of a hill, and it was hot. Rock tombs this time, not tumuli like the ones we had seen at Tarquinia. Then, in the Etruscan necropolis near Pitigliano, we came upon the temple front carved out of tufa, columns only stumps sticking out of the... by Valerie | Aug 3, 2014 | museums, people, poetry, writing a novel
It’s not often that I’m alone and have time to spare – a great luxury. I was in London and thought I would see an exhibition. None of the ones I hadn’t seen attracted me, so I decided to wander through the National Portrait Gallery. Some time ago I asked my friend... by Valerie | Jul 7, 2014 | art, childhood, General interest, history, museums, people, travel
We’ve climbed the tower which the eccentric William Beckford built so he could escape from the social whirl of early 19th-century Bath to contemplate, in solitary brooding, the hills around the city, the Mendip hills of the Neolithic inhabitants long before the... by Valerie | Jun 24, 2014 | art, General interest, history, museums, people, travel, writing a novel
Back at the start of my novel, now with a title but needing a character revision. This is the third revision, and I realise that the first chapter I always thought was so apt, isn’t at all. I need to think it out again. So I found myself contemplating roses on the...
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