by Valerie | Jan 8, 2020 | General interest, history, people
After living in Yorkshire for so many years I assume there is nowhere that can be reached on a day’s drive that I haven’t discovered. I was wrong. Preferring hilly country, we have usually avoided lowland and that can also mean wide, open valleys. Last Sunday, still... by Valerie | Jul 24, 2019 | art, General interest, history, Italy, museums, people
As I write, history is palpably being made, so I take refuge in the past. I have been asked how over 600 drawings and sketches by Leonardo da Vinci came into the possession of the Queen of the British Isles. No pictures survive from Antiquity, so no depictions... by VT | Aug 23, 2018 | General interest, history, Italy, travel
A few years ago I went to the archives of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence to find out when the Tuscan mountainsides were first terraced. I had already walked through every room in the famous picture collection, hoping to find landscape replacing the gold of heaven in... by Valerie | Feb 23, 2016 | people, travel
Joseph was our guide on our tour of Syria five years ago, just before the outbreak of war. Since then I’ve often thought of him, hoping he and his family would be safe. He is average height, slight and looks like many others around the Mediterranean. Quiet and... by Valerie | Jun 7, 2014 | art, General interest, history, Italy, museums, people, travel
There was nothing for it. We had to join the relentless one-way traffic to end up in the Sistine Chapel, the goal of the masses. People are said to turn up at the museum pointing one index finger towards the other and almost shouting, ‘Where? Where?’ We could,...
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