22.4 2024
Just back from the South Tyrol,
my first trip of the year. It could've been warmer, but it
couldn't have been more stimulating and fun. I must get to
Germany more.
6.4 2024
I was prepared for some late
temptation amongst the list of satellite Venice Biennale venues,
but this year there seem to be absolutely no unusual church
openings, and so this continues to look like a year that I won't
visit Venice. But I'm off to the South Tyrol, and the city of
Merano, next week. It's all looking very medieval and
mountainous.
22.3.2024
I'm blowing the dust off my
compass and camera as my guided tour of the South Tyrol is
happening just the other side of Easter. Not having had my
traditional first trip in March this year has resulted in very
itchy feet and sundry gelato withdrawal symptoms. March has been
a thing of rain and flu, but I had a
good birthday.
14.2.2024
The sun is out, the sky is
blue, and as me and the crocuses raise
our heads into the cool air, thoughts turn to booking trips. I've been busy, so I am looking forward to
trips to the South
Tyrol, Ferrara & Bologna, Piero Country, Norfolk Churches,
Burgundy and Delft. No trip to Venice
planned, as yet, but it's always possible that some
specially-opened Biennale satellite venues might tempt me. And
there are gaps in the summer and September.
1.1.2024
As ever the new year brings news
of Donna Leon's new Brunetti novel. It's called A Refiner's
Fire, which is a very biblical departure from the usual
cliché-phrase titles; and it's concerned, it seems, with
teenage gang wars in Venice. Further novelty, verging on
actual shock, is provided by it coming out in July, not March. As a wise man once said - amazeballs!
3.11.2023
I cancelled the Cardiff trip
mentioned below, as it was looking like being too wet and wintry
a time, and as I type this at the end of the week I should have
been away, it's been a week of constant rain, with Storm Ciarán
sweeping Europe.
In better news, having found a 5th great-grandfather who was a
saddler in Smithfield, called Adam Greenlaw Gray, who lived near
St Bartholomew’s church (my new London fave – it’s so Romanesque
inside!) and who was married and had his children christened
there, I discovered that his wife, Elizabeth Faraday, was the
sister of Michael Faraday! So Michael Faraday's dad is my 6th
great-grandfather.
old news
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April 2024
The
South Tyrol
Trips
January 2024
Carlo
Fruttero & Franco Lucentini
The Lover of no Fixed Abode
Venice
November 2023
A Haunting in Venice
Venice films
October 2023
Martin Gayford
Venice: City of Pictures
Lee Jackson
Dickensland
London
September 2023
Donna Leon
A Wandering Through Life
Venice
The Venetian
Terraferma Trips
August 2023
David Hewsom
The Borgia Portrait
Venice
June and July 2023
Philip Gwynne Jones
The Venetian Candidate
Venice
Churches of Suffolk Trips
Lucca and Pisa Trips
April & May 2023
Umbria Trips
Verona & Venice
Trips
March 2023
Medieval Champagne
Trips
Donna Leon
So Shall You Reap
Venice
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