03.05.2022
This time next week I'll
be packing for my trip to Ferrara and Venice, where I'll be
selflessly devoting myself to photographing churches and
eating gelato. It'll be my first trip to Venice, and first
solo trip to Italy, since November 2019. In Venice I'll also
be checking out the now-finished conversion of the
ground-floor rooms at the Accademia to gallery space which,
since August 2021, has included a new big room of church art
of the 17th and 18th centuries. Not our favourite centuries,
but still. The new display presents 63 works, many not
previously on display for space reasons. There's a few
rarely-open churches being used as Biennale satellite venues
too, and temperatures are looking to reach around a comfortable 23°.
The need for the personal locator form for entry into Italy
ceased on the 1st of May and the NHS covid-jab proof
is now only needed for entry into the country, not restaurants
and galleries anymore. FFP2 masks are still compulsory on flights into
Italy and on public transport there. A minor pain, and weird after the UK's relaxation of all
rules, but not as bad as February.
05.04.2022
Just when you thought it was
safe ... my
guided trip to South Tyrol in June has just been cancelled,
due to too-low numbers. It seems that not everyone thinks it's
safe yet. The silver lining is that I now have a swathe of
free weeks in June giving me scope to book my own destination(s) in
Italy.
08.03.2022
Encouraged by the news that from the 1st of March entry to
Italy no longer requires a pre-trip Covid test, just proof of vaccination and passenger locator form, I've booked
a week in Ferrara and Venice in mid-May!
01.03.2022
I'm just back from Florence -
my first trip to Italy since Venice in November 2019 and my
first trip abroad since my Covid-cursed trip to (not) see the
Van Eyck exhibition in Ghent in March 2020. So that’s two
years of lockdowns, staycations and online courses, but no
getting out of my own country. Rules have been relaxing very
fast in England of late, but Italy was still not taking any
chances.
7.2.2022
Wonders never cease! I've just had an email from Donna Leon's
publisher asking if I'd like a review copy of her new one
Give Unto Others, due out early in March. After 24 years of
having to ask nicely, and often getting no reply, this is
very heart-warming. Anyway, I said 'yes', so expect a review sooner
than later. Also on the way is the new one from David Adams
Cleveland, Gods of Deception, due out towards the end of
April. It is evidently not heavy on the Venice content this
time, but he's earned his inclusion over the past three
novels, and it's another long 'un - 928 pages.
24.1.2022
Things are moving, for good it seems, in the right direction
in Britain, COVID-measures-wise. On Thursday 27th the recent
harsher rules are being relaxed, and today an easing of the
need for tests for travellers coming into the country has been
announced, taking effect on the 11th of February. I’m feeling
full of hope about my trips to Florence in February and
Toulouse in March, but I've just had a tour to Lucca in late
March cancelled. They said it was because the numbers were too
low due to current trepidation, but rumour has it was more the
fact that BA don't fly to Pisa on Thursdays at the moment.
I've moved my money to a guided trip to South Tyrol in June. I
know next to nothing about the region but it looks
interesting, having been Germany until it was given to Italy
after WW1.
So it looks like my foolish optimism might be well-founded
this time.
old news
here
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May 2022
Tasha Alexander
Death in the Floating City
Venice
April 2022
Norwich Trips
March 2022
Rob Samborn
The Prisoner of Paradise
Venice
Toulouse, Conques & Albi
Trips
February 2022
Florence
Trips
Tasha Alexander
The Dark Heart of
Florence
Marco Vichi Ghosts of the Past
Florence
Donna Leon
Give Unto Others
Venice
January 2022
D.V. Bishop City of Vengeance
Florence
Robyn Cadwallader
Book of Colours
London
November 2021
Daniel Wallace Maze
Young Bellini
Venice
September &
October 2021
Durham
Trips
Serge Simonart
Venezia
Venice
August 2021
Suffolk
Trips
Carpaccio in Venice: a guide
Venice
July 2021
E.M. Forster A Room with a View
Florence
Sarah
Winman
Still Life
Florence
Norwich
Trips
June 2021
Edinburgh
Trips
Cathedral Towns Between Lockdowns
Trips
Cynthia Saltzman
Napoleon’s Plunder and the Theft
of Veronese’s Feast
Venice
April 2021
David Hewson
The Garden of Angels
Venice
Laurie R.
King
Island of the Mad
Venice
Anna Bellani
The Venetian Safari
Venice
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