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10.11.2019
10.10.2019
In a bookshop in Bologna last
week I spotted a novel called Medici ~ Ascendancy by
Matteo Strukul, the first in a trilogy. My first thought was:
do we really need another book about the Medici, let alone
three? I looked up the author, he's Italian and has an unusual
background in crime fiction, comics and computer games, so one
might expect something fresh, but his other novels have dealt
with Michelangelo and Casanova. What next? Vivaldi and the
Pietà girls? Pshaw!
4.10.2019
I'm just back from
Ferrara and Bologna
where I went for the working on
Bologna's churches, two
cemeteries and some end-of-season gelato. Mission
accomplished! It's good to take Autumn trips and so return
from the warmth of Italy to the chill of the English autumn,
but the contrast this time, between short-sleeves in the
evening and air-conditioning in my hotel room and putting the
central heating on and searching out the winter coat was too
drastic!
7.9.2019
Those of you
paying attention may have noticed that, despite announcements
to the contrary, I was not in Venice last week. But fear not -
I will be there in the first week in November. The churches
specially open for Biennale shows will still be open and
From Titian to Rubens: Masterpieces from Antwerp and other
Flemish Collections, the exhibition in the Palazzo Ducale
which opened last Thursday, the day I was due to come home,
will still be on. So all is good.
24.8.2019
Tinney Sue Heath's
A Thing
Done
was a novel set in Florence that I liked lots a few years
back. So an offer of her new one was greeted with joy. It's
called Lady of the Seven Suns and deals with the life
of Francis of Assisi from the viewpoint of a rich Roman
patrician woman who becomes an acolyte and a sturdy supporter.
I'm half way through and finding it a gentle but moving read,
from a perspective mixing faith with pragmatism. It's out on
September 1st and I hope to get my review up next week.
Also Michelle Lovric, a friend of
this site in the early days, has a new novel just out, set in
Venice, for children, called The Wishing Bones. The
plot revolves around an orphan, Casanova and the bones of
Saint Lucy, it seems, and promises the return of the author's
lovably stroppy mermaids.
12.7.2019
Cardiff
25.6.2019
Mantua &
Ferrara
30.5.2019
It seems that
guidebooks are waning in popularity, what with the internet
and all. It's still gratifying to get good head-swelling plugs
in them, though, like the new edition of the Rough Guide to
Venice and the Veneto, from which the image on my
News Page was snatched.
In less-good news, the healing hopes of my last posting turned
out to be misplaced, and a return of sharp pain meant that I
had to cancel the Umbrian hill towns trip at the last minute,
which did not make me happy! A swiftly-booked trip to Mantua,
on a revisit of a
trip I much enjoyed in 2005, should hopefully see
me getting into Mantegna's marvellous (I'm told!) Camera degli
Sposi this time. Trips to Cardiff, with Gloucester Cathedral,
and Venice are disappointment-soothing prospects for July and
September too.
more news
here |
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November 2019
Venice
Trips
Susanna Clarke
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Venice
October 2019
Ferrara and Bologna
Trips
August 2019
Tinney Sue Heath Lady of the Seven Suns:
a novel of the woman
Saint Francis called Brother
Related works
June &
July 2019
Cardiff
Trips
Mantua &
Ferrara
Trips
Jo Walton
Lent
Florence
April
&
May 2019
Allison Levy House of Secrets
Florence
Jess Kidd Things
in Jars
London
Siena
Trips
March 2019
Philip Gwynne
Jones
The Venetian Masquerade
Sicily
Trips
Philip Kazan The Phoenix of Florence
February 2019
Donna Leon
Unto Us a Son is Given Venice
January 2019
The Aspern Papers
Venice films
Andrea Perego
The Laws of Time
Venice
December 2018
Graham Greene
The Ministry of Fear
London
October 2018
Milan
Trips
John Ruskin
Mornings in Florence
September 2018
Lives of Giovanni Bellini
Venice
Florence and Arezzo
Trips
August 2018
Marco Vichi Death in
the Tuscan Hills
Florence
June & July 2018
Leeds and
York
Trips
Nancy
Trips
Bologna
Trips
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