12 days in northern Italy

I aim to write a monthly blog. What with one thing and another, notably lots of disruption at home with workmen, and being at work, my planned June blog is appearing now at the end of July. Here goes…

On 7 June Mrs Brown (Kathie Touin) and I embarked on our first overseas trip – excluding visits to see family in (kind of) English-speaking California and Arizona – for more than 10 years.

In preparation for our expedition Kathie was busy learning some Italian on a smartphone app. Kathie also worked hard to find our accommodation and read lots of guide books. My contribution was to throw in a few ideas now and then.

View from our window in Bologna’s Hotel Paradise (image: Graham Brown)

We stayed in Bologna, the capital city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy, in the wonderfully-named Hotel Paradise. Very good it was too, helpful staff and in a good location for walking to the many ancient churches, historic attractions and shops – even the railway station was only about 20 minutes’ walk through attractive architecture.

I will not take you on a blow-by-blow, day-by-day account of the trip, and everything we saw, – phew! – but here are some themes that struck me.

The 12th century Two Towers of Bologna – due torri (image: Graham Brown)

Elegant, cool and medieval – with graffiti

Bologna is a large city but the central historic and shopping areas are reasonably compact. Though temperatures reached as high as 35 C while we there – 95 F to Americans – we stayed reasonably cool thanks to the architecture. The city is blessed with miles, or, should I say, kilometres, of porticoes – arched colonnades covering the pavements (American: sidewalks) – which allow one to walk around in the shade.

The city has some fantastic medieval, Renaissance and baroque architecture – numerous churches, civic buildings and the two towers (due torri) reputedly dating from the 12th century.

Some of Bologna’s graffiti makes a serious point, in this case about Syria (image: Graham Brown)

And some of the graffiti is humorous – this reminded us of Roscoe back home (image: Graham Brown)

We noticed that graffiti seems to be tolerated. And by graffiti I do not mean the usual crude scribblings of names and swear words, but some fantastic pieces of art, some comic, some supporting political causes.

The city had, to me, a relaxed atmosphere with outside eating areas for most cafes and restaurants (like so much of continental Europe), and elegant-looking residents, even while riding their numerous bicycles, mopeds and scooters.

Monuments

Bologna, like all European cities, has its fair share of monuments and statues. Among the more unusual ones, to my eyes, was a large monument to partisans who fought the Nazi and Fascist occupiers towards the end of the Second World War – it was made up of numerous small photographs of the individuals involved.

On the left, the many photographs of Italian partisans who fought the Nazis – it seems appropriate that young people are relaxing in the sunshine (image: Graham Brown)

A war memorial for Italians lost in both world wars, inside the Santo Stefano complex of churches, struck me as interesting as it listed those lost on both sides of the conflict.

But I think I was most touched – perhaps with recent events in London and Manchester in my mind – by monuments to the 85 who died in the Fascist bombing of Bologna railway station in 1980.

There is a glass panel in the Piazza del Nettuno listing all the names of those who died in the attack (and in two other outrages). There are further memorials at the station itself including the clock stopped at 10.25, the time of the attack.

We also visited a photographic exhibition, housed in a wonderful underground exhibition space, containing 500 photographs of Bologna’s history as well as film – including the chilling visit of Italian dictator Mussolini to the city.

One room of the exhibition was entirely devoted to the station bombing. A constantly evolving montage of photographs was projected onto the walls of the circular room, along with the sound of emergency services radio conversations. It was very moving – literally and emotionally.

Musica

Music, or musica as the Italians say, featured in our trip.

Kathie Touin in Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica (image: Graham Brown)

We went to two fascinating museums – one of historic keyboard instruments, the other was Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica – it features Bologna’s collection of musical manuscripts, books, sculptures, paintings and instruments. The origins of the collection are an 18th century Franciscan friar, Father Giovanni Battista Martini, who numbered Mozart among his students.

We also enjoyed live music. We attended two brilliant piano recitals held in the Oratorio di Santa Cecilia, appropriately the patron saint of music. Stand up, and take another standing ovation, Enrico Elisi and Benedetta Conte, fabulous performers both.

And we went to Teatro Duse for a production of Gershwin’s Crazy For You musical. The songs were sung in English, the conversations were in Italian but we had read the plot outline beforehand so we could follow the story.

The poster for Crazy For You – a fabulous show starring Manuel Frattini

The show featured Manuel Frattini who, judging by the audience reaction, is something of a star. And rightly so. He is an old-fashioned song-and-dance man who can sing, dance and be physically funny – Kathie said he reminded her of Gene Kelly.

It was an uplifting evening – enough to make you forget how hot the theatre was – with wonderful staging, dancing, singing and comedy.

Trains and Ferraris – vroom…

We spent 13 nights in Bologna so we had 12 days to be out and about. There was so much to see in Bologna that we never got round it all, bearing in mind we had to stop for coffees, ice creams and meals.

But we took three day trips out of the city by train, to visit Modena, Venice and Florence.

You will have read and watched much about Venice and Florence so I will not go into detail on those – just to mention that in Venice, on an overcast day, we were caught in an Orkney-style storm of heavy rain and strong winds. We sheltered in a passageway and the storm soon passed, our clothes were just about dry by the time we left this strange city.

The main purpose of our visit to Modena was to see the Enzo Ferrari House Museum, one of two Ferrari museums in the region (the other is at their Modena factory). There were some beautiful and ruinously expensive cars on display, both racing and road examples.

Kathie Touin choosing a Ferrari to take home (image: Graham Brown)

I have to say I find modern so-called “super cars” not to my taste but the classic Ferraris on display were a joy to behold. By the way, if anyone is short of ideas for next Christmas, Kathie would like a Ferrari Dino.

Our train journeys were smooth, comfortable and on time, apart from a delay departing Venice because the above-mentioned storm had caused flooding on the line. The regional train services are not expensive either – our journey to Modena, and back, for both of us, admittedly only about 30 minutes each way, cost less than £15, and we did not have to pay in advance or trawl websites for a cheap deal.

Our trip to Venice – about two hours each way – cost about £50 for both of us. We travelled upstairs in a double-decker coach.

However, our trip to Florence was more expensive. We did not get to Bologna railway station until mid-morning, only to discover all the second-class seats were taken. So we had to travel first class – this, and the fact that the service was operated by a high-speed train, made it much more expensive, more than £70 for both of us one way.

Never mind, we enjoyed travelling in first class (though the second-class return was perfectly fine) and being on a high-speed train, even though most of the route was in tunnels.

Slightly fuzzy night-time photo at Bologna railway station but on this train we travelled at 186mph – Kathie shows off her Florence shopping in an Orkney Maeshowe bag (image: Graham Brown)

On the return from Florence to Bologna we noticed that the passenger information displays were, at times, showing the train’s speed. We reached 299kph, which I calculate to be 186mph. I think this is a land speed record for both Kathie and me. The 67-mile journey took 31 minutes from the wheels starting to roll at Florence to standstill in Bologna. Wow. Incidentally, the ride was smooth with little impression of such speed.

What else?

General Election

The first day we spent in Bologna was also the day of the General Election back home in the UK. I do not think I have ever been abroad for a General Election before so we made sure we voted by post before leaving Orkney.

On the Thursday night I watched BBC World for several hours to follow the election results coming in. It was a strange election in many ways, made stranger for me because I was watching from afar.

Swifts

One of the notable sights – and sounds – of Bologna at the time of our visit was the hundreds of screeching swifts flying high above the city. It was wonderful to see these acrobatic birds, which even sleep on the wing, and to think of them heading back to Africa after their breeding season.

For us, we returned to the cooler weather of Orkney – but since being home we have been delighted to see the swallows nesting in our garage fledge four young.

Graham Brown

To find out – and see – more

More of my photographs on Instagram (no log-in required) – https://www.instagram.com/grahambrownorkney/

Guide to Bologna – http://www.bolognawelcome.com/en/

Wikipedia on Bologna – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna

The 1980 bombing of Bologna railway station – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_massacre

Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica di Bologna – http://www.museibologna.it/musica

Wikipedia on Museo internazionale e biblioteca della musica – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museo_internazionale_e_biblioteca_della_musica

Website of pianist Enrico Elisi – www.enricoelisi.com/

An earlier performance by Benedetta Conte –

RSPB website on swifts – http://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/bird-and-wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/s/swift/index.aspx

Stuck in the middle (with bits of paper)

Photograph of friends on Hunstanton sea front on a sunny day – without realising the lens is reversed (image: Graham Brown, naturally)

I have a serious blog to write, and I will soon.

But first I want to share with you some brief thoughts about the modern world of blogs and social media and the old world of paper – and how I am somehow stuck between the two.

I’m prompted to do so after I sent birthday wishes via Facebook to friend and former BBC colleague, Jill Matthews. She responded to correct me on the actual date of her birthday and I replied to say I would try to remember for next year or, better still, “write it down”.

Jill wrote back: “Yes. I don’t think you have quite got to grips with this FB thingy. Neither have I but I am pleased that you have a lovely wife and are living in a beautiful place.”

Of course, Jill is right. Social media tools and apps are supposed to automate all this for us but here I am, in 2016, keeping a paper record of relatives’ and friends’ birthdays.

It must be to do with my age – 58 at the last count. I grew up in an age of printed diaries, typewriters and paper but I am young enough to embrace (up to a point) computers and smart phones. That said, I am capable of taking photographs on my smartphone on a sunny day without realising the camera has flipped round to take selfies – hence the image on this article.

So I find myself with a blog, and a presence on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram. I also have accounts with Ello (where I very occasionally post) and Tumblr (where I have yet to post).

Also, I am aware of other outlets I do not use, such as WhatsApp, Snapchat and Ask.fm, but have only a vague idea as to what they do.

Meanwhile I keep my appointments in an old-fashioned paper diary, an RSPB one, as it happens. And I have my paper record of birthdays, addresses and, ironically, computer passwords, kept in a Filofax, a leather one – remember those? If not, ask an older person.

Next to my desk in my home office I have lots of pieces of scrap paper for writing notes and reminders.

And at the back of the office is a large cupboard and, at the back of that, is my typewriter. I admit I no longer use it, I just don’t like to part with it.

So that’s me, stuck in the middle (with bits of paper).

Graham Brown

London Calling, and the Isle of Wight too…

 

Red Funnel ferry between Southampton and the Isle of Wight (image: Graham Brown)

Do you remember The Clash song London Calling? To be fair my headline is not quite how it was. “London calling to the faraway towns” is what they sang. But we all have to start somewhere, to mis-quote Spike Milligan, and that is how I am starting this blog.

Regular readers will know that my wife Kathie Touin and I moved to Orkney from London. Time races on and we’ve been in the north for nearly four-and-a-half wonderful years. Our only return visits to London have been travelling through Heathrow Airport, and one brief overnight stop en route.

But we have just returned from our first proper visit to London since decamping to Orkney. We also spent a week on the Isle of Wight with my father. These are some of my impressions…

For those not familiar with the British Isles, the Isle of Wight is England’s largest island and is situated just off the south coast of England. A few folk thought it funny that we travelled from one of Britain’s most northerly islands to one at the bottom of the map.

The Isle of Wight is a big holiday destination and there is a choice of six ferry services from mainland England. We took the Red Funnel ferry from Southampton to East Cowes. There is plenty of shipping to watch on the way, and indeed from the island when you arrive – everything from gigantic container ships to tiny sailing boats.

The island is busy but in early September not unpleasantly so. Car journeys take time but the traffic moves along steadily. Quieter country roads are narrow and twisty so there’s no opportunity to race along there either.

A refreshing glass of Fuggle Dee-Dum beer from Goddard’s Brewery (image: Graham Brown)

Our first impression coming from the fresh and breezy atmosphere of Orkney was that the Isle of Wight was too hot and humid, at least for us.

Second impression: in some ways the Isle of Wight feels a little like England in the past – no motorways, small towns, quaint villages, friendly people.

In keeping with this we noticed that old-style Mini cars are still popular on the island – I suppose it makes an ideal runabout but they are becoming pretty rare elsewhere in my experience.

It also seemed to me that there were more people smoking than I remember at home. This may be a false impression created because it was pleasant weather for smokers to stand outside, and they were not huddled out of sight in a windswept corner like they might be in Orkney. But some of the restaurants had outside smoking areas, which surprised me.

The railways on the island are also a throwback. There is the Island Line, part of the National Rail network, operating between Ryde and Shanklin – less than nine miles – and using 1930s London Underground stock. Fantastic.

Ajax locomotive on the Isle of Wight Steam Railway (image: Graham Brown)

Meeting the Island Line at Smallbrook Junction is the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, a largely volunteer-run heritage line which goes five-and-a-half miles to Wootton. We had a great day on the steam railway, watching the trains, looking at the restoration projects, travelling up and down the line.

The locomotive in steam was Ajax, built in 1918, requisitioned by the Ministry of Munitions and sent to Persia (modern Iran). She worked there for many years, latterly with the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, before returning to England and working at various industrial locations until 1968.

Jimi Hendrix statue outside Dimbola Lodge, Isle of Wight (image: Graham Brown)

Among the other island attractions we visited were: the Isle of Wight Bus Museum, where you get to sit on the old buses, not just admire them; Dimbola Lodge, home of Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, which was hosting an exhibition of Chris Packham’s photographs, and which – as a hotel – hosted Jimi Hendrix when he played the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, hence his statue in the garden; Waltzing Waters, which has to be seen to be believed, a choreographed water fountains theatre show set to lights and music; and we took a cruise to Portsmouth harbour on a glorious sunny day, watching the scenery and the boats, including Royal Navy ships.

Kathie Touin returning to East Cowes after boat trip (image: Graham Brown)

We could have done much more but we were too busy doing nothing much other than watching the sea and the ships, and enjoying some of the island’s lovely food. Crab salad, anyone?

Our week was soon over and we were off to London from Southampton by train, via an overnight stop seeing friends in Horsham, West Sussex. We arrived in London at Victoria station and the immediate impression walking onto the concourse was noise. Really loud noise. Our time in Orkney has acquainted us with a quieter life and we were not prepared for this.

Because there was no Northern Line (weekend engineering work) we took a number 82 bus from outside the station, almost to our friends’ front door in North Finchley. This was a happy accident as travelling by bus allows you to see the world. Kathie told me off for constantly pointing at the sights. “People will think you’re a tourist,” she said. Truth is, I am now, London is no longer home.

We spotted some fantastic sculptures that were new to us: a huge horse’s head at Marble Arch; a life-size bear, recently installed just off Oxford Street, see video (not mine) above; and the beautifully poignant Animals In War Memorial, unveiled in 2004 but which somehow passed me by when I lived in London. Later that day my friend told me she cries every time she sees this.

The Animals In War Memorial © AIW 2000 – 2014

The Animals In War Memorial © AIW 2000 – 2014

The following day we travelled from North London on the Piccadilly Line – our first Tube journey in a long time – to our home for the next three nights, Ealing. In fact, we stayed not far from our old flat and on the first evening went back to our favourite local restaurant, Monty’s on Northfield Avenue.

Looking out the next morning into the garden of our friend’s house there was wildlife which we do not see at home in Orkney: a magpie, playing with stones; a grey squirrel, running along the fence; and, in a tree just beyond the fence, a ring-necked parakeet, now a familiar sight and sound in Ealing – they are extremely noisy, but great to see.

I was also struck walking around the Northfields area of Ealing to see appeal notices and countless yellow ribbons tied to lamp-posts for missing teenager Alice Gross. She was last seen not far away near the Grand Union Canal on 28 August. Sadly, as I write, there is still no news.

Later in the trip we visited the main shopping area at Ealing Broadway, still recognisable after more than four years away though there is lots of development taking place. Sadly, this does not seem to include the old cinema which remains as it was when we left – a front wall, held up by a huge iron structure, but everything behind flattened. I hope one day the front of this classic cinema will be revealed again in all its glory.

What else did we do in London?

We visited an old BBC haunt of mine, Albertine’s wine bar in Shepherds Bush, near Television Centre, for a get-together with former work colleagues. It was great to meet folk and swap stories, jokes and memories. And, as someone said, the wine bar is “refreshingly unchanged” – it is friendly and homely, a quiet oasis in a busy city.

The author outside BBC Broadcasting House, London (image: Kathie Touin)

We visited Broadcasting House, the headquarters of the BBC, where our friend (a member of staff) was able to show us around the new part of the building, familiar to TV viewers from the comedy W1A and the BBC News. We saw inside the BBC newsroom and were lucky to stand – very still and quietly – in the news gallery, watching the news being broadcast live by a remarkably calm team.

We took a tube to King’s Cross/St Pancras and witnessed the remarkable transformation taking place in the area. When I was first in London in the mid-Eighties I would drive through here with the car doors locked and, if on foot, I certainly would not hang about outside the stations. It was a run-down area known for drug-dealing and prostitution.

King’s Cross Station (image: Graham Brown)

Now it is almost continental, both King’s Cross and St Pancras stations are tastefully modernised, the fabulous St Pancras Hotel is restored and open, as is the Great Northern Hotel, and there are people meeting, talking, laughing, getting lunch from the cafes.

And behind the stations is an enormous redevelopment site of which I suspect we saw only a small part. For example, the University of the Arts London is housed in a former granary building – which once held Lincolnshire wheat for London’s bakers – now restored with fountains in the front. Nearby we crossed a bridge over the Regent’s Canal.

University of the Arts London, King’s Cross (image: Graham Brown)

A couple of general observations: I had forgotten how grubby you can feel in London, how you want to wash your hands – at least I do – after each tube journey. But, speaking of tube journeys, they are becoming more comfortable. On the Hammersmith & City line we travelled on pleasant new air-conditioned trains which are also walk-through from end to end. They are gradually being introduced throughout the network. And the buses in London are modern and comfortable: while at King’s Cross we took a ride on one of the New Routemaster buses, also known as Borisbuses and – here’s a throwback – they have conductors.

A New Routemaster bus near King’s Cross, London (image: Graham Brown)

Finally, I must mention our brushes with fame in London…

While at King’s Cross we visited Kathie’s friend Adam Helal at his recording studio in Tileyard, then took lunch with him at the Vinyl Cafe next door, along with the charming Andrew Wincott who was recording an audio book with Adam. Andrew is perhaps best known as Adam (another one) in The Archers.

Waiting for Kate Bush to appear at the Hammersmith Apollo (image: Graham Brown)

And on the last night of our trip to England we went to the Hammersmith Apollo to see the masterful Kate Bush in concert – I suspect you will read more about this on Kathie’s blog at a future date. My modest capacity with words does not stretch to arts criticism, and I don’t want to spoil the event for those still to go. Suffice to say it was a wonderful evening, Kate was in great voice, the audience loved her, the show was imaginative, theatrical, and the band was great. On a few occasions I even found tears welling up – an emotional final evening to round off our visit to England.

Graham Brown

PS There are more photographs from the trip on my Instagram account: http://instagram.com/grahambrownorkney

To find out more

Wikipedia on the Isle of Wight: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Wight

Isle of Wight Steam Railway: http://www.iwsteamrailway.co.uk/

Isle of Wight Bus Museum: http://www.iwbusmuseum.org.uk/

Dimbola Museum & Galleries: http://www.dimbola.co.uk/

Waltzing Waters: http://www.waltzingwaters.co.uk/

Animals In War memorial: http://www.animalsinwar.org.uk/

Albertine wine bar on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AlbertineWine

Broadcasting House: http://www.bbc.co.uk/broadcastinghouse/

New-look King’s Cross: http://www.kingscross.co.uk/

Kate Bush: https://www.katebush.com/