Rediscovering Pronnoi (Kefalonia)
The murky photos of medieval remains in Klavs Randsborg’s books on Kefalonia had long lingered in my mind, as had his sense that Pronnoi...
Celebrating San Bernardino at Massa Marittima
Massa Marittima is Tuscany’s little Siena. A gem of a Medieval town, it sits looking towards the Mediterranean on a promontory extending...
Goodbye to the Vikings
A researcher for a film company has called me about the Vikings. The company want to make a series of drama-documentaries and the genial...
The First World War Fort At Mittelberg, Sexten/Sesto
Ignoring the light, drifting snow, I climbed up to the Mittelberg fortress at 1,575m. that commands the Sesto/Sexten valley and looks...
Mediterranean happiness: ‘ A Charmed Life’
Formulaic greetings launched the opening of this evocative, opulent exhibition in the British Museum about the painters, Ghika and John...
Stourhead, Wiltshire
Decline and fall, renaissances, wars, conflict pass over Italy like fleeting clouds because its global brand is a country of peerless...
Patenting ideas at Lacock abbey
In August 1835 photography in the form of a calotypes was invented by William Henry Fox Talbot at his Wiltshire home of Lacock Abbey....
‘The Dustbin of history’ - The Bellucci collection, Perugia
We mostly live in a monotheistic world today, quite different from ancient times. Go to an archaeology museum like the national museum in...
January in the Peloponnese
Mistra: took the highway to Sparta through snow-capped peaks. Mistra is a real World Heritage Site, gloriously rich in churches, palaces,...
Alma Deutscher at the California Theatre
When I was invited to the first night of Alma Deutscher’s opera, Cinderella, I was in two minds. How on earth could a child prodigy of 12...
