Lost And Words In The Appenines, Italy

•May 16, 2012 • 2 Comments

‘…and I thought to myself; Oh son you may be lost in more ways than one, but I have a feeling that it is more fun than knowing exactly where you are’. Passenger

Two things inspired me to wander off into the mountains alone and with no real plan for three days. The first was simply the location of my temporary residence; on, or very close to, the ancient pilgrim route the Via Francigena and the Parco dei Cento Laghi in the Italian Apennines, the second was Eric Newby. Until two weeks ago, that name would have meant nothing to me. However thanks to the abandonment of a (hopefully read) book on the shelf, entitled ‘Love and War in the Apennines’ of which the aforementioned is the author, it has become one I will now always associate with the mountain range known as ‘the spine of Italy’.

The Via Francigena was already well established before the first millennium and was taken by thousands of pilgrims in the form of, peasants, merchants, clergymen and even nobles. Running from Canterbury in England to Rome in Italy, the ‘road’ once rivalled that of the trail to Santiago de Compostela in terms of numbers of marching feet. Lunching daily on a terrace in Varano in the Lunigiana overlooking the Tosco-Emiliano stretch, for many centuries the easiest and most used route between the heart of Europe and Christian sites, something must have rubbed off on me and inspired an admittedly comparatively brief pilgrimage along some of the paths first trodden by the ‘homo viator’ the Medieval pilgrim. I was to discover that some of these paths might not have been trodden too frequently since.

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Posted in Italy, Literature, Mountain Walking, The Apennines
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Chioggia, Enhancing Your Life… SLOWLY

•May 14, 2012 • 7 Comments

(Written on the Lido of Venice in February, 2012)

These are strange days, heady days. Days of waking up and wondering and wandering. Dawns break, ordinary at first, but following several coincides, happenings, encounters, they have now slowly evolved into beings loaded with promise. Like Pinadas waiting to be burst. I wake up generally with a feeling of melancholy, but then life takes over and life certainly has showed itself from its best side on my travels recently. How long has it been since I slowed down, my travels at least and opened myself to what the days bring?

Ruskin would argue these gifts have come because I have done exactly that, slowed down, when he wrote of the ‘Europe in a Week by Train’ offered in 1862 by Thomas Cook;

‘No changing of place at a hundred miles an hour will make us one whit stronger, happier or wiser. There was always more in the world than men could see, walked they ever so slowly; they will see it no better for going fast. The really precious things are thoughts and sight, not pace. It does a bullet no good to go fast; and a man, no harm to go slow; for his glory is not at all in going, but in being’.

He was distressed by how seldom people noticed things and deplored the blindness and haste of modern tourists. As a Tour Guide in the 21st Century, although this continued desire puts bread on my table, they are sentiments I can certainly empathise with, especially as I board my group onto a bus after only two hours in Assisi or one at Delphi.

Several years ago whilst channel surfing I caught a fleeting glimpse of a walled, perfectly preserved medieval town. In vain I tried to find the channel again, for this one glimpse captured my imagination as an almost unreal, magical place, unlike any I had seen before, but the image had vanished. Incredible as it may seem, in those days there was no option of googling and I was left to wonder whether it really existed. I thought of Don Quixote seeing giants where windmills stood for it certainly looked as though the city was nestled in a Cervantes landscape, and hoped that one day I would discover where it was, visit it somehow and not be disappointed. Only years later when work took me to Carcassonne, in the South of France was I ‘reunited’ with its walls, towers and battlements and I recognised it instantly. I was not disappointed. No one had told me I should have been.

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Posted in Italy
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Chasing The Sun, First of Jan in Mongolia

•January 26, 2012 • 2 Comments

(This article was published in the UB Post, English language newspaper of Ulaanbaatar)

At precisely nine a.m on January 1st 2012 I found myself 95km outside UB, a good 300 yards away from a reserved seat on a train that started pulling away. At this point I would have felt calmer had I at least been able to say it was pulling away ‘from a station’, or indeed any form of habitation. However with temperatures average for the time of year and snow falling, as far as I could tell, all it was departing was a sea of snow and isolation. And of course about 500 hungover locals.

This sounds a lot like one of those done to death film plots where the proverbial hero finds himself (it’s always a he) miles from where he is supposed to be with an improbably small amount of hours in which to get there. Often they involve stag-dos, copious amounts of alcohol and little or no recollection of how he ended up in this situation. He may be scantily clad to boot and about to get married. In my case, up until the now worryingly rapidly moving train made me think otherwise, none of the above were the case and things had seemed a little more thought through.

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Posted in Mongolia, Train Travel
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Muses, Wings and Mongolia

•January 10, 2012 • 6 Comments

“Meanwhile, I accept my despair as a trailer for my flight. I know it will come some time” Jules Spinatsch.

More than the photos perhaps, these words jumped out from the canvas onto which they were printed and ingrained themselves on my memory recently. They were in fact only meant to accompany the real highlight, the images of the photographer at an exhibition called Real Venice, I visited at Somerset House in London only a couple of months ago. The exhibition was a fundraiser for my favourite city in the world. I was killing time.

Now 2011 is behind us, a year into which following an old Danish tradition I quite literally leapt off a precariously balanced chair with a glass of champagne to appease the Gods of luck, it’s now time to, if not ‘fly’, then at least start testing the wings. This piece, picking up the mantle of my previously much loved blog, has been a long time in coming. It has not been a year in which I have flown little, I have in fact literally had to come to Outer Mongolia, to find the inspiration and determination to try ‘taking off’ again. However, all flying this year has been on other people’s planes and very little under my own steam.

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Posted in 2nd Cup of Tea, Mongolia, Writing
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We Who Are About To Die…. 2 hours in Gladiator School, Rome

•January 22, 2011 • 1 Comment

On my last trip to Rome I was fortunate enough to fulfil a bit of a fantasy of mine. Ever since I lived a year in Rome and walked past the magnificent Colosseum I have pondered the gruesome fate that awaited thousands of, I thought; slaves forced to fight as gladiators. On this occasion finally with time on my hands – I decided to sign up for gladiator school and see first hand what this might have been like.

The Gruppo Storico Romano located on the Ancient Appian way just outside the centre of Rome have for 16 years, since they were set up, offered courses in gladiatorial combat. On offer is even a full five month course. That seemed a little hard to justify in terms of time, money and effort. Am I to (fingers crossed) live to an average age – it would mean dedicating nearly 1% of my life to becoming a gladiator- hmm. However 2 hours? Now that’s more like it…

I can't Believe Gladiators in Rome Wore These - HEAVY!

So, after spending ages trying to find the place, my Roman taxi driver getting more and more frustrated, I rocked up at the gates of the arena. I was issued a rookie tunic and a wooden gladius and it was time to begin. If you would like to read more about my experiences as a Roman Gladiator, please follow the link. You can find details of how to enrol and the location too plus a few myths about gladiators busted!

The fact that I am reviewing this place does give you an idea that the lions went hungry that night, but it’s still worth a read- Ave!

 

Posted in Italy, Roman Gladiators, Rome
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What a Great Way to Look at Art – the Centrale Montemartini, Rome

•January 21, 2011 • 2 Comments

In a break from tradition, this is not an article about some convoluted historical event, my experiences in a less than savoury setting or my girlfriend trying to bump me off. In fact 2ndcupoftea is going all highbrow and brings you a short review of a museum.

BUT, not any museum I hasten to add. I recently had the good fortune to visit Rome again but this time leading a group of travellers for whom, like me it was their umpteenth visit. The agency that had organised the trip knew this and wanted to include a visit none of them would have experienced before. They came up with: the Centrale Montemartini. I for one couldn’t be happier that they did. Here’s why…

Roman Sculpture in the Centrale Montemartini

The Museum is housed in an old power station and only ended up as a museum thanks to a series of fascinating and fortunate occurrences. It is now used by the much more famous Capitoline Museums as an experiment in museum display techniques; position of Roman sculpture, lighting angles and so on. This makes the experience quite unique. For one they allow photography and with flash. You can imagine how long I could have spent there.

To read more about why I found this museum so amazing please clink on: Roman Sculpture in The Centrale Montemartini And when you next visit Rome, if you are looking for something different: go! You’ll not regret it.

Posted in Art of Rome, Centrale Montemartini, Italy, Museums, Photography, Roman Sculpture, Rome
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2010 Site Stats – 4 FULL ‘Boeing Jets’ Read This Blog: Thank You!

•January 2, 2011 • Leave a Comment

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,800 times in 2010. That’s about 4 full 747s.

 

In 2010, there were 12 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 72 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 91mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was April 26th with 65 views. The most popular post that day was Who on Earth am I….

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were mail.live.com, facebook.com, healthfitnesstherapy.com, travelmag.co.uk, and mail.yahoo.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for roman forum map, map of roman forum, map of the roman forum, rome forum map, and map roman forum.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Who on Earth am I… April 2010
2 comments

2

TG Tips- Rome April 2010

3

“Bistre?!” What happened to brown? 2*CoT reveals THE colours for 2011/12 autumn/winter – exclusive pics. Premiere Vision, Paris 2010 September 2010

4

Miracle of the fish – 4000 sardines in one theatre June 2010
1 comment

5

Rouge or Red – what’s in a name? (Thailand to Cambodia) May 2010
1 comment

THANKS FOR THE VIEWS – SEE YOU IN 2011

Posted in 2nd Cup of Tea
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In the shadow of genius – living ‘underneath’ Vauban

•December 15, 2010 • Leave a Comment

On June 13th 1672, Captain-Lieutenant Charles de Batz de Castelmore, later immortalised by Alexandre Dumas as d’Artagnan, the most famous of his Four Musketeers, began the assault on the Dutch city of Maarstricht. Less than a fortnight later he was dead, whilst the man who had planned the attack had spent those same two weeks making a non-literary name for himself that would last for centuries. That man has become known simply as Vauban and his legacy has recently been acknowledged by UNESCO.

Since its establishment in 1945 to ‘contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science and culture’ UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) has listed a total of 911 properties on its famous World Heritage List. To make the list a site must be considered to be of outstanding universal value and fall into at least one of several categories – the Fortifications of Vauban, actually 12 groups of fortified buildings and sites along the borders of France come under the heading of ‘cultural importance’.

Vauban, the genius who 'built' France

Of the several Vauban ‘creations’ that collectively this year were placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, one literally now towers above my new abode. The French Alpine high mountain fort of Briançon dominates the entrance to the Serre Chevalier valley and the mountain pass to Italy only a short drive from where I am working this winter.

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Posted in Briancon, France, The Alps
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“Bistre?!” What happened to brown? 2*CoT reveals THE colours for 2011/12 autumn/winter – exclusive pics. Premiere Vision, Paris 2010

•September 16, 2010 • 1 Comment

The Credit Crunch, La Crise, Keizai Kiki, call it what you will it seems every country and every industry has been hit by it, has been hurt badly by it and is now reacting to it. It can come as no surprise that an industry totally geared towards liberating the well-to-do of their surplus wealth, would suffer. For most people involved in fashion the experience has been one of horrible cuts not of the sartorial kinds to staff, production and collections. In the UK alone it is estimated that as many as 18% of fashion retailers have stumbled off the edges of the solvency catwalk and gone out of business during the current recession (source: FT). Only top German designer Karl Lagerfeld seems not to mind, recently stating; “This whole crisis is like a big spring house-cleaning… I see it like a healthy thing, a horrible but healthy thing, as we were not doing quality work”.

The bi-annual Première Vision Paris has just ended, literally hours ago. Although, whilst not exactly agreeing with Mr Lagerfeld, Pascaline Wilhelm, Fashion Director of the show in her statement to the press at the opening certainly issued a rallying call along similar lines; “Let’s put every ounce of our energy into creation, our weapon against the abuses of banality, manipulation, the celebrity culture and the sameness of products”. To an outsider at this years show, it sounds like a collective ‘pull finger’.

Once you're in, they only let you leave once.

Right, all well and good, but what on earth IS a fabric show? I had no idea until a few hours ago and it was certainly only in a paid capacity (accompanying 48 fashion students from a US University) that I had any intention of ever attending one. Bear with me and I will try to describe an event that will directly affect ALL your lives in 12 to 18 months time if you have any intention of wearing clothes of any description, use, colour, shape, even price or fashion during the autumn/winter of 2012. At the end of this article I can also reveal photos (slightly dodgy) of the colours for 2011/12, something which I have learned judging by the difficulties involved in obtaining said snaps, is quite a big deal in these circles.

Continue reading ‘“Bistre?!” What happened to brown? 2*CoT reveals THE colours for 2011/12 autumn/winter – exclusive pics. Premiere Vision, Paris 2010’

Posted in France, Paris
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“If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger…” Defying the odds in a ULM, Ecrins National Park, France.

•September 6, 2010 • Leave a Comment

Should I be worried? I fear my life might be in danger. Recently I have begun to suspect that someone close to me is in fact trying to bump me off!

As is currently the case for all human beings, the annual arrival of my birthday brings me one year closer to an inevitable end to it all and the ‘time to face my final curtain.’ In addition, with each passing year and as every candle on the cake starts to ‘represent’ a number greater than one in order for said cake to fit in the oven, along comes a more acute awareness of my mortality and some thoughts along the lines of ‘one days this’ll all be over’. However until a couple of birthdays back I have been able to restrict these reflections to a not too severe dose of self-reproach for never making the England football team, generally not exercising enough and thankfulness that I never learned enough Math to calculate any kind of probable percentage time left on planet Earth, coupled with a vague ‘must do better/more’ next year and in the plenty of years after that sort of sentiments.

This all changed a couple of July’s ago. A pattern was started that three years down the track leads me now to the conclusion that if my girlfriend is ultimately successful we needn’t worry about getting a bigger cake oven on my account. Time could be running out…

Continue reading ‘“If you push the stick forward, the houses get bigger…” Defying the odds in a ULM, Ecrins National Park, France.’

Posted in France, The Alps
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