Sunday Nov 18. Telese Terme. 15.4 km.

Breaking the German defences at Monte Cassino was key to liberate Rome but also to distract the Germans so that they would not reinforce defenses along the west of France. Losses at Monte Cassino were very high. The Polish forces took the mount, but after the war weren’t recognized, and much of their country came under Soviet control.

Polish cemetery

Commonwealth cemetery. So very well done: most stones have something personal. The simple inscription “our love is with you, Mom and Dad” on the stone of a 19 year old made me cry.

German cemetery. Over 20,000 young men are buried here, and many more are unidentified than in the other cemeteries. They are buried six together for each marker.

What a senseless thing wars are. There is a story about a brief truce on the 19th of March 1944. The two adversaries were dug in actually very close to each other, and between them the field was full of wounded and dead. Soldiers emerged and both sides helped each other with stretchers to carry the wounded for help. Apparently some even exchanged names and addresses for after the war…

On a happier note, I’m at Telese Terme ready to walk tomorrow. Here is the “lago” or lake - more like a pond, I’d say! Several fancy bars along it, and as it’s Sunday, lots of people strolling.

Comments

September 5

I landed at Heathrow this morning at 6 am, a very inconvenient time to get a room and rest! But my student residence accommodation includes a common room with handy couches for a short snooze. The neighbourhood abuts on Regent’s Park, complete with gorgeous flowerbeds. The Queen Mary’s rose garden in Regent’s Park. My neighbourhood wandering took me to the Wallace House which used to be one of the homes of the marquesses of Hertford. The Hertfords were fabulously rich, mainly from extensive land holdings, and in the 18th and 19th centuries avid art collectors. They obviously had Trumpian home decorating tastes. Here are two of their many clocks, all of which need frequent ‘fine tuning’, it appears. I particularly liked two 18th c British paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds in their collection: Mrs Carnac and the hauntingly strange Strawberry Girl.

Sat Oct 4. London.

19 days walking on pilgrimage paths for a total of 395 km or 245 miles on foot (not that arduous - an average of 20.7 km per day, and lots of ‘rest days’ staying put in one place). All of that undone in 1.5 hours on a Eurostar train. I’m not entirely sure what conclusion I’m drawing from that comparison, but I’m back where I started, in London. On my way to my lodgings (I’m staying in a Buddhist retreat centre) I decided to visit the first visitable place to cross my path, which turned out to be the Foundling Museum. Horrified by the sight of infants being abandoned on 18th c London streets, a prosperous seaman, Thomas Coram, spent 17 years raising awareness and funds, as well as obtaining royal permission to build London’s first children’s charity. Opened in 1739, the Foundling Hospital continued its work until the 1950s, and actually is still active as a non-institutional resource, under a different name. Here is a photo of it in 1935. So many similarities to ...

Fri Oct 3. Lille.

I had a lovely day in Lille. In fact, all my days on this trip have been lovely! In the morning I went to the very large Palais des Beaux-Arts. This museum holds the largest collection of works of art of any French institution outside Paris. The collection started at the time of the French Revolution as the works of art of the nobility and of the church were confiscated, and continued on apace due to various enthusiastic municipal governments. By 1892 the collection was so large and important that the Palais, its current house, was constructed in the centre of town. The first fun aspect was the recent work of the Swiss artist Felice Varini who used the museum’s interior as his canvas. The oldest works of art are in the ‘basement’, beautifully displayed. Look at the marvellous three dimensionality of this (flat) marble plaque sculpted by Donatello (c 1435) showing Salomé dancing for the head of John the Baptist. And modern technology brings statues alive by giving them back t...

Celia Walks

Search This Blog