Saturday Dec 2. Mola di Bari. 23.5 km.

A lovely walk, starting on Bari’s seaside promenade, which continued for many kilometres in a decreasing degree of elegance. For some variety, the end of the walk was a bit inland through very well tended vineyards, fields and a few olive groves.

Bari - I really did like this city, the newer and the older.

Leaving the city.

Looking after his catch.

Walking her pet…rabbit. Their progress was slow!

Another type of tulli. And so many beautiful olive trees!

My door opened on to this street scene.

I met an interesting German, Jansz, who after what seems like a series of unhappy love affairs sold his house, outfitted a camper van, and is now a happy nomad. He is also a totally committed Ghibelline (I was sure the Guelph/Ghibelline conflict ended in the fourteenth or at the latest the fifteenth century…). The Ghibellines supported the Holy Roman Emperor and the Guelphs supported the Papacy during the centuries when these two powers struggled to control areas of what is now Italy.

Anyway, Jansz feels it is absolutely critical that the Ghinelline side lives on - and a Wikipedia search reveals that the Catholic Church started up a Guelph confraternity in Florence in 2015. So there!

Jansz follows a power line running north to south joining the key sites of Emperor Frederick II’s reign. The Emperor built hundreds of castles and also expropriated many feudal lords and modernized their castles to defend his huge empire. His architecture was influenced by Cistercian simplicity and austerity. Recently Jansz spent a week or so camped at Frederick’s castle at Castel del Monte, just a bit north west of here. This octagonal building, according to Jansz, is a major power site with universal significance. Unfortunately for me, it wasn’t on the path of the Via Francigena so I missed its power waves!

Here is a photo of Castel del Monte from the internet.

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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...

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.

Celia Walks

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