Memories of Italy, old and new...
31 Jul 2010 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
curiouswombatWhen I was in lower sixth, so sixteen going on seventeen, I went on a cruise on board a school ship.
I don’t think they have them any more – they were very much a thing of the sixties and seventies I think – a way of showing us something of the world whilst making use of troop ships built in the days of national service and then found to be surplus to requirements. I went on board Nevasa.
I worked all summer, in a local grocer’s shop, to earn half the cost and my pocket money for the trip, as my family really couldn’t have easily sent me, otherwise. My, older, cousin had done the same thing, some six or seven years earlier, and had sailed on board Dunera.
The children slept in dormitories, and we ate in a huge canteen. There were classrooms where we learnt about the countries we would visit, and about the seas we were sailing on. We had ‘social events’ in the evening, and had to be quietly in our bunks, lights off, by 10pm. But it was the most amazing event of my pre-university life.
What has brought this to mind is that we called into Livorno, on the coast of Italy, and went, for the day, to Pisa and Florence.
And under the cut I have some of D-d’s pictures of Pisa and Florence. It was fascinating looking at them with her – and discovering that certain things not only had not changed, but struck us both in exactly the same way…
Her observations of Pisa – where she, too, only stayed for an hour or two, were exactly the same as mine –
It has a rather beautiful cathedral –
Outside which there is always at least twenty people striking very odd poses –
Because… well, you just have to, don’t you –
The rest of Pisa? The city can be summed up, as D-d did, as ‘a cathedral, a leaning tower, and…
… a mile of tat.
I don’t remember the underpants in my day…
Both of us were very happy to leave Pisa and head for Florence – where she had the advantage of more time than me – she stayed for three days or so.
This is the courtyard of her hotel –
Such a lovely place for coffee, or even breakfast.
For this particular post I am just going to share with you a few pieces of Florentine statuary – the statues everywhere were one of the first things that struck me all those years ago, and had the same effect on her – hence lots of statue photos – these are just a sampler from her first walk –
There are some seriously odd things going on in some of them…
In the middle one the central figure seems to have a small child helping him dry his under-carriage with a towel… and presumably the man standing in the last one has already clubbed the lion, boar and bear to death, and is going to add the other man to the set!
There will be more pictures of Florence – definitely.
And in other news, S2C has bought me one of these - a Logitech lapdesk with built in fan and speakers – which is much more useful than you might think! My laptop is really happy – not only is it home again, and able to charge up, but it no longer overheats. Really good bit of kit.
I don’t think they have them any more – they were very much a thing of the sixties and seventies I think – a way of showing us something of the world whilst making use of troop ships built in the days of national service and then found to be surplus to requirements. I went on board Nevasa.
I worked all summer, in a local grocer’s shop, to earn half the cost and my pocket money for the trip, as my family really couldn’t have easily sent me, otherwise. My, older, cousin had done the same thing, some six or seven years earlier, and had sailed on board Dunera.
The children slept in dormitories, and we ate in a huge canteen. There were classrooms where we learnt about the countries we would visit, and about the seas we were sailing on. We had ‘social events’ in the evening, and had to be quietly in our bunks, lights off, by 10pm. But it was the most amazing event of my pre-university life.
What has brought this to mind is that we called into Livorno, on the coast of Italy, and went, for the day, to Pisa and Florence.
And under the cut I have some of D-d’s pictures of Pisa and Florence. It was fascinating looking at them with her – and discovering that certain things not only had not changed, but struck us both in exactly the same way…
Her observations of Pisa – where she, too, only stayed for an hour or two, were exactly the same as mine –
It has a rather beautiful cathedral –
Outside which there is always at least twenty people striking very odd poses –
Because… well, you just have to, don’t you –
The rest of Pisa? The city can be summed up, as D-d did, as ‘a cathedral, a leaning tower, and…
… a mile of tat.
I don’t remember the underpants in my day…
Both of us were very happy to leave Pisa and head for Florence – where she had the advantage of more time than me – she stayed for three days or so.
This is the courtyard of her hotel –
Such a lovely place for coffee, or even breakfast.
For this particular post I am just going to share with you a few pieces of Florentine statuary – the statues everywhere were one of the first things that struck me all those years ago, and had the same effect on her – hence lots of statue photos – these are just a sampler from her first walk –
There are some seriously odd things going on in some of them…
In the middle one the central figure seems to have a small child helping him dry his under-carriage with a towel… and presumably the man standing in the last one has already clubbed the lion, boar and bear to death, and is going to add the other man to the set!
There will be more pictures of Florence – definitely.
And in other news, S2C has bought me one of these - a Logitech lapdesk with built in fan and speakers – which is much more useful than you might think! My laptop is really happy – not only is it home again, and able to charge up, but it no longer overheats. Really good bit of kit.
