PASSION
AND LOVE AFFAIRS
Through books your passions can be realized and explored,
a love affair can be born and continued with delicious
exhilarating and everlasting effect. The expectations
are tantalizing. Books that lead the simple hearted
reader to obscure corners to enjoy unnoticed landscapes
and the secret vibrations of their beauty.
'A Good Book is the best of Friends, the same today
and forever'
'A Good Book is the purest essence of a human soul'
I love to lose myself in other men's minds, when
I am not walking or traveling, I am reading. I cannot
sit and think, Books think for me' Charles
Lamb |
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| 'When you learn to read you will be born again.
As soon as you learn to read you will not see anything
quite as it is. It will all the time be altered by
what you have read, and you will never be quite alone
Rumer Godden'
'Of all the pleasures of life, Reading is the only
one that at every age has never failed me. It can
affect your thinking, looking and listening'
'Oh the sheer joy of re-reading.' Iris
Origo
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In 1966 I fell passionately in love, it
was instantaneous and today my 'Love affair' is as real
and strong as ever. The experience that evoked this
passion was an audience with Pope Paul VI. I recall
the tapered blaze of St. Peter's, the pope floating
above a long train of ecclesiastics, it was all seen
through an incense haze, so golden that it seemed to
pour from a blinding luminary behind the high altar.
The Nuns in the audience forgot their vows and emotion
was permitted to show its face, mumblings of thanks
were accompanied with tears and ringing of hands. Stepping
out into Piazza San Pietro, in the warm October sun
enhanced the aura and released a charged exhaustion.
The beauty of the old buildings, the light of historical
and technical precision cleared and extended my horizon.
I was sensitive to the magic of scenes and places. |
| From an ancient portal stepped a signora, chic
and classy in her '60's mini skirted suit, her Italian
shoes and handbag still form a picture to my mind.
This wild early pilgrimage gave me an incurable passion
for Italy, travel and knowledge. I became aware of
the little unnoted exquisiteness that waylaid one
at every turn of the paths that followed. Many years
passed before I could actually visit Italy but through
my books I have traveled, and explored. The texts
and words of Ruskin have fed me vistas of Italy for
which I have never ceased to pine.
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Travel writers of ;H.V.Morton, Edward Hutton, Harold
Acton, Eric Newby, Francis King, E.V.Lucas, Martin Garrett
and many more have reiterated my love of the land, where
church steeples turn to campanile, Squares become Piazzas,
and domes and spires of painted walls and sculptured
altars beckon. Through my books I have realized that
I am not alone, personal experience it seems was never
entirely real until it was converted into literature.
The literary past of Italy is constantly interpenetrating
it's literary present. The past can still inspire.
Friends I have gathered along the way;
'I have a deep and abiding attachment to Italy from
the first impression, a coloured mosaic, each individual
fragment in the tableau of art, religion, customs
and politics'
'Italian gardens illuminated by the country's magic
light is a garden of ideas those paths lead far beyond
the garden walls into the realms of philosophy, myth
and poetry.' Edith Wharton
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| 'I
can never understand how one can get accustomed to
Italy, for me it is always a fresh surprise, which
catches at my heart' Iris
Origo
'Venice- an architectural dream of beauty' Charles
Dickens
'The charm of Italy is akin to being in love' Stendhal
'Venice a fairy tale city, beautiful and seedy, site
of love and death, a place of the mind, a place of
wavering magical light, azure fathomless depths of
crystal mystery on which the poised gondola floats
breaking the radiant water into dusts of gold' Byron
'From Tuscan Bellosguardo, Where Galileo stood at
night to take the vision of the stars, we have found
it hard gazing upon the earth and heavens, to make
a choice of beauty' Elizabeth
Barrett Browning |
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The list of associated minds is endless:
Byron travels from Venice to Ravenna in pursuit of
love, Shelley travels same road to see him, Dickens
is interested in tales of Byron, Keats goes to Rome
to die by the Spanish steps, Shelley is drowned with
a copy of Keat's poetry in his pocket.
And H.V. Morton informs us that William Shakespeare
loved, in imagination, to dwell in Venetia, more than
in any other part of Italy. Seven of his plays, if
not more are situated or related to this region.
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The realization that my love affair has such companions
is inspirational and over the last ten years I have
been fortunate enough to travel over Italy extensively.
To follow the footsteps of DANTE, PETRACH, BROWNINGS,
SHELLEY , BYRON, see the art and architecture of MICHELANGELO,
BRUNELLESCHI, PALLADIO,GIOTTO and so, so many more.
I have toured the VILLA MEDICI where Iris Origo spent
her childhood and stood in the library of Bernard Berenson
in the VILLA I TATTI. I have had tea in the English
Tea rooms on the banks of the Arno frequented by the
Brownings, D.H.Lawrence, Henry James, George Elliot
and Ruskin. I have visited the Villa I Cappuccini where
Shelley and Byron shared writing experiences in the
summer house.
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So I shall allow my love
affair to continue with Italy, a country of limitless
opportunities, stage settings for all kinds of adventure,
licit or illicit loves, the study of art, the experiences
of pathos, the weaving of intrigues. It can be joyful,
tragic, mad, pastoral, archaic, holy, modern or simply
'dolce'.
In the words of Bernard Berenson, who I knew at once
the association began his Gods were my Gods;
'In reality nothing would induce me to quit my books.
Oh the wild joys of getting back to them, the leaping
from shelf unto shelf, the strong rending of favourite
pages, the cool silver shock of half forgotten marvels.'
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Contributed by Vicki Lowen
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Treasure Chest
