Hugh McClintock Birthday

30 Sept 2011: It is the 65th birthday of our long standing friend Hugh McClintock and we had a small tea party in their garden with their friends the Jones (who we regularly spend New Year with) and with the Edwards. We've all known each other since the days of the NCT and the toddler support group of the early eighties, through Pedals and many other connections.

   Di was short of lettered candlesticks, so we had to sing Hugh a 'Ha py Birthday' His regular cycling must be helping because he had enough breath to blow them all out first time!
  The weather was wonderful, part of the heatwave that is giving England an 'Indian Summer'.

Ballet about Caravaggio

Montage of Caravaggio paintings, demonstrating
chairoscuro - lively contrast of dark and light

28 Sept 2011: We went to the Playhouse for a modern Ballet performance, based on the life of Caravaggio. Apparently, it was the world premiere! and on the very night we attended. The music varied from pure electronic to very modern italian dance music, and for much of the time, the dancers were leading towards arrangements of subjects that appeared in the paintings - such as Doubting Thomas, or David and Goliath.
  We saw a Caravaggio last week in Genova in the Palazzo Bianco, and I wish I could remember which one it was.
  The ballet was put on by the Darshan Singh Bhuller company (and he was sitting with the audience viewing his creation).
  The ballet starts with Caravaggio (1571-1610) dying of fever and having flashbacks to his turbulent life - and it was an  extraordinary life, shared with Popes, prostitutes, beggars, rent boys, gamblers etc. The Ballet culminates with the game of royal Tennis in which he got into an argument over a bet, and finished killing the other man - for the rest of his life, he was on the run - still painting. I gather that he was due for a papal pardon at the age of 39, but he died of fever while travelling to Rome.

Italy summer 2011

Antoniella's dome at Novara

Sept 2011: We have been in Torino for three days, and before that, we spent a day in Novara - that is almost unknown to tourists, and it was pleasant to be in an Italian town that was just that.
    We seem unexpectedly to be in search of very tall things. Novara has an exceedingly tall dome over its principal church St Gaudenzio, but nobody seems to take an interest - we went inside and were the only people inside the vast building. (turns out later that the same architect, Antoniella, did the great Mole dome in Torino!)

Stresa from above (not my photo)

  We decided not to go to Torino direct, but to head north to Lago Maggiore, to see the magical coastline of that lake, and to see Stresa, the jewel like small town on the west coast - we stopped for a little lunch, I had a paddle in the lake water, and then we took the high road up to the hills, to go to Novara, cross country.
  On the way from Stresa to Torino is a hill town called Biella which has a large outskirts, including factories making cashmere-silk garments with many factory outlets. We drove about in a somewhat random fashion hoping to find one that was open... but didn't so continued on, hoping that the SatNav would be able to find the hotel in Novara.

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There's a lot more to add, but I will have to retrofit the later articles under these, in date order. There are the wonders and pleasures of Torino, Chieri, Superga, Lingotto, Genova, Piacenza and Cremona to add in.