Italy Spring 2015

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  • Italy Apr 2015
  • Italy Apr 2015
  • Italy Apr 2015
  • Italy Apr 2015
  • Italy Apr 2015

Two weeks during the children’s Easter holidays the family went to Italy. The judges for the World Superyacht judging event met in Trieste and as usual I brought my whole family for the event. The first slides show a couple of pictures from the day off, when we had a tour of Trieste.

Then we went to Venice and stayed at Gritti Palace.We wanted to meet our friends Jeremy and Kristin Garson and their three boys. Jeremy is an old friend of mine and arranged my 50th birthday party, which took place over three days in Venice. He also organised the Christening parties of Eric both in London and the blessing service at Knightstone.

The first day in Venice we were invited to join a BBQ lunch by friends of the Garsons, Nori Starck and her two daughters on a special island just outside Venice. We went from the Gritti Palace and the crowded passageways and canals of Venice itself to the Blue House on the Island of Mazzorbetto, where a different paradise opened up (see the pictures).

The following day we did the obligatory tour of Venice in a gondola. Eric was fascinated. In the afternoon we were invited to a tea party by Kristin and Jeremy. The party was along a canal next to their house in Venice. It was a party to which everyone could come and join. Suddenly a gondolier just appeared in his boat and got a cup of tea before continuing along the canal. And we met teachers and artists, English writers and Russian émigrés chatting in between the dilapidated houses, while their boys and our Eric and Mikee ran around across bridges and along the canals into secret squares suddenly opening up.

From Venice we flew to Rome for three days. We were invited to the Vatican by the Rogationist Fathers (our charity in the Philippines is managed by the Rogationists’) and Fr Bruno, who previously was in charge in the Philippines was now deputy General of the Rogationists working in the Vatican. He and Fr Jessie showed us around the Vatican and the following day we were invited to a mass at the Basilica of St Peter conducted by the Pope. A very solemn start of Easter.

Notice the pictures of the Pope and all the bishops, the Swiss Guards and all the black suited security guards protecting the Pope. All part of the modern trappings of important people in a world of ISIS threats.

We also had time to show Mikee and Eric both Colosseum and Forum Romanum, and Jennifer could do some shopping. And we enjoyed more ice creams than I can remember the kids (and we) had ever had in a few days.

From Rome we took a rented car up through Tuscany and stayed at Castello Banfi Il Borgo just outside Montalcino. We tasted Brunello de Montaccino and even shipped some of the wine back home to Knightstone (so it is true that some of the shopping also benefited me). After two days in the Tuscan countryside we finished our tour with two more days in Florence before flying back to London.


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