Golems and Magic in Prague
Prague for me has always been more of a city of the imagination than a real place. Real places tend to disappoint, especially if you spent your impressionable teenage years […]
Coffees and Schnitzels in Vienna
Although to the Ottomans, who failed to conquer the city in 1529, Vienna was known as the Golden Apple, to me it resembles more a huge wedding cake with lots […]
Conspicuous consumption in the Vatican
‘If you can’t find it, it’s probably in the Vatican’. That’s what they jokingly say in Rome, and walking through those seemingly endless corridors all stuffed with priceless treasures you […]
A brush with Caravaggio and Raphael
The Church of St Louis of the French, built between 1550 and 1568, is a rather nondescript building just around the corner from the Pantheon. I would have completely missed […]
TB or not TB – Keats in Rome
Let me confess straight off that Keats is my favourite Romantic poet. This despite being made to study him at school, which is usually a killer for just about any […]
Mehitabel and Warty Bliggins on the Roman Wall
They say that as you grow older you start hankering after your home region, and in fact many of my friends have relocated back to the North East of England. […]
Beyazit’s answer to Bedlam
Beyazit II was one of the more enlightened of the Ottoman sultans. I greatly enjoyed strolling around the old capital of Edirne, close to the Bulgarian border, this summer. His […]
Happy as a Habsburg in Budapest
I felt quite at home in Budapest. It’s a bit like London but more relaxing, with far fewer people and less of a prostitute. I walked from St Stephen’s Church […]
Ruminating in Rome
Rome is okay. The Coliseum is not as overwhelming as you might expect, though certainly impressive, especially for that time. I found the long field beyond the Senate – which […]
Pompous and Forgotten in a Mediterranean Grave
Man is a noble animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave. (Sir Thomas Browne – Urne Burial) 6km eastward along the Mersin-Antalya coastal road, beyond the great […]
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