SCOTLAND, AT LAST!

Loch Lochy, the Highlands, Scotland

After an exciting experience it is not easy to go back to your everyday life. After a journey, you download, order and archive the pictures you’ve taken and look at your travel notes: all those beautiful moments flew at the speed of light and left you astonished,  with beautiful memories but also the awkward impression that you dreamt and have just woken up. Maybe writing can help you fix them somewhere in a safer place and make them somehow more real.

Scotland, at last!

Eilean Donan Castle 

Scotland is the 3-M land: the land of magic, mist and myth. How could one resist its charms? I simply couldn’t.  Last year, after a very brief visit,  I had to promise myself I would soon go back to see more of it. I did it in July and here I am,  back from an incredible tour,  which has been as magical, misty and mythical as Scotland in my dreams.  In our 10-days’ schedule an unforgettable series of fantastic sites, a variety of wonderful places, which I had the opportunity to visit  in the company of four of my anglophile friends.

One of the themes of our  tour was Outlander, the best-selling saga set in Scotland written by Diana Gabaldon,  as well as its TV adaptation.   We managed to visit a few of the main locations they used in seasons one and two or important sites mentioned in the books.

PERIOD & MORE PERIOD - THE ULTIMATE MAP OF DOWNTON ABBEY LOCATIONS

It wasn't easy for UK fans to bid farewell to their beloved Edwardian friends from Downton Abbey. US viewers still have a few episodes to go(check PBS Masterpiece website) before the moment to say good-bye comes for them too. As for myself, I hadn't been as emotional  as I was on Christmas day while watching Downton Abbey special - which was also the very last instalment in the series - for quite some time.

After 6 years and plenty of elegance and emotions, Downton Abbey is now destined to become a cult for many, not only in the UK or US.  In honour of this and for the joy of all its loyal fans, Wayfair.co.uk   scoured the country to find the real-life locations that make up the wonderful world of Downton and have created a map with an extensive list of over 70 Downton Abbey filming locations marked on it, with information about what scene the location was used for and how you can check it out for yourself.

TEN FILMS THAT WILL SPARK YOUR WANDERLUST

, travel

(by guest blogger Jason Biondo)  Have you ever watched an inspiring film that gave you a serious case of wanderlust?  Movies are, in my book, one of the most influential and powerful mediums for inspiring a trip to a far-off place. From awe-inspiring landscapes to blissful and memorable adventures, movies can in many ways give you an irresistible urge to travel and see the world. As a matter of fact, motion pictures have encouraged countless of moviegoers from all corners of the world to duplicate some of the scenes they’ve seen on the big screen with their own escapades.

Looking for an inspiration for your next vacation? Check out this list of movies that have moved thousands of travelers to places all over the world in search of their own heavenly picture-perfect paradise.

Wild

Wild is the inspirational and heartwarming story of Cheryl Strayed – a courageous young woman who went on an eye-opening 1000-mile journey across the US, in the wake of her mother’s passing. Even though Cheryl had no previous experience in backpacking and solo traveling, she still was able to survive, flourish and conquer the famous Pacific Crest Trail on her own with very little help. Filmed in Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park and other picturesque places, this epic travel movie also romanticized the unforgiving and magnificent grandeur of the Pacific Crest Trail.

CROESO CYMRU! SORAIDH, ALBA! TRAVELLING THROUGH WALES, THE LAKE DISTRICT, SOUTHERN SCOTLAND

I never miss a chance to travel to Britain, I've been there a few times only this year - Yorkshire in March, Bristol in April and then a summer tour in July. I've seen much, but so much is still there to be discovered. I never have enough, in fact, and I consider Britain my second home country or, better,  the one where I feel - oddly enough - at home. It is the place of my favourite writers, my favourite books, my favourite drama series, my favourite heroes, my favourite language, my favourite actors ... do I have to go on?

Here are 10 of the best places I visited on my latest tour through Wales, the Lake District, the Borders and Southern Scotland. Only 10. Yes, there were more!

YORKSHIRE & VICTORIAN LITERATURE - WHITBY

Do you think I've been neglecting my little blog lately? You may be right, I admit it, but I've been extremely busy working, living and even travelling. I've recently been to Yorkshire to visit friends and spend a weekend there. My trip brought me to York,  which is a town I already knew and  I really love for its connections to Richard III, for its ancient allure and historical heritage. But we also spent our Sunday by the sea and I was truly intrigued by Whitby, for its charming views and its connections to great Victorian literature, and had the chance to literally fall in love with a small, picturesque village on the sea called Robin Hood's Bay. In this post I'll collect the most interesting news and information I found online about Whitby as the setting of Victorian literary works,  adding some of the pictures I took during my visit.  Here we go then! Do you know on the pages of which unforgettable  Victorian  novels can we find Whitby and its landmarks?

ROME - A MUSEUM, A FILM, A PIZZA

Going to Rome is in itself a very exciting occasion for me. Being with friends, visiting a museum, watching a good film, having a good pizza, made my going pretty special.

Musei Capitolini at Centrale Montemartini 

Situated on Via Ostiense on the left bank of the Tiber, opposite to the former General Markets, the Centrale Montemartini is an extraordinary example of an industrial building transformed into an exhibition space. It was originally the first public electricity plant in Rome, named after Giovanni Montemartini; now it is the second exhibition centre of the Musei Capitolini, and contains an outstanding collection of classical sculpture from the excavations carried out in Rome at the turn of the 19th century.

CELEBRATING SHAKESPEARE IN A VERY BUSY FORTNIGHT

Another busy fortnight has passed at work. The end of the school year rapidly  approaches with its haunting burden of deadlines, decisions to be made, reports to be written. A nightmarish fortnight ahead and then some relax, I hope. 

What have you been dreaming of or  actually doing these latest couple of weeks? Unfortunately,  I could grant  myself very  little rest, hence I didn't have enough time for proper blogging, reading or reviewing but I could watch new TV series, go on with the ones I had started seeing and even go to an event in Rome to celebrate old Will's anniversary. I must do something different from the housework and schoolwork,  if I want to remain sane.  Women on the brink of a nervous breakdown has never been one of my favourite titles but it is simply perfect to describe my life.

WORKING HARD, READING, WATCHING, LIVING - MISCELLANEOUS POST

Hello and happy beginning of May, everyone. What have you been up to? Great things, I hope. I've been working hard, reading, watching, living.  If you have some spare time to read, I'm here to share with you. 

Working hard

Just have a look at the picture on the right, focus on the image in the middle, consider it is May and draw your own conclusions. How would I answer the question "How are you?" these days?
I usually describe myself in these moments as "drowning in a sea of paper".
What kind of paper, you ask? Hundreds of sheets, all scribbled on with blue or black ink. They are supposed to be in English but I have some difficulty to decipher them at times. My students are quite creative, you know, and their speciality is Anglian (English with the addition of some Italian) or Italish (Italian with the addition of some English).
They will improve, they will improve, they will improve ... I must believe all my efforts and theirs (?) will end up with some good results. For now, I simply have to hold on and contribute a great deal of red ink to their uncertain attempts. It is almost over, let's hold on!  Summer is coming, the last day of school is near.

ALIVE ALIVE OH, ALIVE ALIVE OH ... IN DUBLIN, THAT IS.

Dublin - Grafton Street

Were you curious to know more about my trip to Dublin? Well, I thought it was better to wait on. I didn't want to write on the heat of the moment. It would have been rushed and unfiltered. Time always sweetens, softens and smooths the excesses. I've waited and waited but now I've decided it's rather time to confess the truth, nothing else but the truth. Gosh, I'm being quite melodramatic. Too much if you think I have no crime to confess, only my disillusionment. Yes,  if you expect an enthusiastic report,  don't read further, just stop here.

I had promised myself  "never again" after this experience back in 2011. Instead, here I am,  I did it again. I'm a repeated offender, so no clemency for me.  I totally agree.

Where can I start from? Do you want to know what Dublin was like, my friends? Let's start from the few positive memories.
I posted pictures on my facebook and twitter and they were incredibly sunny and colourful, weren't they? In fact, we were blessed with good weather,  which anyone who has been to Ireland at least once knows it is so rare.
Dublin was as lively and welcoming as I had expected it to be. Dubliners were hard-working,  helpful, kind, talkative though a tiny bit loud and out of control on Friday and Saturday nights. There was always music and a festive crowd in the city centre, though St. Patrick's day was yet to come (quite soon,  since we were there from March 5th to 11th).

WHILE WAITING FOR THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG, WHAT ABOUT A JOURNEY TO THE MIDDLE-EARTH?

Richard Armitage as Thorin in The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug

The Hobbit movie 2, The Desolation of Smaug,  is going to be released in less than a month and curiosity as well as excitement increase. I can't wait to see my best favourite, Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage),  again engaged in his adventurous quest,  in company of his bizarre mates.   Of course, I'm also looking forward to seeing dragon Smaug revealed and listening to Benedict Cumberbatch's voice (I want to see it in the original version... FX!)  

Anyway, this post is not just about The Hobbit movies, but more about the amazing natural settings Peter Jackson chose for their shootings. Just have a look at this awesome infographic: A Travel Guide to The Middle -Earth. Ready for the journey?

Best Places To Travel Based On Classic British Literature

(by guest blogger Marcela De Vivo) England is full of literary history and culture, much of which is not only available via the printed word, but can also be visited as popular travel destinations.

For those who are interested in classic British literature, who might be planning on visiting England in the near future, it’s worthwhile to do some research on what locations are inspired by classical writings, and then plan to visit them accordingly. 

Whether you’re a fan of Shakespeare, Charles Dickens or Agatha Christie, there’s probably a touristy destination for you based on your favorite British classic novel.

ROME AGAIN - GOOD TIMES, OLD TREASURES AND NEW ACQUISITIONS

You know I live near Rome and that I love being a tourist from time to time in the city where I used to study at university. I love Rome also because I can meet very special friends there with whom I share several interests and little pleasures . They often help me to discover hidden treasures and interesting sites which make our capital surprisingly gem-set.  My latest trips to Rome were to see The Hobbit with my son and , not long before,  I had been there for the talk Juliet Gael gave at the Keats and Shelley Memorial House in Piazza di Spagna about her books on The Brontës  and The Shelleys (see my post)

Port Isaac - Cornwall

This time the occasion for going at the weekend was meeting my friends for a "premiere". No red carpet for my friend Louise 's film project based on our adventures in South - West England last summer , but lots of laughs and final applause. I can't translate the funny title she gave her work, I really can't. I can only admit the project was definitely entertaining and crammed of good memories and unforgettable moments. We laughed a lot watching and commenting  the images,  after we had appreciated our host  K/V 's delicious dinner and exchanged  little post-Christmas gifts.

AUTHOR GUEST POST AND GIVEAWAY - KAREN ESSEX, TRAVELLING FOR DRACULA IN LOVE OR HOW TO RELOCATE A VAMPIRE

Readers often tell me that they take my novels on holiday as travel and history guides.  I love giving readers an experience on the page, but I love it even more when they are inspired to leave their armchairs and experience the characters and the history firsthand.  As an historical novelist, nothing informs my work like travel.  I love to walk in my characters’ footsteps, breathing in the air that they breathed, literally sharing molecules with them.
For Dracula in Love, which recreates Bran Stoker’s Victorian Gothic thriller from the perspective of Mina Harker, the vampire’s eternal muse, I planed to visit all of Stoker’s original haunted settings, but I also wanted to add some new geography to an old story.  Mina needed a history and a place of birth, both missing in the original.  Moreover—and more radical—I wanted to disentangle Dracula from his Transylvanian roots.  After all, Stoker made up that Dracula lived there.  Why couldn’t I change it?

My first step was to relocate myself to London and into a temporary flat in Pimlico, where early in the story, a naïve Mina dreams of settling with her future husband, Jonathan Harker.  Later, I moved to a neighborhood developed in 1890, the year in which the novel is set.  (My flat, coincidentally, is not far from where Bram Stoker resided.) 

CORNWALL - THE BEAUTIFUL LAND OF KING ARTHUR, POLDARK AND DOC MARTIN

Land's End

My latest trip to the UK was a one-week tour in the South - West of the country with friends. We went from Somerset to Dorset (see my travelog Visiting Bath and Lyme Regis at My Jane Austen Book Club), then Devon and Cornwall.
The first thing that comes to anyone's  mind thinking of Cornwall is King Arthur, Camelot,  the Knights of the Round Table but my friends and I,  while travelling all over the beautiful coasts,  had in ours mainly  the  memories of handsome Ross Poldark living near Truro and his dashing 18th century look . This doesn't mean we neglected visiting great Arthurian sites. Apart from the stunning cliffs at Land's End, our trip to Mount St. Michael, the ancient charm of Tintagel Castle, our exciting night at the Minack Theatre,  we'll never forget the thrill of driving  an incredibly huge rented car  along the most incredibly narrow roads and paths.  If you've driven in Cornwall or seen at least one episode of Doc Martin on TV, you know what I mean! But our dauntless driver  Lou  and  her inseparable satnav Chiara were not scared a bit and drove us everywhere we had planned to go: "Always heading toward new adventures and beyond", acrobatic  manoeuvres included.

IN SEARCH FOR HOPE WHILE THE EARTH QUAKES AND INNOCENT GIRLS ARE SLAUGHTERED OUTSIDE THEIR SCHOOL

Melissa Bassi, 16, died in a bomb blast last Saturday

The news from Italy have been terrible this weekend. I guess they got to you all somehow. It has been a tragic, terribly sad end of the week for all of us, though not directly involved in those tragedies.

7:40 a.m. Saturday 19 May  - One student has been killed and seven others injured in a suspected mafia bomb blast at a school in southern Italy. Her name was Melissa Bassi. She was only 16. 

I shared my thoughts on facebook as soon as I heard about it: "As a mother and a teacher I'm stunned, speechless, horrified. It's been a long time since I last felt proud to live in my beautiful difficult country. When   was it? Why was that? Today I must feel sorrowful and ashamed again. Please don't tell me there are crazy people everywhere. I know that."

A TRIP TO THE SOUTH AND BACK IN TIME: CASERTA

You know that, from time to time, I like and need to escape to survive to my rather stressful life style. I'm lucky enough to have quite grown-up children, an understanding husband and very special girlfriends who make that possible. This time we left from Rome by train and went  to Caserta for a couple of days, guests at one of our friends'.  She,  her lovely mother and her sister were our impeccable, generous host ladies and we had a great time! 

First of all, we visited Caserta 18th Century Royal Palace and its park,  roaming around the crowded fields and gardens for hours.

ROME - EXHIBITIONS, FRIENDS AND ... A BIT OF HARRY (JASPER KENNEDY)

Journal of a long pleasant day

Palazzo delle Esposizioni - Rome

The weather forecast had announced a cool, cloudy, rainy spring day. Having planned to be out in Rome all day with students and colleagues first  and with friends once off service, I had chosen to wear my woolen grey picot, my jeans and my boots and made sure to remember my umbrella. So? It was an incredibly hot sunny day instead, almost summer! Quite the wrong start, wasn't it? Wrong clothes, at least. 

However, sweating a bit all the way around the three exhibitions we had in our schedule, I enjoyed what I saw and what I heard all the the same until my quick lunch with my three nice colleagues. Our students were free to choose where to have lunch by themselves, wherever they wished, but nearby. MacDonald's? Yes, of course.

We met them again at 3.30 in the afternoon when the temperatures was even hotter and when our time together was almost over. Once they were all in the coach,  I left for the rest of my Roman adventure ... well... not exactly an adventure, but more a longed-for break in  my usual routine. 

Before going on with my journal, some news from the official site about the exhibitions we visited in the morning at Palazzo delle Esposizioni. 

ROME - LUX IN ARCANA

My latest trip to Rome was a couple of days ago to meet friends, to have a delicious English-style tea, to plan our summer holidays together (top secret!) and to visit this intriguing exhibition. History and secret documents, not Art this time: Lux in Arcana.

The exhibition which is conceived for the 4th Centenary of the foundation of the Vatican Secret Archives aims at explaining and describing what the Pope’s archives are and how they work and, at the same time, at making the invisible visible, thus allowing access to some of the marvels enshrined in the Vatican Secret Archives’ 85 linear kilometers of shelving; records of an extraordinary historical value, covering a time-span that stretches from the 8th to the 20th century.

ROME - TWO DAYS, ONE EXHIBITION, A MUSEUM, A WALK AROUND THE CITY CENTRE, SOME SHOPPING, ... AND FRIENDS!

Have I ever told you how much I love being in Rome with my friends? Ehm... perhaps  once or twice. But may I say it again?  Yes? OK, thanks a lot for your patience! 

Being on holiday,  I had the opportunity to spend once again a couple of days with my friends in Rome: walking around the city centre nose up to the beauty all over, doing some shopping,  visiting a stunning photographic exhibition in a new centre and a museum in one of Rome ancient noble palaces, pleasantly chatting and having dinner all together, rewatching an episode from one of our favourite TV series. 

I'm not writing about everything we did,  but only about the exhibition and the museum we visited. I hope you don't mind and I'm sure you won't have any difficuty in figuring out the fun we had together.

UK JULY 2011 - CASTLE HOWARD AND LACOCK

This is the last installment of my UK JULY 2011 series.  I promised you I'd  tell about our location hunting activities and here I am with this final post about Castle Howard and Lacock. 

Two different adaptations of Evelyn Waughn's Brideshead Revisited were set at Castle Howard and being there, well nearby, we couldn't resist the idea of a trip to this gorgeous, luxurious residence and its magnificent park, groves and lakes .

We were extremely lucky and had  fine weather, warm and sunny, that day. It was so good that we could have a quick snack on the meadows  -  we also had several  uninvited guests at our picnic - and could admire the lake,  sitting on a terrace while drinking cappuccino -yes,  you're right not  a very British drink .