Castel Del Monte and Trani, Puglia, 27th June If there had been a tutelary spirit of our journey through Sicily and Puglia it must have been the great Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily, Frederick II, who lived from 1195 to 1250. Reigning from the age of 3, his achievements were as diverse as […]

Siracusa, Sicilia, 21st June Syracuse is the most princely of cities in Sicily, where we would choose to stay if ever we had a month or two to learn Italian. There is nowhere more charming than the island of Ortygia. Besides its grand hotels and marinas, its castle on the spit, its quiet squares, fine […]

Capua, Campania 16th June Driving south from Rome in the late afternoon we stopped in ancient Capua. A ruined amphitheatre dominates the centre of this run down Campanian village, otherwise distinguished only by a prison. New Capua, with its domed cathedral, is a haughty distance away. The original Capua, however, was immortalized in Livy as […]

One of the more pleasant phenomena of heavy snow is its ability to erase evidence of the present and return the countryside to something approaching what it was like in the Middle Ages. It is a sort of time travel.     This is particularly true of Italy, where in so many regions the landscapes […]

Wishing you every happiness of the season – and a year of regeneration and hope in 2012 Adam Williams

  Dear Pan I’m listening to the collection of Pensive Music that you once chose and recorded for me. Poignant, heart-rasping strings are playing against a calm clarichord in Handel’s Violin Sonata 1/12, together inducing a sense of melancholy that is at the same time measured, sure and comforting. I’m not sure what words I […]

Once a year, or whenever I can, I like to make a trip to the small provincial town of Bassano del Grappa, that rests under snow covered Monte Grappa at the northern edge of the Veneto Plain, where it touches the Dolomites.   Please click on thumbnails below to scroll through the gallery: Partly I […]

Jetlagged and homesick for Italy in a grey Beijing, first day back, we are thinking of how only two days ago we broke out of the afternoon heat, hurtled down the mountain from our Le Marche home and drove half an hour to the Adriatic coast, making for the railway line that runs through the […]