Much of my artwork is based on my travels, and so in a time when we cannot travel beyond our homes, I am re-reading my journals and, in my mind, revisiting the places where Charlotte and I travelled.
A series of reflections. A journey into the recent past. Remembering the discoveries we made, and places we returned to, sad and wonderful at the same time.
Tropea; ‘View to Stromboli’
Tropea, Feb 19, 2016
We arrived at our hotel a day earlier than expected and spent two nights in Tropea. Driving south to Sicily, after picking up friends in Pompeii, along the coastal road. It was a lovely old hotel in the center of the town, with a rooftop breakfast room. The town itself is perched on the edge of cliff. The evening of the day we arrived children were out in costumes in the town square celebrating the end of Carnevale. At the end of the main street there was a balcony with a wrought iron fence on the edge of the cliff looking out across the Tyrrenian Sea. Below us, perched on a rock promontory, was the Sanctuary Santa Maria dell’Isola, built in the 6th – 9th C, beautifully restored, and illuminated at night. In the distance we could see the island of Stromboli with smoke rising from the volcano - at 920m it is one of the most active volcano’s in the world. I made several sketches over two days and chose a nighttime setting, with multi-story ancient buildings seeming to grow out of the edge of the cliff.
View From Naples – March 26, 2008
We arrived in Naples and Chiaja Hotel de Charme, a very nice small hotel in a pedestrian shopping area, our room with a balcony overlooking the street scene. We were within easy walking distance of the castle on the waterfront, and the Teatro San Carlo opera house where we had reservations for the next night. Next door is the shopping mall Galleria Umberto 1, and not too far is the Hilltop Castel Sant’Elmo, above us.
We walked up the hill to the Grand Hotel Parker’s built in 1870, a literary and cultural retreat for British High Society. We took ‘afternoon tea’, at the rooftop bar enjoying some of the best views of the Bay of Naples with Capri visible in the distance. Beyond the pattern of city streets and the many church steeples all laid out below, and further along the coast, is Vesuvius.
After ordering tea, Charlotte asked the waiter if we could buy one of the nice little ashtrays with their name on it, he said ‘no signora, but we break so many, they go missing all time’ (nudge nudge) ‘Ah’ we said as she slipped one into her purse. I took photos from the rooftop balcony in the drizzle as reference to make a sketch later.
We walked back down the hill. Getting a little lost we ended up walking through a rather rough and completely “authentic” neighbourhood of narrow streets with graffiti, and views into living rooms with Madonnas on the walls. A place where lives were lived out on the streets among the ‘garbage and the flowers’, broken motor bikes, houses with dangling shutters and peeling paint and stucco, a little intimidating, but we walked safely out to the waterfront
‘View to Etna’ Taormina February 2016
Our hotel is built into the side of a mountain with views toward Mount Etna and the ocean far below. We walk what seems like a thousand steps down into the town through an ancient stone city gate, and along the beautiful main shopping street lined with wonderfully charming shops. We arrive in Piazza IX Aprile, an amazing town square, with a beautiful balcony overlooking the sea far below, and in the distance, a view in one direction of the Greek amphitheatre carved into the hillside. Looking the other way we see Mount Etna rising above the town, and the Duomo and San Guiseppe, a baroque church with a clock tower, all in beautiful, restored, condition and painted in lovely colours.
We try to go into the amphitheatre but it is about to close, so we return to the hotel back up those ‘thousand steps’. We visit the amphitheatre the next morning, with spectacular views from the upper tiers of the well preserved and restored theater below us. The town is spread out along the hillside and beyond, with views of the mountains running down to the coast, and above, Mount Etna with smoke rising from its crater dominating the whole scene.