I was actually going to skip Florence when I originally made plans for this trip, as Florence was all about the Renaissance, the late 15th and early 16th centuries of da Vinci and Micheleangelo and Raphael; I was looking for the 14th century, painters like Giotto and Donatello and Ghiberti. Florence was a hundred years …
We left San Gimignano at 8:30am and drove through the winding roads and (surprisingly) heavily forested hills southwest to the Abbey of San Gelgano in Tuscany, a Cisterciean monastery completed around 1280 AD. Visitors must park a kilometre away and walk down a road lined by trees, so the abbey stands clear in the distance …
I met a Princess yesterday who is descended from Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo – the Mona Lisa, whose painted face I saw for the first time four days earlier in Paris – and whose family has been growing wine in Tuscany since 994 AD. Yeah it was that kind of day, one that I’ll never forget. One …
Read more “September 10, 2019 – Finding Vernaccia, Boccaccio and the story”
Up early to write in the kitchen in the dark (it’s 5am). Must work on the blog – I’m three days behind on blog posts as have a cold and by the time I get back to the room each night, I’ve been falling asleep at the laptop. On the road to Paris (three hours …
Read more “September 5-6, 2019 – Giverny and Paris – part one”
It was a two hour drive from Rouen to the area where my father, Geoffrey Donald Corry, fought in World War Two. He landed on Juno Beach on June 6, 1944 in the second wave. He was a 21 year-old lieutenant leading a platoon of soldiers of “C” Company in the Canadian Scottish Regiment, and …
Read more “September 4, 2019 – Courseulles-sur-Mer and a wonderful surprise”
Rouen is a miracle. Every street corner revealed another medieval set piece, yet alive with shops and people. If Canterbury is a tourist mecca that dies after sunset, Rouen only becomes more itself. Walking the crooked streets lined either side by crooked buildings during golden hour, I imagined Chaucer stumbling to one inn from another, …
Left City of London on the tube (Northern Line) to catch the Southeastern, then a smooth ride to Canterbury. Taxi through a medieval gate/moat, down a cobbled street with buildings without a single 90 degree angle, to the gates of Canterbury Cathedral. What an entrance! Crowds of students and tourists thronged the entrance – was …
Checked out of the hotel in Westminster and took the St. James Park tube to Monument, a short jaunt. Walked 10 minutes to the next hotel on Threadneedles Street (love the names). Greeted with the best customer service I’ve ever experienced. Then out to the City, what is now the financial district, and what was …
Returning to my hotel after a day exploring medieval Rouen, I was excited to get the news: The Storyteller’s Reputation has been long-listed for the 2019 Chaucer Book Award for pre-1750’s Historical Fiction. See more here, and here’s an except from the Chanticleer Book reviews website: It’s wonderful to be included in this group of talented historical …
Read more “September 3, 2019: The Storyteller’s Reputation long-listed for historical fiction award”
At the back of Westminster Abbey sits a squat medieval building built by King Edward III in 1365 to house various treasures and important documents. To build it, Edward basically co-opted the land it sits on from the Abbey, engendering ill will from the monks. Called the Jewel Tower, it survived the fire of 1834 …