JN74/28

Italy 1953. Handwritten notes for a lecture. First two pages written in ink numbered 1and 2 at bottom, titles for cine films? Following pages written in pencil, with notations in ink, numbered 1 to 10, more detailed (draft lecture).

1953

From: 1953 To: 1953

Italy 1953. pages written in ink Travelling & arriving "One sometimes takes a holiday" Not loiter "Now it is my intention"; TheComet - 8 miles a minute. Taller than a telegraph pole! Italy " We liked Italy" No hostility. "Think of Florence that incomparable" Holidays "Some holidays one likes - with a party" our friendly arrangement. Challenge of Rome and Florence "I do not know anything more challenging" Whether read much - seedy individual. Tradition Roman Catholic, Baptist Missonary Society in Rome. City walls, Tiber Bridge. Crossing the Bay "The day we went to Sorrento". Italian Railways, bucking broncho. The following week. The weather. The Bay Sorrento: Quaint town. Orange grove. Lovely Italian stuff. Lace. Inlaid caskets. Baskets. Lace like an industry too. Plait. Jewellery factory. When you see relics. Capri: Fabled island, What is secret? "They have been to Capri" Yellow trouser. Large American, Iliad and Sirens, axcel munthe. Saw Michaele. No motors. (King) Farouk, Gracie (Fields). Princess Margaret. Tell story. Naples: Magnificent streets. Squalor behind house tour. But so to Italy: Take overseas your young people. In Rome Ancient Civilization - comes alive. Appian Way, The Catacombs, Coliseum, Caesar Augustus, St Peter, St Paul. Not fable or legendary heroes. Florence: There medieval craftmanship has become perpetuated, in that city as per no other - live on the people [unreadable word] of their [unreadable word]. We came home intending to return and with a great respect for the Italian people. Italy 1953. (pages written in pencil) One sometimes takes a holiday of that kind where you feel it is better to travel that to arrive but on this occasion we had a strong determination to arrive as soon as we could. Consequently when I found there were two seats available in a Comet which was going to Africa I promptly booked them and said to put me off in Rome. Now it is my intention to talk about Italy and not loiter on the way but a trip in a Comet is a new experience and merits a word or two. Eight miles a minute! That means you pass Luton and in one minute you are at Silsoe or Wheathampstead. Sounds incredible doesn't it? But we had lunch at London Airport, spend and hour looking around, boarded the Comet at 2.45 and were actually over Rome before 5 o'clock but there is no sensation of speed perhaps that will come if they have taller telegraph poles. How was my feeling of being eight miles up. We could see the ground and village and river except when crossing Switzerland which was covered with cloud and we saw nothing but we were several miles above the tops of the highest mountains. The only indications we had of great heights was a slight misting [?] on the window and the long descent at Rome. It was a comfortable smooth passage quickly over and no particular thrill. We liked Italy and the Italians. We detected no hostility to the British, we have never been treated better nor had better food. Italy like so many counties suffered serious war damage. Think of Florence for instance that incomparable city of cultural treaures. The famous bridges over the Arno were all blown up except one and the dome of the Cathedral which every architect studies as the first structure of its kind was damaged by gunfire. We never heard a word of resentment against us. There would probably be a hot stream of lava, of course, anything like that was forthcoming and possibly they are sensible enough to know it. Some holidays one likes to take with a party and someone like their own. This holiday was one of those. I wanted to see Rome and Naples and Florence, my wife Sorrento and Capri, so we had a friendly compromise about that. She foots it with me looking at archaeology and sometimes I wallow on the beaches with her. But this time I think I won, there were no beaches , at any rate noting like Bournemouth. We have also another friendly arrangement between us she does all the packing and I manage the travel and hotel department. If the hotel doesn't quite suit, well we go and get something else and she forgets my pyjamas I borrow one of her nighties. Now having stirred your buried imagination let us get on with Italy. I do not know anything more challenging that a visit to Rome and Florence. Whether we have read little or much of history or whether we are acquanited with art and architecture or not a lively interest is stirred by the monument of past ages. A seedy looking individual came up to me when we were on Palatine Hill at the heart of ancient Rome, all around us were ruins of arches, columns, massive buildings. "Are you English?" "Yes' I said. "Then come" he said "there is the tomb of Julius Caesar". A few yards from our hotel the tremondus walls of the ancient city reared up blottting out the landscape. I stood on the ancient bridge over the Tiber and thought of our Mayor who saved the bridge at Wardown. I remembered a few of Lord Macaulay's lines in his Lays of Ancient Rome, as he portrayed Horatio on the bridge "for how can man due better that facing fearful odds" and "Ever the ranks of Tuscany could scarce reform to cheer". The day we went to Sorrento we caught a non-stop train from Rome to Naples. Italian railways are good. We had several long journeys and on each we had good clean comfortable carriages and they started and arrived on time. Sorrento is on the southern tip of the Bay of Naples a journey of 12 or 14 miles. I really thought we were going to the bottom. It was a ship like a bucking broncho and with a strong west wind the boat rolled over to an alarming angle. The following week when we were at Capri the weather turned really bad and passengers arrived from Naples and in sorry distress. Everybody was sent down below and even some of the sailors were sick. I know this does not sound like Sunny Italy but these stories of perpetual sunshine are never true in my experience. Of course no one remembered such weather for fifty years. The hail lay 4 inches deep. It rained for almost three days, it was cold, there were fierce winds and I have rarely seen the sea look more angry. My films if you see them shows this plainly. The Bay of Naples is like a huge semi-circle and several large islands, of which the isle of Capri is one almost complete the circle. The volcano of Vesuvius dominates the landward sides and there are towns and villages all around the bay. Sorrento is a quaint little town built for the most part in the top of cliffs. The mountains which form the backbone of Italy have come down to the sea and the sloping side which run up from Sorrento are covered with orange trees and lemon tree and grape vine. I think nothing look as lovely as ripe oranges growing on the tree. We climbed up the high walls, narrow passages, some with steps but all neatly paved. Sitting on a wall after the climb in the hot sun, we were hot and tired. A women appeared at a window, so I asked in my (unreadable word) guide book Italian if I could buy some oranges so presently she came down with about a dozen on a branch wet from last night's rain. I think she would have given them to us but I fancy from "gratia" she was glad to have the 100 Lire which I offered her. The Italians make some lovely stuff. The lace is beautiful. All the ladies admired the hand worked embroidery on handkerchiefs and blouses. in Sorrento there is quite an industry on making small caskets of olive wood beautifully inlaid and some with musical boxes in them. Thier leather-work too for bags and purses was good. Baskets of raffia-work with delicate lace like patterns were useful. An industry too which might have (unreadable word) in Luton seems to flourish there, namely the making of various kinds of articles from plait such as shopping baskets. These are very strong, they are in bright colours. We went into a jewellery factory right under the lee of Vesuvius! They were making cameos from sea shells. When you see relics of ancient crafts uncovered from such places as the ruins of Pompei and look at similar things such as mosaics and cameos being done today it seems as if there has persisted something of the skill in these things from Roman times all down the ages. But what about Capri? That fabled island of the music hall. What is the secret of its allure? It certainly does something to you. People of Italy go there for a holiday and when they get back to Naples they look at them and they say Huh! "They have been to Capri". I saw a lady coming out of a dressmaker's shop, yellow trousers - lemon yellow - yellow coat, and a wide black shawl with a deep black fringe. Large American come along, florid face surmounted with a wide straw bonnet a fringe of wisps of straw give a bucolic looking picture and making sure you are not somewhere else accross the bonnett is worked in Raffia the magic name "Capri". Homer in the "Illiad " tells of the wanderings of Mlysee and of the Sirens on the island which lure men to thier destination. Well this is the Island. I've escaped this time but I shall go back, same as fate I shall go back. I went down to the waters edge, I searched among the rocks. I went into the cave where you lay down in the boat and pull yourself in with a rope because the entrance is so low, I travelled along the foot of the cliffs in a rowing boat looking in all the weird cave, but I saw no sirens. There is no doubt I looked in the wrong places. Now I could take along time telling you about Capri it will chiefly have to pass untold but one thing I must say. Unexpectedly I found strong support for my idea, about which I wrote in a magazine two years ago for building suburbs into which motor traffic would not penetrate. There are only two or three motor roads on Capri. In the most part there are footpaths and motors never reach many hotels and houses and shops and it is delightfully restful to walk about without having to skip and jump to avoid cards. Some day towns in England will wake up to this and adopt my idea. The chief charm of Capri is not the Sirens but the freedom to walk without menace of cars. Capri has hit the news in recent years because of Gracie Fields and King Farouk. They have no good opinion of Farouk and I do not think Gracie is very popular but of Princess Margaret is a different story. They liked the Princess. When we arrived at our hotel my first job was to find out what the bill was likely to be, would our limited money run to it? or had we to steal a nights dos in a boat. I found we could just about scrape through and moved in. The we found Princess Margaret stayed at our hotel, "these were her rooms" they said "that suite and that balcony." Quietly in the following days we asked a few questions. There is another hotel in the luxury class where she had gone but she only stayed one night and come on to this hotel the next morning. "Why was that?" "Well your film stars and all that a little too fast and too gay" "Yes Princess Margaret was very much liked." I thought that story gathered on the spot was worth repeating and very much to the credit of our Royal Family. In Naples you have magnificent streets with fine buildings but behind is squalor. We took a tour in a horse and carriage. I certainly should not have walked where our driver took us. Narrow alleys, no footpaths (unreadable word) were open. This is where the people live. A row of beds. The whole family in one room. It was Sunday afternoon. These rooms were dark but in the gloom of these cavernous rooms candles were burning to the Virgin. But go to Italy. Better still take overseas your young people for it is a liberal education. In Rome the ancient civilzation from which we have sprung comes alive. The Appian Way, Nero and the Coliseum, St Peter and St Paul these are not fables and legendary heroes. The traditions live on in the midst by the solid reminder of masses of masonry. And of Florence? There medieval craftsmanship has become perpatuated and in that way as in no other the beauty and wonder of the greatest artists and sculptors and architects lives on and the people conscious of their great heritage proudly take care of their treasure. We came home intending to return and with a great respect for the Italian people.

12 pages, single sided

Janes, Herbert Charles,
Janes, Hilda,
Baptist Missionary Society,
Caesar, Julius,
Lord Macaulay,
Homer,
Fields, Gracie,
King Farouk,
Princess Margaret,
Nero

holidays, World War Two, railways, air travel, airports, River Arno, River Tiber, Luton Wardown Park, Mayor, Lays of Ancient Rome, Rome Palatine Hill, Vesuvius, Straw Plait, Italy hotels etc, Bournemouth, SILSOE, Wheathampstead, LUTON, Italy, Florence, Rome, Sorrento, Bay of Naples, Capri, Switzerland