I can still see the sun bouncing off the mosaic on the façade of the Basilica of San Frediano in Lucca – illuminating the figures, as if by celestial spotlight. The warmth of the streets circling the Colosseum in Rome, as morning turned to afternoon – even the rolling, vine filled hills and airless piazza in Greve; stomach still churning due to the winding roads we navigated up from Florence. We stopped there for food. Each time the venue of choice showed nothing to suggest the pleasures that were to follow. They offered little to distinguish themselves from the other eateries around them. No obvious sign of culinary superiority. Yet those first advances in to their menu still live with me today. Close my eyes
Monthly Archive:: November 2010
“The aim of English cricket is, in fact, mainly to beat Australia.” Jim Laker Today is the day that the Ashes start. It’s not the first test, it may not even be the first game for a number of the squad, but it is the start of – what is viewed by many as – the only thing to really get excited about in the cricketing world. I don’t want this blog to be specifically sports based. There are plenty, no doubt better offerings out there for your specialist needs. However, I do want to mark this occasion, the start of the 66th Ashes Series (the series of cricket matches played between England and Australia), with a few thoughts on why it should mean so
What is the greatest film you have ever seen? What is the best album you’ve owned, so tattered or worn that you’re well past the first copy you picked up? What about food, drink, places or people? To determine the best, how did you rate them? Did you give them stars, thumbs up, a number between one and five, 10, 100? When you did so, were you aware of your mood, your surroundings – what had happened in the run up to encountering and experiencing greatness, and did you think to consider what you were about to do once greatness had passed? I have a problem with ratings. Especially those where the parameter is often as narrow as zero – five. Where is the scope