…. when I went into the garden and instead of running away the squirrels simply swore at me. I must say that it is good to be back, for the purposes of this blog, at my own computer. I can’t tell you the problems I had while on our journey, either failing to find access to wi-fi, being offered good access to wi-fi (claimed) at a cost of 45 euros, or sitting in a cafe with free access to wi-fi, but discovering that it would have been quicker to send post-cards individually to each of my readers. Thanks for your patience in staying with me.
We had a good journey, in most respects. I had never been on a cruise before, so there was the interest of novelty, and for the most part I enjoyed the experience. My big problem, however, was that my Ph.D. thesis was written on the sociology of international tourism, and after quite a short time I found to my dismay that what was intended to be a holiday had turned into a research field trip. I didn’t quite get around to writing a paper on the trip, but came darned close to it.
The star experience for me was some of the lectures on board the cruise ship, and associated visits to sites of artistic interest, in the company of the well-known art-historian and critic Andrew
Graham Dixon. I had my doubts about him before I left home, largely based on the TV series he did with Georgio Locatelli, in which the two of them toured Italy being laddish in a middle-class kind of fashion. As it turned out, however, he is a superb interpreter of Caravaggio with an astonishing depth of scholarship. I think that in places his lectures might have startled some of his listeners because of (what I will politely call) their “demotic” quality. Even so, I’m prepared to accept that the rather startling nature of his language on occasions was probably completely appropriate to discourse about Caravaggio who was, let’s face it, a thug. OK: he was a genius as a painter, but nevertheless if he had turned up in the old Wild West he would have been the man in the black hat.
Dixon also turned out to be extremely accessible, and it was great to have the opportunity for conversation with him on a couple of occasions …. even if he did disagree with me about Caravaggio.
A theme running throughout the journey was the historical and continuing importance of both the Orthodox tradition of Christianity, and Islam, in the history and culture of Sicily. I guess, however, that this is probably best left to another post.