Tag Archives: Venice

Am I, Personally, Responsible for the Death of Venice?

Posted on 14/09/2018 by carolinemmurray

There we were, on a surprisingly (well, we were surprised) misty morning, sitting on our balcony, from which you can usually see the campanile of San Marco (now in the mist), eating our breakfast pastries, when the Guardian intruded with … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Italy, Museums and Galleries, Venice | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Slow Venice

Posted on 12/06/2018 by carolinemmurray

I’m not sure that I would choose to visit Venice in June again – though I can imagine a few compelling reasons, such as a once-in-a-generation exhibition of all the known Carpaccios in the world (she said hopefully). The main … Continue reading →

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The Bells, the Bells …

Posted on 10/05/2018 by carolinemmurray

As the website of Save Venice, Inc. tells us: ‘Venetian noble Pietro Gradenigo (1695–1776) commissioned Giovanni Grevembroch, a Venetian artist of German descent, to record Venetian clothing, artworks, occupations, collections, buidlings and daily life through a series of watercolor drawings … Continue reading →

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Torcello

Posted on 22/09/2017 by carolinemmurray

Assuming anyone can be bothered to make the trip, I think I’d like my ashes scattered at the Secret Cat Place on Torcello. Though alas, even Torcello is going a bit downhill, since today, for the first time ever, there … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, History, Italy, Venice | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Object of the Month: January 2017

Posted on 14/01/2017 by carolinemmurray

If ever I were to take up collecting as a serious pastime (as distinct from the random acquisition of books, plants and balls of wool), I think I would go for Italian maiolica pharmacy jars. (The sine qua non, of … Continue reading →

Posted in Archaeology, Art, Botany, Cambridge, History, Museums and Galleries, Natural history, Venice | Tagged , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Messing About In Boats

Posted on 17/11/2016 by carolinemmurray

The origins of the Regata Storica in Venice are unclear. One version is that it commemorates the occasion on which twelve poor but honest and beautiful girls, who had been given dowries by the state and were about to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Biography, History, Museums and Galleries, Venice | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Details, Details …

Posted on 05/09/2016 by carolinemmurray

In the Eremitani Museum in Padua the other day, I was struck (as so often) by some of the details in the paintings on display as much as by the overall effect of a particular composition. Take this clog (left), … Continue reading →

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The Venice Test!

Posted on 11/05/2016 by carolinemmurray

‘It’s very naughty of me, but I would like to set an examination paper at Dover, and turn back every tourist who couldn’t pass it.’ Thus Miss Eleanor Lavish, the self-described Radical and New Woman, and one of E.M. Forster’s … Continue reading →

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Plant of the Month: September

Posted on 26/09/2015 by carolinemmurray

Decisions, decisions: the autumn equinox is producing such wonderful sights that I’m spoiled for choice for September’s plant of the month. Sedums, rudbeckias, penstemons, cyclamen, colchicums, and of course Michaelmas daisies – which I’m alarmed to see are undergoing a … Continue reading →

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Object of the Month: September

Posted on 21/09/2015 by carolinemmurray

I’m not yet done with Venice (how could one ever be?), and this month’s highlighted object can currently be seen there, in the wonderful Ca’ Rezzonico (left), which, after a chequered history, is now the museum of eighteenth-century Venice. The … Continue reading →

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