Monday, 1 May 1978

May Day holiday.

Good travelling to border [from Paris]. Slower roads through many villages. Houses close to roads, narrow streets. Good farming country, well cultivated.

To Ostend – very foggy. Gear put in the Stella Maris Hotel Restaurant. Found a cafe in a side street. 185BF (58 to Fr) for soup and a rump steak with loads of chips.

Farewelled the Scandinavian group.

Crossed in the Prins Albert – a very big channel boat. Was very full as it had all the holiday travellers on it. Very smooth crossing. Still foggy at Dover.

Train left Dover about 8.00 – [arrived] at Victoria Station about 8.30. Taxi picked up in side street. Hotel at 9.00 pm. Still foggy.

Sunday, 30 April 1978

Paris.

Saturday, 29 April 1978

To Paris.

Unfortunately for the two nights that Jim and Elsie were in Paris, Jim didn’t record anything in his diary.

However, from Jim’s photographs we know they visited the Palace of Versailles and the Eiffel Tower.

Our tour group at the Palace of Versailles

The gardens at the Palace of Versailles

The lift on the way up the Eiffel Tower

Some of the bridges on the River Seine viewed from the Eiffel Tower

Riverside from the Eiffel Tower

Thursday, 27 April 1978

Milan to outside Lucerne.

Early start (7.30) to see the cathedral in Milan – Gothic style, 1500 spires, statues large inside, poor light, many stained windows.

Cathedral at Milan

Through very interesting country to Lugano (Switz) for lunch. Beautiful lakeside. Rich colour in flowers. Cooler.

St Goddard tunnel not open (or coach too wide for train). Had to take another pass – San Bernadino. Magnificent views.

This detour involved much extra travel but traversed high mountains where you could see villages down in the valley even though it was very misty.

On the road to Lucerne

Reached the hotel right on Lake Lucerne at 7.30. Day very long and a number of people sick on the bus in the last section.

Hotel window overlooked the lake and high snow covered peaks were in the distance.

Lake Lucerne from hotel window

Tuesday, 25 April 1978

Holiday in Rome for the ending of the Second World War. Must be a type of Remembrance Day. P.M. to lay a wreath on the tomb of the unknown warrior.

Arch of Constantine, Rome

Morning sightseeing to the Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican Museums – long gallery of exhibits of maps, paintings, tapestries that are hung in the Sistine Chapel, ceilings all fresco.

Sistine Chapel fully painted by Michelangelo. Ceiling has the story of creation. One fresco near the top tells of the story of Jesus. On the opposite side the story of Moses. Need a pair of field-glasses and a book to get the meaning out of each picture.

The end wall tells of the Creation – done by Michelangelo in his later life. Took 8-12? years. Some later painter covered the nude bodies with a veil like effect.

St Peter’s Basilica is immense, very bright and spacious inside. ‘La Pieta‘ now enclosed by large glass screen.

Thousands in the cathedral as a mass was being celebrated. Rich colours in the High Altar as the priests conducted the service. Beautiful choral singing. Solo girls. One sang ‘Nearer My God to Thee’ in Italian. Deep diapason notes in the concluding accompaniment to each verse. To the top of the dome over 400 feet designed by Michelangelo.

St Peters Square, Rome

Vatican City – A Swiss Guard

St Peters Square

Afternoon tour to EUR – the new section of Rome and the Catacombs.

New apartment blocks, office blocks, artificial lake, churches, stadium and park areas. Clean. Different impression altogether.

Catacombs where Christians buried their dead. Five levels, visited 2nd level. Many tunnels and galleries 10 to 14 feet high. Built in volcanic rock, soft and stable. 140,000 in this one.

Went to a church to see the statue of Moses by Michelangelo.

Monday, 24 April 1978

Fine/hazy

By autostrade through very interesting country – irrigated, rice, fruit trees pruned so branches run in a straight line. Very fast road. Some difficulty finding hotel. Very nice hotel.

Lunch in Rome. Afternoon sightseeing around the old city. Stopped at Piazzo Venetia and looked at Michelangelo-designed steps to old Forum that has been excavated.

Ruins of the old Forum

Visited the Colossium. It really lives up to the word. Says it only took 8 years to build. It is a maze of tunnels underneath.

Interior of the Colosseum

Exterior of the Colosseum

Looked at Rome from Michelangelo’s Square that has a bronze statue of David. Very hazy and bridges and river not very clear. Remains of old Roman wall and tower on hill. Drove up the Farvole Hills past many of the villas that were owned by the richer section.

At night went around to see Rome by floodlight but I couldn’t see many floodlights – must have a different meaning. Drizzle rain made it hard to see out of the windows.

Stopped at the [Trevi] Fountain to throw in two coins for me and one coin for Elsie. Alan’s and Bob’s kids wouldn’t let me throw them all in at once.

Called in at a night club for a FREE WINE and be serenaded by two men, two women and three instrumentalists. One singer then took the tambourine around.

The whole night was something like the weather – a bit of a washout.

Sunday, 23 April 1978

Fine, warm, clear

Breakfast at 7.15 – departed 7.50.

Lush farmlands of the Po Valley. Through the Tuscan Hills. Beautiful cultivated hills as the road starts to rise. Road is a wonderful piece of engineering as it rises and snakes its way through and over the hills and gullies. Many tunnels and high viaducts vary in length from 150m to 600m (quite common), 800m and one must have been about a mile long. One tunnel of 800 odd metres came straight into a viaduct of 400m to the opposite hill. A very fast and well graded road. As we descended you could look back and see four of these viaducts that we had crossed. Florence for lunch.

Afternoon to Florence leather shop. Many coats and other leather goods.

Guided tour of city – Ponte Vecchio bridge, old Roman watch towers, Michelangelo Square. Started to rain – Palazzio Vecchio – the meeting place of the Commune (statues & towers), Florence Cathedral – immense Tuscan arches – huge dome 130 feet (like St Paul’s) built in 14/15 hundreds – an immense church inside.

Up to Fiesole in the Tuscan hills – coffee and pizza. Struck traffic jam from football on way back. Six lanes wide across the road blocked. Hotel at 7.30. Meals so far quite satisfactory.

Saturday, 22 April 1978

Fine, warm, sunny

Early start. Followed a mountain stream. Peaks on both sides. Very high mountains covered with snow, precipitous sides but road followed stream between hills. In narrow parts road has been supported on piles. Past villages that were devastated in earthquake 12-18 months ago. Along the autostrade – very fast road – bus travelled at 130 km to hotel outside Venice for lunch at 12. Hotel on road to Chioggia.

Bus into Venice 20 minutes. Left at Roma Square and took water bus to Rialto. Walked to St Marks Square through a maze of narrow alleys crowded with little shops. Guided tour – bell tower, clock tower, Bridge of Sighs. Taken into the cathedral. Many mosaics. Saw glass blowing. Elsie purchased liqueur set (40,000), vase (30,000) and tall vase (38,000) – 108,000 lira (£70 stg).

St Marks Square, Venice

Group loaded onto five gondolas, very choppy on main canal. Gondoliers waited for each other even though the place was busy with boats and five abreast we slowly went down the canal. In one gondola was a fellow with a piano accordion. He played a number or two then another fellow we had not noticed before stood up and started to sing, O Sole Mio. Crowded water buses slowed down to have a look as we were serenaded. When we came to a side canal to turn off, some barges were in the way and there was a great argument for 5 minutes to have them shifted. We moved very slowly up the little canal and the fellow started singing songs again. The buildings on either side were four-storey’s high and people opened their windows and stuck their heads out to look and listen. As we came to the little overpass bridges we were photographed and one bloke in the house above got out his movie camera.

About to be serenaded

Along one of the Venice canals

Was a very crowded and long ride back to Roma Square at 7.35. Back to hotel at 8.05 and dinner.