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Fiesole and Ristorante I’Polpa – perfect retreats from crowded Florence

View down the hillside below Fiesole

View down the hillside below Fiesole

Fiesole, with green space and Tuscan villas, is on a hill a few miles outside Florence.   Calm and straight-forward it lets the mind breathe again after the density of its famous neighbour.

We visited Fiesole with an art student from the city below.  For six months she had been immersed in statues, drawings and all the glories of Florence, but when we met her what she longed for … was grass.

In Fiesole we found it.

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Concert at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Italy

Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, Italy

Teatro di San Carlo, Naples, Italy

The Teatro di San Carlo in Naples is the world’s oldest working theatre and still ranks amongst its most famous opera houses.  I’m no opera expert but if I close my eyes and imagine an opera house I see it with glamour, gold and balconies of red.  The Teatro di San Carlo has all that.

A few weeks ago we were treated to a concert there.  First we had to find the theatre.

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African charity ZANE founder returns from visit to Zimbabwe

Rest point on a ZANE fundraising walk

Rest point on a ZANE fundraising walk

Tom Benyon OBE has returned from a trip to Zimbabwe where he met many of those who work for, and who support, the charity he founded –  ZANE (Zimbabwe a National Emergency).

He describes his recent trip as mixture of sadness and joy.

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