The Royal Palace at Caserta
Big is a little word that can’t quite fit all of this palace in. Size is everywhere but still the giant proved hard to find by car.
We knew we’d reached Caserta but even though we were within metres of the palace we couldn’t see it. The area was a strange, any-man’s-land of straight roads and plain buildings.
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
This book, the third in the series, has an ache in it that grows as the story lengthens. It is about the absence of love and belonging, and the complications of motherhood.
The themes belong to us all and Ferrante intensifies them against the backdrop of Naples. She paints her story with the city’s colours, chosen for their truth from a palette that other cities struggle to match.
The deep curves of the bowlback Neapolitan mandolin
It took us a while to find the little workshop and we had to squeeze in when we did – it was Saturday and the only door was open to visitors.
In fact La Bottega del Mandolino was so full of visitors (around a dozen or so), and every shape of mandolin and tool, that there hardly seemed space for Maestro Salvatore Masiello.
The Phraser 