An old English graveyard

On one really lovely autumn afternoon we went for a bus ride into the little town of Lymington, which is between the south coast towns of Southampton and Bournemouth.   Lymington is a very pretty place with its own quay and is world famous as a sailing resort.  The town has been there for centuries, and some parts, including the parish church of St Thomas,

St. Thomas

go back as far as the 13^th century. Passing by the church I was reminded how Italian visitors who accompanied us on a visit to Lymington many years ago were fascinated by the churchyard, and so I thought I would write a little about it here in case any Italian readers of this blog might be interested too. The reason for our guests’ fascination was because in Rome, church graveyards (such as we know them in the UK), are few and far between.   Due to lack of space, the deceased are interred above ground one above the other (or so Vito tells me – I’ve never seen them myself).  Historically of course the Romans were buried underground one under the other in layers for centuries, which is why the catacombs as they are known now lie under the whole of modern Rome, and also why the Rome metro system is so small compared to other cities.  It’s because every time they plan a new line or some more stops, they come across another archaeological  (i.e. protected) site!

By contrast in the UK, many church or communal graveyards are very old and very beautiful and many have even become havens for wildlife.

The churchyard at St Thomas is very old, so old in fact that many of the inscriptions on the headstones have been worn away by the weather

Headstones worn away by the weather

over centuries making them impossible to read while others have slipped in the earth slightly giving them a slightly higgledy-piggledy appearance.  All this lends to its charm and the graveyard is not only very beautiful but also a very tranquil place to be. 

Higgledy-piggledy charm

On the day we were there, the leafy trees were just beginning to turn into their autumn finery and the whole area was dappled

Dappled with sunlight

with sunlight.  We spent quite a while walking through, looking at the graves to see if we could see how old they were, and enjoying the unusually warm sun for that time of year.  The church itself

Inside the church

was also very pretty although has undergone several renovations in its long life. 

If you want to read more about Lymington (a very popular holiday spot in South England as there is lots to see all around the area) you can find information here.

Keeping you posted.

I began this blog as “Letters from Rome”, following on from the original collection, but as I'm in the UK at the moment, I decided to send you some letters from there instead.  It was the idea of posting letters that made me wonder whether people outside the UK know about our postboxes, which are known as pillar boxes.  Of course they are red and quite iconic, or at least I believe they are, although perhaps not so much as our old phone boxes J  However I wonder how many travellers to the UK have ever noticed the front of our pillar boxes, or if they have, ever been curious as to what the letters so carefully inscribed on the front of each stand for.  Can you see on the front of this double pillar box?  It is a rare double box, one that is more usually found outside a post office as indeed this one is.

 The letters ER stand for Elizabeth Regina, and every pillar box made in the reign of Queen Elizabeth will have those letters adorning the front.  However post boxes made during the reign of different king or queen will have their initials on the box instead, and in the case where there are several kings with the same name, the “number” of the king will be given too.  So in the case of this one for example,

manufactured in the reign of a King George, of whom there have been several, one can clearly see (if one looks) that this one was made during the reign of George VI. The R in GR in the case of a King stands for Rex, so here GR means George Rex (i.e. King George).

It can be quite good fun looking at the old postboxes to see how old they must be.  Have a look at some older models of postboxes and also some used in other countries where the UK exported them.  You’ll find the link here.

No intention of being left out in the cold!

We can always tell when winter is on its way (like today).  Suddenly the house is full of animals.

On the bed still warm from us leaving it!

On the settee in direct line of the fan heater

On the dining chairs by the central heating radiator

On the floor in the middle of the room - just for the hell of it!

Just hope they leave room somewhere for us!

Concordia (Harmony)

Imagine living in a place like this.  Idyllic isn’t it?

Wonder then how it must feel to wake up one morning and find this outside your window … and not just for one day either L

The wonderful view you are used to completely obliterated. Enough to put you off your morning coffee I should imagine. Vito told me a couple of weeks ago that he was going to Giglio on business. 

“Take your camera” I cried, “take some photos for the blog!  See if you can speak to some locals, how have their lives been affected by the Concordia arriving on their doorstep?”

“What about my work?” he replied.

“What about it?”

He knows when to take a hint. These terrific photos are down to him (thank you amore J XXX ) What struck me first when I saw them was how massive and how intrusive the ship was.

 Nor had I realised how close Captain Francesco Schettino had steered the Concordia to “salute” the island.   The boat is now upright, as you can clearly see (if you can’t look at the brown watermark on this photo down the middle of the ship) although still partially submerged in 50 ft (15 metres) of water.   

32 people and crewmen died because of one man’s stupidity.  L

Vito got talking to a local woman and asked her how the incident had affected tourism on Giglio. (Giglio has always been a popular destination even during times of recession).   She explained the nature of tourism had changed.  “Tourists still come in droves”, she told Vito, “however the ferry loads of day-trippers flock to the island to take photos of the stricken ship and then go back again. No one stays”.  So bars around the port fare well enough and overall little has changed (except perhaps the view),

but more distant places have fewer visitors. Hotels are jammed packed for months ahead, not with tourists, but people working on the salvage operation. Vito found it impossible to find a vacant room anywhere and had to stay on the mainland when he was working there. What was this woman most fed up with?  “The experts”!  Apparently “they keep spouting nonsense, especially the environmentalists” was this lady’s opinion.  For example they rabbit on about detergents leaking out of their container bottles into the sea and contaminating the ocean.  “How”, the lady wanted to know, “was that about to happen when we are always being told plastic bottles are not biodegradable for hundreds of years!” (Certainly the sea looks pristine in Vito’s photos).

Schettino is despised; not so much for steering the ship too close to the island, but for his reversal of the “women and children first, Captain last” rule. His cowardice is viewed as disgraceful and beneath contempt, not only on Giglio, but also in Schettino’s native Naples where Vito heard plenty of similar comments when he was there a couple of weeks ago. Being made to walk the plank would be too good for him.  A sad tale all round, for the devastated families who lost loved ones, for the islanders whose lives have been so rudely interrupted, and for the holiday makers who should have had fun but ended up taking part in a tragedy.  Looking at these pictures though I really feel the salvage masters from Titan Salvage and Micoperia are true heroes.  What a fantastic job they have done of raising the Concordia.  If you want to know more about the Costa Concordia, click here