Life in Venice – as intoxicating as ever.

I have been on holiday and have just got back from two weeks in Venice – just long enough to begin to feel that it was home. I’ve always  loved Italy and now it doesn’t feel right to let a year go by without visiting this inspiring country. Venice, of course, is uniquely beautiful and atmospheric and I was lucky to have so much time to wander around its watery labyrinth.

I was staying on the Lido where it was possible to escape the city’s heat on the beach made famous by Thomas Mann’s novella Death in Venice where the Adriatic water was warm and clear and the sandy beach will always be redolent of Visconti’s movie of the book.

After the sea and a very necessary siesta, it was time to return to the city which takes on a different hypnotic beauty when darkness falls.

After two weeks in Venice, my small urban garden did its very best to welcome me home. Lewes, UK, on Midsummer’s Day was pretty special too.

While I was in Venice, I went to some concerts and, amongst other things, made my first acquaintance with the music of the 18th Century Venetian composer Baldassare Galuppi (1706 – 1785). Here is one of his harpsichord concertos – a little bit of Venice that I was able to bring home with me. I shall return to my Venice holiday in some later blogs when I have the time to sort out more photographs.

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STEPHEN DEARSLEY’S SUMMER OF LOVE BY COLIN BELL
My novel, Stephen Dearsley’s Summer Of Love, was published  on 31 October 2013. It is the story of a young fogey living in Brighton in 1967 who has a lot to learn when the flowering hippie counter culture changes him and the world around him.

It is now available as a paperback or on Kindle (go to your region’s Amazon site for Kindle orders)

You can order the book from the publishers, Ward Wood Publishing:
…or from Book Depository:

…or from Amazon:

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