Monthly Archives: March 2020

The Unseen Enemy

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“Know the suffering, abandon the cause, obtain the cessation, and fo!low the Path.”

We had originally booked our holiday in Sri Lanka last year. Not only was there no intimation of the two medical operations I was to undergo but there was no evidence that we would be facing perhaps the most intense crisis of our lifetime. From boarding the plane at Heathrow airport on March 11th to today, March 29th, in Kandy, the rate of change in the situation regarding covid-19, the corona virus, has been exponential.

I left an Italy which was still largely relaxed about the threat of a killer disease invasion from the far East. Within the space of a week everything has changed: the current videos of army trucks carrying hundreds of coffins from an area of northern Italy has been particularly shocking.

It is clearly difficult to fully enjoy a holiday in a country so far from the most affected areas when these events are occurring. Yet Sri Lanka is increasingly being affected too. It has already postponed its April parliamentary elections. It has already registered fifty nine cases of the corona virus, which has so far killed over ten thousand people out of a quarter of a million cases worldwide.

Sri Lankan authorities have ordered both public and private sector employees to stay at home in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus.

Sri Lanka has also imposed curfews on three districts and is extending them to other areas. These three districts are where there is the largest majority of persons who have returned from Italy and South Korea where they have been working. The threat of disease spreading through returning workers is now also troubling China especially as it has been able to reduce internal deaths to zero.

Sri Lanka has already shut its airports to commercial passengers from other countries, delivering a heavy blow to the tourism sector crucial to the country that is still recovering from the April 2019 Easter Sunday attacks carried out by Islamist militants in churches and hotels which left 269 people dead.

Hotel staff and many locals wear face masks and hand sanitizers have been increasingly implemented. There is no doubt that things are building up. Our hotel, like so many others, is virtually empty.

So where are we? In Kandy, the country’s second major city nestled in luxuriantly wooded hills at a height of two thousand feet, the pace is still largely relaxed.

However, all national parks and heritage sites have been closed. For instance, we have been unable to climb up Sigiriya, the famous lion rock of the country and will probably be excluded from visiting Kandy’s beautiful botanical gardens.

A return flight has been booked for us on the 25th but we are half-thinking that it would be better to remain on this island rather than face the greater uncertainties in Europe.

The UK prime minister has finally stopped giving advice and started implementing stronger measures: schools are to be closed, for example, from this week-end. Italy’s victims have now overtaken those of China. We have received considerable information on the situation from friends in Italy and it is both worrying and comforting. Sadly there are already victims in our Serchio valley but people are behaving in a responsible way and there is, for example, no panic buying.

Where do we go from here? It’s anyone’s guess. All I can say is that the UK goverment, if it is to be credible, must put people before political dogma. Dump brexit now and use the money saved on scrapping it on saving lives from the unseen enemy known as covid -19.

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The Wonders of Polonnaruwa

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The history of Sri Lanka is complex but can be simplified into an often violent dialectic between the Buddhist Sinhalese majority of the island’s centre and south and the Hindu Tamil minority of its northern and eastern areas. Added to these two major ethnic groups were the western traders: first Portuguese, then Dutch and lastly the British. Each one of these people have left their distinctive mark in the culture and architecture of the country.

My previous post describes the ancient city of Anuradhapura. We subsequently visited a further ancient city and world heritage site: Polonnaruwa. This city was founded by the South Indian Chola dynasty after their successful invasion of Anuradhapura in the tenth century.

Two things struck me as odd about these cities when compared with those in the western world. First was the utter obliteration of a conquered city and the construction of a new centre in a new site. This was rather different from what usually happened in Europe. For example, Lucca was conquered by the French under Napoleon; he did not destroy it but merely added to its beauty. In the East the total elimination of a city was commonplace in an attempt to deny that previous powers had ever been in existence. This trend has continued in modified form to this day: for example the former capital cities of Pakistan and Myanmar have both been replaced by new centres. The British, too, followed this trend when they founded a new capital of India at Delhi.

Second was the astonishing syncretism between Buddhist and Hindu religion. Statues of Buddha and Vishnu, for example, are to be found in the same temple. In India hinduism won hands down and Buddha was relegated as an avatar of Vishnu while in Sri Lanka the Theravada school of Buddhism continues to flourish.

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The ruins of Polonnaruwa are very well presented and very extensive. We only managed to visit a part of the area they occupied but were impressed by the ruins of palaces, stupas, baths and shrines we saw. The city was clearly a flourishing place with particularly advanced irrigation systems which included the man-made Parakrama lake.

We first visited the informative museum and realised that we’d seen similar examples of the bronze statues during our visit to Chennai’s Government museum three years ago and described in my post at

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Of the ruins five were particularly impressive.

First was the temple where Buddha’s tooth, perhaps Buddhism’s most sacred relic, was originally kept.

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Second was the burnt out shell of the King’s palace with massive walls.

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Third was a giant temple with a Buddha statue approaching the scale of the sadly destroyed Bamiyan ones.

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Fourth was a shrine with an almost gothic arch form.

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Fifth was the elegant King’s bath:

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Sixth was a majestic trio of gigantic statues including one of the dying Buddha.

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Polonnaruwa eventually suffered the fate of other ancient cities in Sri Lanka: the Aryacakravarti dynasty abandoned it in the thirteenth century and built yet another centre at Dambadeniya.

Before the evocative ruins of this once prosperous city I could not help picturing an apocalyptic vision of a world currently threatened by an unseen enemy from which there appears to be no respite.

Where Buddhism Began in Sri Lanka

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We spent our third night in Sri Lanka in what appeared at first sight to be an ancient temple but turned out instead to be a hotel, the inappropriately named Palm Garden Village. Entering the reception hall was awesome but we were soon wafted away to a colonial-style cottage with equally veteran looking furniture.

The following morning I took a look at the place and found a delightful lake at the end of beautifully landscaped grounds.

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There was also, somewhat incongruously, this chapel frescoed with Giottesque copies.

The hotel complex, clearly unfinished, was started in the 1990’s and still needs some investment. I felt it was almost like an oriental equivalent of that disappeared folly, Fonthill Abbey. It was certainly one of the more unusual hostelries I’ve stayed in.

The following morning was dedicated to climbing up another sacred mountain, this time that of Mihintale, the site of a meeting between the monk Mahinda, son of King Ashoka, and King Devanampiyatissa; a meeting marking the beginning of Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

I found this area exceptionally evocative. Large rocks were scattered around the luxuriant forest and caves marked the location of hermit monks. There was an atmosphere of peace and quiet: the place diffused a mystical religious feel.

At the base of steps leading to the crowning stupa were the remains of an ancient hospital and a monastery with rules for the novices still inscribed on stones on each side of the entrance.

 

We then started on our climb of 1840 steps to the stupa.

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From its platform magnificent views extended down to Anuradhapuram and its stupa which we had visited the previous day.

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What glories and what mysteries are unwrapped in Sri Lanka’s history so unknown to the majority of westerner!

DSCN0416~2But now we headed towards the sea, passing smatterings of the island’s wildlife the way and

further Buddhist statues.

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Stupefying Stupas

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Sri Lanka has a number of ancient cities which were once major cultural, religious and commercial centres. We visited one of these, Anuradhapura, two days ago. One of the country’s eight world heritage site it was formerly the centre of Theravada Buddhism and continues to remain an important Buddhist pilgrimage centre.

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There are eight principal religious places which are visited by pilgrims here. Of these we managed to see the following:
Jaya Sri Maha Bodi. This is a sacred bodhi tree grown from a branch of the original at Sarnath in India which I visited several years ago and under which the Buddha obtained enlightenment. Planted in 288 BC, it is the oldest tree with a known planting date and is a most holy relic. The tree is now kept up by guilded supports.

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Ruwanweli Maha Seya. This is a stupa of hemispheric shape containing relics of the Buddha. It’s really large with a height of 338 feet and a circumference of 951 feet.

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I particularly liked the rows of elephants gracing the sides.

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While we were there workmen were busy whitewashing the stupa and climbing up a tall, steep ladder without any safety harness!

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A Puja procession also took place during our visit.

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Lovamahapaya. Otherwise known as the brazen palace only the supporting pillars remain of this building which dates back to 1500 BC.

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Sandra pointed that the array of pillars reminded her of this sculpture at Italy’s Villa Celle, Magdalena’s Abakanowicz’s ‘Katarsis’ (1985):

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Abhayagiri Dagaba. This is another huge stupa built of red bricks and dating back to the second century BC.

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Like the Angkor Wat, which we visited in 2015, it would need a good month to fully explore Anuradhapura but at least we got there and visited its main features which fully demonstrate the incredible energy encapsulated in a belief which is more a philosophy than a religion.

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Escape to Sri Lanka

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Colombo, the largest city and commercial hub of Sri Lanka is mainly used by visitors as an entry point to this beautiful island which we are lucky to visit in these difficult times for the world and, particularly, for Italy.

We spent two nights at the Ramada hotel whose best feature is its location in the centre of the vibrant city. Close by us the spacious Galle Face Green was laid out in 1859 by the British who had made Ceylon part of their empire in 1815 (they kept it until 1948). It is like a gigantic sand pit with a promenade along the sea front and, once used as a racecourse, is now a popular urban park with vendors selling cooked crabs, prawns and kites. On the little pier we were hailed by an interviewer from Shaa FM, the locally based international online radio station, who asked us (Sandra, mainly) about the current coronavirus epidemic sweeping Europe, especially Italy, and now spreading ever further into the world’s four corners.

 

Although without major heritage sites Colombo has the most eclectic architectural mix. Lovers of colonial buildings will have a field day here from the Gaffoor gem market edifice to the red and white Jami Ul-Alfar mosque built in Indo-Saracenic style in 1908.

 

After many years of neglect these relics from a time when Sri Lanka was under foreign domination are being restored and refurbished as hotels or shopping malls. They make a welcome change from the increasing number of high rises which now dominate the Colombo skyline.

Of the many temples in a majority Buddhist country we managed a visit to Asokaramaya with its beautiful murals and stunning statuary dating back to the 1870’s and founded by Elliyas Kalutara, a wealthy merchant, in memory of the monk Aluthgana Sangharatne.

 

We also visited the former Victoria Park, now renamed Viharamahadevi after an equally powerful Sinhalese queen. The British queen’s statue, now side-lined in the back of the park, has been replaced by one of Buddha.

 

There are some very interesting contemporary buildings too in Colombo including the Nelum Pomona theatre, Sri Lanka’s main performing arts venue, built in the form of a lotus leaf in 2011 and the similarly lotus inspired tower only opened last year.
There are many other sites of interest in Colombo and lovers of architecture, especially Victorian, will find much to interest them.

However, Sri Lanka is famous for a lot more than imperial architecture and after a full day in Sri Lanka’s commercial and administrative centre, with a population of over ten million, it was time for us to move on.

Una Cattedrale Sconosciuta di Londra

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La cattedrale di Southwark a Londra si trova sulla riva sud del Tamigi vicino a London Bridge. È la chiesa madre della diocesi anglicana di Southwark. È stata un luogo di culto cristiano per oltre mille anni, ma fu dichiarata una cattedrale solo dal 1905; l’attuale edificio è in stile gotico e risale dal 1220 al 1420.

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Il primo riferimento al sito fu nel 1086. Il “Minster” di Southwark sembra essere sotto il controllo del vescovo Odo di Bayeux (fratellastro di Guglielmo il Conquistatore). La sua storia antica è oscura; esisteva una chiesa a sud di London Bridge. Nel 1106, nel regno di Enrico I, quest’ultima divenne un Priorato Agostiniano ed è qui che Thomas Becket predicò qui prima di partire per Canterbury, dove fu assassinato nel 1170.

La cattedrale di Southwark è il più antico edificio gotico di Londra ed è anche il luogo, dove i pellegrini iniziarono il loro viaggio sulla via Francigena per la tomba del Santo Tommaso Becket di Canterbury, così ben descritto nei racconti di Chaucer, e per i più arditi di proseguire il pellegrinaggio fino a Roma e la Terra Santa, passando, s’intende, a Lucca per adorare il Volto Santo.

Il poeta e amico di Chaucer John Gower, autore di ‘Confessio Amantis’, è qui sepolto in una vivace tomba:

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Ci sono altre tombe: di cavalieri, di saggi, di nobili…e di William Shakespeare che ebbe le sue commedie eseguite nel vicino Globe Theatre.

Questa volta non siamo stati a tempo a rivedere il gatto della cattedrale, chiamato ‘Doorkins Magnificat’, così bravo a tenere sotto controllo i topi e amato perfino dalla Regina, e che l’ultima volta, in occasione di un concerto, mi diede un’occhiata dalle tenebre dell’abside.

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Il gatto ha ora avuto un libro dedicato a lui che festeggia le sue avventure nella cattedrale ed è andato in pensione a casa del cappellano.

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D’interesse sono anche la fornace per terrecotte, tombe strade e una statua romana recentemente riscoperte.

I concerti di Southwark Cathedral sono ben noti. Nel 2017 siamo stati al concerto di Natale, dove ha cantato il coro della mia vecchia scuola, Dulwich College, e nel 2018 abbiamo ascoltato la sublime Passione di San Giovanni di Johann Sebastian Bach. sotto le splendenti volti della cattedrale e il suono del suo organo:

Southwark, insomma, è pieno di storia e continua, con il suo mercato, a essere un luogo molto affascinante della metropoli.

Sotto le volte

cantano voci eterne:

gloria del sole.

Pesce e Patate Supreme

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Fish and chips – pesce e patate – conosciuto da tutti che visitano il Regno Unito e anche fonte di una grande sagra estiva a Barga, è un piatto caldo composto di pesce fritto in pastella e servito con patatine. Il pesce può essere di vari tipi, per la più parte pescati nel mare del Nord, cioè cod (merluzzo), haddock (eglefino) e plaice (pesce passera di mare).

Il piatto è nato in Inghilterra e apparve per la prima volta nel Regno Unito nel 1860. Nel 1910 c’erano più di 25.000 negozi di pesce e patatine in tutto il Regno Unito e negli anni ’30 ce n’erano oltre 35.000, scendendo a circa 10.000 entro il 2009. Talmente essenziale è il fish and chips al popolo inglese che il governo britannico ha salvaguardato la fornitura di fish and chips durante la prima e la seconda guerra mondiale; era uno dei pochi alimenti nel Regno Unito non soggetto a razionamento.

Detto tutto questo se uno vuol mangiare fish and chips per bene in Inghilterra deve scegliere con cura il ristorante: certi sono veramente pessimi con pastella mal fatta e pesce non fresco. Certi però offrono piatti divini.

Siamo stati felicemente sorpresi dalla suprema qualità di pesce, pastella, patatine (tagliate a casa e no – come abbiamo notato in certi luoghi – fritti dal surgelato), condimenti (aceto, maionese, ketchup di pomodoro, limone e condimento di cipolla) e servizio molto amichevole e buono in quest’ambiente che si trova a Greenwich:

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Il Golden Chippy (‘Chippy’ è la parola di gergo per ristoranti pesce e patate) fa parte di un complesso familiare che comprende un caffe-bar e una drogheria tutti sopranominati ‘golden’ (aureo).

Abbiamo scelto un merluzzo con patate, insalata e mushy peas (i caratteristici piselli pastosi)

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e un steak and kidney pie (pasticcio di manzo e rognone cotto in crosta) – un altro tipico elemento della cucina inglese.

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La pastella del pesce era di una squisita leggerezza ma tutto, posso dirvi, era veramente ottimo. Con Birra Peroni il conto totale era di sterline venti per due persone. Vi posso assicurare che un pasto di qualità simile nel centro di London vi potrebbe costare il triplo!

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Il Chippy ha il suo sito web a

https://thegoldenchippy.has.restaurant/

Se venite a Londra e visitate l’antico centro marittimo di Greenwich, sede di un bellissimo museo navale e dell’osservatorio reale non mancate di mangiare forse il miglior Fish and Chips di tutta Londra al Golden Chippy.

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Pesce di Dio,

nuotando nell’anima:

sorgente eterna.

Le Canzoni di Londra

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Benché  Michael Bloomberg, billionario e filantropo, si sia ritirato come candidato anti-trump nella campagna presidenziale americana, rimane sempre molto attivo a Londra dove la sua nuova sede ha vinto il prestigioso premio Stirling per architettura e dove ci può trovare il tempio romano dedicato al Dio Mitra e descritto da me a

Il Dio Mitra a Londra

e da Alexandra Cipriani nel suo resoconto di Trip advisor a:

London’s Mysterious Mithraic Temple

Lo stesso edificio ospita mostre su temi diversi e ieri abbiamo visitato la più recente che consiste semplicemente di una jukebox che suona una svariata collezione di canzoni scritte sul tema della grande metropoli di Londra e dove uno si può sedere e ascoltarle con le cuffie.

 

Quante canzoni vi ricordate dedicate a una città particolare? In Italia basta pensare a ‘Genova per noi ‘di Paolo Conte, ‘Rimini’ di Fabrizio de Andrè, ‘Bologna’ di Guccini, e ‘Lontana è Milano’ di Venditi. Quando si arriva a Firenze c’è non solo ‘Firenze Sogna’, cantata da Claudio Villa, ma ‘La porti un bacione a Firenze’ di Odoardo Spadaro e, più recentemente, ‘Il cielo di Firenze’ di Paolo Gallesi.

Quando si arriva a Londra ci sono canzoni non solo della città in toto, come ‘London Calling’ del Clash o ‘London Pride’ di Noel Coward, ma anche quelle che riferiscono a vie e distretti particolari: Soho, Chelsea, perfino Willesden.

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Tra queste si trova in particolare ‘West End Girls’ dei Pet Shop Boys, ‘Upper Clapton Dance’ di Professor Green e ‘Sunny Goodge Street’ di Donovan.

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La mostra alla sede Londinese di Bloomberg fu ideata da Susan Hiller, tristemente scomparsa l’anno scorso. La Hiller (1940-2019) naque a Tallahassee,  Florida. All’inizio degli anni ’60 si stabilì a Londra, che divenne il suo paese di adozione. Fu innnovatrice nella tecnologia audio-visiva nei primi anni ’80 e le sue opere  hanno ottenuto un riconoscimento internazionale.

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Ci siamo molto divertiti ascoltando brani dalla vasta collezione sul jukebox. Eravamo pressoché gli unici presenti poiché la pioggia e il vento  di una  freddissima giornata Londinese, abbinati con la minaccia del virus hanno ridotto la densità di gente nella capitale.

Avrei una mia canzone su Londra preferita? Potrebbe benissimo essere ‘Waterloo Sunset ‘ dei Kinks, risalente al 1967. Questo brano, così struggente e melanconico, fu scritta da Ray Davies dopo essere stato un paziente all’ospedale di Saint Thomas che si trova sul bordo del Tamigi proprio vicino al ponte di Waterloo.

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Questa incantevole canzone sembra di sposare, in una soave struttura melodica, due aspetti della grande città: l’apparentemente fredda atmosfera di una metropoli, sovente senza amicizie fatte facilmente e di luoghi troppo escludenti, con un cuore nascosto ma devotissimo che unisce la giovane coppia, Terry e Julie che, secondo le parole della canzone,  s’incontrano alla vicina stazione ogni venerdì sera, e attraversano il ponte di Waterloo nella luce di un tramonto aureo.

Ascoltatela qui…

“Dirty old river, must you keep rolling
Flowing into the night?
People so busy, make me feel dizzy
Taxi light shines so bright
But I don’t need no friends
As long as I gaze on
Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise
Every day I look at the world from my window
But chilly, chilly is the evening time
Waterloo sunset’s fine (Waterloo sunset’s fine)
Terry meets Julie
Waterloo station
Every Friday night
But I am so lazy, don’t want to wander
I stay at home at night
But I don’t feel afraid
As long as I gaze on
Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise
Every day I look at the world from my window
But chilly, chilly is the evening time
Waterloo sunset’s fine (Waterloo sunset’s fine)
Millions of people swarming like flies ’round
Waterloo underground
But Terry and Julie cross over the river
Where they feel safe and sound
And they don’t need no friends
As long as they gaze on
Waterloo Sunset
They are in paradise
Waterloo sunset’s fine (Waterloo sunset’s fine)
Waterloo sunset’s fine.”
Ogni canzone
un bacio nel passato:
abbraccio forte. 

Atishoo Atishoo We all Fall Down

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One of the most extensive pandemics in Italy’s past, the Great Plague of 1630 harvested its maximum number of victims in northern Italy. Milan lost over a quarter of its inhabitants to ‘la peste’. Verona was the worst affected with over half of its citizens dying in horrible agony. The pandemic started with French and Austrian soldiers marching into Italy as mercenary garrisons for the main towns of the Po valley. Another factor was the extreme poverty of the population reduced by years of austerity under governments who failed to provide basic services in food production and medical facilities. Over a million perished in the great plague: around a quarter of the population.

The pandemic spread to other parts of Europe and may have been instrumental in causing the Great Plague of London in 1665.

The ‘Peste’ was graphically written about by Italy’s great writer Alessandro Manzoni in his novel ‘I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed).

Like many other plagues its origin was eastern and may have been related to the Mongol invasion which almost conquered the Hapsburg empire. Special wear was developed to enable improved survival rates. Here are some examples.

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The beak-like mask enabled lavender pomanders to be inserted to protect the wearer from infection and combat stench from decomposing corpses.


With the medical knowledge of the age it was impossible to halt its progress although isolation centres known as Lazzaretti (the church of the Milan lazzaretto was recently restored) were set up. A certain Doctor Giuseppe Daciano did write an interesting treatise, however, on the pandemic and the methods of not catching it or curing it:

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What is most disturbing is the fate allocated to Lucca described in the prophecies of Nostradamus. In one of his quatrains he  mentions a “great plague” and the Italian city of Lucca.

(Century III, Quatrain 19) “In Lucca it will come to rain blood and milk”.

It would be a simple matter to quarantine many of the inhabitants of Lucca since they live in a city surrounded by massive walls should the prophecy ever come to be realised.

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On the bright side the great plague of northern Italy of the seventeenth century claimed many fewer victims than the 15th century pestilence known as the Black Death. That was one of the most devastating pandemics in history and  killed off an  estimated 75 to 200 million people in Europe and Asia.

(Any similarity between 1630 and 2020 are now not purely coincidental. Indeed, all inhabitants of Lucca, as all inhabitants of Italy, are under quarantine with all non-essential journeys banned.

PS Many of you may know that the nursery rhyme quote which titles this post alludes to the Great Plague of London in 1665.)

Rain, Rain, Rain

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It never seems to drizzle here in the Lima valley but it rains; indeed it monsoons. Two days we’ve had of almost incessant downpour and it shows in our approach roads where aqua-planing could easily be established as a sport and in normally semi-dry gullies now turned into new rivulets.

The Refubbri stream has now become a raging torrent.

The irony is that the spring where we normally obtain our water (so much preferable to the chlorinated tap water we get) is dry!

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Anyway, in all our years here we’ve never seen such a deluge of precipitation from the heavens.

We are fortunate that we live in a hilly area so the waters will drain off quickly. But where? The Lucca plain must now be sodden and large chunks of it under water.

Need we blame climate change for this?