The main thing to note about our chronicle for this year is that for much of 2021 it is not so much ‘our’ as normal but  ‘my’ instead since, thanks to Covid-19 restrictions, Sandra, beleaguered in Brexitania and I, entrenched in Italia, were only able to meet up for the first time on August 26th. This meant that such events as ‘La Befana’, Burns night, Saint Valentine’s Day, my wife’s birthday, Easter and even our wedding anniversary were only able to be celebrated via the miracle of modern internet technology.

I think of another age when momentous events separated people from their loved ones. The period of the Second World War had no such communication aids as WhatsApp or Skype and mail was frequently disrupted by enemy action. How lucky we have been in 2021 to be able to join up for breakfast on the laptop screens, to be able to read whole books to each other and to accompany our virtual presences on walks and visits.  Incidentally, among the most prized books we read to each other in 2021 were ‘Little Women’ and its sequel ‘Good Wives’, so modern in sentiment and such a delight to read aloud, and the delightful ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’. (How we would have loved to have met Paramahansa Yogananda).

Cultural visits were necessarily curtailed this year. However, two memorable ones stand out for me. The first was to Florence’s famed Uffizi gallery which I had virtually to myself. It was as if that wonderful array of some of the most marvellous paintings of western civilization had become my private gallery. I was particularly attracted by the new Leonardo gallery and, in particular, his ‘Adoration of the Magi,’ returned there after a seven-year restoration which has done so much to give back the freshness of this unfinished painting.

Another visit was to Rome and again it seemed as if I had the whole of the eternal city to myself. The main reason for my visit was to view Alessandro Torlonia’s, Prince of Fucino, collection of classical statuary on public view for the first time in a generation. It is perhaps the world’s greatest private assemblage of Roman (and some Greek) sculpture: Venuses, sarcophagi, fauns, gods, mythical heroes, vases and urns are all included. The collection is so vast that it accounts for one third of all Rome’s ancient sculptural heritage and is seven times larger than the national museum’s Palazzo Altemps collection.  It was again wonderful that I could share these exceptional experiences in real-time with Sandra using my telefonino’s mobile data!

Friends prompted me to make an effort to visit my spouse during these difficult times and I remain ever grateful for their encouragement. I’d already obtained my green passport through two vaccinations done at Viareggio’s health centre and booked my test upon arrival in London so I was well-prepared to face the restrictions. I did not tell Sandra that I would be coming. After all, with so many flights cancelled, what was the point of informing her that I would arrive and then find that it was all in vain?

I felt a little like a soldier coming back on leave and certainly absence DOES make the heart grow fonder. Our time in London was spent with many more visits than I had managed in Italy and during the late summer and early autumn in this magical city of my birth and upbringing we were present at, among other sights, Bentley Abbey, Gunnersbury Park, the Canal museum, Evensong at Saint Paul’s cathedral, Upminster Windmill, Richmond palace, Charlton Lido, the Post office private underground railway, organ recitals at Saint Margaret’s Lothbury, Pittshanger mansion, Carshalton spa, the V and A’s fab ‘Alice in Wonderland’ exhibition, the Docklands museum, the delights of Eastbourne, George Harrison’s old haunt at Bhakti Vedanta manor, Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’ at the ROH, the latest James Bond film and Mudchute urban farm. (I think we more than made up for visits lost because of our enforced separation…)

We were looking for a new place in Italy for over two years and had been largely disappointed in our search. The houses offered to us were either without proper car access (so necessary, especially at our age), or too close to other houses, or with too much work to do (or undo!) on them or just too plain expensive! Finally a property came up that managed to tick all our boxes. It was with brilliant car access, isolated but not remote, surrounded by its own ample grounds absolutely ready to move in – indeed it seemed to have sprung up like magic especially for us!

But could we find the money for it without having yet sold our present abode? It was a little touch and go, especially with those additional costs that ennervatingly emerge when purchasing a new house. However, we managed it and on December 6^th signed a multiplicity of papers and, hey presto, a loveable little farmhouse on the slopes of the Apennines complete with its fine trees, outbuildings and gorgeous views became ours to own and enjoy.

However, we did not move immediately on the day of signing except for one of our family. Our endearing cat Corneglia, the oldest member of our feline family, had just died and it was pride of place for her to become the first inmate to be welcomed to our new dwelling in her own private garden grave.

Christmas and New Year have followed and we are so happy to have a place that we can truthfully call our own. It’s been such a wonderfully different winter this time when compared to last year! We are together again after almost a year apart. We have a lovely new house in which to spend our remaining span of time on this planet and we consider ourselves truly blessed and lucky to be able to be still alive and well together!

We sincerely hope that 2022 will be a happy and prosperous year for you too!