martin randall travel - Rhinegold Publishing

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M A R T I N R A N D A L L T R A V E LART • AR CHITECTURE • GASTR ONOMY • AR CHAEOLOGY • HISTORY • MUSIC

Martin Randall Travel Ltd Voysey House Barley Mow Passage London United Kingdom W4 4GF

Australia: Martin Randall Australasia PO Box 1024 Indooroopilly Australia QLD 4068 Telephone 1300 55 95 95 Fax 07 3371 8288 [email protected] Zealand: Telephone 0800 877 622

Canada: Telephone 647 382 1644 Fax 416 925 2670 [email protected]

USA: Telephone 1 800 988 6168

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Telephone 020 8742 3355 Fax 020 8742 7766 [email protected]

www.martinrandall.com

Front cover: birds-eye view of Arras by Braun & Hogenberg, hand-coloured copper engraving 1581

Back cover: engraving c. 1850

2015Second edition



Australia: telephone 1300 55 95 95 New Zealand: telephone 0800 877 [email protected]

Canada: telephone 647 382 1644 [email protected]: telephone 1 800 988 6168

Voysey House, Barley Mow Passage, London, UK, W4 4GFTelephone 020 8742 3355 Fax 020 8742 [email protected]

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Directors: Martin Randall (Chief Executive); Fiona Urquhart (Chief Operating Officer); Sir Vernon Ellis (Chairman), Ian Hutchinson; Neil Taylor, William Burton • Registered office: Voysey House, Barley Mow Passage, London W4 4GF. Registered Company no. 2314294 England. VAT no. 527758803

Self-assessment fitness testsA certain level of fitness is a requirement for participation on our tours; see page 5. We ask that all participants take these quick and simple tests to ascertain whether they are fit enough.

1. Chair stands. Sit in a dining chair, with arms folded and hands on opposite shoulders. Stand up and sit down at least 8 times in 30 seconds.

2. Step test. Mark a wall at a height that is halfway between your knee and your hip bone. Raise each knee in turn to the mark at least 60 times in 2 minutes.

3. Agility test. Place an object 3 yards from the edge of a chair, sit, and record the time it takes to stand up, walk to the object and sit back down. You should be able to do this in under 7 seconds.

An additional indication of the fitness required, though we are not asking you to measure this, is that you should be able to walk unaided at a pace of three miles per hour for at least half an hour at a time, and to stand unsupported for at least fifteen minutes.

21–28 Granada & Córdoba (mc 442) Dr David McGrath ................................. 20221– 3 Sicily (mc 465) Dr Luca Leoncini .................................... 15522–29 Modern Art on the Côte d’Azur (mc 434) Lydia Bauman .......................... 8222– 2 Samarkand & Silk Road Cities (mc 457) Dr Peter Webb ........................ 21823–30 Essential Puglia (mc 446) Christopher Newall................................. 15224– 1 Barcelona 1900 (mc 447) Gijs van Hensbergen ............................... 19726– 4 Sardinia (mc 468) Dr R. T. Cobianchi .................................. 15428– 2 ThE DivinE OffiCE: ChORAL MuSiC in OxfORD (mc 460) ............ 5728– 3 Pompeii & herculaneum (mc 467) Dr Mark Grahame .................................. 15029– 7 Aragón (mc 469) Adam Hopkins ........................................ 19430– 4 Siena & San Gimignano (mc 470) Dr Antonia Whitley ............................... 135

October 2015 1– 5 The venetian hills (mc 479) Dr Joachim Strupp ...................................118 1– 7 Gardens & villas of the italian Lakes (mc 471) Steven Desmond ......................116 1–10 Provence & Languedoc (mc 486) Dr Alexandra Gajewski ........................... 77 3–10 Athens & Rome (mc 487) Professor Roger Wilson .......................... 147 3–18 Eastern Turkey (mc 472) Rowena Loverance .................................. 211 4–10 Art in the netherlands (mc 488) Dr Guus Sluiter ........................................174 4–11 Courts of northern italy (mc 476) Dr Michael Douglas-Scott ..................... 124 5–10 friuli-venezia Giulia (mc 481) Dr Joachim Strupp .................................. 119 5–11 Malta (mc 490) Juliet Rix ................................................... 166 5–13 Roman Algeria (mc 477) Anthony Sattin .......................................... 16 5–16 Ancient Egypt (mc 489) Professor John Ray .................................... 44 5–17 Sicily (mc 475) Dr Philippa Joseph .................................. 155 5–18 The Western Balkans (mc 474) David Gowan............................................. 30 7–22 Ethiopia (mc 485) Jacopo Gnisci ............................................. 65 8–17 new England Modern (mc 478) Professor Harry Charrington .................21410–21 Cliff Dwellings & Canyons (mc 480) John M. Fritz............................................ 21712–17 Pompeii & herculaneum (mc 484) Professor Roger Wilson ........................ 15012–19 Caravaggio (mc 482) Dr Helen Langdon .................................. 14912–20 Palestine (mc 483) Dr Felicity Cobbing ................................. 17813–22 israel & Palestine (mc 492) Dr Garth Gilmour ................................... 11214–18 Ravenna & urbino (mc 491) Dr Luca Leoncini .................................... 128

19–25 Gastronomic Sicily (mc 499) Marc Millon ............................................. 15919–28 Castile & León (mc 500) Gijs van Hensbergen ............................... 19119–29 Essential Andalucía (mc 501) Adam Hopkins ........................................20020– 2 Essential China (mc 493) Jon Cannon ................................................ 3524– 6 Mughals & Rajputs (mc 505) Dr Giles Tillotson .................................... 11025– 2 Essential Jordan (mc 506) Sue Rollin & Jane Streetly ...................... 16226– 2 footpaths of umbria (mc 507) Dr Antonia Whitley ............................... 142 Parma verdi festival ............................ 130 Opera in Cardiff .................................... 221

November 2015 2– 7 MOnTEvERDi in vEniCE: ThE fOuR OPERAS ........................... 121 2–10 Roman Algeria (mc 517) Barnaby Rogerson ..................................... 16 2–14 Sicily (mc 518) Dr Ffiona Gilmore Eaves ....................... 155 3– 8 Connoisseur’s Rome (mc 519) Dr Kevin Childs ...................................... 145 3– 9 Essential Rome (mc 521) Christopher Newall................................. 144 4–15 Art in Texas (mc 520) Gijs van Hensbergen ............................... 216 7–17 Gastronomic Kerala (mc 525) Dr Elizabeth Collingham ....................... 11010–14 valencia (mc 522) Adam Hopkins ........................................ 19811–15 florentine Palaces (mc 523) Dr Joachim Strupp .................................. 13416–26 Oman (mc 526) Professor Dawn Chatty .......................... 17617–21 venetian Palaces (mc 530) Dr Michael Douglas-Scott ..................... 120

From The Foreign Tour of Brown, Jones & Robinson 1904

December 2015We will run about seven or eight tours over Christmas and New Year. Details will be available in the spring of 2015. Please contact us to register your interest.

Rome, Theatre of Marcellus, watercolour by C.I.G. Formelli publ. 1927

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Leaders in the fieldAt Martin Randall Travel we are committed to providing the best planned, the best led and altogether the most fulfilling and enjoyable cultural tours available.

We offer an unequalled range of tours and events focusing on art, architecture, music, archaeology, history, literature and gastronomy. They are designed for people with a desire to learn, to understand and to appreciate.

For most of our twenty-six years we have been the dominating force in intellectual travel. Inventive, pioneering and innovative we have led the way not only with new ideas and itineraries but also by setting the benchmark for customer service and administration.

Martin Randall Travel is one of the most respected travel companies in the world.

First-rate lecturersExpert speakers are a key ingredient in our tours and events. Academics, curators, writers, broadcasters and researchers, they are selected not only for their knowledge but also for their ability to communicate clearly and engagingly to a lay audience. Their brief is to enlighten and stimulate, not merely to inform. And they also have to be good travelling companions.

We select our lecturers through reputation, interview and audition, and provide them with guidance and training. Many of them are the leading experts in their field.

Nearly all of our tours are also accompanied by a trained tour manager.

Original itineraries, meticulously plannedRooted in knowledge of the destination and subject matter of the tour, the outcome of assiduous research and reconnaissance, and underpinned by twenty-six years of experience, our itineraries are second to none.

They are original and imaginative, well-paced and carefully balanced. Meticulous attention to practical matters ensures a smooth-running as well as an enriching experience.

Special arrangements for admission to places not generally open to travellers, or for access at times when they are closed to the public, are a feature of nearly all our tours.

In innumerable ways, large and small, we lift our clients’ experience far above standards which are regarded as normal for tourists.

Travelling in comfortWe select our hotels with great care. Not only have nearly all been inspected by members of our staff, we have stayed in most of them. Hundreds of others have been seen and rejected.

Obviously, comfort ranks high among our criteria, together with good service and warmth of welcome. We also set high priority on charm and style, and location is also an important consideration, with a preference for the historic town centre. Most of the hotels we use are rated as 4-star, with some 5-star and a few 3-star.

We invest similar efforts into the selection of restaurants, menus and wines.

Britain’s leading provider of cultural tours

Siponto Cathedral, Puglia, engraving from The Shores of the Adriatic: The Italian Side by F. Hamilton Jackson, 1906

Illustration, left: a Bavarian cartoon of 1900

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For flights and trains we try to choose the most convenient departure times. Rail journeys are usually in first-class carriages.

We can provide a holiday without the international flights or trains if you prefer, allowing you to make your own arrangements for international travel. It is also usually possible to make other variations to the package. (There is an administration fee for this, from £40.)

Small groups, and congenial companyMost of our tours run with between ten and twenty participants. We strictly limit numbers, specifying the maximum in each tour description. The higher costs of smaller numbers are outweighed by the benefits of manoeuvrability, social cohesion and access to the lecturer.

The small-group principle is diluted when there are private concerts arranged exclusively for our clients.

Not the least attractive aspect of travelling with MRT is that you are highly likely to find yourself in congenial company, self-selected by common interests and endorsement of the company’s ethos.

Care for our clientsWe aim for faultless administration from your first encounter with us to the end of the holiday, and beyond. Personal service is a feature. And if anything does go wrong, we will put it right or compensate appropriately. We want you to come back again and again – as most of our clients do.

Value for money, and no surchargesThe price includes nearly everything, not only the major ingredients such as hotel, transport and the costs of the lecturer but also tips for waiters, drivers and guides, wine with meals, airport taxes and credit card charges.

We do not levy surcharges for fuel price increases, exchange rate changes, additional taxes or for any other reason. The price published here is the price you pay.

Travelling soloWe welcome people travelling on their own, for whom our tours are ideal, as so many of our clients testify. Often there are several solo participants on a tour, but no one need fear feeling excluded. On the few evenings when dinner is not included there is always the option of dining with the tour manager.

Regrettably, hotels usually charge a supplement for single occupancy of a room, but we never add anything to this – indeed, most of the supplements we charge are subsidised by ourselves, sometimes by hundreds of pounds.

Where we are able to, we assign those travelling on their own to rooms which are normally sold as doubles.

L’Academie des Sciences et des Beaux Arts, mid-18th-century copper engraving

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Fitness

Ours are active holidays. Walking, stair-climbing and standing around for lengthy periods are unavoidable aspects of every tour. They should not present problems for anyone of normal fitness but they are not suitable for those who are slow, need support or are low on stamina.

On many tours there is a lot of walking on streets that may be steep or poorly paved. On others you may need to scramble over fallen masonry and very uneven ground. More usually it is just a case of getting from one place to another, and getting on and off coaches several times a day.

The tours are also group events. The presence of even one person who is not fit enough to cope can spoil the experience for everyone else.

We are therefore asking that people wishing to join a tour take some quick and simple self-assessment tests to ascertain whether they have an adequate level of fitness. These are described on page 227. By signing the booking form you are stating that you have accepted this condition.

If during the tour it transpires you are not adequately fit, you may be asked to opt out of certain visits, or invited to leave the tour altogether. This would be at your own expense.

Tours do vary. Please refer to the How strenuous? paragraph in the Practicalities section of the tour description.

Tours which are billed as walking tours, with hikes through countryside, usually hilly, of up to three hours, require a different scale of fitness and agility. Please attend to the descriptions of these tours carefully.

On the other hand, it is not necessary to take the tests to attend chamber music weekends and symposia in the UK.

What is included?Included in the price for every tour:

• The services of the lecturer and often a tour manager; sometimes also local guides

• Hotel accommodation, as described in the brochure or on the website

• Admissions to museums, galleries and sites included in the itinerary

• If a music tour, good tickets to all performances listed on the itinerary (unless marked as optional)

• Travel by private coach for excursions included in the itinerary and, where applicable, airport transfers

• Wine or beer, water, soft drinks and tea or coffee are provided with all included meals

• Gratuities for restaurant staff, porters, drivers and guides• All state and airport taxes• For tours outside the UK, return travel between London

and the destination – with only the occasional exception• If you are travelling with the group, and there is a group

visa arrangement, this is also included in the tour price

For a list of what is included in the price for each tour please visit our website, www.martinrandall.com, or contact us.

This brochure was written and designed in-house. Most of the text was written originally by Martin Randall and all staff were involved in editing and proofing, as was Julia MacRae. Lecturers also contributed. It was designed by Jo Murray, and Derek Brown (Harvest Media Ltd.) prepared it for our printers (Taylor Bloxham).

Tomb of Sheik Ababde, lithograph 1871 after Carl Werner

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AlgeriaRoman Algeria ........................................................ 16

AustriaOpera in Vienna ...................................................... 18The Ring in Vienna ............................................... 19Vienna’s Masterpieces ........................................... 20Connoisseur’s Vienna ............................................ 21Vienna & Budapest 1900 ..................................... 103The DAnuBe MusIC FesTIVAl ................... 22Innsbruck early Music Festival ........................... 22salzburg summer ................................................... 22Walking the Danube .............................................. 23Mozart in salzburg ................................................ 24haydn in eisenstadt ............................................... 25The schubertiade .................................................... 26The Iron Curtain ..................................................... 86

BelgiumFlemish Painting..................................................... 27Agincourt, Crécy & Waterloo .............................. 28Flanders Fields ........................................................ 29

Bosnia & HerzegovinaThe Western Balkans ............................................. 30

ChinaMing & Qing Civilization ..................................... 32Chinese Ceramics .................................................. 34essential China ....................................................... 35sacred China ............................................................ 36

CroatiaThe Western Balkans ............................................. 30

Czech RepublicPrague spring .......................................................... 38Bohemia .................................................................... 39Connoisseur’s Prague ............................................ 40Moravia ..................................................................... 42The Iron Curtain ..................................................... 86

DenmarkVikings & Bog People ............................................ 43

EgyptAncient egypt .......................................................... 44Antiquities of upper egypt .................................. 46

EnglandGreat houses of the north ................................... 47Walking to Derbyshire houses ........................... 48Great houses of the south West .......................... 50At home in Weston Park ...................................... 51West Country Churches ........................................ 52The Age of Bede ....................................................... 53Constable & Gainsborough .................................. 54Walking a Royal River ........................................... 55Walking hadrian’s Wall ....................................... 56ChAMBeR MusIC WeekenDs ..................... 57 I Fagiolini • The Leonore Piano Trio A Weekend of Mozart • Easter at The CastleThe DIVIne OFFICe ......................................... 57literature & Walking in the lake District ........ 58The Cathedrals of england ................................... 59In Churchill’s Footsteps ........................................ 61Connoisseur’s london ........................................... 62lOnDOn DAys ..................................................... 63See page 186 for Scotland and page 220 for Wales

EstoniaThe Baltic states ...................................................... 64

Ethiopiaethiopia..................................................................... 65

Finlandsavonlinna Opera ................................................... 67Finland: Aalto & Others ....................................... 68The sibelius Festival, lahti ................................... 69

FranceAgincourt, Crécy & Waterloo .............................. 28Mediaeval Art in Paris .......................................... 69French Gothic .......................................................... 70The history of Impressionism ............................. 71Ballet in Paris .......................................................... 72Brittany ..................................................................... 73Poets & The somme .................................................74The Western Front .................................................. 75Mediaeval Burgundy ............................................. 76Provence & languedoc .......................................... 77Cave Art of France .................................................. 79Gardens of the Riviera ........................................... 80Opera in Marseille & lyon ................................... 81Modern Art on the Côte d’Azur .......................... 82

GeorgiaGeorgia ...................................................................... 85

GermanyBerlin, Potsdam, Dresden..................................... 84The Dresden Festspiele .......................................... 85The Iron Curtain ..................................................... 86Walking the Rhine Valley ..................................... 88The RhIne VAlley MusIC FesTIVAl ..... 89handel in halle ....................................................... 90Mediaeval saxony ................................................... 91Mitteldeutschland .................................................. 92The JOhAnn seBAsTIAn BACh JOuRney ................................................... 93Dresden & Meissen ................................................. 93

Organs of Bach’s Time ........................................... 94The lukas Cranachs ............................................... 95king ludwig II ........................................................ 96Opera in Munich & Bregenz ................................ 97Baroque & Rococo .................................................. 98

GreeceClassical Greece ...................................................... 99Central Macedonia ............................................... 101Minoan Crete ......................................................... 102Athens & Rome ..................................................... 147

Guatemalalands of the Maya................................................. 168

HungaryThe Iron Curtain ..................................................... 86Vienna & Budapest 1900 ..................................... 103

Indiaessential India ....................................................... 104sacred India ........................................................... 106Indian summer ..................................................... 108Temples of Tamil nadu ....................................... 110Gastronomic kerala ............................................. 110Architecture of the British Raj .......................... 110Bengal by River ..................................................... 110Mughals & Rajputs ............................................... 110

IranPersia ........................................................................111

IsraelIsrael & Palestine .................................................. 112

ItalyPalaces of Piedmont ..............................................114Genoa & Turin ....................................................... 115Gardens & Villas of the Italian lakes ...............116Verona Opera .........................................................117The Venetian hills .................................................118Friuli-Venezia Giulia ........................................... 119Venetian Palaces ................................................... 120MOnTeVeRDI In VenICe: The FOuR OPeRAs .......................................... 121Palladian Villas ..................................................... 122Venice & Florence ................................................. 123Courts of northern Italy ..................................... 124Dark Age Brilliance ............................................. 125Gastronomic emilia-Romagna ......................... 126Ravenna & urbino ................................................ 128The Po Valley ......................................................... 129Chamber Music Weekends in Italy ................... 130Parma Verdi Festival............................................ 130Florence................................................................... 130leonardo da Vinci ................................................ 132history of Medicine ............................................. 133Florentine Palaces ................................................ 134siena & san Gimignano ...................................... 135lucca ........................................................................ 136Torre del lago ........................................................ 137Walking in the Footsteps of leonardo & Michelangelo .............................. 138Trasimeno Music Festival ................................... 139

Tours by country

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Opera in Macerata & Pesaro .............................. 139Piero della Francesca ........................................... 139The heart of Italy .................................................. 140Footpaths of umbria ............................................ 142Art in le Marche ................................................... 143essential Rome ...................................................... 144Connoisseur’s Rome ............................................ 145Gardens & Villas of Campagna Romana ........ 146Athens & Rome ..................................................... 147Caravaggio ............................................................. 149Pompeii & herculaneum .................................... 150naples: Art, Antiquities, Opera ........................ 150normans in the south ......................................... 151essential Puglia ..................................................... 152sardinia ................................................................... 154sicily ........................................................................ 155The Greeks in sicily .............................................. 157Gastronomic sicily ............................................... 159

JapanArt in Japan ............................................................ 160

Jordanessential Jordan .................................................... 162Jordan Revisited .................................................... 164

Latvia, LithuaniaThe Baltic states ...................................................... 64

MaltaMalta ........................................................................ 166Valletta Baroque Festival .................................... 167

Mexicolands of the Maya................................................. 168

MoroccoMorocco .................................................................. 170Andalusian Morocco ........................................... 172

The NetherlandsArt in the netherlands .........................................174The Renewed Rijksmuseum ............................... 175Walking the Rhine Valley ..................................... 88The RhIne VAlley MusIC FesTIVAl ..... 89

OmanOman ....................................................................... 176

PalestineIsrael & Palestine .................................................. 112Palestine.................................................................. 178

PeruPeru .......................................................................... 180

Portugallisbon neighbourhoods ..................................... 182Gardens of northern Portugal .......................... 183The Douro .............................................................. 184Wellington in the Peninsula ..............................204

Russiast Petersburg .......................................................... 185

ScotlandArdgowan ............................................................... 186edinburgh Festival ............................................... 187

SlovakiaThe Iron Curtain ..................................................... 86

SpainWalking to santiago ............................................ 187The Road to santiago ........................................... 188Bilbao to Bayonne ................................................. 190Castile & león ....................................................... 191Art in Madrid ........................................................ 193Aragón .................................................................... 194Gastronomic Catalonia ....................................... 195Barcelona 1900 ...................................................... 197Valencia ................................................................... 198extremadura .......................................................... 199essential Andalucía..............................................200Granada & Córdoba ............................................. 202Gastronomic Andalucía ...................................... 203Wellington in the Peninsula ..............................204

SwitzerlandThe lucerne Festival ............................................ 206

TurkeyIstanbul ................................................................... 207Classical Turkey .................................................... 208Central Anatolia ................................................... 209eastern Turkey ...................................................... 211

USAeast Coast Galleries ............................................. 213new england Modern ...........................................214Frank lloyd Wright.............................................. 215Art in Texas ............................................................ 216Cliff Dwellings & Canyons ................................. 217

Uzbekistansamarkand & silk Road Cities .......................... 218

Walessnowdonia & Anglesey ........................................ 220Opera in Cardiff .................................................... 221

Making a booking .....................................222Booking Conditions .................................222Booking Form .................................. 223–224Tours by date .................................... 225–227self-assessment fitness tests .....................227

Responsible TourismMany of our tours feature visits to towns and villages off the beaten tourist trail, enabling you to experience local traditions and practices. We also strive to limit our impact on the environment. Our itineraries are designed to spend more time in places visited than on conventional tours; this often means there are days without travel.Martin Randall Travel contributes to Beyond Carbon, a travel industry scheme that assists development projects that encourage carbon savings (beyond-carbon.com). We make a donation to offset all the carbon in flights every time a lecturer, tour manager or member of staff takes a flight for a tour or a prospecting trip. You can choose to donate too, when you book online or pay your final invoice.Our policy is published on our website: www.martinrandall.com/responsible-tourism.

Financial securityThe Association of Independent Tour Operators. Martin Randall Travel Ltd is a member of AITO, an association of specialist travel companies most of which are independent and owner-managed. Admission is selective, and members are subject to a code of practice which prescribes high standards of professionalism and customer care. To contact the Association visit www.aito.co.uk or call 020 8744 9280. ABTA – The Travel Association. Martin Randall Travel Ltd is a Member of the Association of British Travel Agents (membership number Y6050). ABTA and ABTA members help holidaymakers to get the most from their travel and assist them when things do not go according to plan. We are obliged to maintain a high standard of service to you by ABTA’s Code of Conduct. For further information about ABTA, the Code of Conduct and the arbitration scheme available to you if you have a complaint, contact ABTA, 30 Park Street, London SE1 9EQ. www.abta.com.ATOl. All the flight-inclusive holidays in this brochure are financially protected by the ATOL (Air Transport Operators’ Licence) scheme. When you make your first payment you will be supplied with an ATOL Certificate. Please check to ensure that everything you booked is listed on it. For more information about financial protection and the ATOL Certificate go to www.atol.org.uk/ATOLCertificate. In the unlikely event of our insolvency, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) will ensure that you are not stranded abroad and will arrange to refund any money you have paid us for an advance booking. See our booking conditions (page 227) for further details.Financial protection for holidays that do not include a flight is provided by a bond held with ABTA.

Facing page illustration: illuminated letter by William Morris in Pen Drawing & Pen Draughtsmen by Joseph Pennell 1889; this page: 19th-century engraving of an antique bust of Plato.

“Despite the efforts of your competitors you continue to produce a product that far exceeds them on so many levels.”

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Tom Abbott. Specialist in architectural history from the Baroque to the 20th century with a particular interest in German and American modern. Studied Art History in the USA and Paris and has a wide knowledge of the performing arts. Since 1987 he has lived in Berlin.

Professor James Allan. Expert in Islamic art and architecture. He read Arabic at Oxford, worked as a field archaeologist in Jerusalem and at Siraf, and spent most of his career in Oxford’s

Ashmolean Museum, where he also lectured for the Faculty of Oriental Studies. He retired in 2011.

charles Allen. British writer and historian born in India where several generations of his family served under the British Raj. He has published numerous books, most recently Ashoka: The Search

for India’s Lost Emperor, and in 2012 filmed a documentary for the National Geographic entitled Unearthing the Bones of the Buddha.

Dr Paul Atterbury. Lecturer, writer and broadcaster specialising in the art, architecture and design of the 19th and 20th centuries. He has published widely on pottery, porcelain, canals,

railways, and the Thames. He curated the V&A exhibitions Pugin and The Victorian Vision and is an expert on BBC’s Antiques Roadshow.

Helena Attlee. Writer and lecturer with an expert knowledge of Italian gardens. Among her books are Italian Gardens: a Cultural History and most recently The Land Where Lemons Grow. She

was Writer in Residence at the University of Worcester from 2009–2012 and is a Consultant Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund.

Dr Paul bahn. Archaeologist and Britain’s foremost specialist in prehistoric art. He led the team which discovered Britain’s only known Ice Age cave art at Creswell in 2003 and his books include Prehistoric Rock Art, Journey Through the Ice Age and Images of the Ice Age (forthcoming).

Lydia bauman. Art historian, artist, and lecturer at the National Gallery. Lydia studied at Newcastle University and the Courtauld Institute, specialising in Matisse and 19th–20th

century European and American art. She has lectured at the Tate, National Portrait Gallery,

Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Arts Club of Chicago.

Hugh belsey mbe. Art historian, curator and lecturer. For 23 years he curated Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury where he formed one of the largest collections of the artist’s work and in 2004

was awarded an mbe. He is currently writing a catalogue of Thomas Gainsborough’s works for Yale University Press, due for publication in 2016. He studied at Manchester and Birmingham Universities.

Dr Amira bennison. Reader in the History and Culture of the Maghrib and a Fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge. She gained her doctorate in Moroccan history from SOAS and her publications include Jihad & its Interpretations in Precolonial Morocco, as well as numerous articles on the culture, society and politics of Islamic Spain and Morocco.

Gail bent. Expert on British architectural history and historic interiors. She studied at Toronto and Leeds Universities, where she has also taught, and Edinburgh College of Art. She lectures

for The Art Fund, The National Trust, NADFAS and has acted as an expert on country houses for BBC television.

Dr David beresford-Jones. Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University. His research interests include the ancient south coast of Peru, the

origins of agriculture, Pre-Colombian textiles and the synthesis of archaeology and historical linguistics, particularly in the Andes.

raaja bhasin. Author, historian and journalist. He has published several books on the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh and its capital Shimla and is a recognised authority on both.

He is the state Co-convenor of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage.

Professor Tim blanning. Emeritus Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of Sidney Sussex College and Fellow of the British Academy. Among his

many books are the award-winning The Culture of Power & the Power of Culture, The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648–1815, The Triumph of Music in the Modern World, and most recently The Romantic Revolution.

Dr Flavio boggi. Art historian specialising in mediaeval and renaissance Italian art. He trained both in Scotland and Italy and is now head of the department of Art History at University College

Cork, Ireland. He has published on the artistic culture of Tuscany and has co-written two books on Lippo di Dalmasio.

Monica bohm-Duchen. Lecturer, writer and curator specialising in 20th-century art. She obtained her MA in Art History from the Courtauld and has lectured for the National Gallery, Tate,

Royal Academy, Courtauld, Sotheby’s and Birkbeck College. Her latest book is Art & the Second World War.

Dr Xavier bray. Art historian specialising in Spain. He is Chief Curator of Dulwich Picture Gallery where his recent exhibitions include Murillo & Justino de Neve: The Art of Friendship.

He was formerly at the National Gallery, London, where he curated Velázquez and The Sacred Made Real: Spanish Painting & Sculpture 1600–1700.

James brown. Historian specialising in Morocco with a wider interest in the history of the Muslim world. Studied at Oxford, Cambridge and SOAS and has worked as a journalist and teacher. His current

research is on relations between Morocco and Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Polly buston. Art historian specialising in Venetian art. She obtained her MA from the Courtauld and lectured at their Summer School for several years. She works for art history

publishers as editor and picture researcher and was co-author of Titian’s Venice, a multi-media project accompanying the 2003 National Gallery exhibition.

Professor Ian campbell-ross. Historian and lecturer. He is Emeritus Professor of Eighteenth-Century Studies and a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin. He has written widely on literature,

cultural history, and travel, most recently Umbria: a Cultural Guide (2013). He was made a Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia in 2007.

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Our lecturers

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“The lecturer’s knowledge of the subject of the tour is encyclopaedic and this with his engaging manner made the tour a wonderful cultural experience.”

Jon cannon. Writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and specialist in historic religious architecture. He co-wrote and presented the BBC’s How to Build a Cathedral. He has also travelled extensively in China

and is married to the Chinese author Liu Hong. He has published on China in the London Review of Books and in his The Secret Language of Sacred Spaces.

Terry charman. Senior Historian at the Imperial War Museum where his many projects and exhibitions include The Churchill Museum, Holocaust exhibition, and D-Day to

Victory exhibition. He gives frequent lectures and is an authority on the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.

Professor Harry charrington. Architect and Head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Westminster. He read architecture at Cambridge and obtained his PhD from

the LSE. His research focuses on modernism, and his books include the award-winning Alvar Aalto: the Mark of the Hand.

Professor Dawn chatty. Professor of Anthropology and Forced Migration at the University of Oxford. She has long been involved with the Middle East as a university teacher, development

practitioner, and advocate for indigenous rights. She has carried out research among Bedouin sheep herders in Syria and Lebanon and camel nomads in Oman.

Dr Kevin childs. Writer and lecturer on culture and the arts with a focus on the Italian Renaissance. He obtained his doctorate from the Courtauld and has been a Fellow of the Dutch Institute in Florence

and the British School in Rome. He blogs for The Huffington Post and has published in The New Statesman.

Dr Felicity cobbing. Executive and Curator of the Palestine Exploration Fund in London. She has excavated in Jordan with the British Museum, and worked throughout the Middle East.

Widely published on the archaeology in the Levant, she is co-author with Dr Raouf Sa’d Abujabber of Beyond the River – Ottoman Transjordan in Original Photographs.

Dr r. T. cobianchi. Art historian and lecturer. He completed his PhD at Warwick University, was a Rome Scholar at The British School in Rome and Fellow of both the Biblioteca Hertziana,

Rome, and Villa I Tatti, Florence . His research includes iconography and patronage of the late Middle Ages to the Baroque.

Dr elizabeth collingham. Food historian and writer. She obtained her PhD at Cambridge University. After teaching at the University of Warwick she became a Research Fellow at Jesus

College, Cambridge. She is author of Imperial Bodies: the Physical Experience of the Raj. c. 1800–1947, is an Associate Fellow of Warwick University, and is writing a history of food and the British Empire.

Peter cormack. Art historian and curator. He is Honorary Curator of William Morris’s Oxfordshire home, Kelmscott Manor, and was formerly Keeper of the William

Morris Gallery, London. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and Vice-President and Honorary Fellow of the British Society of Master Glass-Painters.

Major Gordon corrigan mbe. Military historian and former officer of the Royal Gurkha Rifles. The latest of his numerous books is Waterloo – A New History of the Battle and its Armies. He is a Fellow

of the Royal Asiatic Society and a Member of the British Commission for Military History.

Imogen corrigan. Specialist in Anglo-Saxon and mediaeval history. She spent twenty years in the army, retiring in the rank of Major, then obtained a first-class degree in Medieval History

from the University of Kent, and has been studying and lecturing ever since. Imogen is currently researching a PhD at the University of Birmingham.

steven Desmond. Landscape consultant, architectural historian and a specialist in the conservation of historic parks and gardens. He broadcasts for the BBC, advises the National Trust,

writes for Country Life, lectures at Buckingham and Oxford universities and is a Fellow of the Institute of Horticulture.

Jeremy Dixon. Architect and lecturer, and partner at architects Dixon Jones, London. Having trained at the Architect Association, Jeremy has taught at a number of architectural schools, served as an RIBA examiner and lectured widely. Much of his work at Dixon Jones has involved buildings for the arts and culture in London.

Misha Donat. Writer, lecturer and senior music producer for BBC Radio 3 for over 25 years. He writes programme notes for Wigmore Hall and other venues, and booklets for music labels. Currently he

is working on a new edition of the Beethoven piano sonatas being published by Bärenreiter.

Dr Michael Douglas-scott. Associate Lecturer in History of Art at Birkbeck College, specialising in 16th-century Italian art and architecture. He studied at the Courtauld and lived in Rome for several

years. He has written articles for Arte Veneta, Burlington Magazine and the Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes.

Dr Michael Downes. Director of Music at the University of St Andrews. He is a reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement and his publications include a study of British composer Jonathan

Harvey. He has an interest in opera both as conductor and writer, and has lectured for the Royal Opera and Glyndebourne.

Professor David ekserdjian. Professor of Art History at the University of Leicester. He specialises in Italian Renaissance painting and on the history of collecting, working as adviser to Sotheby’s, Christie’s, The National Gallery and Tate Britain. He co-curated Bronze at the Royal Academy and his book of the exhibition won the Association for Cultural Enterprises award for best new publication.

Dr Andrew Farrington. Assistant Professor in Ancient History at the Democritus University of Thrace in northern Greece. He also teaches for the Greek Open University and previously held

academic posts in Australia and New Zealand. His specialism is the sporting life of the ancient Greeks, especially under the Roman empire.

Professor sir richard J. evans. Regius Professor of History and President of Wolfson College at the University of Cambridge. He is author of numerous books on Central European history

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Our lecturerscontinued

and is currently working on The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815–1914. His latest book is Altered Pasts: Counterfactuals in History.

Dr Frances Fowle. Senior Curator of French Art at the Scottish National Gallery where she has curated several exhibitions including the 2014 show American Impressionism. She is Reader

in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh and her publications include Monet & French Landscape: Vetheuil & Normandy and Symbolist Landscape in Europe 1880–1910.

John M. Fritz. Archaeologist, writer and Consulting Scientist at University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. He investigated prehistoric cultures of Arizona

and New Mexico in the 60s and 70s and since 1981 has co-directed research at Hampi. His joint publications include Where Kings and Gods Meet: the Royal Centre at Vijayanagara and Hampi, a Story in Stone.

Lucia Gahlin. Teaches Egyptology at Exeter and Bristol and is a Research Associate at UCL’s Institute of Archaeology. She is closely involved with the Petrie Museum of Egyptian

Archaeology and has worked on excavations at Amarna in Egypt. Her publications include Egypt: Gods, Myths & Religion.

Dr Alexandra Gajewski. Architectural historian and lecturer specialising in the mediaeval. She obtained her PhD from the Courtauld and has lectured there and at Birkbeck College. She is currently in Madrid researching ‘The Roles of Women as Makers of Medieval Art and Architecture’.

Dr Ffiona Gilmore Eaves. Read Archaeology at Cambridge and obtained her PhD from Nottingham. Her special interest is in the Adriatic and she is the co-author of Retrieving the record: a century of archaeology at Porec. She has lectured extensively in adult education, especially for the WEA, and for various extra-mural departments.

Dr Garth Gilmour. Biblical archaeologist based at Oxford University. His interests include eastern Mediterranean trade in the Late Bronze Age and the archaeology of religion in

ancient Israel. He has excavated at the Philistine sites of Ekron and Ashkelon and is currently researching the Palestine Exploration Fund’s excavation in Jerusalem in the 1920s.

Jacopo Gnisci. Art historian and an expert on Ethiopian and early Christian art. He is currently researching for his PhD at SOAS and is working on an exhibition of Ethiopian art. He edits the journal of

the Anglo-Ethiopian Society and has travelled extensively in the country.

David Gowan. British Ambassador in Belgrade from 2003–6 and Minister and Deputy Head of Mission in Moscow from 2000–3. He was Kosovo War Crimes Co-ordinator in the Foreign

and Commonwealth Office in 1999 and has published papers on Serbia and Kosovo.

Dr Angus Graham. Egyptologist and lecturer. He is Wallenberg Academy Fellow at Uppsala University, Sweden, and Honorary Research Associate at the Institute of Archaeology,

UCL. He is the Field Director of the Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Survey and has worked on archaeological projects at Giza, Memphis, Karnak and Edfu.

Dr Mark Grahame. Archaeologist and lecturer, whose research interests focus on Roman Pompeii. He has taught courses on the archaeology and history of the Roman Empire

including for Cambridge University’s Institute of Continuing Education.

Dr Jamie Greenbaum. Historian specialising in Ming dynasty cultural history. He is a Visiting Fellow in the School of Culture, History & Language at the Australian National University and

lectures at the Renmin University, Beijing. He has published books on the late-Ming literary world and the early twentieth-century political figure Qu Qiubai.

Dr David Griffiths. Expert in Viking and early Mediaeval archaeology. David is Reader and Associate Professor in Archaeology, University of Oxford, and Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford,

having previously taught at UCL. His book Vikings of the Irish Sea was published in 2010. He has extensive experience of fieldwork in Scandinavia and is a former visiting researcher at the University of Tromsø.

Angus Haldane. Art consultant and dealer, lecturer and writer. After studying Classics at Oxford, and Byzantine and Renaissance art at the Courtauld, he worked for many years in the

Impressionist and 19th-Century Department at Christie’s and in the British Paintings Department at Sotheby’s.

sheila Hale. Writer and lecturer, with a focus on the Italian Renaissance. Among her books are Titian: His Life & the Golden Age of Venice and Verona: An Architectural History. She has contributed

to numerous newspapers in the UK and US including the New York Times and the London Review of Books.

Michael Hall. Historian and writer on British architecture and design. He was architectural editor of Country Life, editor of Apollo magazine and his books include The Victorian Country

House and Waddesdon Manor: The Biography of a Rothschild House. His book on the great Victorian architect George Frederick Bodley will be published in late 2014.

Professor norman Hammond. Leading expert on Maya civilization. He is a Senior Fellow at Cambridge University and Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at Boston University. His many

books include Ancient Maya Civilization, Nohmul: a Prehistoric Maya Community in Belize and Cuello: an early Maya Community in Belize. He is Archaeology Correspondent for The Times.

Gijs van Hensbergen. Art historian and author specialising in Spain and the USA. His books include Gaudí, In the Kitchens of Castile and Guernica. He studied Art History at the

Courtauld and is a Fellow of the Cañada Blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies at the LSE.

caroline Holmes. Garden historian, author and consultant. She lectures for Cambridge University’s ICE, NADFAS and the Landmark Trust and her books include Monet at Giverny, Follies

of Europe – architectural extravaganzas and Impressionists in their Gardens. She is a regular contributor to BBC TV and radio.

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“Both the lecturer and the tour manager were very well informed, communicated well and organised very discreetly and flexibly.”

Adam Hopkins. Adam Hopkins. Journalist and author, now living in a mountain village in Spain. He studied at King’s College, Cambridge, and has contributed extensively

to national newspapers in Britain on Spanish culture and travel. Among his books: Spanish Journeys: a Portrait of Spain.

Henry Hurst. Emeritus Reader in Classics at Cambridge University. His special interest is the archaeology of ancient cities and he has been an excavating archaeologist –

working at Carthage for many years and more recently in Rome. He has travelled widely in Greece and Turkey.

Michael Ivory. After studying modern languages at Oxford, he qualified as a town planner and landscape architect. He taught these subjects at university level and now works as a writer and

translator, specialising in Central Europe. His books include guides to Prague and the Czech Republic, including the Berlitz Czech Republic.

stephen Johnson. Presenter for BBC Radio 3’s Discovering Music and frequent broadcaster for BBC Radio 4 and World Service. Stephen has been a critic and journalist for the The Independent, The

Guardian and Gramophone and a lecturer at Exeter University. His books include Bruckner Remembered, Mahler and Wagner.

James Johnstone. Organist specialising in the Baroque and Professor of early keyboards at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Trinity College of Music. He has performed and recorded

as a soloist, with the Gabrieli Consort & Players and with Florilegium. He re-formed the chamber group Trio Sonnerie.

neil Johnstone. Archaeologist and lecturer. He works in North Wales on Lottery-funded heritage projects and his work on the royal courts of the Welsh princes and related

excavations have shed new light on the archaeology of mediaeval Gwynedd. He is vice chairman of Segontium Roman museum and a Member of the Institute of Field Archaeologists.

Dr Philippa Joseph. Author, lecturer and reviews editor for History Today. For twenty years she published journals and books for societies including Association of Art Historians, The Historical

Association and Society for Renaissance Studies. Her current research looks at late mediaeval and early modern societies in Andalucía and Sicily.

John Keay. Journalist, author and lecturer who has been travelling to India for forty years. His India: A History and The Honourable Company: A History of the East India Company are considered

standard texts; The Great Arc on the mapping of India was a best-seller.

Professor Hugh Kennedy. Professor of Arabic at SOAS. He studied at the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies in Beirut, and read Arabic and Persian at Cambridge. He is author of The Early

Abbasid Caliphate, The Prophet & the Age of the Caliphates, Crusader Castles and Muslim Spain & Portugal.

sir nicholas Kenyon. Managing Director of the Barbican Centre and former Director and Controller of the BBC Proms. He has been music critic for The New Yorker and The Observer,

music editor of The Listener and editor of Early Music. He is author of the Faber Pocket Guide to Bach and edited Authenticity & Early Music.

Dr rose Kerr. Graduated in Chinese studies and spent a year as a student in China during the last year of the Cultural Revolution, 1975–1976. She is Honorary Associate of the Needham

Research Institute in Cambridge, having retired as Keeper of the Far Eastern Department at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Professor Helen King. Professor of Classical Studies at The Open University and Visiting Professor at the Peninsula Medical and Dental School (Exeter and Plymouth), and at the

University of Vienna. Her publications include Greek & Roman Medicine and Midwifery, Obstetrics & the Rise of Gynaecology: Uses of a Sixteenth-Century Medical Compendium.

caroline Knight. Architectural historian specialising in 16th- to 18th-century British architectural and social history. She studied History and History of Art at London University, followed

by an MA at the Courtauld Institute. Former Director of the V&A’s High Renaissance-Baroque Year course, and author of the book London’s Country Houses.

Dr Jarl Kremeier. Art historian specialising in 17th- to 19th-century architecture and decorative arts. He teaches Art History at the Berlin College of Acting and Berlin’s Freie Universität. He is a contributor to Macmillan’s Dictionary of Art and author of Die Hofkirche der Würzburger Residenz.

Anthony Lambert. Historian, journalist and travel writer. He has worked for the National Trust for almost 30 years. His books include Victorian & Edwardian Country House Life and he writes regularly for the Historic Houses Association magazine. He has written numerous travel and guide books, and contributes to a wide range of newspapers and magazines.

Dr Helen Langdon. Art historian and author. She studied at Cambridge and the Courtauld and was a Research Fellow at the Getty Institute, LA, and Visiting Fellow at Yale. Her books include

Claude Lorrain, Caravaggio: a Life and most recently Vision & Ecstasy: Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione’s St Francis.

Professor richard Langham smith. Music historian, broadcaster and writer with a particular interest in early music and 19th- and 20th-century French music. He co-authored the Cambridge

Opera Guide on Pelléas et Mélisande and has published widely on Debussy and Bizet. He is currently Research Professor at the Royal College of Music.

Dr Luca Leoncini. Art historian specialising in 15th-century Italian painting. His first degree and PhD were from Rome University followed by research at the Warburg Institute in London. He has contributed to the Macmillan Dictionary of Art and has written on Mantegna and Renaissance drawings.

Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones. Senior Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Edinburgh and a specialist in the history and culture of ancient Iran, the Near East and Greece. His books include

Ctesias’ History of Persia, Creating a Hellenistic World and King & Court in Ancient Persia.

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Dr rosie Llewellyn-Jones. An authority on colonial India. Her books include Engaging Scoundrels: True Tales of Old Lucknow, Lucknow: City of Illusion and The Great Uprising in India,

1857–58. She lectures for the Asian Arts course at the V&A and is Secretary of the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia.

rowena Loverance. Byzantine art historian specialising in sculpture, mosaics and icons. Studied History and Archaeology at Oxford and was Head of e-learning at the British

Museum and Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College, London. Her publications include the illustrated history Byzantium and Christian Art.

Gerald Luckhurst. Landscape architect and garden historian involved in both historic restoration and contemporary garden design. He is an expert on sub-tropical and Mediterranean

garden flora and his books include The Gardens of Madeira and Sintra: A Landscape with Villas.

Dr Alexey Makhrov. Art historian and lecturer. Studied at the St Petersburg Academy of Arts and obtained his PhD from the University of St Andrews followed by post-doctoral work as a Research

Fellow at Exeter. He now lives in Switzerland where he teaches courses on Russian art.

Andrew Martin. Journalist, novelist, historian and author of Underground Overground: a Passenger’s History of the Tube (2012). During the 1990s he was ‘Tube Talk’ columnist for the Evening Standard.

Dr David McGrath. Writer, translator and an expert on Spanish literature and culture. He completed his PhD in Hispanic literature at Queen Mary, London University, and is a Visting Research Fellow

in Spanish at King’s College, London. His current projects include a translation of Jusepe Martínez’s 17th-century treatise on the Noble Art of Painting.

John Mcneill. Architectural historian and a specialist in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. He lectures at Oxford University’s Department of Continuing Education and is Honorary

Secretary of the British Archaeological Association. Publications include the Blue

Guide: Normandy, Blue Guide: Loire Valley and Romanesque & the Past.

Patrick Mercer obe. Military historian. He read History at Oxford and then spent 25 years in the army, achieving the rank of colonel, and subsequently worked for BBC Radio 4 as Defence

Correspondent and as a journalist. He was MP for Newark from 2001 to 2014 and is the author of two books on the Battle of Inkerman.

Dr Jeffrey Miller. Art historian specialising in architecture of the Middle Ages. He obtained his MA from the Courtauld and his PhD from Columbia University where he is now

a Core Lecturer. He has contributed to the forthcoming Cambridge History of Religious Architecture of the World.

barry Millington. Chief Music Critic for The Evening Standard and founder/editor of The Wagner Journal. He is the author/editor of eight books on Wagner, including Wagner, The Wagner

Compendium and Richard Wagner: the Sorcerer of Bayreuth. He has acted as dramaturgical adviser at international opera houses and is known as a broadcaster and lecturer.

Marc Millon. Wine, food and travel writer. Born in Mexico, raised in the USA he then studied English Literature at the University of Exeter. He owns a business importing Italian wines from family

estates and is author of The Wine & Food of Europe, The Wine Roads of Italy and The Food Lover’s Companion to Italy.

Dr Anna-Maria Misra. Lecturer in Modern History at Oxford University and a specialist on Indian history and the British Empire. She has published widely including Vishnu’s Crowded

Temple: India since the Great Rebellion and she wrote and presented the Channel 4 series An Indian Affair.

David Mitchinson. Former Head of Collections and Exhibitions at the Henry Moore Foundation. He has written extensively on Moore’s life and work including Henry Moore: Unpublished Drawings,

Celebrating Moore and most recently Henry Moore: Prints & Portfolios.

Dr Andrew Moore. Writer and curator, and a specialist in the study of country houses and their art collections. He is Keeper of Art at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery and recently co-authored

a reassessment of Sir Robert Walpole’s art collection at Houghton Hall.

Dr robert Morkot. Specialist in north-east Africa. He read Ancient History at University College London and postgraduate studies in Berlin. He has contributed to the Oxford Classical Dictionary and The Black Pharaohs: Egypt’s Nubian Rulers.

Dr oswyn Murray. Classics Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, for almost 40 years. Widely travelled in the Mediterranean and a specialist on Greek drinking customs and the history of pleasure in

general. Among his books: Early Greece, The Greek City and In vino veritas. He is a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement.

Professor Fabrizio nevola. Chair and Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Exeter. His research focuses on urban and architectural history of Early Modern Italy and he has

published widely including the award-winning Siena: Constructing the Renaissance City.

christopher newall. Art historian, lecturer and writer. A specialist in 19th-century British art he also has a deep interest in southern Italy, its architecture, politics and social history. He studied

at the Courtauld and has curated various exhibitions including John Ruskin: Artist & Observer at the National Gallery of Canada and Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Dr charles nicholl. Honorary Professor of English at Sussex University and author of several books of biography, history and travel. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and

recipient of the Hawthornden prize, the James Tait Black prize for biography and the Crime Writers’ Association ‘Gold Dagger’ award.

Professor Geoffrey norris. Writer and broadcaster on BBC Radio 3. For many years he was Chief Music Critic of The Daily Telegraph, for which he still writes. He is Emeritus Professor at the Rachmaninoff

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include Rachmaninoff and contributions to the New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians.

Dr cathy oakes. Lecturer in History of Art at Oxford University with a focus on the mediaeval. She previously worked in the Education Department at the V&A and ran the art history programme

for the Department for Continuing Education at Bristol. She has published on French and English Romanesque and on Marian iconography.

Alan ogden. Travel writer and historian. His books include Fortresses of Faith: the Kirchenburgen of Transylvania, Revelations of Byzantium: the monasteries & painted churches of N.E.

Moldavia and Moons & Aurochs: Romanian journeys. He has written four histories of the Special Operations Executive covering Eastern Europe, Italy, Greece and the Far East.

Dr sophie oosterwijk. Researcher and lecturer and an expert on the Middle Ages, Netherlandish and Dutch art. She has taught at the universities of Leicester, Manchester and St Andrews,

and regularly lectures at Cambridge. She is a former editor of the journal Church Monuments and has published widely.

Ian Page. Conductor and Artistic Director of the Classical Opera Company. He performs regularly at Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, the Barbican and Sadler’s Wells and recently embarked

on a new project to record all the Mozart operas. He has been a professor at the Royal College of Music in London since 1993.

Dr Alan Peatfield. Archaeologist specialising in the Minoan Bronze Age Civilisation of Crete. He obtained his PhD from UCL. From 1984–90, was Knossos Curator for the British School at Athens and has been a lecturer at University College Dublin since 1991. He has excavated on Crete and writes on Minoan religion and ancient Greek combat.

Asoka Pugal. Historian and lecturer. Born in Tamil Nadu, he graduated in History from the University of Madras followed by postgraduate studies at Madras Law College. He has been working

in the tourist industry for the past 30 years as well as producing television documentaries.

Lesley Pullen. Art Historian, and lecturer at SOAS. She completed her Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art and Masters at SOAS and worked at Asia House in London for two years. She is currently

pursuing her PhD at SOAS researching the ‘Representation of Textiles on Indonesian Sculpture: 9th to 14th century’.

Jane Pritchard mbe. Curator of Dance for the V&A and co-curater of the exhibition Diaghilev & the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes 1909–1929. She was Archivist for Rambert Dance Company and English

National Ballet and her publications include Anna Pavlova: Twentieth-Century Ballerina.

Professor John ray. Herbert Thompson Professor of Egyptology at the University of Cambridge, where he has taught since 1977. His publications concentrate on the Persian and Hellenistic periods of Egyptian history. He is a Fellow of Selwyn College Cambridge, of the Society of Antiquaries of London and of the British Academy.

simon rees writes programme articles and surtitles for many British opera companies, and reviews for Opera, Opera Now, Musical Opinion, Early Music Today, Bachtrack and a range

of other publications. A novelist, poet and librettist, from 1989 to 2012 he was dramaturg at Welsh National Opera.

Mary Lynn riley. Specialist in 19th- and 20th-century modern and contemporary art. She lives on the Côte d’Azur and teaches art courses at the Musée Bonnard in Le Cannet and the Espace de

l’Art Concret at Mouans-Sartoux. Previously she worked at the Smithsonian in Washington.

Juliet rix. Writer and broadcaster with a particular interest in the history of Malta. She studied History of Art at Cambridge and is the author of the Bradt Guide: Malta & Gozo. Her career in

journalism has involved working for the BBC and writing for British national newspapers, magazines and online media.

barnaby rogerson. Writer and publisher with a particular interest in North Africa. Among his numerous works are North Africa, A Biography of the Prophet Muhammad and guide books

to Morocco, Tunisia, Cyprus and Istanbul. He also runs Eland Books, home to over 100 great classic travel books of the world.

sue rollin. Archaeologist, interpreter and lecturer, widely travelled in the Middle East and India. Her linguistic repertoire includes three ancient Near-Eastern languages and several modern

European ones. She has taught at UCL, SOAS and Cambridge, interprets for the EU and UN and is co-author of Blue Guide: Jordan and Istanbul: A Travellers’ Guide.

Professor Andrew sanders. Emeritus Professor of English at the Durham University and Past President of the Dickens Fellowship. Author of five books on Charles Dickens, the most recent of which

is Charles Dickens’s London, and has worked widely on 19th-century literature and culture.

Anthony sattin. Writer and journalist. His books include The Pharaoh’s Shadow, The Gates of Africa and Young Lawrence. He co-wrote the Lonely Planet guide to Algeria and has contributed

to numerous broadsheets. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, sits on the editorial board of Geographical Magazine and is a contributing editor to Conde Nast Traveller.

Professor Timon screech. Professor of History of Art at SOAS, University of London. He is an expert on the art and culture of the Edo period, including its international dimension, and has published

widely on the subject including Sex & the Floating World and Obtaining Images.

Dr Diane silverthorne. Art historian specialising in late-19th and 20th-century art, design and architecture. She completed her PhD at the Royal College of Art, lectures at Birkbeck, University

of London, and has published papers on modernism.

Dr József sisa. Art historian specialising in the 19th century. Head of Department at the Research Institute for Art History at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Budapest. He lectures in the

UK, across Europe and the USA and co-edited The Architecture of Historic Hungary.

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“Lecturer was superb! A fount of knowledge, completely on top of the subject matter.”

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Dr Guus sluiter. Art historian and Director of the Dutch Funeral Museum in Amsterdam. Prior to this he worked for the Mauritshuis in The Hague and the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. He has

published widely in the Netherlands and Italy and is a Research Fellow of the Dutch Institute for Art History in Florence.

Professor Jan smaczny. Hamilton Harty Chair of Music at Queen’s University, Belfast, and an authority on Czech music. An author, broadcaster and journalist, he has published books on

the Prague Provisional Theatre, Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, Music in 19th-century Ireland and Bach’s B-minor Mass.

Professor Tony spawforth. Historian, broadcaster, lecturer and writer specialising in Greek and Roman antiquity and in rulers’ courts. Books include The Complete Greek Temples, Greece: An Oxford Archaeological Guide (with C. Mee), and Versailles: A Biography of a Palace. He is Emeritus Professor of Ancient History at Newcastle University.

Andrew spooner. Military historian specialising in the Great War. He runs his own battlefield tours and organises specialist study days for colleges and museums throughout the country. He

is a regular visiting lecturer at the Imperial War Museum Duxford and has appeared in documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4.

Professor Gavin stamp. Architectural historian with an interest in 19th- and 20th-century British architecture. Has published on Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson, the Gilbert Scott dynasty and Sir Edwin

Lutyens. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland and the RIBA, and Honorary Professor at the universities of Glasgow and Cambridge.

Dr susan steer. Art historian and lecturer specialising in Venice. Her PhD was focused on Venetian Renaissance altarpieces, followed by work as researcher and editor on the

National Inventory of European Painting, the UK’s online catalogue. She has taught History of Art for university programmes in the UK and Italy.

Graeme stobbs. Archaeologist with over 20 years experience in field archaeology and an expert on Hadrian’s Wall. Assistant Curator of Roman Collections of English Heritage’s Hadrian’s Wall Museums and until recently worked as Archaeological Project Officer for Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums.

Professor richard stokes. Professor of Lieder at the Royal Academy of Music. His books include Complete Cantatas of J. S. Bach and The Book of Lieder. Has lectured at the Edinburgh Festival, given

masterclasses at Aldeburgh, and was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for services to German culture.

Jane streetly. Travel writer and interpreter and co-author of Blue Guide: Jordan and Istanbul: A Traveller’s Guide and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society. She has travelled widely throughout

Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

Dr Joachim strupp. Art historian and lecturer. He lived in Venice and Florence for several years and specialises in the sculpture of the Italian Renaissance, though his interests include

German and Italian art of most ages. He lectures at the V&A and organises adult art history courses and tours.

Tim Tatton-brown. Archaeologist and architectural historian. He is Consultant Archaeologist for St George’s Chapel, Windsor, and Westminster School and Vice-President of the Royal Archaeological Institute. His books include Great Cathedrals of Britain, The English Cathedral and Salisbury Cathedral, the making of a Medieval Masterpiece.

Jane Taylor. Writer, photographer, television producer and long-term resident of Amman. She studied Mediaeval History and Moral Philosophy at the University of St Andrews and her books include Imperial Istanbul, Petra & the Lost Kingdom of the Nabataeans, Jordan Images from the Air and Beyond the Jordan (with Isabelle Ruben).

neil Taylor. A leading expert on the former communist world. He read Chinese at Cambridge and has worked in tourism in China, the USSR and many Third World countries. His publications

include The Bradt Guide: Estonia, The Bradt Guide: Tallinn, The Bradt Guide: Baltic Cities and A Footprints Guide to Berlin.

Lars Tharp. A ceramics specialist, he appears regularly on BBC Antiques Roadshow. Former Director of the Foundling Museum and now its Hogarth Curator and vice-chairman of The

Hogarth Trust. He is a member of the English Ceramics Circle and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Dr Giles Tillotson. Writer and lecturer on Indian architecture, art and history. His books include Taj Mahal, Jaipur Nama: Tales from the Pink City and Return to Bhanupur. He is a Fellow, and

former Director, of the Royal Asiatic Society and was Chair of Art & Archaeology at SOAS.

Dr Thomas-Leo True. Art historian specialising in Renaissance and Baroque architecture. He received his doctorate from Cambridge and studied at the British School in Rome, where he

was a Rome Scholar. He has lived in Le Marche and is currently writing his first book on the Marchigian Cardinals of Pope Sixtus V.

Gail Turner. Art historian, lecturer and artist specialising in Spanish history and art. She read Modern History at Oxford and completed her MA at the Courtauld. She lectures for the National Trust

and Art Fund, and teaches courses at the V&A and the Courtauld Institute Summer School.

Dr Geoffrey Tyack. Architectural historian with a particular interest in the 18th to 20th centuries in Britain and Europe. He is Fellow of Kellogg College, University of Oxford, and author of John Nash: Architect of the Picturesque. He is also Editor of the Georgian Group Journal.

Dr David Vickers. Author, journalist, broadcaster and lecturer. He is co-editor of The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia and is preparing new editions of several of Handel’s music dramas. He is

a critic for Gramophone and BBC Radio 3 and an essayist for many record labels.

Professor stephen Walsh. Music writer and broadcaster. He is the author of a major biography of Stravinsky, and, most recently Musorgsky & his Circle. Former deputy music critic of The Observer he remains a contributor to other newspapers.


©Bill Knight

©Bill Knight

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Giles Waterfield. Curator and writer, Director of Royal Collection Studies and Associate Lecturer at the Courtauld. His exhibitions have included The Artist’s Studio and his publications

include Soane & After, Palaces of Art, Art for the People and Art Treasures of England.

Dr Peter Webb. Arabist and historian, specialising in early and mediaeval Islam. He has travelled extensively in the Middle East and Central Asia and has taught at SOAS and the American University of Paris. He is currently a Fellow at the Forum Transregionale Studien, Berlin, researching Mamluk Cairo.

Dr Adam White. Art historian and museum curator. He has worked at the Leeds Museums and Galleries since 1983. Since 1994 he has been based at Lotherton Hall and Temple Newsam House.

He is Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and has published widely on British art, particularly sculpture.

Dr Antonia Whitley. Art historian and lecturer specialising in the Italian Renaissance. She obtained her PhD from the Warburg Institute on Sienese society in the 15th century and has

published on related topics. She has lectured for the National Gallery, organises adult education study sessions and has led many tours in Italy.

richard Wigmore. Music writer, lecturer and broadcaster for BBC Radio 3. He writes for BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone and has taught at the Guildhall School of Music,

Trinity College of Music and Birkbeck College. His publications include Schubert: the Complete Song Texts and Pocket Guide to Haydn.

Professor roger Wilson. Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire and Director of the Centre for the Study of Ancient Sicily at the University of British Columbia. His published

works include Piazza Armerina and Sicily under the Roman Empire.

Dr Matthew Woodworth. Art historian with a focus on mediaeval architectural history. He obtained his MA from the Courtauld and completed his PhD on Beverley Minster at Duke University, North Carolina. He has published articles on English Gothic architecture, French Gothic sculpture, and the re-use of Gothic in the post-mediaeval period.

“The lecturer was once again an excellent choice: informative, constructive, witty, helpful and good company.”

Rouen (possibly), watercolour by Paul H. Ellis (1882–1908)

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Roman AlgeriaOutposts of Empire

5–13 October 2015 (mc 477)9 days • £3,320Lecturer: Anthony Sattin

2–10 November 2015 (mc 517)9 days • £3,320Lecturer: Barnaby Rogerson

Tipasa, Djemela & Timgad: three of North Africa’s most exceptional Roman sites, often void of tourists, let alone groups.

Charming city of Algiers, Alger La Blanche, with its nineteenth and early twentieth-century European architecture and authentic Casbah.

Outstanding selection of mosaics in museums throughout.

Three nights in Constantine, Algeria’s most alluring city.

Algeria is at the heart of any understanding of North Africa, or indeed of our modern world. The fearsome eight-year long battle for its independence stands beside the Vietnam War and Suez as one of the watersheds of late twentieth century realpolitik, while the decade-long Algerian emergency of the 1990’s increasingly reads like a preface to what is now happening in Egypt and Syria. Fascinating though this recent history is, especially when viewed through a largely intact if crumbling backdrop of French colonial architecture, it is the aesthetic lodestone

of the ruins built by the armies of Rome that lures the traveller into the Algerian hinterland.

The magnificently complete city ruins of Djemela and Timgad are very different in mood, though not in culture. One was built on the edge of the Kabyle mountains, the other on the margin of the arid steppe, though both were established as colonies for discharged veterans of the III Augusta Legion planted into the Berber landscape. They stand together as incontrovertible tactile proof of the Golden Age of the Roman Empire. For these are not Imperial capitals designed to dazzle the world but provincial cities built solely for the use of their citizens.

That these are the two best preserved out of the six hundred that once stood proudly throughout the breadth of Roman North Africa is a matter of chance, though nurtured by their romantic isolation. But this allows their nearly intact libraries, fountains, their painterly profusion of triumphal arches, choice of market squares, their theatres, baths, mosaics, processional ways and squares to speak to us in a very direct and moving way. Nothing can quite match this tangible eloquence of carved stone, though the little Roman mountain hamlet of Tiddis, the ruins of Hippo that were watched over by St Augustine and the coastal ruins of Tipasa, so beloved by Camus, all have their own haunting and beguiling charm.

To give variety to our antique palette we have added walks through the vibrant, ever fascinating cities of Algiers, Constantine

and Annaba. Evening talks and discussions will open up windows into Carthage and Berbers, French Orientalist artists and writers, Islam and Arabs, Barbary Corsairs and travellers ancient and modern.

Itinerary

Day 1: London to Algiers. Fly at c. 8.40am (British Airways) from London Gatwick for the 2½ hour flight to Algiers. Lunch at the hotel before a walking tour of Algiers revealing the city’s beautiful architecture including the Grande Poste and the whitewashed Rue Didouche Mourad with brilliant blue balconies and intricate stucco work, a testament to the city’s colonial history. We then visit the city’s most prominent landmark, Martyrs’ Monument, commemorating Algerian resistance fighters. First of three nights in Algiers.

Day 2: Tipasa, Cherchell. Drive west to the picturesque Roman site of Tipasa. Stop en route at the immense circular Numidian Tomb with spectacular views of the surrounding countryside and coast. Visit the recently renovated Cherchell archaeological museum before lunch in Tipasa followed by a full afternoon exploring one of North Africa’s most picturesque Roman sites. Founded by the Phoenicians and located on the shores of the Mediterranean, the town was once a flourishing commercial centre. Overnight Algiers.

Lambessa, wood engraving 1865 from The Illustrated London News.

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Day 3: Algiers. Morning walk through the narrow and colourful alleys of the city’s Casbah, surely the most authentic in North Africa. After lunch in the old port visit the National Museum of Antiquities and the Bardo Museum before a reception in the British Embassy, itself a 19th-century French villa (subject to last-minute cancellation). Overnight Algiers.

Day 4: Djemela. Early flight to the town of Setif. Visit the museum at Djemela (Curculum) with its exceptional display of Roman mosaics and artefacts from the surrounding area. Lunch on-site before an afternoon spent at the unesco World Heritage site of Djemela, a remarkably well preserved Roman town originally established as a colony of soldiers. Continue to Constantine for the first of three nights.

Day 5: Constantine, Tiddis. The picturesque City of Bridges (Constantine) sits high above the Rhumel Gorge and makes for a fascinating walking tour (some bridges may not be suitable for vertigo suffers) which includes impressive colonial architecture, the Palace of Ahmed Bey and the Constantine Museum. The afternoon is spent visiting the concentrated site of Tiddis (Castellum Tiditanorum) and the curious tomb of Quintus Lollius Urbicus, the Governor of Britain under the emperor Antoninus Pius. Return to Constantine for dinner in the infamous Cirta Hotel. Overnight Constantine.

Day 6: Timgad, Lambaesis. An early start to the immense site of Timgad (Colonia Marciana Trajana Thamugas), its scale and state of preservation making it one of the most impressive Roman sites to be found anywhere. A short drive away are the interesting and rare ruins of the headquarters of the 3rd August Legion, Lambaesis. Lunch in Batna. Visit also the Numidian Tomb, similar to that in Tipasa but earlier. Final night in Constantine.

Day 7: Guelma, Annaba. Visit the Roman theatre of Guelma, wonderfully restored by the French in 1908. A feature is the selection of fine original statues. After lunch drive to ancient city of Annaba, formerly Hippo Regius. Founded by the Phoenicians and developed by the Romans, Annaba became an important centre for Christianity. St Augustine, the most important theologian of the western Church was bishop here ad c.395–430. First of two nights in Annaba.

Day 8: Annaba. Morning walk along the Cours de la Révolution observing the city’s colonial architecture and sea-side atmosphere. Visit the Basilica of St Augustine, Annaba’s most prominent landmark, completed in 1881. After lunch continue to the ruins of Hippo Regius and the archaeological museum, home to some impressive mosaics. Overnight Annaba.

Day 9: fly from Annaba to Algiers with Air Algerie to connect with the British Airways flight to London, arriving Gatwick c. 2.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £3,320 (deposit £300). Single supplement £340 (double for single occupancy). Price without flights £2,980.

Included meals: 8 lunches, 8 dinners with wine (where available).

Visas. British citizens and most other foreign nationals require a tourist visa. This is not included in the price of the tour because you have to obtain it yourself. We will advise on the procedure but you will need to submit

AlgeriaMorocco

Tunisia

Libya

Algiers AnnabaConstantineTipasa Setif

TimgadLambaesis

Guelma

c. 200 km

your passport to the Algerian Consulate in your country of residence prior to departure. Processing times vary from country to country but UK residents should expect to be without their passport for up to 10 working days.

Accommodation. Djazair Hotel (formerly the St George), Algiers: established in 1889 and located in a quiet district not far from the city centre with excellent views of the Mediterranean. Novotel, Constantine (accorhotels.com): a modern business style hotel in the city centre. Hotel Majestic, Annaba (hotelmajestic.dz): a simple but clean establishment within walking distance of the Cours de la Révolution.

How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard. There are some long coach journeys on uneven terrain during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Many of the sites are exposed and the Algerian sun is strong, even in the cooler seasons. Average distance by coach per day: 90 miles.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants.

The Rhumel Gorge, Constantine, watercolour by Frances E. Nesbitt publ. 1906

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Vienna, Theater an der Wien, a late 19th-century wood engraving after an 1826 copper engraving

Opera in ViennaDonizetti, Mozart, Offenbach, Strauss

8–13 April 2015 (mb 276)6 days • £2,930(including tickets to 4 performances)Lecturer: Professor Jan Smaczny

Two performances at the Staatsoper, one of the world’s greatest opera houses, one at the Volksoper, the premier stage for operetta, and one at the historic Theater an der Wien.

Pariser Leben (Offenbach), Anna Bolena (Donizetti), Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart) and Der Rosenkavalier (Richard Strauss).

Daily talks by a musicologist, and a programme of walks and visits in the city.

Based at a venerable and very comfortable hotel perfectly located beside the Staatsoper.

Not content with being the most important city in the history of western music, Vienna continues to nurture an exceptionally active cultural life of a high level of excellence. Music and opera are cherished (and paid for) by government and citizens perhaps more than anywhere else in the world.

Vienna is notoriously wedded to tradition, and Staatsoper productions are generally not what could be called progressive by standards prevalent in the German-speaking world. But stagecraft, stage design and dramatic portrayal are of the highest order, and the house continues to attract the world’s finest singers and conductors. And of course it enjoys the supreme skills and sumptuous sound of the Vienna Philharmonic, the orchestra in residence. Highly sophisticated audiences and critics give no quarter to complacency or laziness; opera at the Staatsoper is a fairly safe bet.

Meanwhile, the Volksoper guards the flame of the very Viennese tradition of operetta. Lifeless museum pieces should not be feared, however, for the house has been refreshed in the last decade by staging a wide range of opera with a number of adventurous directors and conductors. Here we see Offenbach’s Pariser Leben, one of the earliest of the genre (1866), and one of the greatest. The impresario who first staged Mozart’s Magic Flute, Emanuel Schikenader, ten years later built the Theatre an der Wien. This opera in this theatre is a near perfect match therefore.

Each day there is a session of talks and discussions about the evening’s opera. There are also guided tours on foot to a choice selection of Vienna’s art and architecture and musical heritage, but also plenty of free time for rest, recuperation and preparation for the next performance.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 2.45pm from London Heathrow to Vienna (British Airways). Arrive at the hotel in time to settle in before dinner.

Day 2. A talk on the music is followed by a visit to the Hofburg, the sprawling Habsburg palace where we see inter alia the splendid library hall and imperial apartments. Evening operetta at the Volksoper: Pariser Leben (Offenbach) at the Volksoper. Cast to be confirmed.

Day 3. A morning walk through the centre of the inner city includes the Stephansdom, the great Gothic cathedral, the Baroque church of St Peter and an apartment where Mozart lived. There is some free time before a late-aftenoon talk, an early dinner and an evening at the Staatsoper: Anna Bolena (Donizetti), Andriy Yurkevych

(conductor), Luca Pisaroni (Henry VIII), Anna Netrebko (Anne Boleyn), Ekaterina Semenchuk (Jane Seymour), Celso Albelo (Lord Percy), Margarita Gritskova (Smeton).

Day 4. The daily talk precedes a visit to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, one of the world’s greatest art galleries. Then walk through a series of gardens to a restaurant for lunch. Free time afterwards, or visit an apartment lived in by Beethoven. Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart) at the Theater and der Wien (1801), with Marc Minkowsi (conductor), Stéphane Degout (Count Almaviva), Christine Schäfer (Countess Almaviva), Marl Eriksmoen (Susanna), Alex Esposito (Figaro), Marienna Crebassa (Cherubino), Peter Kalman (Bartolo) and the Arnold Schoenberg Choir.

Day 5. The morning walk studies monuments to composers – Beethoven, Schubert, Bruckner and Johann Strauss – and examines these images in the light of the subject’s posthumous reputations. This finishes near the excellent Museum of Applied Arts, especially rewarding for Secessionist (Art Nouveau) furniture and design. Free time is followed by a talk, dinner and an evening at the Staatsoper: Der Rosenkavalier (R. Strauss), Adam Fischer (conductor), Martina Serafin (the Marschallin, Princess Marie Thérèse von Werdenberg), Wolfgang Bankl (Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau), Elīna Garanča (Octavian), Erin Morley (Sophie von Faninal).

Day 6. The final morning is free before the journey to the airport. The flight to Heathrow arrives at c. 3.30pm.

Practicalities

Price: £2,930 (deposit £300). Single supplement £270. Price without flights £2,710.

Included meals: 1 lunch, 4 dinners with wine.

Music: tickets (first category) for 4 operas are included, costing c. £570.

Accommodation. Hotel Bristol (bristolvienna.com): a 5-star hotel in a superb location on the Ringstrasse near the opera house, traditionally furnished and decorated.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking on this tour, mainly through the town centre where vehicular access is limited. Average distance by coach per day: 5 miles.


Combine this tour with The Heart of Italy, 14–21 April (page 140), or Gardens of Northern Portugal, 15–19 April (page 183).

Innsbruck Early Music FestivalAugust 2015Details available in December 2014Contact us to register your interest

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The Ring in Vienna Wagner in the heart of Central Europe

29 May–8 June 2015 (mb 344)This tour is currently full

The summit of music drama performed in Europe’s finest opera house with the world’s best orchestra.

Talks on the operas by Barry Millington, chief music critic for London’s Evening Standard and editor of The Wagner Journal.

Based at a venerable and very comfortable hotel perfectly located beside the Staatsoper.

Includes a two-night sojourn out of Vienna, based in the picturesque town of Dürnstein.

Wagner’s epic four-part music drama The Ring of the Nibelung is one of the enduring pillars of western civilisation, on a par with the Sistine Chapel, Chartres Cathedral and Hamlet. Like all great works of art it never loses its power to stir and enthral. Here is a rare opportunity to explore the beauty, complexity and profundity of Wagner’s masterpiece in the Vienna Staatsoper, one of the most venerable opera houses in the world, and to hear its matchless score played by the incomparable Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Simon Rattle’s Wagner conducting has not surprisingly attracted the highest acclaim, as has the production of Sven-Eric Bechtolf, the head of theatre at the Salzburg Festival. Between them they have assembled a cast of some of the finest singers of Wagner before the public today, including Evelyn Herlitzius (Brünnhilde), Stephen Gould (Siegfried), Christopher Ventris (Siegmund), Martina Serafin (Sieglinde), Michael Volle (Wotan/Wanderer) and Mikhail Petrenko (Hunding).

The scheduling of the four parts over nine days will allow plenty of time for the cultural riches of Vienna to be savoured. There are some guided tours, to places which are not generally open to the public or are off the beaten track, and some visits to significant sites for which transport is laid on. There is also plenty of free time, for which recommendations will be made for independent visits.

A three-day interlude between the second and third performances also provides an opportunity to leave the metropolis and spend some time in the countryside, based in Dürnstein. Dürnstein is an enchanting little town situated on the Danube, and the hotel has extensive gardens and a swimming pool.

The programme of visits is carefully planned so they do not trespass upon the energies – or sleep – needed for the operas (with this in mind the outward flight is on the day before the first performance), and the hotel is perfectly located next door to the opera house. Some dinners are included and others are substituted with a selection of fingerfood in the opera intervals.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 2.45pm from London Heathrow to Vienna (British Airways). Transfer to the Hotel Bristol in time for dinner.

Day 2. The first lecture on the music is followed by a walk with a local guide to see some of the main sights of the city. These include the Stephansdom, the great Gothic cathedral, and the Hofburg, the Habsburg winter palace. Free afternoon. Staatsoper, 6pm: Das Rheingold: Simon Rattle (conductor), Sven Eric Bechtolf (director), Michael Volle (Wotan), Herbert Lippert (Loge), Tomasz Konieczny (Alberich), Elisabeth Kulman (Fricka), Janina Baechle (Erda).

Day 3. After the morning lecture there is the first of several opportunities for independent exploration in Vienna. A list of recommendations will be provided. Staatsoper, 4pm: Die Walküre: Christopher Ventris (Siegmund), Mikhail Petrenko (Hunding), Michael Volle (Wotan), Martina Serafin (Sieglinde), Evelyn Herlitzius (Brünnhilde), Elisabeth Kulman (Fricka).

Day 4. Free morning in Vienna; the Kunsthistorisches Museum is suggested, one of the world’s great Old Master collections. In the afternoon leave the city and drive by coach to Dürnstein, an exceedingly pretty little town in a wine-producing area. Visit en route the church Am Steinhof, the finest manifestation of Viennese Secessionism. First of two nights in the Hotel Richard Löwenhertz in Dürnstein.

Day 5. Free morning in Dürnstein, a compact mass of mediaeval, Renaissance and Baroque buildings beside the Danube. The hotel has extensive gardens and a swimming pool. In the afternoon drive through hilly scenery north of the Danube to the Benedictine abbey of Altenburg, one of the finest of Baroque abbeys, with a spectacular hall and library. Overnight Dürnstein.

Day 6. Leave Dürnstein after lunch and visit the town of Klosterneuburg. The Abbey, also a palace of Babenbergs and Habsburgs, possesses excellent artworks. Return to Vienna and the Hotel Bristol for the rest of the tour.

Day 7. In the morning there is a private visit to the magnificent Liechtenstein Palace and the still-growing princely art collection. Free afternoon. Staatsoper, 4pm: Siegfried: Stephen Gould (Siegfried), Evelyn Herlitzius (Brünnhilde), Michael Volle (Der Wanderer), Herwig Pecoraro (Mime).

Day 8. A coach is provided for those who wish to visit the Army Museum, which contains items associated with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and a new gallery devoted to the First World War. Continue to the Upper Belvedere, Prince Eugene’s Baroque palace which is now a museum of Austrian art with works by Klimt and Schiele. Some free time.

Day 9. There is a special visit to the Parliament building, a splendid example of enriched Neo-Classicism which was constructed at the time The Ring was being composed. The rest of the day is free in Vienna. A visit to the nearby Leopold Collection of turn-of-the-century art is suggested, and to the excellent museum of historic musical instruments.

Day 10. Guided tour of the Theater an der Wien, completed in 1801, where many celebrated works of theatre, opera and symphonic music were first heard. Some free time. Staatsoper, 6.00pm: Götterdämmerung: Stephen Gould (Siegfried), Falk Struckmann (Hagen), Evelyn Herlitzius (Brünnhilde), Boaz Daniel (Gunther), Caroline Wenborne (Gutrune).

Day 11. Leave the hotel at 9.45am and return to London Heathrow at c. 3.30pm.

Practicalities



Music: tickets (second category, stalls, rows 7–9) for 4 performances are included, costing c. £660.

Accommodation. Hotel Bristol, Vienna (bristolvienna.com): a 5-star hotel in a superb location on the Ringstrasse next to the opera house, traditionally furnished and decorated. Richard Löwenherz, Dürnstein (richardloewenherz.at): a lovely old-fashioned hotel occupying a historic building with garden and outdoor pool.

How strenuous? The pace of this tour is purposefully gentle to allow participants to conserve energy for the performances. The excursions require sure footedness and inevitably there will be some standing around in galleries and museums. Average distance by coach per day: 20 miles.

Group size: a maximum of 24 participants.

Illustration: Richard Wagner, after a drawing by E. de Liphart 1889.

Opera in Munich & Bregenz, 21–27 July 2015. See page 97.

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Vienna, watercolour by Donald Maxwell, publ. 1932

Vienna & Budapest 1900, 4–9 September 2015. See page 103.

Vienna’s MasterpiecesThe Art collections of an imperial capital

16–20 August 2015 (mb 416)Lecturer: Professor David Ekserdjian5 days • £1,960

Focuses on the best of the art in the city – painting, sculpture and decorative arts.

Also the key architectural monuments and characteristic streetscape.

Perfectly located 5-star heritage hotel.

Can be combined with The Danube Music Festival (20–27 August 2015, see page 22).

Vienna possesses one of the most significant concentrations of great art to be found anywhere in the world. There are Old Master paintings of the highest quality, indigenous early-modern art and design of the highest importance, furnishings and decorative arts from many civilizations, precious regalia and goldwork without peer – and much else besides. This tour includes all of the main art museums and many of the smaller or less-visited ones. There is also more than a passing glance at the most important works of architecture, and the lecturer’s input touches on

the fascinating and turbulent history of Austria and her empire.

The seat of the Habsburgs, pre-eminent city of the Holy Roman Empire and capital of a vast multinational agglomeration of territories, Vienna is appropriately equipped with magnificent buildings and broad boulevards. But cheek by jowl with grandiloquent palaces and trumpeting churches are narrow alleys and ancient courtyards which survive from the mediaeval city. In Vienna the magnificent mixes with the unpretentiously charming, imperial display with the Gemütlichkeit of the coffee houses. Diversity and delight.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 9.15am from London Heathrow to Vienna (Austrian Airlines) and drive to the hotel in the heart of the city. After a light lunch, walk to the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Art History Museum), one of the world’s greatest collections of Old Masters. For this first visit concentrate on the northern schools, especially the early Netherlandish school, the famous Bruegels, Rubens, Rembrandt and Vermeer.

Day 2. The splendid Belvedere Palace now houses the national collection of Austrian art, mediaeval, Baroque, Biedermeier and Secessionist – Klimt and Schiele. An afternoon walk around the Roman and mediaeval core of the city takes in the Cathedral, the greatest of Gothic buildings in the Danubian lands, distinguished for its late mediaeval sculpture, and the Hofburg, the sprawling winter palace of the Habsburgs. The precious regalia and objets d’art in the Schatzkammer (Treasury) are the best of their kind.

Day 3. In a park a few minutes from the hotel see the Art Nouveau former metro stations by Otto Wagner and the great Baroque Church of St Charles. The excellent Vienna Museum traces the city’s history through art and artefacts. In the afternoon visit the Secession Building which contains Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze, the magnificent Great Hall of the Court Library and the excellent if small gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts. Among its holdings is a masterpiece by Hieronymus Bosch.

Day 4. Another walk through picturesque streets and squares passes private palaces and public buildings such as the Gothic Revival city hall and the Neo-Classical Parliament. The Leopold Collection comprises excellent examples of the arts from the turn of the nineteenth century. The afternoon is spent in the Kunsthistorisches Museum again, this time concentrating mainly on Italian pictures – Bellini, Titian, Bellotto. There is also the recently re-displayed Kunstkammer here, an outstanding collection of metalwork and sculpture.

Day 5. Take a tram around the Ringstrasse, a boulevard encircling the inner city lined with magnificent palaces and institutions of the later nineteenth century. Visit the Museum of Applied Arts, an outstanding collection from all eras and places, well displayed. Walk back to the hotel through further enchanting streetscape. Those joining The Danube Music Festival travel by train to Passau (c. 2.45–5.15pm). Those returning to London leave the hotel at c. 3.00pm and fly to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 6.40pm.

Practicalities

Price: £1,960 (deposit: £200). Single supplement £250 (double for single occupancy). Price without flights £1,750.

Included meals: 1 lunch, 3 dinners, with wine.


How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking on this tour and standing around in galleries. Tram is used on some occasions.


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Connoisseur’s ViennaArt, architecture, music & private visits

15–21 June 2015 (mb 361)7 days • £2,770(including tickets to 3 performances)Lecturer: Dr Jarl Kremeier

Art, architecture, music: the main sites as well as lesser-known ones.

Several special arrangements for out-of-hours visits or private places.

Perfectly located traditional hotel.

Three included performances at world class venues: Don Giovanni (Mozart) at the Staatsoper, Philharmonia Schrammeln with Angelika Kirschlager at the Musikverein and the Chiaroscuro Quartet and Kristian Bezuidenhout at the Wiener Konzerthaus.

With visits to the chief sights as well as lesser ones and little-visited treasures, with privileged access to places not normally accessible and three musical evenings, this tour provides an exceptionally rich and rounded cultural experience. Whether or not you have been to the city before, it will present Vienna in a truly memorable way.

Grandiloquent palaces and labyrinthine mediaeval streets; broad boulevards and quiet courtyards; at times embattled on the frontier of Christendom, yet a treasury containing some of the greatest of European works of art; an imperial city without an empire: Vienna is a fascinating mix, a quintessentially Central European paradox.

The seat of the Habsburgs, pre-eminent city of the Holy Roman Empire and capital of a vast multinational agglomeration of territories, Vienna is magnificently equipped with buildings which were created by imperial and aristocratic patronage. But the history of Vienna is shot through with diversity, difference and dissent, and some of the choicest items we see were created in defiance of mainstream orthodoxy.

A feature of this tour is the number of specially arranged visits to private palaces or institutions which are not generally open to the public or are off the beaten track. Because of the privileged nature of these visits we can only name a few of them here, but they include Baroque palaces, nineteenth century halls, pioneers of modernism, churches and a synagogue.

And then there is the music. As home for Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mahler and countless other composers, Vienna is pre-eminent in the history of music. We have chosen to include an opera at the Wiener Staatsoper, and two concerts - one at the Wiener Konzerthaus and another at the Musikverein.

Itinerary

This is only a summary of the visits; there are many more which are not mentioned here.

Day 1. Fly at c. 9.30am from London Heathrow to Vienna (Austrian Airlines). An afternoon walk in and around the Hofburg, the Habsburg winter palace, a vast agglomeration from six centuries of

building activity. See the incomparable collection of precious regalia and objets d’art in the Treasury, and the church of St Augustine.

Day 2. Drive around the Ringstrasse, the boulevard which encircles the old centre and is the locus classicus of historicist architecture. The Secession building, built in 1898 as an exhibition hall for avant-garde artists, contains Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze. Visit the Piaristenkirche, a Rococo church. Evening concert at the Musikverein: Philharmonia Schrammeln and Angelika Kirschlager (mezzo-soprano) perform a selection of works by Schubert.

Day 3. Walk through the Roman and mediaeval core to see a cross-section of architecture including Gothic and Baroque churches and some of Vienna’s most enchanting streetscapes. A tour of the Parliament building, a splendid example of enriched Neo-Classicism, and visit a late-19th-century town house on the Ringstrasse. In the afternoon see the magnificently displayed collection of imperial tableware and the glorious library hall by Fischer von Erlach. Visit to and dinner at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, one of the world’s greatest art collections.

Day 4. See the hospital church ‘Am Steinhof’, the finest manifestation of Viennese Secessionism, designed by Otto Wagner, the leading turn-of-

St Stephen’s Cathedral, north-eastern view

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Connoisseur’s Viennacontinued The Danube Music Festival

In collaboration with Wigmore Hall

“We’ve been on many MRT Music Festivals, starting in 1997 on the Danube. They have always been the BEST travel experiences we have ever had!”

“The programming was superb, and the performances, without exception, were wonderful.”

the-century architect. Visit the Museumsquartier, an art centre in the imperial stables, including the Leopold Collection of Secessionist art.

Day 5. Guided tour of the Synagogue (Josef Kornhäusel, 1824), followed by a visit to a private chapel. Another special arrangement to see a grand 18th-century hall. The Liechtenstein collection in the family’s great Baroque palace is perhaps the finest private one in private hands in Europe, currently not open to the public. An evening at the Staatsoper: Don Giovanni (Mozart) with Cornelius Meister (conductor), Adam Plachetka (Don Giovanni), Hibla Gerzmava (Donna Anna), Benjamin Bruns (Don Ottavio), Olga Bezsmertna (Donna Elvira), Alessio Arduini (Leporello), Aida Garifullina (Zerlina).

Day 6. The Jesuit church was spectacularly refurbished c. 1700 by the master of illusionist painting, Andrea Pozzo. Visit the great hall of the Academy of Art and the magnificent Liechtenstein Palace which was built at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries by the richest family in the Habsburg Empire. Evening concert at the Wiener Konzerthaus with the Chiaroscuro Quartet and Kristian Bezuidenhout (piano). Programme: Mozart, Divertimento in F, K.138, Piano Quartet in E flat, K.493; Haydn, String Quartet No.26 in G minor, Hob.III:33; Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 12 in A, K.385.

Day 7. On sloping ground overlooking Vienna lie the palaces and gardens of Schloss Belvedere, one of the greatest Baroque ensembles. The Museum of Austrian Art here ranges from mediaeval to Secessionist. The flight arrives at London Heathrow at c. 6.30pm.

Because the itinerary is dependent on a number of appointments with private owners, the order and even the content of the tour may vary.

Practicalities

Price: £2,770 (deposit £300). Single supplement £380 (double room for sole occupancy). Price without flights £2,580.

Included meals: 2 lunches, 4 dinners with wine.

Music: tickets for 1 opera and 2 concerts are included, costing c. £280.


How strenuous? This tour involves a lot of walking in the town centre, and should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Public transport, metro or tram is used on some occasions. Average distance covered by coach per day: 6 miles.


20–27 August 2015 (mb 420)Contact us for the full details or visit www.martinrandall.com

Nine private concerts in beautiful and appropriate historic buildings.

A Schubert festival, with his music in almost every programme alongside other composers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Musicians of the highest calibre, most of whom are regulars at Wigmore Hall, London and who have been selected by its Director John Gilhooly.

Exclusive to 140 participants, with a choice between accommodation on a ship which sails the Austrian Danube or in hotels for a variant which features country walks (see the opposite page).

This festival combines music and architecture in a singularly beguiling way. The palaces, churches, abbeys, country houses, concert halls and theatres in which the concerts take place are among the most magnificent or delightful buildings along the Danube. But the value of the juxtaposition goes deeper than visual attraction. The buildings are generally of the same period as the pieces performed in them, and in some places there are specific historical associations between the two. Matching music and place – that is the governing principle of this festival. 2015 will be its twenty-second year.

This is the line-up: singers Ailish Tynan (soprano), Robin Tritschler (tenor) and Florian Boesch (baritone); pianists and accompanists James Baillieu, Igor Levit and Graham Johnson; chamber ensembles the Bennewitz Quartet, the Endellion String Quartet, the Heath Quartet, and the ATOS Trio; instrumentalists Michael Collins (clarinet) and Alasdair Tait (cello); larger ensembles include the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic with their conductor Adam Fischer and the Wiener Kammerchor.

The audience is small – no more than 140 – which when taken with the relatively intimate size of most of the venues results in a rare intensity of musical experience. To this exceptional artistic experience is added a further pleasure, the comfort and convenience of a first-class river cruiser which is both hotel and principal means of travel.

There is also the option for up to 18 participants to stay in hotels along the route, attending concerts and taking country walks through countryside overlooking the Danube.

Print published in 1897 after A Schubert Evening in a Vienna Salon by Julius Schmid

Salzburg SummerAugust 2015Details available in December 2014Contact us to register your interest

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Walking the DanubeConcerts & country walks

20–26 August 2015 (mb 421)7 days • £2,790Lecturer: Richard Wigmore

The Danube Music Festival with five country walks and six concerts in appropriate historic buildings.

Stays in hotels in Melk, Vienna and Dürnstein rather than on the ship.

Led by lecturer, critic and musicologist Richard Wigmore.

This variant on the festival package includes six concerts and five country walks. The Austrian stretch of the Danube valley is, for much of its length, of considerable beauty, with much variety of landscape – cultivated lowlands, forested peaks, open alluvial plains, vine-clad hillsides, upland pastures, and, of course, the mighty river meandering towards the Black Sea. There are pine and fir and larch, but broadleaves predominate – beech, birch, oak, poplar.

Though hardly classifiable as strenuous, this tour should only be considered by those who are used to regular country walking with some uphill content. There are hills, and a few fairly steep climbs for short stretches, but no mountains, and most of the routes are along gently undulating paths. The durations are between two and three hours.

Itinerary

Day 1: London to Vienna. Fly at c. 9.00am from London Heathrow to Vienna. Drive directly to Felbring for an afternoon woodland walk through landscapes of beech and pine, with vistas across the Danube Valley. Walk c. 6km on a mixture of grassy footpaths and stony tracks, on level terrain with some downhill and uphill sections (sturdy walking boots are necessary). Arrive in Melk, a delightful little town on the Danube nestling under the abbey. First of two nights here.

Day 2: Grein, Melk. Drive along the picturesque road beside the Danube before turning into the hills to start the walk (c. 6km). Begin among upland pastures and farmland before descending through woods of pine, beech and birch to the sound of tumbling streams. Walk on moderately gentle woodland paths and quiet roads, the few steep sections being fairly short. Catch glimpses of the Danube and then of the little riverside town of Grein. Private concert at Grein Theatre with the Bennewitz Quartet: Mozart & Schubert. Lunch here. Return to Melk and visit the abbey state apartments and church, which are among the most brilliant creations of the Age of Baroque. Overnight Melk.

Day 3: Vienna, Leopoldsberg. Drive to Vienna for a morning concert in the Albertina with Florian Boesch (baritone) and Graham Johnson (piano): Schubert settings of Goethe, Jacobi and Mayrhofer. Lunch and time to settle in at the hotel. In the afternoon drive up the Leopoldsberg, a high hill with fine views over the capital and the Danube valley. Walk down through beech woods, vineyards and salubrious ivy-clad suburbs

on a 5.5km walk on footpaths, country roads and quiet streets. Easy terrain. Refreshments in the attractive wine-producing village of Heiligenstadt before returning to the centre of Vienna for the first of two nights here.

Day 4: Vienna. A free day in Vienna with the option of a walking tour with a local guide. Evening concert at Palais Ferstel with the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic, Adam Fischer (conductor): Schubert’s symphonies 3 & 4. Overnight Vienna.

Day 5: Krems, Melk. Drive up to Göttweig Abbey, a magnificent building which crowns a prominent hill, and begin the walk, which incorporates a segment of the pilgrimage route to Santiago (c. 5km). After a steep descent, traverse gently inclined vine-clad slopes to the Danube. Cross the river for lunch in Krems and then drive to Melk for the afternoon concert at Melk Abbey with Michael Collins (clarinet) and the Endellion String Quartet: Schubert’s Octet and Quartettsatz. Then a short drive to Dürnstein, the prettiest little town on the Danube, a compact group of mediaeval, Renaissance and Baroque buildings set amidst the finest wine-producing area in Austria. First of two nights here.

Day 6: Grafenegg, Atzenbrugg. Drive to Schloss Grafenegg, a splendid Gothic and Neo-Gothic country house. Recital with Igor Levit (piano): Schubert’s Moments Musicaux and Beethoven’s Sonata No.3 in C. Lunch on board the ship with other festival participants and sail downstream to Tülln. Disembark and drive to the village of Atzenbrugg. Concert at Schloss Atzenbrugg with Robin Tritschler (tenor), Ailish Tynan (soprano), James Baillieu (pianist): Lieder by Schubert, including Gretchen am Spinnrade, as well as settings by Shakespeare, von Schober and Ossian. Overnight Dürnstein.

Day 7: Dürnstein. A morning walk of c. 6.5km starts with a climb of 15 minutes on a small road into the vine-clad hills overlooking the Danube and dips periodically into shaded gullies with butterflies, abundant wildflowers and red-roofed villages in the valley below. The terrain is easy underfoot as the walk is predominantly on quiet, shaded roads. Return to Dürnstein for some free time before travelling by coach to Vienna Airport. Return to Heathrow at c. 8.30pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel zur Post, Melk (post-melk.at): a family-run hotel in the centre of the town, fairly simple, but adequately comfortable. Ranked as 4-star but more comparable to a good 3-star. Hotel Bristol, Vienna (bristolvienna.com): a 5-star hotel in a superb location on the Ringstrasse near the opera house, traditionally furnished and decorated. Richard Löwenherz, Dürnstein (richardloewenherz.at): a lovely old-fashioned hotel occupying a historic building with garden and outdoor pool. Dürnstein, German etching 1935

How strenuous? This is a walking tour: it is essential for participants to be in good physical condition and to be used to country walking with uphill content. There are a few moderately steep climbs for short stretches, but no walk is more than 6 miles or 3 hours. There is not always the opportunity to return to the hotel to freshen up before every concert or dinner.


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Mozart in SalzburgThe annual winter festival

24–29 January 2015 (mb 230)6 days • £2,770(including tickets to 7 performances)Lecturer: Richard Wigmore

Daily attendance at the Mozartwoche, the annual festival celebrating the composer’s work in the town of his birth.

An outstanding programme, primarily Mozart, performed by leading orchestras, chamber groups and soloists.

The best-preserved Baroque city in northern Europe in a wonderful alpine setting.

Five-star hotel close to the Mozarteum.

Led by Richard Wigmore, music writer, lecturer and broadcaster for BBC Radio 3.

Salzburg is that rare thing, a tiny city with world-class standards in nearly everything the discerning visitor – and resident – would want. It is miraculous that such charm, and such grandeur, and, above all, such unparalleled weight of musical achievement, should be concentrated in so small a place.

A virtually independent city-state from its origins in the early Middle Ages until its absorption into the Habsburg Empire in the nineteenth century, Salzburg’s days of glory

had all but slipped into the past by the time Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born there. He became the unwitting instigator, post-mortem, of Salzburg’s transformation from minor ecclesiastical seat to the world’s foremost city of music festivals. There are five of them. The Mozartwoche (Mozart Week) held in January every year celebrates Salzburg’s most famous son with musicians famed worldwide for their Mozart interpretations.

Our tour allows the concerts to be interspersed with a gentle programme of walks and an excursion to some of the finest art and architecture and scenic beauty in the region. But there is also plenty of free time to relax and gather energies for the performances, and for individual exploration of the city.

The city has several museums – a recent addition is a Museum of Contemporary Art in a cliff-top location overlooking the city, and the city’s principal museum has been re-established in a part of the Archbishop’s palace known as the Neue Residenz.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 9.45am from London Gatwick to Salzburg (British Airways). Afternoon visit to Mozart’s birthplace and an early dinner before a concert at the Großes Festspielhaus with the Vienna Philharmonic: Mozart, Symphony No.29

in A, K.201; Schubert, Symphony No.7 in B minor ‘The Unfinished’, D759; Mozart, Symphony No.40 in G minor, K.550.

Day 2. As on most mornings the day starts with a lecture in the hotel. Then walk through the heart of the old city with a local guide and visit the museum in the Mozart family home. Afternoon concert at the Große Universitätsaula wih Fazil Say (piano): Mozart, Piano Sonatas: No.7 in C, K.309; No.5 in G, K.283; No.12 in F, K.332; No.1 in C, K.279; No.9 in D, K.311.

Day 3. In the morning participate in a private guided tour of the Mozarteum’s Autograph Vault, containing original letters and manuscripts. Afternoon concert at the Große Universitätsaula with Kristian Bezuidenhout (piano): Mozart, Piano Sonatas: No.18 in D, K.576; No.10 in C, K.330; No.17 in B flat, K.570; No.4 in E flat, K.282. Dinner before a concert at the Mozarteum with Camerata Salzburg, Juraj Valcuha (conductor), Piotr Anderszewski (piano): Schubert, Symphony No.3 in D; Mozart, Piano Concerto No.17 in G, K.453; Symphony No.36, ‘Linz’.

Day 4. Bad Ischl, Salzburg. After a lecture depart for an excursion through the ravishing landscapes of the Salzkammergut to Bad Ischl, with lunch here. Return to Salzburg for a free afternoon. Evening concert at the Mozarteum with Les Musisiens du Louvre Grenoble, Marc Minkowski (conductor), Thibault Noally (violin), Francesco Corti, (piano): Mozart, Piano Concerto No.23 in A, K.488; Violin Concerto No.5 in A, K.219; Schubert, Symphony No.8.

Day 5. Morning recital at the Mozarteum with Christine Schäfer (soprano), Daniel Sepec (violin), Eric Schneider (piano): Mozart, Lieder. Afternoon visit to the Alte Residenz, a complex dating back to the 16th century, housing a sequence of a dozen impressive state rooms, of which several were redesigned in the Baroque style by Erlach and Hildebrandt. The adjoining Residenzgalerie contains a collection of 16th- to 19th-century European painting, including works by Rembrandt and Rubens. Evening concert at the Mozarteum with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Andrés Orozco-Estrada (conductor), Gautier Capuçon, (cello); Schubert, Symphony No.1; Sonata in A minor, D821; Mozart, Symphony No.1; Elliott Carter, Symphony No.1.

Day 6. The flight from Salzburg arrives at London Gatwick c. 12.45pm.

Practicalities

Price: £2,770 (deposit £300). Single supplement £270 (double room for single occupancy). Price without flights £2,620.

Included meals: 1 lunch and 4 dinners with wine.

Music: tickets (first and second category) for 7 performances are included, costing c. £670.

Accommodation. Hotel Bristol (hotel.bristol-salzburg.at): 5-star family-run hotel located two minutes walk from the Mozarteum and just across the river from the Festspielhaus (600m).


Salzburg, Neues Schloss, woodcut c. 1920 by Frank Seidl

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Haydn in EisenstadtMusic festival in the country town where the composer lived

7–13 September 2015 (mc 464) This tour is currently full

International festival in the small country town where Haydn was based for most of his career.

The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra under Adam Fischer appear, among others.

Visits to other places associated with Haydn including the great summer palace in Hungary.

Led by Richard Wigmore, music writer, lecturer and broadcaster for BBC Radio 3.

Few small country towns have such an important place in the history of music as Eisenstadt; and few festivals other than the Haydntage offer the privilege of hearing music in the hall where it was first performed.

Eisenstadt is now in the Burgenland, the small province comprising the plain south-east of Vienna which before 1919 was part of Hungary. Dominating the townscape is a vast mansion, the principal seat of the Esterházy, the richest and most powerful noble family in Habsburg Hungary. Successive princes, but especially Nicholas (1762–90), were lovers of music who maintained a choir, orchestra and Kappellmeister whose duty it was to conduct and compose. For over forty years their Kappellmeister was Joseph Haydn.

The wooden floor that Haydn insisted be laid on the marble original to improve the acoustics is still in the Great Hall of Schloss Esterházy; here the orchestral concerts and operas of the festival take place. Further associations with the composer extend into the town of Eisenstadt and the countryside around.

Now in its 27th year, the festival has chosen Haydn and Schubert as its theme: a perfect juxtaposition of composers whose music fuses bucolic innocence, profound feeling and the most sophisticated craftsmanship.

As a musical child growing up in Vienna in the first decade of the nineteenth century, Schubert lived and breathed the music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, already enshrined as the great Classical trinity. He may even have glimpsed the aged Haydn from the choir stalls in St Stephen’s Cathedral. Schubert revered the music of all three composers; and it’s impossible to miss echoes of Mozart in the ever-popular Symphony No.5, or of Haydn (plus a dash of Rossini) in No.6, whose finale cribs from Haydn’s effervescent Symphony No.88, heard in the same concert by the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic. There is a poignant pendant to Schubert’s lifelong admiration for Haydn. Early in October 1828 the composer set off with his brother Ferdinand and two friends on a three-day walk to pay homage to Haydn’s tomb in Eisenstadt – a round-trip of nearly sixty miles. Within six weeks he was dead.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 11.30am from London Heathrow to Vienna (British Airways). Drive to Eisenstadt. An introductory lecture is followed by a pre-concert dinner in the hotel restaurant. Concert in Schloss Esterházy, Haydnsaal with the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic, Adam Fischer (conductor), Nicolas Altstaedt (cello): Schubert, Symphony No.8, ‘Unfinished’; Haydn, Cello Concerto No.2 in D; Haydn, Symphony No.97 in C.

Day 2. Morning concert in the smaller Empiresaal with Trio Frühstück: Schubert, Piano Trio No.1 in B flat, D898; Haydn, Piano Trio No.7 in G, Hob.15/41; Piano Trio No.45 in E flat, Hob.15/29. Free afternoon. Evening concert in the Haydnsaal with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Thomas Zehetmair (violin): Haydn, Symphony No.1 in D, ‘Mannheim Crescendo’; Symphony No.36 in E flat; Schubert, Rondo for Violin in A, D438; Polonaise for Violin in B, D580; Haydn, Violin Concerto No.1 in C.

Day 3. The historic centre of Eisenstadt has changed little since Haydn’s day. Visit the Haydn Museum in the house he bought after his release from service with the Esterházy family, and see the state apartments of the Baroque and Neo-Classical Schloss Esterházy. Evening concert in the Haydnsaal with the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic, Adam Fischer (conductor): Schubert, Symphony No.9 in C, ‘The Great’; Haydn, Symphony No.93 in D, ‘Genzinger’.

Day 4. All-day excursion to Vienna. Morning visits to the house in Gumpendorf, Vienna where Haydn spent the last twelve years of his life. Visit also the Figarohaus where Mozart resided between 1784–87. The afternoon is free, maybe to visit the excellent art collection at the Kunsthistoriches Museum, or to enjoy the streets, squares and churches in the historic centre. Free evening in Eisenstadt.

Day 5. Morning concert in the Empiresaal with Con Moto: Haydn, String Quartet in F, Op.77; Schubert, String Quartet No.1, D18; Haydn, String Quartet in G, Op.76. Free afternoon with the option of joining a tour of 18th-century organs in Eisenstadt. Evening concert in the Haydnsaal with the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic, Adam Fischer (conductor): Schubert; Symphony No.5 in B flat; Symphony No.6 in C; Haydn, Symphony No.88 in G.

Day 6. Drive into Hungary and to Eszterházá, the estate housing the magnificent Rococo country house of the Esterházy princes, where Haydn spent many long summers. Visit the recently restored princely apartments and park. Evening concert with Cappella Gabetta, Baiba Skride (violin), Andres Gabetta (conductor): Haydn, Symphony No.32 in C; Schubert, Violin Concerto in D, D345; Haydn, Violin Concerto No.4 in G; Symphony No.48 in C, ‘Maria Theresia’.

Day 7. Morning concert with the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra and Vienna Chamber Choir, Adam Fischer (conductor): Schubert, Music to ‘Rosamunde’ or ‘The Magic Harp’, D797; Haydn,‘The Storm’; ‘Choir of Danes’; ‘Te Deum’. After lunch drive to Vienna airport. Fly to London Heathrow (Austrian Airlines) arriving c. 6.30pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Burgenland (hotelburgenland.at): a comfortable, modern 4-star hotel with a swimming pool in the heart of the old town of Eisenstadt, only 10 minutes on foot from the Schloss Esterházy.

How strenuous? Quite a lot of walking is involved on this tour, some of it around town centres and castles where vehicular access is restricted. Average distance by coach per day: 53 miles.


Combine this tour with Connoisseur’s Prague, 15–21 September (page 40).

Richard WigmoreMusic writer, lecturer and broadcaster for BBC Radio 3. He writes for BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone and and has taught classes in Lieder history and

intepretation at the Guildhall, Trinity College of Music and Birkbeck College. His publications include Schubert: The Complete Song Texts and Pocket Guide to Haydn.

Richard also leads Walking the Danube (page 23) and Walking the Rhine Valley (page 88), and gives pre-concert talks at our chamber music weekends in the UK (page 57).All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

Illustration: Joseph Haydn, 19th-century engraving

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The SchubertiadeMusic & mountains in the Vorarlberg

20–25 June 2015 (mb 367)6 days • £3,040(including tickets to 8 performances)Lecturer: Dr Michael Downes

Four Lieder recitals with Diana Damrau, Christine Schäfer, Elisabeth Kulman and Ian Bostridge.

Two orchestral concerts with András Schiff and Cappella Andrea Barca.

A piano recital with Lars Vogt and a chamber concert with the Artemis Quartett.

Visits to towns and art galleries in Austria and Switzerland, while leaving plenty of free time.

The combination of music-making of the highest quality with a pre-Alpine mountain setting is a heady mix. Devotees of the Schubertiade return year after year; addiction is a distinct possibility. Add a programme of visits to nearby towns and art galleries topped up with relaxation among ravishing upland scenery and this begins to sound like the recipe for the perfect holiday.

The annual Schubertiade in the Vorarlberg, the westernmost province of Austria, is one of the most prestigious and enjoyable music festivals in Europe. It attracts artists of the highest calibre, while the rural setting and the predominance of Schubertian music create an endearing informality and intimacy.

But the festival’s success has not stifled a constant desire for change and experiment, as its periodic peregrinations demonstrate. Having started in the village of Hohenems, it migrated a few years later up the valley to the little town of Feldkirch, which in 2001 it abandoned in favour of mountain villages amidst the beautiful scenery of the Bregenzerwald. The hill village setting has been further refined by confining all the concerts to Schwarzenberg, described by Herder as ‘the prettiest village in Europe’.

Our tour is based at a comfortable hotel in the neighbouring village of Mellau, seven miles away.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 12.15pm from London Heathrow to Zurich (British Airways). Drive through Switzerland and into Austria, arriving early evening at Mellau in the lovely upland landscape of the Bregenzerwald. An introductory lecture is followed by dinner.

Day 2. Morning lecture before driving to the Angelika-Kaufmann-Saal in Schwarzenberg where all the concerts are held. Concert with the Artemis Quartet: Dvořák, String Quartet No.12 in F, Op.96 ‘American’, String Quartet No.13 in G, Op.106. Break for lunch. Afternoon recital with Diana Damrau (soprano), Helmut Deutsch (piano), Paul Meyer (clarinet): Schubert, Lieder. Dinner in Schwarzenberg then return to Mellau.

Day 3. Morning lecture before an excursion to Bregenz, the capital of the Vorarlberg on Lake Constance. Begin in the upper town, the picturesque older part, and then continue down to the lower town for a lakeside walk and visit to the local history museum and art gallery. Return to Mellau in the early afternoon in time to refresh before driving to Schwarzenberg. Recital with Lars Vogt (piano): Schubert, Pianos Sonatas in C minor, D958, and A, D959. Dinner between concerts. Recital with Christine Schäfer (soprano), Eric Schneider (piano): Schubert, Lieder.

Day 4. Introductory lecture before driving down the valley to Feldkirch, a little town built at a narrowing of the valley of the River Ill, with historic buildings, arcaded streets and a network of alleys nestling beneath high limestone cliffs. A guided tour includes mediaeval defences, town hall and Gothic cathedral (altarpiece by Wolf Huber). Drive directly to Schwarzenberg. Afternoon recital with Elisabeth Kulman (mezzo-soprano), Eduard Kutrowatz (piano): Schubert, Lieder. Dinner between concerts. Concert with Cappella Andrea Barca, András Schiff (conductor): Schubert, Symphony No.3 in D; String Quintet in C, D956; Symphony No.6 in C.

Day 5. Free morning. Lecture before driving to Schwarzenberg mid afternoon. Recital with Ian Bostridge (tenor), Lars Vogt (piano): selected Lieder by Schubert. Dinner between concerts. Concert with Cappella Andrea Barca, András Schiff (conductor): Schubert, Symphony No.7 in B minor, ‘The Unfinished’, Three Piano Pieces, D946, Symphony No.8 in C.

Day 6. Homeward journey. Stop at Winterthur (Switzerland) to see the Old Master and Impressionist paintings of the Oskar Reinhart Collection, beautifully displayed in the collector’s home in woods outside the city. Lunch here before continuing to the airport. Fly from Zurich arriving at London Heathrow c. 6.00pm.

Practicalities



Music: tickets (top category) to 8 performances are included, costing c. £620.

Accommodation. Hotel Sonne, Mellau (hotel-sonne.at): a 4-star hotel, modern and functional with a pleasant atmosphere and very helpful staff. All rooms are doubles. There is a swimming pool and restaurant.

How strenuous? For the walks it is essential to be in good physical condition and to be used to regular country walking with some uphill content. The terrain is often fairly steep and the ground uneven. Average distance by coach per day: 60 miles.


The Vorarlberg (Feldkirch), lithograph c. 1850

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Flemish PaintingFrom van Eyck to Rubens: Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels

2–5 September 2015 (mc 462)4 days • £1,380Lecturer: Dr Sophie Oosterwijk

Immersion in the paintings of the Flemish Golden Age in the beautiful, unspoilt cities in which they were created.

The main centres of Flemish art: Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels and Louvain.

Based in Ghent, which is equidistant to the other places on the itinerary.

First-class train travel from London.

Western art began in the southern Netherlands. In the context of 40,000 years of human artistic endeavour, painting which gives primacy to the naturalistic depiction of the visible world was an eccentric digression. But the illusionistic triad of solidity, space and texture first came together early in the fifteenth century in what is now Belgium, and dominated European art for the next five hundred years.

The Flemish cities of Bruges and Ghent were among the most prosperous and progressive in mediaeval Europe. Brussels and Antwerp peaked later, the latter becoming Europe’s largest port in the sixteenth century. All retain tracts of unspoilt streetscape which place them among the most attractive destinations in northern Europe.

Jan van Eyck and his brother Hubert stand at the head of the artistic revolution. Their consummate skill with the hitherto unexploited technique of oil painting resulted in pictures which have rarely been equalled for their jewel-like brilliance and breathtaking naturalism. The tradition of exquisite workmanship was continued with the same tranquillity of spirit by such masters as Hans Memling in Bruges and with greater emotionalism by Rogier van der Weyden in Brussels and Hugo van der Goes in Ghent, while Hieronymus Bosch was an individualist who specialised in the depiction of human sin and hellish retribution.

The sixteenth century saw a shift towards mannerist displays of virtuoso skill and spiritual tension, though the outstanding painter of the century was another individualist, Pieter Bruegel.

A magnificent culmination was reached in the seventeenth century with Peter Paul Rubens, the greatest painter of the Baroque age. His works are of an unsurpassed vigour and vitality, and are painted with a breadth and bravura which took the potential of oil painting to new heights. This tour presents one of the most glorious episodes in the history of art.

Itinerary

Day 1: Ghent. Depart at c. 11.00am from London St Pancras by Eurostar for Lille, and from there drive to Ghent. Check into the hotel before visiting the cathedral to see the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb polyptych by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, one of the greatest masterpieces of Netherlandish painting. Visit briefly the Museum of Fine Arts, principally to see a work by Hieronymus Bosch.

Day 2: Bruges. With its canals, melancholic hues and highly picturesque streetscape, Bruges is one of the loveliest cities in northern Europe. A major manufacturing and trading city in the Middle Ages, decline had already set in before the end of the 15th century. The Groeninge Museum has an excellent collection by Flemish masters including Jan van Eyck, and the mediaeval Hospital of St John contains major paintings by Hans Memling. Also seen are the market place with its soaring belfry, the Gothic town hall and the Church of Our Lady, where Michelangelo’s marvellous marble Madonna and Child is located.

Day 3: Antwerp. The great port on the Scheldt has an abundance of historic buildings and museums and churches of the highest interest. Four of Rubens’s most powerful paintings are in the vast Gothic cathedral, joined for the first time since 1799 by a dozen major altarpieces dispersed by Napoleon. The house and studio Rubens built for himself are fascinating and well stocked with good pictures, and the Mayer van der Bergh Museum has a small but outstanding collection including works by Bruegel.

Day 4: Brussels, Louvain. Thriving in the 19th and 20th centuries, Brussels nevertheless retains splendid historic townhouses and guildhouses around the Grand Place. The Fine Arts Museum is one of the best in Europe, and presents a comprehensive collection of Netherlandish painting as well as international works. The attractive university city of Louvain has a

splendid Gothic town hall and the Institution of the Sacrament by Dirck Bouts, still in the chapel for which it was painted. Return to Brussels for the train to London St Pancras, arriving at c. 6.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £1,380 (deposit £150). Single supplement £80. Price without Eurostar rail travel £1,180.


Accommodation. Hotel NH Gent Belfort (nh-hotels.com), a comfortable 4-star hotel, excellently located beside the town hall.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of standing in museums and walking on this tour, often on cobbled or roughly paved streets. It should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair–climbing. You will need to be able to carry (wheel) your own luggage on and off the train and within stations. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 60 miles.


Combine this tour with The Age of Bede, 4–7 July (page 53) or Constable & Gainsborough, 13–16 July (page 54).

Bruges, watercolour by W.L. Bruckman, publ. 1900

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Agincourt, Crécy & WaterlooTwo anniversaries, 1415 & 1815, with a 1346 bonus

6–10 July 2015 (mb 390)5 days • £1,760Lecturer: Major Gordon Corrigan

2–6 September 2015 (mc 459)5 days • £1,760Lecturer: Major Gordon Corrigan

Trumpeter: David Hendry

A study of three of the best-known battles in British history, and of their remarkably well preserved battlefields.

Led by an outstanding military historian who has published on both periods.

Replicating the bugle calls at Waterloo is a unique feature of our tours.

The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 terminated twenty-three years of fighting and ushered in ninety-nine years of relative peace and political equilibrium. Waterloo can also be seen as marking Great Britain’s coming of age as a superpower. The event became absolutely key for British self-identity, epitomising the championship of liberty over tyranny, victory of the weaker over the stronger, and the value of the virtues of courage, composure, discipline and perseverance.

Despite its far-reaching consequences, Waterloo was far from being the biggest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, or the bloodiest, or even, in terms of imbalance of casualties, the most decisive. It was not even a particularly British victory – two-thirds of the allied army was German, Dutch and Belgian, and that is without including the Prussians, whose intervention late in the day ensured victory. Much of the enduring fascination of the battle – probably the most written-about in history – derives from these controversies and because it was ‘the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life’.

Wellington’s ‘infamous army’, though of similar size to Napoleon’s, contained a high proportion of inexperienced troops and citizen

militia, and some who only a year previously had been marching under the imperial eagle. But they stood their ground tenaciously and finished the day in triumph. This was Wellington’s ultimate test, his chance to measure his abilities against Napoleon, whom he had never met in battle before. His generalship proved to be the superior.

A special feature of these tours is that the bugle commands will be sounded at the appropriate moments during the lecturer’s discourse as the narrative of the battle unfurls. For this we have secured the services of David Hendry, one of the leading exponents of the natural trumpet and soloist with many period instrument ensembles.

Amazingly, fortuitously, all three battlefields are very well preserved. Crécy (1346) and Agincourt (1415) were also scenes of British victories over superior French forces and are major ingredients in the fading national myth. But it is not jingoism which brings these three battles together in this tour, but the contingency of geographical proximity – that and their fame. As a trio of events in British (pre-Victorian) history, their combined resonance is unsurpassed. A proper study of the battlefields leaves little room for partiality; ‘Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.’

Itinerary

Day 1: Crécy. Take the Eurostar at 11.00am from St Pancras to Lille. Drive south through rolling countryside to the village of Crécy-en-Ponthieu. It was here in August 1346 that an English army commanded by Edward III and the Black Prince inflicted a crushing defeat on a numerically superior French and international force, victory of the longbow over knights in armour. The battlefield has changed little in topography and planting in 650 years. Overnight Montreuil.

Day 2: Agincourt. Similarly remote and rural, the little-altered terrain helps explain how Henry V and his exhausted followers brought catastrophe to the much larger French army. However, the

traditional national myth and Shakespearean spin veils a more complex and controversial reality. After a brief visit to the visitors’ centre, have lunch in the vicinity before driving across Flemish France and Walloon Belgium to Waterloo. First of three nights in Waterloo.

Day 3: Quatre Bras, Ligny. The Wellington Museum is in the inn where the Duke spent the nights before and after the battle. During the day of 16th June some of the scattered allied contingents converged at Quatre Bras, but numerical inferiority led to a well fought defensive engagement and, on the 17th June, an orderly withdrawal admirably screened by cavalry. At the same time a much bigger battle was taking place 7 miles to the East at Ligny where the Prussians were badly defeated by Napoleon; this proved to be his last victory. Overnight Waterloo.

Day 4: Waterloo. All day is spent walking the battlefield, with stops for talks at key positions. Highlights include the farmstead of Hougoumont, held by the Guards throughout the day during the fiercest fighting, and the sweep of terrain across which the British cavalry drove back the advance of the French but exhausted themselves in the process. Visit the panoramic painting of the battle (1912) and climb the Lion Mound. Finish by walking the course taken by Napoleon’s Guards towards the allied lines before they turned and fled in the face of deadly fire and bayonet charges. Overnight Waterloo.

Day 5: Plancenoit, Waterloo. Prussian troops entered the village of Plancenoit south of the battlefield and soaked up Napoleon’s reserves; the fighting was so fierce that little of the village survives. Visit the Napoleon museum in the house where he spent the night before the fateful battle. Return to London by Eurostar from Brussels arriving St Pancras c. 5.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £1,760 (deposit £150). Single supplement £220. Price without Eurostar £1,560.


Accommodation. Hotel Hermitage, Montreuil-sur-Mer (hermitage-montreuil.com): centrally-located 3-star hotel in a 19th-century building. Superior bedrooms are of a good size; modern décor. Martin’s Grand Hotel, Waterloo (martins-hotels.com): close to the battlefield, this 4-star hotel is a converted 19th-century sugar refinery.

How strenuous? There is a lot of standing on exposed sites for extended periods of time. There is quite a lot of walking, the Waterloo day having about five miles on foot along country lanes, footpaths and fields. There is a long drive from Agincourt to Waterloo. Average distance by coach per day: 115 miles.


Combine this tour with Mitteldeutschland, 26 June–4 July (page 92) or French Gothic, 7–13 September (page 70).

‘The Morning of Agincourt’, watercolour after Sir John Gilbert publ. 1920

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Flanders FieldsWalking the battlefields of World War I

4–7 June 2015 (mb 352)4 days • £1,240Lecturer: Andrew Spooner

In depth look at one of The Great War’s most infamous battlegrounds.

Tracing personal wartime tales and exploring lesser known events.

Led by military expert Andrew Spooner.

There were four major battles at Ypres between October 1914 and April 1918. The first was a powerful German offensive to take the town during the last week of October and the first week of November 1914 in an attempt to thrust towards the channel ports.

The Second Battle of Ypres began on 12th April 1915 with a strong German attack to the north; the British replied with an attack successfully capturing Hill 60. On 22nd April the Germans used poisonous gas for the first time on the Western Front.

The lull between June 1915 and June 1917 was in fact an artillery duel, with both sides attempting to destroy the other’s defensive positions. The consequence was the almost total destruction of the magnificent town, in the Middle Ages a leading centre of cloth manufacture.

On June 7th 1917 the Third Battle of Ypres commenced. Known today as ‘Passchendaele’, this series of limited objective attacks on the German positions, using lessons learned from the attacks on the Somme in 1916, saw Ypres finally being relieved from threat.

The Battle of Messines started this offensive with the exploding of nineteen huge mines under the German lines. On November 6th the Passchendaele Ridge was finally cleared by British and Canadian troops. The cost of victory was extremely high as visits to Tyne Cot Cemetery, Langemark and the Menin Gate will illustrate.

In 1918 the Germans, in one last effort to achieve victory, swept through this area in a matter of days, and although they advanced as far as Kemmel, Ypres managed to hold out.

This tour studies trench warfare and follows the fronts of both Allied and German forces. Through walking the scarred landscape of Ypres, personal and moving stories of individuals caught

up in the war, whether as soldiers or civilians, are uncovered and expertly recounted by Andrew Spooner, a military historian with over twenty years experience of leading tours to the region.

Itinerary

Day 1: Spanbroekmoelen, Bayernwald. Travel by coach at 7.30am from central London to Folkestone for the 35-minute Eurotunnel crossing to Calais. Walk the battlefield, including Spanbroekmoelen and Bayernwald, for an introduction to the landscape and environment. Continue to Ypres for the first of three nights.

Day 2: Zonnebeke, Potijze, Zillebeke. Early visit of the museum at Zonnebeke followed by a visit of Hussar Farm, a former 19th-century farmhouse concreted over by the Royal Engineers and used as an artillery post. The rest of the morning is spent at Hell Fire Corner on the Menin Road and walking the original frontline from Spoilbank Cemetery towards the Bluff. After lunch continue the walk towards Caterpillar, Hill 60 and Larch Wood.

Day 3: Zonnebeke, Broodseinde, Langemark, Boezinge, Ypres. Walk from Zonnebeke Railway Station to the Tyne Cot Military Cemetery observing examples of the change from rigid trench warfare to defence by following an Australian Battalion along the former railway line. Experience the direct contrast of the

German Cemetery at Langemark before visiting Essex Farm and exploring the medical and evacuation services. Return late afternoon to the hotel in order to attend the Menin Gate Ceremony (there will be an opportunity to lay a wreath of poppies). Final night in Ypres.

Day 4: Kemmel, Poperinge. Morning visit of Kemmel to investigate the practice of execution of deserters before visiting Talbot House, the sanctuary established by Gilbert and Neville Talbot for soldiers seeking peace and rest from the Great War. Drive to Calais for the Eurotunnel journey to London, arriving c. 7.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £1,240 (deposit £150). Single supplement £140 (double room for single occupancy).


Accommodation. Novotel Centrum, Ypres, (accorhotels.com): a 3-star hotel located near the Menin Gate.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking, most of it over rough ground and standing for long periods of time.


Combine this tour with French Gothic, 8–14 June 2015 (page 70).

Andrew SpoonerMilitary historian specialising in the Great War. He runs his own battlefield tours and organises specialist study days for colleges and museums throughout the country. He

is a regular visiting lecturer at the Imperial War Museum Duxford and has appeared in documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4.Andrew Spooner also leads Poets & The Somme, 4–7 September 2015 (page 74).All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15. British troops on the Western Front, photograph 1916

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The Western BalkansCroatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina & Montenegro

4–17 May 2015 (mb 312)14 days • £4,110Lecturer: David Gowan

5–18 October 2015 (mc 474)14 days • £4,110Lecturer: David Gowan

A ground-breaking journey through one of the most politically complex and fissiparous yet fundamentally similar regions of Europe.

A political and historical tour, led by a former British ambassador in Belgrade, David Gowan.

Rural villages, little-visited towns, imposing capitals; magnificent mountainous landscapes; little tourism.

Exquisite Byzantine wall paintings in the fortress-like monasteries of Southern Serbia, Ottoman mosques, Art Nouveau architecture.

This journey takes us to borderlands where, for much of their history, the South Slavs have been divided by competing empires and cultures. In Serbia, the Nemjana dynasty flourished from the twelfth until the fourteenth centuries and built monasteries that combined Byzantine and Romanesque influences. But from the early fifteenth century (following the defeat of Prince Lazar in 1389) until the mid-nineteenth century, the Ottoman Turks ruled Serbia, Bosnia and

much of Slavonia. Meanwhile, the Habsburg Empire reached south into Croatia, and Venice dominated the cities of the Adriatic coast.

The modern politics and structure of the Western Balkans were defined by the Congress of Berlin in 1878; the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, which created the first Yugoslavia; the Second World War, which ravaged the region and gave birth to Tito’s Yugoslavia; and, most recently, the maelstrom of the 1990s and the emergence of the present seven independent states.

What are the Western Balkans like now? There has been a major change in the past decade. The capitals and main cities that we shall visit are all lively and welcoming, but each retains a distinct character. Croatia is prosperous and joined the EU in the summer of 2013. Its historic links to Vienna and Budapest can be seen clearly in Zagreb and Osijek.

Our other destinations are more complex and multi-layered. Belgrade is historically the extension of a strategic Ottoman citadel overlooking the Danube and Sava. It has fine and varied architecture (including some from the Art Nouveau period) and a cosmopolitan feel. Sarajevo combines mosques, Orthodox churches, squares and kafanas in a mountainous setting. Its troubled history is not far below the surface.

The smaller Bosnian towns on our route (Višegrad, Mostar and Trebinje) have great charm. Kotor – in Montenegro – is a small fortified Venetian port city with a Romanesque cathedral on the shore of a fjord. Visits to the

old capital, Cetinje, and the coast will offer insights into Montenegro’s history and strongly independent national character.

One particular feature of this journey is that it takes in remote and functioning Serbian Orthodox monasteries that are of exceptional architectural and artistic interest, and include unesco World Heritage sites.

This tour is emphatically a journey, with some long days and much driving through hilly terrain. The late-spring and summer departures will show the magnificent countryside at its best.

Itinerary

Day 1: Zagreb. Fly at c. 9.00am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Zagreb. Lunch is served upon arrival followed by an orientation walk, including a visit to the State Archives. First of two nights in Zagreb (Croatia).

Day 2: Zagreb. The westernmost place on this tour, the capital of Croatia ranks with the loveliest cities of Central Europe. The MeŠtrović Atelier displaying the works of the renowned Croatian sculptor, private viewing of the Golden Hall,, the Gothic Cathedral of the Assumption. Walk to the upper town, the Kaptol district, via the bustling market. After lunch there is free time to visit the Modern Art Gallery and Museum of Arts and Crafts. Overnight Zagreb.

Day 3: Zagreb, Osijek. Drive through Croatia’s rustic north-eastern region of Slavonia via lunch at a vineyard to Osijek. Located on the River Drava amid gently undulating countryside, Osijek is the administrative centre of Slavonia. There is a remarkably unspoilt 18th-century quarter built by the Austrians as their military and administrative headquarters when they pushed back the Turks, with cobbled alleys and fortress walls. Overnight Osijek (Croatia).

Day 4: Ilok, Novi Sad. Pass through Vukovar, the Croatian town worst damaged by the 1991 war. Stop near Ilok, a picturesque fortified settlement on a bluff high above the Danube. Cross the river into Serbia and spend the afternoon in Novi Sad. This has a picturesque core with buildings from the 18th century. Onwards and, across the Danube, the massive fortress of Petrovaradin which was pivotal in Prince Eugene’s wars with the Turks. First of two nights in Belgrade (Serbia).

Day 5: Belgrade. With its broad avenues and imposing public buildings, Belgrade is unmistakably a capital and instantly recognisable as a Balkan one. After Diocletian divided the Roman Empire in ad 295 it became the westernmost stronghold of the eastern portion. Its kernel is a citadel on a hill above the meeting of the Danube and Sava rivers which holds the record for the number of times it has changed hands between hostile powers. The bulk of its architecture dates from the late 19th century onwards. Liveliness is provided by the café culture typical of the Balkans. Final night in Belgrade.

Day 6: Belgrade, Manasija. Free morning in Belgrade. Then begin three days visiting what Serbia does best, mediaeval Orthodox

Kotor, watercolour by William Tyndale, publ. 1925

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monasteries. Tucked in a wooded valley, Manasija is ringed by surely the highest and stoutest walls of any monastery anywhere, built in the early 15th century in expectation of the inevitable Turkish assault. Frescoes of the highest quality – a late flowering of Byzantine art – survive well. First of two nights in Kraljevo (Serbia).

Day 7: Studenica, Sopoćani. This includes a drive through spectacular mountain scenery. We visit two more superb mediaeval monasteries, Studenica and Sopoćani. Both are located in remote and beautiful valleys, both have amongst the finest 13th-and 14th-century Byzantine frescoes to survive anywhere. We stop briefly near the Bosniak town of Novi Pazar in the Sandžak.

Day 8: Višegrad, Sarajevo. Cross from Serbia to Bosnia-Herzegovina. Stop at the beautiful late 16th-century Višegrad bridge before continuing to the capital, Sarajevo. First of two nights in Sarajevo.

Day 9: Sarajevo. Famously squeezed by high tree-clad hills at the head of a river valley, Sarajevo was founded in the 15th century by the Ottoman Turks in the wake of their steady conquest of the Balkan Peninsula. The various assorted mosques, churches and synagogues highlight the pluralist nature of the city. It is possible to stand where Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand; in the adjacent museum it is strangely moving to see the trousers of the man who started the First World War. Final night in Sarajevo.

Day 10: Mostar. Driving over the mountains that encircle Sarajevo and following the Neretva river, we arrive in Mostar in the late morning. A thriving trading town since Herzegovina came under Ottoman rule in 1482, this is Bosnia-Herzegovina’s most picturesque town, an open-air museum with narrow cobbled streets and original Ottoman architecture. At its heart is the Old Bridge, shelled until it collapsed in 1993 and rebuilt in 2004. Overnight Mostar (Bosnia-Herzegovina).

Adriatic Sea

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Kosovo

Slovenia

Italy

MacedoniaAlbania

Hungary

Romania

Bulga

ria

Croatia

Serbia

Montenegro

c. 100 km

Zagreb

Osijek

Belgrade

KraljevoSarajevo

Mostar

Kotor

Virovitica

Studenica

Sopoćani

Višegrad

Dubrovnik

Ilok Novi Sad

Manasija

Stolac

TrebinjePerast

Cetinje

Day 11: Stolac, Trebinje, Kotor. This is wine country, and after a stop in the quiet Ottoman town of Stolac lunch is at a winery in Trebinje, the southernmost city of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Walk around the historic walled town and a country market. In the afternoon cross from Bosnia-Herzegovina to Montenegro and descend into the Bay of Kotor. First of three nights in Kotor (Montenegro).

Day 12: Kotor, Perast. Kotor nestles at the foot of high hills, a harbour on a sheltered fjord off the Adriatic. This diminutive city retains its fearsome ramparts, much unspoilt streetscape and an astonishing Romanesque cathedral incorporating Roman columns. In the later afternoon drive around the fjord to Perast, perched between towering mountains and the water, with large mansions, mediaeval to Baroque. A short boat ride allows a visit to an island church, Our Lady of the Rock, before lunch on the water’s edge.

Day 13: Cetinje, Budva. A mountain drive to the Cetinje which until the end of the First World War was the capital of Montenegro, and still retains the echo of uniforms, a royal court and Balkan diplomacy. Visit the Palace of King Nikola, the Art and History Museum andformer embassies. In the afternoon visit the historic old town of Budva on Montenegro’s Adriatic coast. Final night in Kotor.

Day 14: Kotor. Fly from Dubrovnik, arriving London Gatwick at approximately 3.00pm.

Practicalities



Visas: are not required for British citizens. Citizens of Australia and the US do not require visas for tourist stays of up to 90 days.

Accommodation. The Regent Esplanade Hotel, Zagreb (esplanade.hr): grand 5- star hotel within walking distance of the city centre. Hotel Osijek, Osijek (hotelosijek.hr/en): a modern and comfortable high-rise hotel on the bank of the river Drava. Hotel Moskva, Belgrade (hotelmoskva.rs): a well-located and comfortable hotel built in 1926 with a great deal of character, recently renovated. Hotel Crystal, Kraljevo (hotelcrystal.rs): simple but adequate and with welcoming service, the only acceptable hotel in a region with little tourism. Hotel Europe, Sarajevo (hoteleurope.ba): a centrally located 5-star hotel, the best in the city, built in the late 19th century but comprehensively renovated. Hotel Bristol, Mostar (bristol.ba/en) a modern business hotel within walking distance of the historic centre.Hotel Cattaro, Kotor (cattarohotel.com): located within the old city walls, this hotel provides an excellent base from which to explore.

How strenuous? There is a lot of walking in the city centres, some of it on uneven ground and up and down steep flights of steps. Though the average distance by coach per day is 65 miles, many roads are slow and mountainous and some travelling days are long. Frequent border crossings may entail delays at check points. There are 6 hotel changes.


Combine this tour with Samarkand & Silk Road Cities, 19–29 May (page 218) or Gastronomic Sicily, 19–25 October (page 159).

“This was very much a tour to remember, with plenty of variety, good company and excellent administration.”

David GowanBritish Ambassador in Belgrade from 2003–6 and Minister and Deputy Head of Mission in Moscow from 2000–3. He was Kosovo War Crimes Co-ordinator

in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1999 and has published papers on Serbia and Kosovo. All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

Mostar, from Balkan Sketches, 1926

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Ming & Qing CivilizationThe art, architecture & history of the culminating dynasties

5–17 May 2015 (mb 316)13 days/ 11 nights • £4,780Lecturer: Dr Rose Kerr

Focuses on the five centuries when China reached its greatest extent, greatest unity and longest periods of peace.

Ruling from 1368 to 1911, the Ming and Qing dynasties bequeathed the most spectacular imperial buildings in China.

Porcelain, painting and garden design reached a peak of perfection; this tour sees many of the best surviving examples of all the arts.

Led by Dr Rose Kerr, leading sinologist and expert in Chinese porcelain. Former Keeper of the Far Eastern Department at the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Under the two last imperial dynasties, which together spanned 543 years, China reached her peak of territorial extent, political power, of riches, of peace. Most of the country’s greatest surviving historic architecture dates to this period – 1368 to 1911 – and much of that precious and beautiful heritage is seen on this tour. Imperial patronage produced palaces, tombs and temples, consolidating the steady evolution of standard designs to reach immutable perfection.

Integral to the architecture is ornamentation of exquisitely carved stone and wood, often gaily painted, and brightly glazed ceramics. Painting

of the era achieved its classic, ineffable form, but it is for porcelain that Ming is popularly a byword for perfection, and deservedly, yet under the eighteenth-century Qing emperors porcelain also reached sublime heights of beauty. Some of the finest examples from the imperials kilns are seen on this tour. The classical Chinese garden – an art form as highly esteemed by contemporaries as any other – also took shape here in the sixteenth century, and, astoundingly, a dozen or so excellent examples survive in something approaching their original state in Suzhou.

The tour begins at Suzhou, an appropriate place to recover from the flight and ease into this astonishing country. Though a rapidly growing industrial hub (a third of the world’s silk is produced here), the extensive historic centre retains its pre-modern scale and texture with two- or three-storey buildings of whitewashed walls, grey tiles and upturned eaves – whether old or new. Ancient canals still thread between narrow streets which are lined with camphor trees. Suzhou was home to the four founding fathers of the Ming and Qing tradition of painting, and it is no coincidence that garden design is so prominent here.

Nanjing was the base of the Ming clan before they conquered the Yuan dynasty of Mongol emperors in 1368, and the city became capital of a reunited China. The first Ming emperor, Hongwu, rebuilt the walls; 20 miles long and 40 feet high, for size they have never been surpassed. But his successor, Emperor Yongle, moved the capital to Beijing in 1403. The palace he built

there, the Forbidden City, has against the odds survived numerous vicissitudes and is one of the world’s most extensive and fascinating royal residences.

The last hundred years of Qing rule was a period of decline, of humiliation by foreign aggressors and of internal dissension. Glory sank into misrule and tragedy – and most of the twentieth century can be similarly characterised. In these circumstances it is perhaps surprising that much of aesthetic worth or delicacy survived at all, but plenty does, certainly enough to demonstrate that the era of the Ming and Qing dynasties constituted one of the great civilizations in world history.

Itinerary

Day 1: London to Shanghai. Fly at midday from London Heathrow to Shanghai (British Airways, c. 11 hours).

Day 2: Suzhou. Arrive in Shanghai c. 6.00am. Rooms are reserved in a nearby hotel for a few hours rest. After lunch, drive to Suzhou (2½ hours). With its low-rise buildings and camphor trees flanking streets and canals, the historic centre is an endearing place to begin after the journey. Upon arrival there is a walk and a visit to a garden. First of three nights in Suzhou.

Day 3: Suzhou. Clustered in a corner of the city are a 12th-cent. bridge, a 5th-cent. pagoda and a sophisticated Ming era gateway in the ramparts which allows admission by water or by land.

Beijing, Summer Palace, steel engraving c. 1840

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20th-century Chinese woodcut

The Master of the Nets Garden is a masterpiece featuring all essential elements in garden design. Designed by the Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei and opened in 2006, the Suzhou Museum blends beautifully with the historic architecture and contains a choice collection of porcelain, painting and other arts. Overnight Suzhou.

Day 4: Tongli, Suzhou. There is a morning excursion to Tongli, a well-preserved and atmospheric ‘water town’ with Ming and Qing residences and numerous bridges across the narrow canals. In Suzhou, a short boat ride leads to the Humble Administrator’s Garden, largest and best known of the Ming gardens here, with carefully composed vistas of water, rocks, plants and pavilions. Overnight Suzhou.

Day 5: Suzhou, Nanjing. Suzhou remains a centre of silk production; witness silk embroidery at the Embroidery Research Institute. By train (luggage is sent separately) to Nanjing, capital of China under the first three Ming emperors (and again 1912–49). Much of the centre is of a manageable scale and plane trees line the busy streets. The tomb complex of the first Ming emperor, on a wooded hill just outside the walls, constitutes a summation of past traditions and set the pattern for subsequent imperial burials. Overnight Nanjing.

Day 6: Nanjing, Beijing. Twenty miles long, the city wall built by the first Ming emperor became the longest in the world; much remains, and the Zhonghua barbican is a formidable structure with three courtyards. Nanjing Museum, largely newly built, is one of the best in China, with the complete range of arts – bronzes, jades, porcelain, textiles, painting and furniture. Fly at 5.00pm (China Eastern) to Beijing, to which Emperor Yongle removed in 1403 and which became the capital of all subsequent Ming and Qing regimes. First of four nights in Beijing.

Day 7: Beijing and environs. The Ming Tombs 30 miles outside the city are the final resting place of 13 of the 16 Ming emperors. After a 7-km Sacred Way flanked by stone-carved animals and officials, the tomb of Yongle (died 1424) consists of a succession of courts with ceremonial gateways, a great hall and a man-made hill concealing the tomb itself. Returning to Beijing, visit the Summer Palace, an extensive compound of ceremonial halls, temples and walkways around Kunming Lake, repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt in the late 19th cent. Overnight Beijing.

Day 8: Beijing. The Imperial Palace is as impressive and enthralling as one expects (though no longer justifying the epithet, The Forbidden City). Its origins lie with Kublai Khan, but its current form is Ming and Qing. It is a vast rectangular compound surrounded by a formidable wall and a moat with innumerable courts and pavilions, 800 buildings in total. Despite the depredations of the last 150 years, it survives remarkably well, and has quite outstanding collections of arts and precious artefacts. Overnight Beijing.

Day 9: Beijing. Set in a tranquil park, the buildings of the Temple of Heaven are among the highest achievements of Ming designers. Further

Ming buildings guard the south of Tiananmen Square, a vast space which is the location of National Museum. This has superb collections of early Chinese artefacts, Zhou bronzes and the whole range of porcelain from Song to Qing. Similar collections, with a Beijing bias, are in the modern Capital Museum. Overnight Beijing.

Day 10: Beijing, Jinshanling. Free morning in Beijing. Leave at 12.45pm and drive out to a particularly spectacular stretch of the Great Wall at Jinshanling which was rebuilt during the Ming Dynasty and regularly saw action. Walk along a section where it climbs, descends and winds over the steep-sided hills. Surrounded by mountains, Chengde was the summer resort of the Qing emperors and is consequently the location of some of the greatest 18th-cent. architecture in China. First of two nights in Chengde.

Day 11: Chengde. The imperial villa begun by Emperor Kangxi in 1703, essentially Manchurian, consists of single-storey timber buildings around courtyards in a 590-hectare park. There are several 18th-cent. Buddhist temples in Chengde. Puning Si is still an active Buddhist monastery; the many buildings of Putuozongcheng Temple rise to a multi-storey block which is a replica of Lhasa’s Potala Palace, formidable externally, with gaily painted galleried courtyards inside. Overnight Chengde.

Day 12: Chengde, Qingdongling. Some free time in Chengde before visiting Qingdongling, the Eastern Tombs, burial place in a remote rural setting of five of the ten Qing emperors and the largest tomb complex in China. The Sacred Way has the full panoply of archways, bridges and sculpted guardian figures; one tomb has underground chambers with beautifully carved white marble walls. Spend the night in a hotel near Beijing Airport.

Day 13: Beijing to London. Fly at 11.15am, arriving at Heathrow at c. 3.15pm (c. 11 hours).

Practicalities

Price: £4,780 (deposit £450). Single supplement £620 (double room for single occupancy). Price without international flights £4,190.


Visas: required for most foreign nationals, and not included in the tour price.

Accommodation. Scholar’s Hotel, Suzhou (pingjiangpalace.com): well-equipped hotel, quiet and centrally located. Mandarin Garden Hotel, Nanjing: large hotel located in a vibrant part of the city centre, comfortable but dated. Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Beijing (hilton.com): recently opened, 5-star luxury hotel in the city centre. Yun Shan Hotel, Chengde (cdyunshan.com): the best hotel in town but the décor is dated and service can be brusque. Hilton Hotel Beijing Capital Airport, Beijing (hilton.com): executive hotel with spacious rooms located a short shuttle bus ride from the terminal.

How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Unless you enjoy entirely unimpaired mobility, cope with everyday walking and stair-climbing without difficulty and are reliably sure-footed, this tour is not for you. Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard and the tour involves a lot of standing around on site and in museums. There are some long coach journeys during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Average distance by coach per day: 58 miles


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Chinese Ceramics Collections, kiln sites & trade routes in China & Taiwan

Huizhou). Reach Hangzhou in time for supper. Overnight Hangzhou.

Day 8: Hangzhou. The scenic tranquillity of the city’s West Lake has been immortalised by countless poets and painters over the centuries. See the excavated imperial dragon-kiln site of Guan wares, one of China’s most treasured wares. Visit the Grand Canal Museum before crossing over the historic waterway into the neighbouring traditional village area. Overnight Hangzhou.

Day 9: Hangzhou to Taipei. Fly at 9.30am (Air China) from Hangzhou to Taipei. After lunch visit the Confucius Temple, the only such temple in Taiwan with southern Fujian-style ceramic adornments. Overnight Taipei.

Day 10: Taipei. Spend a full day at the National Palace Museum for a detailed study of its comprehensive ceramics collection. There is also time for independent exploration of the other, equally impressive, collections in the museum. Overnight Taipei.

Day 11: Taipei to London. Fly at c. 10.45am (Cathay Pacific) from Taipei to London Heathrow via Hong Kong. Arrive at London Heathrow at 8.30pm.

Practicalities

Price: £4,430 (deposit £400). Single supplement £510 (double room for single occupancy).Price without flights (London–Shanghai, Taipei–London via Hong Kong) £3,760.



Accommodation. Yangtze Boutique Hotel, Shanghai (theyangtzehotel.com): 4-star, Art Deco hotel ideally situated close to the Shanghai Museum. Zijing Hotel, Jingdezhen (jingdezhen-hotels.com): the best hotel in town but décor is dated and service can be brusque. Sofitel West Lake Hotel, Hangzhou (sofitel.com): 4-star hotel located on the east side of the West Lake (rooms do not have lake views). Landis Hotel, Taipei (taipei.landishotelsresorts.com): centrally located, 4-star, Art Deco-style hotel.

How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Unless you enjoy entirely unimpaired mobility, cope with everyday walking and stair-climbing without difficulty and are reliably sure-footed, this tour is not for you. Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard and the tour involves a lot of standing around in museums. There are two long coach journeys during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Average distance by coach per day: 55 miles


18–28 April 2015 (mb 292)This tour is currently full

A celebration of Chinese porcelain, a sweep through China’s material culture and landscapes.

Includes the world’s greatest collection of Chinese art, the National Palace Museum in Taiwan.

Three nights in historic Jingdezhen, porcelain capital of the world.

Led by cultural historian and ceramics specialist Lars Tharp, author, film-maker and broadcaster.

We plan to repeat this tour in 2017 – please contact us to register your interest.

Chinese porcelain has been called the first globally traded luxury. For centuries its magical whiteness and translucency, its vibrant blues and later its gorgeous colour painting held princes and aesthetes in its spell. It was not until a whole millennium after its emergence in China that the secret of its manufacture was discovered in Europe in the early eighteenth century.

In ad 1004 the reigning Song emperor conferred his name upon the porcelain-making city of Chang-Nan, later known as Jingdezhen. It supplied the imperial household in Beijing, transporting its wares along the Yangtze and the Grand Canal, while other river and laborious overland routes were established to fulfil orders from Persia and later from foreign merchants in Java, Macao and Shanghai. To this day Jingdezhen continues as a major centre for ceramic production with a happy co-existence of ancient traditions and modern processes.

The journey from Jingdezhen to Hangzhou passes ancient villages nestling in landscapes first revealed to Europeans in depictions on vases and tea services. The Southern Song capital of Hangzhou is the southern terminus of China’s – and one of the world’s – greatest civil engineering achievements, the Grand Canal. Begun in ad 612 it ran north-west to Beijing via Luoyang.

Across the straits in Taipei, capital of Taiwan, the fabled imperial treasures are on display at the National Palace Museum. Amassed over centuries by the emperor-collectors of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, it is the world’s finest collection of Chinese art. In 1949, as the war between Nationalist and Communist forces neared its conclusion, Chiang Kai-shek ordered that the collection be shipped to Taiwan to prevent the treasure falling into the hands of the victorious Communists. There it remains, a collection so large that the NPM rotates 3000 of its exhibits every three months.

For the devotee of Chinese porcelain this tour provides a unique opportunity to study some of the finest examples in the context of its manufacture, trade, cultural framework and proximate landscapes. For the merely interested, it is likely to bequeath a lifelong capacity to delight in one of the world’s most intensely beautiful artforms.

Itinerary

Day 1: London to Shanghai. Fly at around noon from London Heathrow to Shanghai (British Airways, c. 11 hours).

Day 2: Shanghai. Arrive in Shanghai at c. 6.00am and drive to the hotel to rest and freshen up before lunch. A relatively young city by Chinese standards, Shanghai is now the nation’s largest and most dynamic. There is an afternoon walk along the Bund, the imposing and well preserved riverside stretch of Art Deco and Neoclassical buildings from the period when Shanghai was one of the world’s greatest financial centres. Overnight Shanghai.

Day 3: Shanghai. The world-class Shanghai Museum is home to an extensive collection of masterpieces of Chinese arts from the Neolithic period to the Qing dynasty. The fabulous ceramics galleries offer a superb narrative foundation for the days ahead. There is time for independent exploration of the museum’s superb bronze, painting, jade and furniture collections.

The 16th-century Yu Garden is visited in the afternoon, an excellent example of classical garden design. Overnight Shanghai.

Day 4: Jingdezhen. Fly (Shenzhen Airlines) to Jingdezhen. The National Porcelain Museum displays wares predominantly from the Song, Ming and Qing periods, as well as some of the finer creations produced since the establishment of the PRC in 1949. Traditional manufacture is demonstrated at the Ancient Kiln Complex. Overnight Jingdezhen.

Days 5 & 6: Jingdezhen. Two days are spent in and around Jingdezhen. In these hills around lay the once secret resource of kaolin clay, which, when processed in the water-powered mills, formed the potters’ basic material. There are visits to the Porcelain Institute, a research centre for the development of production and decoration, and to the studios of working potters Felicity Aylieff and Takeshi Yasuda. Overnight Jingdezhen.

Day 7: Jingdezhen to Hangzhou. Drive through the southern tip of Anhui province, dominated by spectacular mountain scenery, stopping for lunch in Shexian County (formerly

Chinese porcelain, engraving from The Magazine of Art 1882

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Essential ChinaA selection of the most celebrated sights in China

8–21 September 2015 (mc 452)This tour is currently full

20 October–2 November 2015 (mc 493)14 days/ 12 nights • £5,870Lecturer: Jon Cannon

Planned as an introduction to China featuring many of China’s most fascinating places. Six unesco World Heritage Sites are included.

Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai: more time in these three main centres than on most tours, and a selection of small-town and rural sites.

Led by Dr Jamie Greenbaum (September), Beijing-based Sinologist and writer Jon Cannon (October), expert in Chinese classic architecture.

This tour is due to run again in 2016 – please contact us to register your interest.

For the average westerner, learning about China’s past is a progressively more astonishing journey, and a humbling one. Much that we regard as constituting the fundamentals of civilization were prevalent in China two or even three millennia ago: skills artistic and technological, laws and governance humane and commonsensical, mastery of the arts of war and the arts of peace, building and engineering projects of staggering magnitude, and the possibility, for some, of a life devoted to the pursuit of beauty and intellectual refinement. And then there is the fascination of present-day China, likely soon to be the world’s largest economy and destined to have an impact on all of our lives.

The most important Chinese capitals have always been in the north. Xi’an is where the imperial story began, and for centuries it was the capital of the great empire in the east, hosting the grandiose designs of the first emperor with his terracotta warriors and later anchoring one end of the Silk Road.

Beijing has been the grandest city on the planet for much of the past 800 years since Khubilai Khan made it the capital of his

China-centric empire. When the Mongols were finally expelled by the Chinese Ming dynasty, Beijing soon became the most perfectly planned cosmological capital, one that would serve the Ming and Manchurian Qing dynasties for over 500 years.

Hangzhou brings us to the lands of rice and fish, where the climate is gentle and the land generous. The Yangtse Valley breadbasket first supported numerous northern governments and later bestowed its cultural riches and leisure activities throughout the entire empire. Marco Polo was enchanted by the grace and charm of Hangzhou, and in the surrounding hills monks developed some of the finest tea plantations in China. Hangzhou lives on today as a locus of relaxation and culture with profound cultural resonances for the Chinese.

Shanghai, by contrast, is a law unto itself: originally a small fishing village, it began its rise with the foreign settlements that followed the first opium war in the mid-nineteenth century. A capitalist machine, it has also been the home of much political radicalism and was where the Chinese Communist Party came into being. These sometime conflicting and irreconcilable roles give Shanghai a vibrancy and timbre like no other Chinese city.

Itinerary

Day 1: London to Beijing. Fly at 4.45pm from London Heathrow to Beijing (British Airways, c. 10 hours).

Day 2: Beijing. Arrive at Beijing Airport at c. 9.30am and drive to the hotel where rooms will be ready for rest before lunch. Visit the Capital Museum, a striking modern building containing a selection of art and artefacts including wonderful ancient Buddhist statues and an exceptionally fine collection of porcelain (September) or the Temple of Heaven complex, where architecture and landscape design is masterful and harmonious (October). First of four nights in Beijing.

Day 3: Beijing. The Forbidden City is at once enthralling and imposing; past the formidable walls and moat are vast courtyards punctuated with terraced pavilions, palaces and gardens. Marble paving and bridges and finely-carved balustrades mark the imperial way along which lie three ceremonial halls; beyond these are the comparatively closeted living quarters. There is special access (subject to confirmation) to the Shufang Zhai, where banquets and operas were held. Afternoon visits include the 17th-cent. Lama Temple, formerly an imperial residence before its conversion to a Buddhist place of worship, and a Confucian temple founded during the Yuan dynasty. Overnight Beijing.

Day 4: Greater Beijing. The Ming Tombs in countryside outside the city are the final resting place of 13 of the 16 Ming emperors. The tomb of Emperor Yongle (1402–1424) consists of a 7-km Sacred Way flanked by stone animals and courtiers, a succession of courts with ceremonial gateways and a man-made hill concealing the tomb itself. Lunch by the Summer Palace, a peaceful setting popular with the emperors since the Jin, periodically enlarged and embellished; after its destruction in 1860 Empress Dowager Cixi expended vast sums in constructing her pleasure palace here. Overnight Beijing.

Day 5: Jinshanling, Beijing. Morning excursion to a particularly spectacular (though relatively little visited) stretch of the Great Wall at Jinshanling. Walk along a section where it climbs and plunges over hilly terrain. Return to Beijing in the afternoon for some free time. Overnight Beijing.

Day 6: Beijing, Xi’an. The massive National Museum in Tiananmen Square has superb collections of early Chinese artefacts, Zhou bronzes, painting and the whole range of porcelain from Tang (ad 618–907) to Qing (ended 1911). Fly in the afternoon (Air China) to Xi’an. First of four nights in Xi’an.

Day 7: Xi’an. Full day excursion east and north of the city. The tomb of the first emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, is yet to be excavated but his legacy

The Great Wall, wood engraving c. 1880

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Essential Chinacontinued

was secured in 1974 when farmers digging a well discovered his terracotta army of infantry, cavalry and civil servants. There may be 20,000 of them, over 1.5 metres tall; only a relatively small part of the site has been uncovered, but it is nevertheless one of the most spectacular archaeological finds of all time. The pottery warriors at the later tomb of the fourth Han emperor, Liu Qi, display striking attention to detail; some eunuch figures have been found here, providing the earliest known evidence of this phenomenon in China. Overnight Xi’an.

Day 8: Xi’an. The Shaanxi History Museum explains the history and culture of the province, the heartland of ancient Chinese civilisation. The Beilin Museum displays a collection of stone stelae, engraved with classic texts and masterpieces of calligraphy, and a fine collection of Buddhist statues. The day ends with a walk through the winding streets of the city’s Muslim Quarter. The Great Mosque, one of the largest in China, was originally built in ad 742 although the present fabric dates from the Qing Dynasty. Overnight Xi’an.

Day 9: Luoyang. Day trip by high-speed train to Luoyang to see the Longmen Caves, an extraordinary collection of statuary carved into the hillside that runs along the western bank of the Yi River. Begun by the Buddhist Northern Wei rulers (ad 386–534) and added to during the later Sui and Tang dynasties. There are over 100,000 statues clustered in 2,000 caves and crevices. Overnight Xi’an.

Day 10: Xi’an, Hangzhou. Adjacent to the hotel stands the Great Goose Pagoda, first built in ad 452 for the monk Xuanzang to house the sutra he brought back from his pilgrimage to India. Fly to Hangzhou (Hainan Airlines), capital of the

Southern Song Dynasty 1138–1279. First of two nights in Hangzhou.

Day 11: Hangzhou. Start the day at the Lingyin Temple, one of China’s largest though now much reduced. Just outside the complex are dozens of Buddhist sculptures carved into the rock face, many dating back to the 10th century. Drive out of the city to Longjing (Dragon Well) Village, source of one of China’s most famous varieties of green tea. The scenic tranquillity of the West Lake has been immortalised by countless poets and painters over the centuries. Overnight Hangzhou.

Day 12: Hangzhou to Shanghai. By train to Shanghai (luggage is sent separately by van). For its density, vibrancy and extent, both horizontal and vertical, Shanghai is the city of cities. Despite frenetic building activity (the world’s tallest building will reach completion here in 2014) enclaves of low-rise structures remain in the centre, though there is little here that is more than a hundred years old. Visit the Shanghai Museum, outstanding for porcelain, jade, furniture and, in particular, Shang and Zhou bronzes. Overnight Shanghai.

Day 13: Shanghai. Walk along the Bund, Shanghai’s iconic riverside stretch of Art Deco and Neoclassical buildings, symbolic of the city’s burgeoning wealth in the 1920s and 1930s. See also the city’s finest traditional garden. The Long Museum showcases an enormous private collection of Chinese art in a variety of media, Northern Song to Qing, Communist era and modern – China is a world leader for contemporary art. Overnight Shanghai.

Day 14: Shanghai to London. Fly at 11.00am from Shanghai to London, arriving at c. 4.30pm (c. 12.5 hours).

Practicalities

Price: £5,870 (deposit £500). Single supplement £790 (double room for single occupancy). Price without international flights £5,060.



Accommodation. Waldorf Astoria, Beijing (waldorfastoria.hilton.com): recently-opened, 5-star luxury hotel in the city centre. Westin Hotel, Xi’an (starwoodhotels.com/westin): modern, comfortable and well-run 4-star hotel, located in the south of the city. Sofitel West Lake Hotel, Hangzhou (sofitel.com): 4-star hotel, located on the east side of the West Lake (rooms do not have lake views). Yangtze Boutique Hotel, Shanghai (theyangtzehotel.com): 4-star, Art Deco hotel ideally situated close to the Shanghai Museum.

How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Unless you enjoy entirely unimpaired mobility, cope with everyday walking and stair-climbing without difficulty and are reliably sure-footed, this tour is not for you. Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard. There are some long coach journeys during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Average distance by coach per day: 48 miles


A tea house in Shanghai, watercolour by Mortimer Menpes, publ. 1903

Jon CannonWriter, lecturer and broadcaster, he is a specialist in historic religious architecture. He presented and co-wrote the BBC’s How to Build a

Cathedral and publications include The Secret Language of Sacred Spaces. He was previously Communications Manager for English Heritage and for the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. He has a Chinese wife, has travelled extensively in China and is a former member of the editorial committee at China Now magazine. He currently teaches at Bristol University. All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

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also planned for china in 2016

Essential ChinaChina’s Silk Road CitiesThe Arts of ChinaDetails available in Spring 2015Contact us to register your interest

Sacred ChinaCity palaces, mountain temples & desert grottoes

Spring 2016Lecturer: Jon CannonContact us to register your interestFrom ancient temples to sacred mountain tops, China’s religious heritage is unique. Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism have all had a significant presence in the country for a millennium and more. The first three of these – two of which are indigenous to China – comprised the ‘three teachings’ supported by Imperial policy, and historically their influence reached into every aspect of Chinese daily life; the buildings, sculptures and artworks that result are astonishing. Indeed spiritual, artistic and architectural traditions developed by Chinese religious cultures spread throughout east Asia, and in spite of the vicissitudes of recent history remain alive to this day.

This tour starts in Beijing, which is still recognisably a sacred city laid out by the emperors on cosmological lines: indeed arguably the most significant example of that phenomenon in the world. Such structures as the Temple of Heaven (Tiantan), the Lama Temple and the Confucius Temple, all cornerstones of Imperial religious life and ritual, form a fitting

introduction to the richness and variety of Chinese religion.

Highlights include the holy mountain of Wutaishan, where there is a significant Tibetan presence in the heart of traditional China, and a collection of ancient Buddhist temples packed with modern pilgrims. By contrast the exquisite Foguang Temple (ad 857) stands in a beguilingly peaceful rural setting. Here is one of the oldest wooden structures on the planet, its original sculpture and painted decoration astonishingly intact.

At Datong’s Yungang caves and the ancient desert monastery of Dunhuang, by contrast, the cosmopolitan roots of Chinese Buddhism took hold. The spread of this Indian faith across the country in the first centuries of the Common Era transformed China’s religious life and brought to the country its first permanent, stone religious building, the pagoda. There are fine examples of what is effectively an elongated and orientalised Buddhist stupa at Xian and Yingxian.

The architecture of the pagoda, as well as the great painted and sculpted caves and cliffs of our early Chinese Buddhist monasteries, are vivid reminders of this era of dramatic cultural change, their artistic styles still visibly infused with ideas from India, Central Asia and even the Classical

West, all on the cusp of becoming something new and distinctively Chinese.

Chinese religious culture is at once precociously humanist and testimony to a society in which spirituality infused every aspect of daily life. In the course of this remarkable series of sites, we will come face to face with the remarkable achievements that resulted.

Beijing, Confucius Temple, wood engraving from Le Tour du Monde 1864

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Prague SpringThe International Music Festival in the capital of Bohemia

19–25 May 2015 (mb 333)7 days • £2,440(including tickets to 5 performances)Lecturer: Professor Jan Smaczny

A varied programme including performances by the Czech Philharmonic under Jiří Bělohlávek, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and the Wiener Akademie, as well as two operas, Dvořák’s The Jakobín and Mozart’s Don Giovanni performed at the theatre in which it premiered.

Musicologist Jan Smaczny leads the tour and gives talks on the performances.

Visits and walks led by a local guide are fitted around the performances.

Stay in the Grand Hotel Bohemia, comfortable and very well-positioned in the Old Town.

The Prague Spring is among the most illustrious of all the great European music festivals. International and local stars gather to perform in the city’s historic halls, theatres and churches.

This tour offers a performance of Don Giovanni in the delightful theatre in which Mozart directed the première. There is an opportunity to enjoy Dvořák’s The Jakobín, a heat-warming tale of a prodigal’s return to his Bohemian musical home and the love of an estranged father; there is also a magnificent tribute to Mozart himself in the captivating rehearsal of a serenade in the second act.

Alongside these operatic riches there is an exploration of water music across Europe by the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, proving that the Thames did not have a monopoly on grand open-air entertainment. The orchestral music includes a performance of Mahler’s ‘world-spanning’ third symphony, Beethoven’s immortal violin concerto and Schubert’s greatest symphony.

Given that the festival is also a celebration of

Czech nationhood, this tour is not only about attending concerts. You also have the opportunity to join guided walks and excursions through the beautiful city of Prague. There are daily talks and discussions with the distinguished musicologist, writer and broadcaster, Jan Smaczny. However, afternoons are left free for independent exploration – or for preserving your energies for the evening performances.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. midday from London Heathrow to Prague (British Airways). Drive to the hotel in the Old Town. Time to settle in before an evening lecture and dinner.

Day 2. Walk through the Old Town, a dense maze of streets and squares with buildings of all ages and an exceptionally lovely main square. A private guided tour of the Estates Theatre, where Don Giovanni had its première in 1786, and a visit to the Obecní dům (‘Municipal House’) to see the glorious suite of assembly rooms created 1904–12. 7.30pm concert at the Rudolfinum: Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin: Marais, Tempête from Alcyone; Delalande, Suite from Les Fontaines de Versailles; Telemann: Overture in C ‘Wassermusik’; Handel, Water Music.

Day 3. Drive up to Prague Castle, the extensive hilltop complex, long-time residence of the Dukes and Kings of Bohemia and now the home of the President. Visit the mediaeval Old Royal Palace, within it the largest stone hall in Europe with incredible late-Gothic vaulting, and the Cathedral of St Vitus, a pioneering monument of High Gothic, richly embellished with chapels, tombs, altarpieces and stained glass. 7.00pm opera at the National Theatre: The Jakobín (Dvořák).

Day 4. Walk across 14th-century Charles Bridge, the greatest such structure in Europe, wonderfully adorned with sculptures. In the

Lesser Town visit St Nicholas, one of the finest Baroque churches in Central Europe and the Czech Museum of Music, which houses an interesting collection of musical instruments. 7.30pm concert at the Obecní dům: Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jiří Bělohlávek (conductor), Elisabeth Kulman, (mezzo-soprano), Prague Philharmonic Choir, Lukas Vasilek (choirmaster): Mahler, Symphony No.3.

Day 5. A morning walk in and around Wenceslas Square, threading through a succession of arcades which takes in some outstanding turn-of-the-century architecture, decoration and early modernist masterpieces. 7.00pm opera at the Estates Theatre: Don Giovanni (Mozart).

Day 6. Visit the Veletržni (Trade Fair) Palace of 1928 which now houses fascinating Czech art of the 19th and 20th centuries, a remarkable holding of modern French art and Alphons Mucha’s 20 vast canvases of his ‘Slav Epic’, which ranks as the concluding episode in the 400-year European tradition of history painting. 8.00pm concert at the Rudolfinum: Wiener Akademie, Martin Haselböck (conductor), Benjamin Schmid (violin): Beethoven, Violin Concerto; Schubert, Symphony in C ‘The Great’.

Day 7. Strahov Monastery has commanding views over Prague and two magnificent library halls, which by special arrangement we enter. Then walk down the hill, passing the formidable bulk of the Černín Palace and the delightful façade of the Loreto Church, for some free time at the Castle. There is an excellent museum of Czech 19th-century art, the Lobkowicz Palace with Canaletto’s paintings of London, and the Treasury of St Vitus. The flight returns to London Heathrow at c. 5.00pm.

Practicalities


Included meals: 5 dinners with wine.

Accommodation. Although elsewhere in Europe unlikely to be rated more than a 4-star, the Grand Hotel Bohemia (worldhotels.com/en) is a 5-star hotel very well located in the Old Town.

Music: tickets (first category) to 3 concerts and 2 operas are included, costing c. £200. These have been requested and are due to be confirmed in January 2015.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking, much of it on roughly paved streets, some on inclines. The tour would not be suitable for anyone with difficulties with everyday walking and stair-climbing.


Combine this tour with At Home in Weston Park, 13–18 May (page 51) or Art in Madrid, 27–31 May (page 193).

Prague, watercolour by B. Granville Baker, publ. 1923

CroaTIa: see page 30 for The Western Balkans in May & october.38

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Bohemiaart, architecture, history & landscape at the heart of Europe

7–14 September 2015 (mc 426)8 days • £2,720Lecturer: Michael Ivory

A selection of the finest places with the most densely packed heritage in Central Europe.

Beautiful historic town centres, architecture from Gothic to Art Nouveau, distinctive Bohemian schools of painting and sculpture.

The lecturer, Michael Ivory, is a landscape architect and writer specialising in the Czech Republic.

Passes through enchanting, rolling countryside.

Can be combined with Connoisseur’s Prague, (15–21 September 2015, see overleaf).

Draw two lines across a map of Europe, from Inverness to Istanbul and from Málaga to Moscow: the place where they cross is Bohemia. The heart of Europe thus crudely determined turns out to be a region whose exact whereabouts and current political description may challenge not a few of you, and which is synonymous with a decorously dissolute lifestyle.

Yet there were times when Bohemia was a significant European power, enjoyed a thriving economy and marched in the vanguard of political, social and cultural developments. (In one of these expansionist moments, over three hundred years before A Winter’s Tale, it acquired a coast.) But Fate seems to have decreed that each rise was soon to be followed by a fall. The most recent was a double fall – dismemberment and desecration by the Nazis was followed by a forty-year incarceration behind the Iron Curtain.

Paradoxically, Communist rule helped to preserve a wonderful architectural patrimony, the most abundant in Central Europe. Ideologically inspired contempt for and neglect of its heritage was constrained by lack of means to modernise, rebuild or demolish (thanks to a baleful economic model), a mixture that acted like a mildly corrosive aspic: there was deterioration but little destruction. But since the Velvet Revolution of 1989, a surge of restoration and rehabilitation has transformed both the architectural set pieces and the humbler buildings. The built environment and the art of Bohemia have never looked better.

There are towns with streets and squares with façades from every century from the fifteenth to the early twentieth; a remarkable variety of castles and country houses, most retaining fine furnishings and pictures; magnificent churches and abbeys, mediaeval and Baroque; distinctive works of art in excellent galleries. And the landscape is enchanting, mostly gently hilly, sometimes rugged, much of it wooded interspersed with fertile fields of pasture or arable, large tracts surprisingly empty. The River Vltava is a recurring feature, cutting a curvaceous course from south to north, and so are the many small lakes, most formed in the Middle Ages for the cultivation of fish.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 11.00am from London Heathrow to Prague. Drive to Zámek Mělník before settling in at a country house hotel near Liblice in time for an introductory talk before dinner. The next three nights are spent here.

Day 2: Kutná Hora, Kačina. In the Middle Ages, the silver mines at Kutná Hora made the city wealthy. Now a small provincial town of great charm, it possesses a wonderful cathedral, perhaps the greatest Gothic building in Central Europe, the creation sequentially of Bohemia’s two finest mediaeval architects. Set in a landscaped park, the country house at Kačina is a marvellous classical design of the early 19th century with a circular library, theatre, and a sequence of fine rooms. Overnight Liblice.

Day 3: Nelahozeves, Troja. Nelahozeves is a magnificent house of the mid-16th century, externally retaining the aspect of a fortress but internally embodying Italianate Renaissance elegance. Restituted to the Lobkowicz family, the furnishings and works of art are excellent. Dvořák’s birthplace museum is in the village.

Day 5: Hluboká, Český Krumlov. Summer home of the Schwarzenbergs, dominant dynasty of South Bohemia, the Gothic Revival mansion of Hluboká is sumptuously furnished. The adjacent regional art collection has good mediaeval and 20th-century Czech works. Clustered around a bend in the upper reaches of the Vltava, Český Krumlov is a highly picturesque little town. The hilltop castle was largely rebuilt in the 16th and 18th centuries; among its treasures are a hall painted with masked revellers, an excellently preserved theatre and a formal garden. Overnight Hluboká.

Day 6: Jindřichův Hradec, Třeboň. Jindřichův Hradec is a pretty little town whose extensive aristocratic residence is notable for its Renaissance parts, in particular a beautiful rotunda. At the heart of a district of lakes formed in the Middle Ages to cultivate fish, Třeboň is another delightful little town, still partly walled. Overnight Hluboká.

Day 7: Kratochvíle, Plzeň, Kladruby. Secluded within a walled garden amid particularly lovely countryside, Kratochvíle is the finest Renaissance villa in the country. Continue to West Bohemia.

Built as a riverside retreat, Villa Troja is a fine 17th-century Italianate mansion with painted hall and delightful formal French garden. Overnight Liblice.

Day 4: Karlštejn, Zvíkov. Drive to South Bohemia via two castles. Karlštejn was built by Emperor Charles IV, whose reign (1346–78) saw Bohemia reach its apogee. A chapel embedded in the impregnable keep, with its walls of semi-precious stones, gilded vault and 130 panel paintings is the most opulent surviving mediaeval interior. Above the confluence of two gorges, Zvíkov has a unique two-storey, 13th-century arcaded courtyard. First of three nights in Hluboká nad Vltavou.

The centre of the city of Plzeň adheres to its 13th-century grid plan; Gothic cathedral, the world’s third largest synagogue (1880s) and varied street frontages. The Baroque-Gothic monastery church at Kladruby (1720s) is a masterpiece by Bohemia’s most original architect, Giovanni Santini. Overnight Mariánské Lázně.

Day 8: Mariánské Lázně (Marienbad). For most of the 19th century and into the 20th, Marienbad was one of Europe’s most fashionable spas, with patronage from monarchs (Edward VII) to mavericks (Marx, Chopin, Wagner). White, yellow and ochre, from serene classicism to riotous ‘Renaissance’, the hotels and spas gather

Hluboká, wood engraving in Cechy Vltava c. 1890

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Bohemiacontinued

around a lovely landscaped park. Fly from Prague Airport, arriving Heathrow c. 5.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £2,720 (deposit: £250). Single supplement £110. Price without flights £2,520.


Accommodation. Hotel Château Liblice, near Liblice (chateau-liblice.com): 4-star hotel and conference centre converted from an 18th-cent. country house. Hotel Stekl in Hluboká nad Vltavou (hotelstekl.cz): a 4-star hotel converted from an auxiliary building belonging to the neighbouring mansion. The Hotel Villa Butterfly, Mariánské Lazně (villabutterfly-hotel.com): a modern hotel in the centre of town.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking on this tour, some of it up slopes or up steps (250 steps are climbed during the visit to Karlstejn, for example). To be able to enjoy the tour it would be essential to manage daily walking and stair-climbing without any difficulties. Average distance by coach per day: 104 miles.


Connoisseur’s Pragueart, architecture & design, with privileged access

15–21 September 2015 (mc 439)7 days • £2,660Lecturer: Michael Ivory

Includes inaccessible and hidden glories as well as the main sights of this endlessly fascinating city.

Special arrangements and private visits are major features. Also museum tours with curators.

Museums and galleries have been transformed in recent years, and new ones added.

Particular focus on art and architecture around the turn of the 19th century.

The lecturer, Michael Ivory, has led many tours to the Czech Republic.

Can be combined with Bohemia (7–14 September 2015, see page 39).

This is an experience of Prague like no other. The capital of Bohemia needs no introduction as the most beautiful city in Central Europe, with plenty to delight the cultural traveller for a week or more. Yet many a façade screens halls and rooms and works of art of the highest interest which can scarcely ever be seen except by insiders. Other fine places are open to visitors but hard to get to. Gaining access to the inaccessible is a major strand of this tour.

Pursuing the private and straying off the beaten track will not be at the expense of the well-known sights, among which are some of the most fascinating buildings and artworks. But here participants are enabled to focus on the essentials and as far as possible to visit when crowds have subsided.

Prague enjoys an unequalled density of great architecture, from Romanesque to modern, but it is the fabric of the city as a whole rather than individual masterpieces which make it so special.

The city has the advantage of a splendid site, a crescent of hills rising from one side of a majestic bend in the River Vltava with gently inclined terrain on the other bank. A carapace of red roofs, green domes and gilded spires spreads across the slopes and levels, sheltering marvellously unspoilt streets and alleys and magically picturesque squares.

Though the whole gamut of Czech art and architecture is viewed, the tour has an emphasis on the period from the 1870s to the 1920s. The spirit of national revival and the achievement of independence (in 1918) inspired a ferment of creativity among artists, writers and composers. A bewildering variety of styles drew on earlier Bohemian traditions, led Art Nouveau into highly innovatory directions and pioneered some radical and unique features at the dawn of modernism.

Another high point in Prague’s history was the fourteenth century, when Kings of Bohemia were also Holy Roman Emperors and the city became one of the largest in the western world. The Gothic cathedral rising from within the precincts of the hilltop Royal Castle is one of the many monuments of that golden age, and the exquisite panel paintings from this era, now excellently displayed in the Convent of St Agnes, are among the chief glories of the city.

Subordination within the Habsburg Empire from the sixteenth century curtailed Bohemia’s power but not its wealth or architectural achievements: some of the finest Renaissance buildings in Central Europe arose here. In the eighteenth century, some of the richest landowners of the Baroque age built palaces here.

In the city where Mozart had his most enthusiastic audiences and where Smetana and Dvořák reached fulfilment, there is still a rich musical life in a range of beautiful historic opera houses and concert halls. There will be the opportunity to attend performances.

The itinerary given below does not list by any

Combining Bohemia with Connoisseur’s Prague14th September. At the end of Bohemia, the coach continues to Prague with anyone who is combining the tour with Connoisseur’s Prague, which begins tomorrow. The rest of the day is free. Overnight Prague.

15th September. Morning walking tour with a local guide. Connoisseur’s Prague begins at c. 3.45pm at the hotel.

Practicalities

Price for combining the two tours. You pay the price of Bohemia with flights (£2,720) and the price of Connoisseur’s Prague without flights (£2,460), unless of course you are arranging your own flights. To both these figures you need to add single supplements if you are booking a double room for single occupancy.

Price of the additional night in Prague. We have arranged a special rate at the hotel of £120 per person sharing a room, or £140 for a double room for single occupancy, including breakfast. This also includes the walking tour on the morning of 15th September.

Please let us know on your booking form if you would like to take up this option.

Prague, Charles Bridge, watercolour by B. Granville Baker, publ. 1923

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means all that you see. Nor does it indicate all the slots for free time, which is necessarily a feature of a tour of such richness and variety.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly from London to Prague (British Airways) at c. 10.30am. After settling into the hotel, there is a first exploration of the ancient core of the city on the right bank of the Vltava. A dense maze of dazzlingly picturesque streets and alleys converges on Old Town Square, surely the prettiest urban space in Europe, with shimmeringly beautiful façades – mediaeval, Renaissance, Baroque and Art Nouveau. Then a special visit to the Obecní dům (‘Municipal House’) to see the glorious suite of assembly rooms created 1904–12, a unique and very Czech mélange of murals and ornament.

Day 2. Continue the tour of the Old Town with the Gothic Týn church, at the heart not only of Prague but also of Czech history. There follows the 13th-century Convent of St Agnes, where one of the world’s greatest collections of mediaeval painting is brilliantly installed. A walk in and around Wenceslas Square, threading through a succession of arcades, takes in some outstanding turn-of-the-century architecture and decoration and early modernist masterpieces.

Day 3. Drive up to Prague Castle for a first visit to this extensive and fascinating hilltop citadel, residence of Dukes and Kings of Bohemia from the 10th century and now of the President. The Old Royal Palace rises from Romanesque through Gothic to Renaissance, the chief glory being the largest stone hall in Europe and its extraordinary vaulting. There follows privileged access to a wonderful sequence of halls not open to the public, dating from the 1570s to the 1930s (state occasions permitting). Walk through a sequence of delightful gardens on the south slope down to the Lesser Town.

Day 4. Begin with the Moorish style Jubilee Synagogue of 1908 and the rare Rondo-Cubist Legion’s Bank of the 1920s. The Veletržni (Trade Fair) Palace of 1928 now houses fascinating Czech art of the 19th and 20th centuries., a remarkable holding of modern French art and Alphons Mucha’s 20 vast canvases of his ‘Slav Epic’, which ranks as the concluding episode in the 400-year European tradition of history painting. Return to the Castle District to see the delicately arcaded Belvedere in the Royal Gardens, the finest Renaissance building in Prague, and the cathedral of St Vitus, a pioneering monument of High Gothic, richly embellished with chapels, tombs, altarpieces and stained glass.

Day 5. The Klementinum is a vast Jesuit complex with library halls and chapels. See also in the Old Town the church of St James, a Gothic carcass encrusted with Baroque finery after a fire in 1689. Walk across 14th-century Charles Bridge, the greatest such structure in Europe, wonderfully adorned with sculptures. In the Lesser Town visit the Wallenstein Palace, a rare example of a 1630s residence (now the Senate), and St Nicholas, one of the finest of Baroque churches in Central Europe. Free afternoon.

Day 6. Sunday morning traffic enables efficient mopping up by coach of treasures south of the centre, among them St John Nepomuk ‘on the Rock’, a little Baroque masterpiece (rarely accessible), the bizarre phenomenon of Cubist houses and the fortress of Vysehrad, rising high above the river and enclosing a cemetery with the graves of many great Czechs. There is a special tour of the National Theatre (1869–83) to which all the leading Czech artists of the time contributed, and a quick visit to the Prague City Museum to see the extraordinarily detailed model of the city made in the 1830s. A riverside country retreat, Villa Troja is a 17th-century Italianate mansion with a French formal garden.

Day 7. Strahov Monastery has commanding views over Prague and two magnificent library halls, which by special arrangement we enter. Then walk down the hill, passing the formidable bulk of the Černín Palace and the delightful façade of the Loreto Church, for some free time at the Castle. There is an excellent museum of Czech 19th-century art, the Lobkowicz Palace with Canaletto’s paintings of London, and the Treasury of St Vitus. The flight returns to London Heathrow at c. 5.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Although elsewhere in Europe unlikely to be rated more than a 4-star, the Grand Hotel Bohemia (worldhotels.com/en) is a 5-star hotel very well located in the Old Town.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking, much of it on roughly paved streets, some on inclines. The tour would not be suitable for anyone with difficulties with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Fitness is essential.


Prague, old Town Square, lithograph by Samuel Prout 1839

“The privileged access and special visits enhanced this trip tremendously.”

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MoraviaHistoric towns and country houses in unknown Central Europe

2–9 June 2015 (mb 350)8 days • £2,640Lecturer: Dr Jarl Kremeier

A little-known corner of Europe with a fascinating architectural patrimony.

Unspoilt historic towns, Renaissance palaces, extraordinary Baroque churches.

Led by Dr Jarl Kremeier, specialist in 17th- to 19th-century architecture and decorative arts.

Enchanting landscape and historic gardens.

For a couple of decades in the ninth century the Great Moravian Empire encompassed not only Czech and Slovak lands but also parts of what are now Austria, Hungary and Poland. This agglomeration of territories rapidly disintegrated, and neighbouring Bohemia began to take shape and take priority.

Ever since then Moravia has been the lesser member in an enduring partnership with Bohemia. Yoked together, they fell together under Habsburg suzerainty in 1526, emerged together in 1920 to form (with Slovakia) the new Czechoslovakia, and stayed together in 1993 to form the Czech Republic (shorn of Slovakia).

It may have been politically provincial but it was a prosperous area and quite close to the chief metropolis of Central Europe, Vienna. Its rich architectural and artistic patrimony includes fine Renaissance country houses, outstanding Baroque palaces and churches, bizarre buildings by Jan Santini-Aichel, historic gardens both formal and landscaped, galleries of fine and decorative art, much beautiful streetscape in towns and villages, and rolling landscape.

Moravia gets better every year. Architectural conservation proceeds apace, towns are smartened up, hotels and restaurants are improving, and more and more museums and historic buildings are refurbished and better presented. In spite of these developments Moravia is much less on the tourist track than Bohemia and remains fairly unspoilt.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c.9.50am from London Heathrow to Prague and drive south into Moravia. Telč is a tiny town with the loveliest square in the Czech Lands, lined with Renaissance and Baroque façades above a meandering Gothic arcade. First of two nights in Telč.

Day 2: Vranov nad Dyji, Jaromerice. Perched high above a gorge close to the Austrian border, the great oval Hall of Ancestors at Vranov is one of the most impressive Baroque creations in Central Europe, the creation of the greatest architect and greatest painter in the region at the time. The splendid mansion at Jaromerice sprawls irregularly, but contains some wonderful 18th-century interiors and an enormous chapel. Overnight Telč.

Day 3: Telč, Rajhrad. The castle in Telč was extended in stages during the 16th century with a series of halls of brilliant, eccentric decoration around elegant, arcaded courtyards; a jewel of the Northern Renaissance. Rajhrad monastery was built in the eighteenth century on a vast scale, and has a magnificent church by Santini-Aichel, the genius of Bohemian Baroque. First of five nights in Brno.

Day 4: Slavkov, Lednice. Alias Austerlitz, Slavkov gave its name to Napoleon’s 1805 victory against

Austro-Russian armies. After surveying the battlefield, visit the imposing Baroque mansion, which contains a fine art collection. On a vast estate straddling the Austrian border once owned by the Liechtensteins, the richest magnates in the Habsburg Empire, Lednice has a superbly crafted Gothic Revival mansion, magnificent Baroque stables and a landscaped park dotted with architectural follies.

Day 5: Brno. The present capital of Moravia, and the second largest Czech city, Brno has a wealth of Gothic and Baroque churches and fine architecture of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. A walk includes the mediaeval town hall, the fine Gothic church of St James and the Baroque Minorite church, among other treasures. Villa Tugenhadt is a superb house by modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Day 6: Bucovice, Kromeriz. Bucovice has a splendid Renaissance mansion with arcaded courtyard and stucco interiors of a quality virtually without equal in northern Europe. The Bishop’s Palace at Kromeriz with magnificent Rococo hall and fine art collection (Titian, van Dyck, Brueghel). The 17th-century walled garden with pavilion and immense colonnade is an astounding survival.

Day 7: Plumlov, Olomouc. The rumbustious 17th-century mansion at Plumlov has probably the richest façade columnation of any building in Europe. Olomouc, former capital of Moravia, has many fine churches, a Romanesque episcopal palace and Renaissance town hall. Several magnificently sculpted fountains are spread through a large tract of highly attractive historic townscape, surely the loveliest little city in Europe which is not yet on the tourist trail.

Day 8: Zd’ár nad Sázavou . Drive to the pilgrimage church at Zd’ár nad Sázavou, a Baroque-Gothic creation by the maverick architect Santini-Aichel and among the most bizarre and fascinating buildings of the 18th century. Continue to Prague for the flight to Heathrow, arriving c.9.15pm.

Practicalities

Price: £2,720 (deposit: £250). Single supplement £110 (double room for single occupancy). Price without flights £2,530.


Accommodation. Hotel U Hraběnky (hotel-uhrabenky.cz/en) is the only 4-star hotel in Telč. The Hotel Barceló Brno Palace (barcelo.com) was an exclusive apartment block in the 19th century, now converted into a contemporary 4-star hotel.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking on this tour, some of it up slopes or up steps. To be able to enjoy the tour it would be essential to manage daily walking and stair-climbing without any difficulties. Average distance by coach per day: 121 miles.


Combine this tour with Courts of Northern Italy, 24–31 May (page 124).

Lednice, after Josef Vaic (1884–1961)

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Vikings & Bog People ancient Denmark

16–23 June 2015 (mb 368)8 days • £3,310Lecturer: Dr David Griffiths

The most important Viking sites in Denmark including Roskilde, Copenhagen and Jelling.

See some of the best-preserved ‘bog bodies’: Tollund Man and Grauballe Man.

Stay in central Copenhagen, the charming mediaeval town of Ribe and the important regional city of Aarhus.

Journey through idyllic countryside and visit the environmentally precious wilderness of the Wadden Sea.

Led by Dr David Griffiths, a leading expert in Viking and early mediaeval archaeology.

A country with a fierce and proud national history, but which today is renowned for its excellent food, world-class museums, and high standards of art, architecture and design, Denmark is a pleasure to visit. Its world-famous archaeological treasures include the collections of the National Museum in Copenhagen, the Viking ships at Roskilde and the exceptionally well-preserved Iron Age ‘bog bodies’ known as Tollund Man and Grauballe Man.

The peaceful and prosperous image of modern Denmark belies its roots as northern Europe’s first, and most aggressive, nation state. Between the eighth and the eleventh centuries ad, Danes attacked, conquered and colonised a wide swath of Europe. Bands of well-armed warriors spread out from its fjords and islands in ships of unrivalled quality and effectiveness. They travelled the northern seas, wreaking terror on indigenous populations and causing political chaos. Treaties and buy-offs, such as ‘Danegeld’ paid by the English under Æthelred ‘The Unready’, consolidated their power.

The keys to understanding Denmark’s rise as a centralised state are its compact geography and the ease of communication across its waterways and gently contoured landscape. Emerging from warring Iron Age tribes, a succession of ambitious and successful rulers established national defences, roads, bridges, canals and a network of towns. Trade and the new religion of Christianity prospered.

The high-point of the Viking Age occurred under the Jelling dynasty, which began with the reign of Gorm the Old in the early decades of the tenth century. Gorm’s son Harold Bluetooth, his grandson Svein Forkbeard, and his great-grandson Cnut the Great presided over a ‘golden age’ of Danish achievement, marked by the construction of spectacular dynastic monuments and accompanied by astonishing artistic endeavour. Under Cnut Denmark’s conquests extended to parts of Norway, Sweden, Germany and, its greatest prize, the Kingdom of England.

Itinerary

Day 1: Copenhagen. Fly from London Heathrow to Copenhagen (British Airways) at c. 10.00am. Much of the surviving artistic finery of

Denmark’s Viking Age, in metal, wood, bone and semi-precious stone, can be found in the National Museum, Copenhagen. One of the great museums of the world, it hosted the first stage of the Vikings: Life and Legend exhibition, which subsequently went on to the British Museum and Berlin. The National Museum’s prehistoric exhibits are also exceptional, and it has played a key role in the history of European Archaeology.

Day 2: Roskilde. Excursion to the small historic city of Roskilde to see the extraordinary Viking Ship Museum where several original vessels and many reconstructions can be viewed. There is an opportunity to be part of the crew and sail a reconstructed Viking long ship into the Roskilde Fjord. Overnight Copenhagen.

Day 3: Trelleborg, Ribe. The well-preserved circular military fortress at Trelleborg is part of a network of similar ‘command and control’ sites across Denmark. Picturesque, mediaeval Ribe is Denmark’s oldest town, and one of the earliest in post-Roman Europe. First of two nights in Ribe.

Day 4: Wadden Sea, Ribe. Spend the morning at the environmentally precious wilderness of the Wadden Sea. In the afternoon visit the excellent Viking Museum in Ribe. Some free time. Overnight Ribe.

Day 5: Ravning, Jelling, Silkeborg. A short walk to Ravning, the site of the Viking bridge built by Harold Bluetooth across the Vejle valley, 760 metres long and over five metres wide. The small eastern Jutland town of Jelling, now a World Heritage Site, preserves a vast stone ship-setting, two immense burial mounds and the rune-stones of Gorm and Harold which record the early history of their dynasty. These stand outside a stone church, emblematic of the rise of Christianity. In Silkeborg see the best-preserved Iron Age bog-body known as ‘Tollund Man’. First of three nights in Aarhus.

Day 6: Moesgaard, Aarhus. In a charming countryside setting, the state-of-the-art museum at Moesgaard, designed by Henning Larsen Architects, opened in 2014. It houses exhibitions on prehistory, including ‘Grauballe Man’ who was discovered in a peat bog in 1952 and dates to the

3rd century bc. Return to Aarhus for some free time. Overnight Aarhus.

Day 7: Lindholm Høje, Aalborg, Fyrkat. Head north to Lindholm Høje, a major late-Viking burial site. Rare ship monuments (burial sites demarcated by stones in the shape of ships) are found as well as hundreds of burial sites marked with stones or mounds. Stop in the pleasant market town of Aalborg for lunch before visiting the Viking fortress of Fyrkat. Overnight Aarhus.

Day 8: Ladby, Copenhagen. The only ship burial discovered in Denmark, the Ladby boat is a Viking chieftain’s burial vessel discovered. The wood of the 22-metre ship has long since rotted away but left a perfect impression in the earth. Buried with 11 horses and many valuables and possessions, the skeletal remains of the animals are all that remain of the contents. Continue to the airport. Fly at c. 6.30pm from Copenhagen to London Heathrow.

Practicalities


Included meals: 1 lunch and 5 dinners with wine

Accommodation. 71 Nyhavn, Copenhagen (71nyhavnhotel.com): a traditional hotel in the Nyhavn district, close to some of the museums and the Amalienborg Palace. Rooms are small but comfortable. The Dagmar Hotel, Ribe (hoteldagmar.dk): a characterful hotel on the town square with views of the cathedral. Hotel Royal, Aarhus (hotelroyal.dk): in the centre of Aarhus, public rooms are opulent and luxurious while bedrooms are classic and comfortable.

How strenuous? Walking is necessitated over the uneven terrain of Viking sites. There is quite a lot of standing around in museums. There are two hotel changes. Average distance by coach per day: 92 miles.


Combine this tour with Finland: Aalto & Others, 25 June–3 July (page 68).

Watercolour by a. r. Hope Moncrieff publ. 1920

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ancient EgyptFrom Cairo to abu Simbel

5–16 October 2015 (mc 489)12 days • £3,880Lecturer: Professor John Ray

A comprehensive introduction to Pharaonic Egypt visiting the principal sites from Giza to Abu Simbel.

Led by Professor John Ray, one of the world’s leading authorities on Ancient Egypt.

A full and busy tour but it avoids rush and allows time to contemplate and absorb.

A well-planned land tour makes much better use of time than a Nile cruise.

Egypt has fascinated European travellers from the time of Herodotus, who wrote the first surviving account of the ancient land. The sheer antiquity and breadth of Egyptian civilization cannot but reduce the visitor to awe, whether it be Napoleon with his famous exhortation to his troops in front of the Pyramids that forty centuries looked down upon them, or the more humble modern traveller exploring the tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

Nearly two thousand years separate King Menes (Narmer), the unifier of Upper and Lower Egypt around 3100 bc, and Rameses II, the builder of Abu Simbel, and it was yet another

thousand years before Egypt became a province of Rome.

Throughout this time Egypt has also been a fertile source of legend. The fifty daughters of Danaus fled from a marriage threat by the fifty sons of Aegyptus, as recounted by Aeschylus; and if Euripides is to be believed, Helen of Troy may have sojourned on the banks of the Nile. Biblical references abound of a land of both oppression and refuge. Patriarchs found sustenance in Egypt, Moses led his people forth, and the Holy Family fled there from the wrath of Herod.

Egypt was the first major country to be subdued by the forces of Islam, and the line of conquerors reached a turning-point with Napoleon, who brought an army not only of soldiers but also of scholars. He left both groups to continue without him, and the scholars laboured throughout the land to produce the monumental Description de L’Égypte. The vast detective work of deciphering hieroglyphic script was commenced through the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799, thereby eventually producing the key to our present understanding of ancient Egypt.

Nowhere in the world have so many monuments survived for so long, on such a scale and in such good condition. The magnificence of Egypt’s standing monuments, Pharaonic, Coptic and Islamic, is supplemented by an unrivalled

series of tomb sculptures and paintings and by superb collections of jewellery and artefacts in the Egyptian museums.

And through the midst of the land, with its origins in the deep south, flows the Nile, which with its annual inundation was the source of all that has made Egyptian civilisation great.

Itinerary

Day 1: Luxor. Fly at c. 3.00pm (Egypt Air)directly from London Heathrow to Luxor, arriving c. 9.30pm (time in the air: c. 4 hours 45 minutes). First of five nights in Luxor.

Day 2: Luxor. A leisurely day with talks by the lecturer outlining the main themes of the tour. Morning visit to Luxor Museum. Free afternoon. Overnight Luxor.

Day 3: Luxor. Full day visiting the Theban West Bank, the city of the dead and the Valley of the Kings, where the New Kingdom pharaohs are buried in magnificently decorated rock cut tombs, the vast royal mortuary temples erected as Houses of Eternity for the cult of the king. Visit the Tombs of the Nobles containing exquisite reliefs and painted festival and funeral scenes and the village of the workmen, Deir el Medina, who built and decorated the royal tombs, a rare settlement site, with their beautifully

Denderah, wood engraving c. 1880 in The Land of the Pharaohs

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“So impressed with the smooth movement of sixteen individuals around three hotels in three cities and innumerable ancient sites.”

decorated tombs with perfectly preserved colour. Overnight Luxor.

Day 4: Luxor. The ancient site of Thebes and the vast temple complex of Karnak including the spectacular temple of Amun and the open-air museum. Free afternoon. Evening visit to Luxor temple, another great temple to Amun intimately connected to Karnak through a national festival. Overnight Luxor.

Day 5: Denderah. Morning visit to the well-preserved and roofed Ptolemaic-Roman Temple of Hathor at Denderah. Return to Luxor experiencing the rural landscape of Upper Egypt providing reflections of ancient times. Overnight Luxor.

Day 6: Edfu, Kom Ombo, Aswan. Drive south through the agricultural landscape and view the desert edge of Southern Upper Egypt to see the Temple of Horus at Edfu, the most complete of the Egyptian temples. At Kom Ombo visit the remains of the unique double temple to Sobek and Haroeris (Horus the elder), teetering on the banks of the Nile. First of three nights in the ancient border city of Aswan.

Day 7: Kitchener’s Island, St Simeon, nobles’ tombs. Travel by boat to the Old and Middle Kingdom tombs cut into the rock high on the West Bank. Island of Plants (Kitchener’s Island), a lush botanical garden with tropical vegetation imported by the eponymous British soldier. Optional visit by camel to the lonely seventh-century ruined fortress-monastery of St Simeon, situated on the edge of the desert. Alternatively, take a bird watching trip through the cataract at Aswan on a motor boat, accompanied by an ornithologist. The Nubian Museum has excellent collections of Nubian life from the Neolithic to the present. Overnight Aswan.

Day 8: Temple of Philae, High Dam. The High Dam is one of the engineering wonders of the world. View in the distance the brooding hulk of Kalabsha temple, relocated to the banks of Lake Nasser as the High Dam was built. Between the High Dam and the Old Dam, the Temple of Philae, dedicated to the goddess Isis, reconstructed on a landscaped island following the flooding of the original island. The ancient granite quarries where a flawed obelisk dating to the 18th Dynasty lies unfinished. A free afternoon. Final night Aswan.

Day 9: Abu Simbel, Cairo. Fly to Abu Simbel to visit the dramatic twin temples of Ramesses II and his great royal wife, Nefertari, on the shores of Lake Nasser. Transfer by air to Cairo for the first of three nights.

Watercolour by Phoebe allen, publ. 1913

Day 10: Giza, Cairo. On the edge of Cairo at Giza is the largest and most renowned complex of Pyramids, the solar boat museum and the Sphinx. Afternoon visit to the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities to view the richest collection of Pharaonic art in the world, including treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun. Overnight Cairo.

Day 11: Dahshur, Saqqarah, Cairo. Drive to the Dahshur pyramid field to view and visit the pyramids predating the Giza pyramids, the cathedral-like interior of the Red Pyramid is an engineering marvel. Saqqarah, the necropolis of the ancient capital city of Memphis. The Step Pyramid complex contains the earliest pyramid and Egypt’s first building in stone, the pyramid of Teti, containing the Pyramid Texts relating the king’s ascent to the stars. The Mastaba of Mereruka has detailed and finely rendered painted scenes of daily life. Overnight Cairo.

Day 12: Cairo. Fly from Cairo, arriving London Heathrow at approximately 1.30pm.

Professor John RayHerbert Thompson Professor of Egyptology at the University of Cambridge, where he has taught since 1977. His publications concentrate on the Persian and Hellenistic periods of Egyptian history. He is a Fellow of Selwyn College Cambridge, of the Society of antiquaries of London and of the British academy.

Practicalities


Included meals: 6 lunches (some are picnics) and 7 dinners with wine.

Visas: required for most foreign nationals. If you are flying with the group we will arrange for it to be issued on arrival (included in the tour price); if you fly independently we can arrange a visa on arrival, with a transfer, for a charge. Passports must be valid for 6 months from entry into Egypt.

Accommodation. The Sofitel Winter Palace, Luxor (sofitel.com): a locally rated 5-star hotel on the banks of the Nile with delightful gardens. The Old Cataract, Aswan (sofitel.com): perched on the banks of the Nile with fine views this is one of the finest hotels in Egypt, recently refurbished. Kempinski, Cairo (kempinski.com): a 5-star boutique hotel, centrally located.

How strenuous? This tour is not suitable for anyone with any difficulty with everyday walking or stairclimbing. Visits to the archaeological sites involve walking over rough and uneven ground. There are some early starts, and the heat during the day can be tiring. Average distance by coach per day: 25 miles.


Paintings from the tombs of Beni Hassan, engraving after rev. Samuel Manning, c. 1880

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antiquities of Upper EgyptHighlights of Luxor & aswan

Karnak, after Carl Werner, oileograph 1874

13–19 April 2015 (mb 283)7 days • £3,170Lecturer: Dr Robert Morkot

Six days spent in two of Egypt’s most interesting cities at a relaxed and comfortable pace.

Some of the most extraordinary sites in antiquity, many free from the usual crowds.

Exceptional hotels in both places; in Luxor stay on the tranquil West Bank, in Aswan at The Old Cataract.

Upper Egypt, the green fertile strip that splits the desert from the base of the Delta to the First Cataract was considered one half of the Two Lands that comprised Ancient Egypt. Represented by the White Crown, the inhabitants were dependent on the River Nile, their lives determined by its annual flooding and the enrichment it brought the land. The surrounding deserts or Red Lands, despite being influenced by the god of chaos and destruction Seth, also provided mineral wealth and it was in Upper Egypt that exotic goods from tropical Africa would have passed.

The town of Thebes, known to the ancient Egyptians as Waset but renamed by the Greeks, was an important Upper Egyptian city, reflected in the abundance of monuments and royal construction projects that continued throughout Egypt’s dynasties. On the East Bank the immense pylons and courtyards of the temples of Karnak and Luxor dominate the modern town, their scale and level of preservation unrivalled.

Across the river is the West Bank; home to some of the most striking monuments in antiquity: the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut, the mortuary temple of Ramses III and, as if standing guard to them all, the immense Colossi of Memnon.

South of Luxor is the strategically important city of Aswan, a frontier town that lies between Egypt and Nubia. An important source of granite for the Pharaohs, the majority of the monuments that remain are testament to the later Ptolemaic and Roman periods. With less monuments than Luxor, Aswan’s charm lies in its location, the warmth and colour of its people, and the pace of life.

This tour explores two cities on the edge of a river that gave rise to one of the most fascinating and enduring civilizations of all. It aims to do so at a leisurely pace, using just two hotels – both of which are of exceptional quality and benefit from a calm and tranquillity not often easy to find.

Egypt’s monuments remain, in spite of the political upheaval witnessed in the last three years: they have seen far greater threats in the millenniums since they were built; civil wars, natural disasters, religious fanaticism (not a new concept). The Arab Spring is the latest of a long list and it is unlikely to be the last.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 3.00pm (Egypt Air) directly from London Heathrow to Luxor, arriving c. 10.15pm (time in the air: c. 4 hours 45 minutes). First of three nights in Luxor.

Day 2: Luxor. Free morning. Afternoon visits include the vast temple complex of Karnak including the spectacular temple of Amun and the open-air museum. Luxor temple, another great temple to Amun intimately connected to Karnak through a national festival.

Day 3: Luxor. Full day visiting the Theban West Bank. Visit the Tombs of the Nobles containing exquisite reliefs and painted festival and funeral scenes. The temple of Hatshepsut, one of ancient Egypt’s most intriguing rulers, with the reliefs depicting her expeditions to Punt, and the exquisite mortuary temple of Ramses III, Madinet Habu. Final night in Luxor.

Day 4: Luxor & Aswan. The morning is free to visit further sites on the West Bank or enjoy the serene hotel gardens. After lunch transfer to Aswan by coach in time for a sunset felucca ride on the Nile. First of three nights in Aswan.

Day 5: Aswan. Full day visiting Aswan including Philae Temple, dedicated to the goddess Isis, reconstructed on a landscaped island following the flooding of the original island. Visit the ancient granite quarries where a flawed obelisk dating to the 18th Dynasty lies unfinished. The Nubian Museum, one of the best in Egypt, recounts the city’s ancient past as well as the story of the High Dam and the relocation of monuments.

Day 6: Aswan. After a free morning, see one of the city’s least visited sites, Kalabsha Temple. Although first settled during the reign of Amenhotep II, the temple today, on the shores of Lake Nassar, was dedicated to the local Nubian god Mandulis dating to the Roman period. Final night in Aswan.

Day 7: an early start. Fly from Aswan to London Heathrow, via Cairo, arriving at c. 1.30pm.

Practicalities

Price: £3,170 (deposit £300). Single supplement £420 (double for single occupancy). Price without international flights £2,590.


Visas: required for most foreign nationals. If you are flying with the group we will arrange for it to be issued on arrival (cost included in the tour price); if you are flying independently we can arrange a visa on arrival, with a transfer, for a charge. Passports must be valid for 6 months from entry into Egypt.

Accommodation. Al Moudira, Luxor (moudira.com): tranquil 5-star retreat on the West Bank of the Nile with individually designed rooms. The Old Cataract, Aswan (sofitel.com): perched on the banks of the Nile with fine views this is one of the finest hotels in Egypt, recently refurbished.

How strenuous? Participants must be capable of spending whole days walking over the rough terrain of archaeological sites. Walking and visiting sites in the heat can be quite demanding.

Group size: between 10 and 22 participants. 46

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Great Houses of the NorthDerbyshire, Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland

14–23 September 2015 (mc 437)10 days • £3,180Lecturer: Gail Bent

The finest country houses and gardens in northern England, from mediaeval to Victorian, with an emphasis on the eighteenth century.

Unhurried: there is plenty of time to rest, relax and absorb. Only two hotel changes.

Some of the most glorious countryside in England, plus a few items other than houses.

Excellent hotels and good food.

Led by Gail Bent, an expert on British architectural history and historical interiors.

The country house is Britain’s most distinctive contribution to the world’s cultural heritage. Other countries have them of course, but none in such profusion, such variety, and in such a state of completion and preservation. Cutting a swathe through the northern half of England, from Derbyshire to Northumberland, this tour includes a remarkable number of the greatest and grandest.

One feature of the English country house is that it usually resides in the country; on the Continent the town often presses around the forecourt. And the countryside in England is among the loveliest in the world, and the most varied; on this tour you pass by gently rolling farmland with green fields, ancient hedges, majestic trees and contented livestock, and by the rugged beauty of upland moors.

All aspects of the country house are studied – architecture, furniture, decoration, works of art; gardens and parks; historical context and daily life; conservation and custodianship. Many of the houses have marvellous gardens.

The leisurely pace is a distinctive feature, with an average of fewer than two houses per day and the inclusion of a few items other than country houses. Time is allowed for relaxing and reflecting and exploring on one’s own. Special arrangements comprise another significant feature with many out-of-hours openings and access to parts not normally seen by visitors.

Itinerary

Day 1: Kedleston (Derbys). The coach leaves Derby railway station at 1.45pm. One of the supreme monuments of Classical architecture and decoration in England, recreating the glories of Ancient Rome in the foothills of the Peak District, Kedleston Hall (1759–65) was the creation of Sir Nathaniel Curzon and, initially, three architects, of whom Robert Adam emerged the victor. The sequence of grand rooms for entertainment and show are homogeneous and complete (with furnishings designed by Adam), an impeccable manifestation of aristocratic wealth, education and taste. Spend the first of three nights near Chatsworth.

Day 2: Chatsworth, Haddon (Derbys). The home of the Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth House was rebuilt in the 1690s with the scale and sumptuousness of a palace and further augmented in the 1820s. The steady acquisition of fine furniture, sculpture and pictures created one of the finest private art collections in the world. ‘The most perfect English house to survive from the Middle Ages’, Haddon Hall evolved from c. 1370 to the 17th century after which nearly 300 years of disuse preserved it from alteration. The gardens are exceptionally lovely. Overnight near Chatsworth.

Day 3: Hardwick, Bolsover (Derbys). Hardwick Hall (1590) is the finest of all Elizabethan great houses, a highpoint of the English Renaissance, the façade famously more glass than stone. The unaltered interiors are decorated with stucco reliefs and filled with contemporary textiles and furniture. Bolsover Castle is an elaborate Jacobean folly, a splendid late-Renaissance sequence of rooms in mediaeval fancy dress. Overnight near Chatsworth.

Day 4: Harewood (W Yorks). Harewood House is one of the grandest and most beautiful of English country houses, architecture by John Carr (1772) and Charles Barry (1843), interiors by Adam, furniture by Chippendale and park by ‘Capability’ Brown. There are excellent paintings, Italian Renaissance to modern. First of three nights in York.

Day 5: Burton Agnes (E Yorks), Castle Howard (N Yorks). Burton Agnes Hall is a final flourish of the Elizabethan age, red brick and cream stone, topiary, marvellous carving and plasterwork, Impressionist and modern paintings: ‘the perfect English house’. Designed by John Vanbrugh in 1699, Castle Howard is one of the few major Baroque buildings in England and the most palatial house on the tour. Excellent works of art and park with famous temples and follies. Overnight York.

Day 6: Newby, York (N Yorks). A William-and-Mary house (1693), Newby Hall was subject for the next two centuries to refurbishment and extension of the highest quality, one set of rooms (by Adam) designed to house a collection of Roman sculpture. 25 acres of fine gardens. Some free time in York. Private dinner at Fairfax House in York, a Georgian town house. Overnight York.

Day 7: Raby, Auckland (Co. Durham). Within the formidable 14th-century fortifications of Raby Castle are suites of rooms of the 18th and 19th centuries. There are good paintings, furniture and Meissen animals and a deer park. Excellent art collections in a vast building in the guise of a French château make the Bowes Museum one of the surprises of the north. Grandest of English episcopal palaces, Auckland Castle was refitted in Neo-Gothic style and contains 12 superb paintings by Zurbarán. First of three nights in Newcastle.

Castle Howard, engraving from Colen Cambell’s Vitruvius Britannicus, 1720s

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Great Houses of the Northcontinued

Day 8: Belsay, Wallington (Nthumb). After Sir Charles Monck’s return from Greece in 1805 he built Belsay Hall in a severely Grecian style. Delightful woodland gardens lead to a mediaeval castle. Wallington Hall dates to 1688 but was refurbished in the mid-18th and mid-19th centuries, the latter resulting in an arcaded two-storey hall with scenes of Northumbrian history painted by William Bell Scott. Overnight Newcastle.

Day 9: Seaton Delaval, Cragside (Nthumb). On a cliff-top site outside Newcastle, Seaton Delaval was the last of Vanbrugh’s magnificent mansions. Innovatory management has followed its acquisition by the National Trust in 2009. A wonderful sequence of late-Victorian taste and technology, Cragside is a romantic Tudor-style pile (1869–84) designed by Norman Shaw for William Armstrong, inventor and manufacturer. Overnight Newcastle.

Day 10: Alnwick (Nthumb), Newcastle. Since 1309 the seat of the Percys, Dukes of Northumberland, Alnwick Castle externally remains a striking mediaeval fortress while the interiors are a lavish exercise in Victorian mediaevalism. There is a superb painting collection and a new 12-acre garden. The coach takes you to Newcastle railway station by 3.30pm.

Practicalities

Price: £3,180 (deposit £300). Single supplement £370 (double room for single occupancy.


Accommodation. The Cavendish Hotel, near Chatsworth (cavendish-hotel.net): located on the Chatsworth Estate it has been an inn for centuries. The Grange, York (grangehotel.co.uk): ten minutes on foot from the Minster, it has been beautifully converted from a Georgian town house. Jesmond Dene House, Newcastle (jesmonddenehouse.co.uk): a 19th-century mansion in a quiet wooded suburb.

How strenuous? Unavoidably there is quite a lot of walking on this tour and it would not be suitable for anyone with difficulties with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Coaches can rarely park near the houses, many of the parks and gardens are extensive, the houses visited don’t have lifts (nor do all the hotels).Average distance by coach per day: c. 60 miles.

Memberships. National Trust: members (with cards) will be refunded c. £43. Current annual membership is £58 or £95.50 for a couple. English Heritage: members (with cards) will be refunded c. £15.


Combine this tour with In Churchill’s Footsteps, 10–13 September (page 61) or Barcelona 1900, 24 September–1 October (page 197).

ardgowan, 18–23 June 2015, another country house weekend (page 186).

Walking to Derbyshire Houses The Peak District and the Derbyshire Dales

21–26 June 2015 (mb 360)6 days • £2,110Lecturer: Dr Paul Atterbury

Daily walks over hills and dales and landscaped parks followed by visits to country houses.

A mixture of grand stately homes and smaller houses: Kedleston, Haddon, Tissington, Chatsworth, Casterne and Hardwick.

Stay throughout in a comfortable hotel on the Chatsworth Estate.

One of the joys of a walk in the English countryside is glimpsing a great house in the distance. At first just dimly perceived chimneys and roofs, the rest screened by trees, but as the walk continues more is revealed, and beauty beckons. But after further progress along the path, foliage and land mass reassert themselves and the mansion passes from sight.

Unless the house is the goal of the walk. Then it continues to grow in size, in detail, in magnificence, until one is examining it from the

front lawn. Maybe next one mounts the steps and passes over the threshold; or peel away for refreshments or lunch – on this tour the more frequent course, given that arrival follows a country walk of an hour or two or three.

The idea of combining country walking with country house visiting has been with us for several years, but it has taken time to settle upon a region, to walk the walks and to finalise the list of houses. These include some of the greatest in the country, outstanding representatives of their period of architecture, laden with treasures – Haddon, Hardwick, Chatsworth and Kedleston. Two small houses also feature, for contrast but also for their intrinsic delight, Tissington and Casterne (for the latter we stray into Staffordshire).

Famously, the Peak District offers wonderful walking country, and all but one of our walks are within the boundaries of this, the oldest National Park in Britain. Most consists of rumpled hills and their covering of little green fields, dry stone walls, deciduous trees, densely populated with cattle and sheep. There are only occasional hints of moorland.

Haddon Hall, watercolour by Ernest W. Haslehurst publ. c. 1910

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Landscaped parks are another feature, with their carefully composed arboreal clumps syncopated with grassy hillsides, serpentine lakes and grand avenues. River valleys provide another pleasure. Romantic poets delighted in Dovedale, for over two hundred years one of the most famous walks in the world. Wordsworth explored the valley as a young man and crystallised his recollections many years later in The Prelude: ‘In summer, making quest for works of art, / Or scenes renowned for beauty, I explored / That streamlet whose blue current works its way / Between romantic Dovedale’s spiry rocks’.

Itinerary

Day 1: Derby, Kedleston Hall, Baslow. Leave Derby Station at 3.00pm for the 20-minute drive to Kedleston. Starting at the Doric gateway to the estate, walk through meadows and woodland and the Capability Brown park to one of the supreme monuments of Classical architecture and decoration in England (40 minutes, cumulative elevation gain 15 metres). Inside and out Kedleston Hall has hardly changed since the 1760s. Continue to Baslow where all five nights are spent.

Day 2: Bakewell, Haddon Hall. By local bus for the 3 miles to the lovely historic town of Bakewell. Walk out into fields and gradually up through farmland to the village of Over Haddon (c. 55/60 mins, elevation gain 125m). After refreshments, descend through fields, gently at first, with views of the hillsides beyond the Wye and Lathkill Valleys, with tantalising glimpses of Haddon Hall in the valley (60/70 mins). Late mediaeval and Tudor, and with exquisite terraced gardens, Haddon Hall is for some the most arrestingly beautiful and atmospheric house in England. Return to Baslow by coach.

Day 3: Tissington, Parwich. Sir Richard FitzHerbert gives commentary during a walk through his estate (1½ hours, negligible elevation gain). The landscape is enchanting, quintessential Derbyshire, the hills gentle, trees plentiful, fields bounded by hedges or stone walls. Tissington is an extraordinarily pretty village, and the largely Jacobean Hall is a delight; Georgian interiors, family documents and terraced gardens. After lunch and time in the village there is an optional walk along an enchanting rural route to the village of Parwich (1 hour, elevation gain 50m). The coach back to the hotel picks up at Tissington and Parwich.

Day 4: Chatsworth House. Walk from the hotel through fields to the park, and climb steadily to an inhabited Elizabethan tower for views across the valley and down to the house (75 mins, elevation gain 105m). Dating largely from around 1700 and the 1840s, Chatsworth is not only one of the grandest country houses in Britain but also an extraordinary treasure-house of art and furnishings, brilliantly presented as refurbishment continues. A tour in the morning is followed by nearly four hours of free time, to revisit the house and to explore the gardens. Leave at 4.30pm for the half-hour walk along the valley bottom to the hotel.

Day 5: Dovedale, Casterne Hall. The River Dove has carved a spectacular limestone gorge which has delighted walkers for generations. Our route leads up Hall Dale and out into the open countryside where livestock graze and the views stretch for miles across Ilam and the Manifold Valley. The three-hour (with stops) walk shows all the diversity of the White Peak (6.2 miles, elevation gain 170m). Built in the 1730s, Casterne Hall is a manor house rather than a stately home, a perfect Classical structure rising from a farmyard. We are entertained for lunch in the dining room by the owners.

Day 6: Hardwick Hall. The final walk is another which begins at the edge of an estate and winds through varied terrain to reach the house, which sits atop a high scarp. Features include two magnificent avenues and a woodland walk laid out by Lady Spencer, mother of Georgina Duchess of Devonshire. (1½ hours, elevation gain 90m). Built in the 1590s by the richest woman in England, Hardwick Hall ranks among the greatest Elizabethan architecture and most memorable interiors in England. Return to Derby station by 4.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £2,110 (deposit £200). Single occupancy supplement £380.


Accommodation. The Cavendish Hotel, near Chatsworth (cavendish-hotel.net): located on the Chatsworth Estate it has been an inn for centuries. All bedrooms have good views and elegant décor with original artwork.

Dr Paul AtterburyLecturer, writer and broadcaster specialising in the art, architecture and design of the 19th and 20th centuries. He has published widely on pottery, porcelain, canals,

railways, and the Thames. He curated the V&a exhibitions Pugin and The Victorian Vision and is an expert on BBC’s Antiques Roadshow.

Paul atterbury also leads Walking a Royal River, 21–27 September 2015 (page 55).all lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

Dovedale, early-19th-century engraving

How strenuous? This is a walking tour, with 8 to 10 (2 could be omitted) country walks of between 40 minutes and 3 hours. Two are on fairly level terrain but some are moderately strenuous with cumulative elevation gain of up to 170 metres. Participants must be used to regular country walking with significant uphill element (see the itinerary for cumulative elevation gain). A feature of the Peak District are the squeeze stiles, gaps in drystone walls too narrow for livestock. Some step stiles require walkers to raise the foot as high as their knee. Participants require fitness, stamina and agility.


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Great Houses of the South WestWiltshire, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon

Dunster and its Castle, Watercolour by Walter Tyndale, publ. 1913

Berkeley Castle, etching from Historic Houses of the United Kingdom, 1892

9–16 June 2015 (mb 359)8 days • £3,110Lecturer: Anthony Lambert

Great country houses and historic gardens and parks in Wiltshire, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset and Devon.

Major examples of a huge range of styles from the twelfth century to the early twentieth.

Many houses contain outstanding picture collections and exceptional furniture.

Special arrangements and out-of-hours visits.

Hotels in former country houses.

Led by country house expert Anthony Lambert.

The landscapes seen on this tour are immensely varied and endlessly alluring – the noble chalk downs of Wiltshire, the evocative Levels of Somerset, the enchanting patchwork fields of Devon, the verdant hidden valleys of Exmoor, the little hills of Dorset.

The houses seen are equally varied. Lacock and Longleat and Montacute are among the finest of Henrician and Elizabethan mansions in England. The Stuart era is superbly represented by the incomparable Wilton House, star of the first phase of Palladian classicism in England, and by the Dutch classicism of Dyrham, while the eighteenth century is wonderfully exemplified at Stourhead and by the delicious Adam interiors at Saltram. Victoria’s reign has a magnificent ambassador in Tyntesfield, and the Edwardian continuation is beautifully if eccentrically demonstrated at Castle Drogo. Real castles are

represented by the extraordinary Berkeley, still a family home, and, if now more picturesque than defensive, at Dunster.

A first-rate country house is more than a house. Clustering around are gardens, auxiliary buildings and a park – at Stourhead, perhaps the most influential one in the world – and beyond lie working farms and enterprises of all sorts. And of course inside the houses there are furnishings and works of art and gadgets and utensils and curios: in many of the houses on this tour these moveables are of a quality and a quantity which surpass the collections of all but a couple of dozen of Britain’s museums. Corsham and Kingston Lacy in particular are renowned for their picture collections.

Word must be added about the hotels on this tour, all three of which are excellent, and two of which are former country houses.

Itinerary

Day 1: Stratfield Saye. Leave London at 11.00am and drive to Hampshire, arriving at Stratfield Saye in time for lunch. The prize for the Duke of Wellington’s victory at Waterloo, it is still lived in by his descendants today. Built in the early 17th century by an early member of the Pitt dynasty, the house has a relatively modest exterior, belying splendid interiors and an excellent art collection. Spend the first of three nights in a country-house hotel in the village of Bishopstrow, Wiltshire.

Day 2: Wilton, Kingston Lacy. Inigo Jones contributed to the design of Wilton House, the outstanding achievement of the first phase of Palladianism in England. The double-cube room, with paintings by Van Dyck, is the most

sumptuous English interior of the Stuart period. Also of the 17th century, Kingston Lacy is noted for its lavish interiors and outstanding art collection of Spanish, Italian and Flemish Old Masters. Both houses have important gardens and parkland. Overnight Bishopstrow.

Day 3: Longleat, Corsham. Longleat was one of the largest and architecturally most progressive of Elizabethan houses, and is set in a ‘Capability’ Brown park. Corsham (Wiltshire) is an Elizabethan mansion enlarged in the 18th century and again in the 19th to display a collection of Old Master paintings, still in situ. Overnight Bishopstrow.

Day 4: Stourhead, Montacute. Though built in two phases, 1720s and 1790s, Stourhead is the perfect classical villa. The landscaped park of the 1740s is the most important of its kind, with a lake, temples, careful planting and contrived, if seemingly natural, vistas. Montacute is a magnificent Elizabethan house with the longest long gallery in England. An outstation of the National Portrait Gallery, it is hung with 16th- and 17th-century pictures. Garden layout and architecture survive. First of two nights in Taunton.

Day 5: Saltram, Castle Drogo. Drive across Devon to Saltram, a largely 18th-century house with lavish Robert Adam interiors and fine pictures and furnishings. There are dramatic views of the Plym Estuary. A rugged Dartmoor setting overlooking the Teign Gorge matches Sir Edwin Lutyens’s imaginative exercise in mediaevalism at Castle Drogo, though inside there are all the latest in early 20th-century comforts. The castle is undergoing a 5-year restoration programme and whilst some rooms may be closed, it has meant the National Trust has opened rooms not normally available for public viewing. Fine Arts & Crafts garden. Overnight Taunton.

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at Home in Weston ParkHistoric Houses in Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Shropshire

Eastnor Castle, chromolithograph c. 1880

Day 6: Dunster, Tyntesfield. Drive between the Quantocks and Exmoor to the famously picturesque village of Dunster. Atop a wooded hillock, the castle of Norman origin long ago domesticated its defensive features, notably in the Carolean age. The great Gothic Revival mansion of Tyntesfield has hardly changed since the nineteenth century, caught in a time warp and stuffed with the authentic bric-a-brac of a Victorian country house. First of two nights in a country-house hotel in Colerne, Wiltshire.

Day 7: Berkeley, Lacock. The keep of Berkeley Castle dates to 1117, the bulk of the rest to 1340–61. Little has been altered since, and yet it is still the private home of its builders, a family that served Edward the Confessor. The contents – tapestries, paintings, furniture – are magnificent. In one of the loveliest villages in England, Lacock Abbey retains a cloister from the nunnery dissolved by Henry VIII and given to a courtier. There are Georgian modifications and being the home of William Fox Talbot, a window which was the subject of the first ever photograph.

Day 8: Dyrham. Transformed from a Tudor mansion at the end of the 17th century and scarcely changed since, Dyrham Park externally is mild Baroque in golden Bath stone, and inside exquisitely Anglo-Dutch with pictures and furnishings to match. Return to central London c. 4.30pm.

Some appointments cannot be confirmed until late 2014.

Practicalities

Price: £3,110 (deposit £300). Single supplement £320. National Trust members (with cards) will be refunded c. £85 – current annual membership is £58 or £95.50 for a couple.


Accommodation. Bishopstrow House (bishopstrow.co.uk) dates from the early 19th century and has been a hotel for 35 years. The Castle Hotel, Taunton (the-castle-hotel.com): an award-winning family-run hotel, pleasingly decorated and with excellent service. Lucknam Park Hotel, Colerne, Wiltshire (lucknampark.co.uk): this 5 star hotel is a fine example of a country-house hotel, set in 500 acres of parkland and with a Michelin-starred restaurant.

How strenuous? Unavoidably, there is quite a lot of walking on this tour and it would not be suitable for anyone who has difficulties with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Coaches can rarely park near the houses, many of the parks and gardens are extensive, the houses visited don’t have lifts (nor do all the hotels). Average distance by coach per day: c. 95 miles.


13–18 May 2015 (mb 320)6 days • £2,710Lecturer: Anthony Lambert

Stay in a 16th-century coaching inn and then as guests at Weston Park, a 17th-century house set in 1,000 acres of ‘Capability’ Brown landscape.

Country houses, gardens and parks in four counties in the West of England.

Important examples of a range of styles from the twelfth to twentieth centuries, many with fine pictures, furniture, silver and porcelain.

Special arrangements and out-of-hours visits.

There is no single supplement.

Along the Welsh borders are some of the most enchanting landscapes in Britain, largely unspoilt thanks to being beyond the reach of metropolitan commuters. Its agriculture remains small in scale, family farms and artisan food producers maintaining earlier field systems with hedges and an abundance of trees.

The houses visited illustrate the evolution of taste over many centuries. Hellens perfectly demonstrates the adaptation of a small monastery into one of Britain’s most atmospheric houses, deeply rural yet playing its part in national affairs. Ragley is the only surviving example of a country house designed by the polymath Robert Hooke, colleague of Sir Christopher Wren. Classicism shaped Hanbury, Shugborough and Attingham. Eastnor combines Norman and Gothic Revival elements while Madresfield’s many reconstructions have produced a house resembling a moated Elizabethan mansion but, like Wightwick, it is celebrated for its Arts & Crafts interiors.

Important parks surround some of the houses: Weston Park has one of the few remaining ‘Capability’ Brown pleasure grounds, several are by Repton and the magnificent group of mostly

Greek-inspired monuments in the park at Shugborough is a landmark in 18th-century architecture.

A very special feature of this tour is that participants stay for three of the five nights in one of these houses. Weston is basically a late seventeenth-century mansion filled with fine paintings – Holbein, Van Dyck, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Stubbs – and furniture and other arts. Formerly the property of the Earls of Bradford, it belongs to a private charitable trust. It is not a hotel, but caters for high-end special events. Our group has exclusive access, and while there this great country house is your home. You are free to wander through the house and grounds at leisure.

Itinerary

Day 1: Eastnor Castle. The coach leaves Gloucester Railway Station at 12.00 noon. Spectacularly situated above a lake, early-19th-century Eastnor is a splendid example of the Norman and Gothic revival, with a drawing room by Pugin. The sumptuous and beautifully restored interiors are hung with paintings by Van Dyck, Reynolds, Romney and Watts. First of two nights in Broadway.

Day 2: Hellens, Madresfield Court. Transformed from a monastery into a fortress in 1292 by Mortimer, Earl of March, Hellens has been lived in ever since by his descendants. Edward the Black Prince dined in the stone-flagged hall and the Tudor, Jacobean and Stuart additions contain paintings and heirlooms from the Civil War, fine 17th-century woodwork and Cordoba leather wall hangings. The novelist Evelyn Waugh was a frequent guest at Madresfield, where the oldest part is the 12th-cent. Great Hall. Rebuilt in the 16th, 19th and 20th cents., the house is famous for its Arts & Crafts chapel and library.

Day 3: Ragley Hall, Hanbury Hall. Of several great houses designed by the scientist and architect Robert Hooke, Ragley is the sole

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at Home in Weston Parkcontinued West Country Churches

Mediaeval art & architecture in the South West

Wells Cathedral, Chapter House, early 19th-century steel engraving

survivor, though it was not completed until long after his death with additions by James Gibbs and James Wyatt. There are good paintings, ceramics and furniture and a modern sculpture park. Described as ‘every Englishman’s idea of a substantial squire’s red brick home of the age of Wren’, Hanbury was built c. 1700 and decorated with wall- and ceiling-paintings by Sir James Thornhill. The garden and orangery were designed by George London. First of three nights at Weston Park.

Day 4: Weston Park. Today is spent at Weston Park with its curator Gareth Williams. The basically 17th-cent. house has an excellent picture collection, outstanding furniture, including choice pieces by Chippendale, and good ceramics. An in-depth tour includes items not usually on display. There is time also to explore at leisure and walk in the ‘Capability’ Brown park.

Day 5: Wightwick Manor, Shugborough. Wightwick Manor is one of the finest examples of the Victorian penchant for an ‘Old English’ amalgam of stone, brick, half-timbering and tile-hanging, but it is also distinguished by its collection of pre-Raphaelite paintings and William Morris furnishings. Shugborough has all the elements of a substantial country estate: a magnificent Georgian house with a fine collection of paintings, silver and ceramics; Grade I-listed parkland peppered with classical monuments; a working model farm; and a lively family history.

Day 6: Attingham Park. Set in parkland designed by Humphry Repton, Attingham has magnificent Regency interiors and one of the first picture galleries to be built in a country house. It is filled with the collection of Italian furniture, paintings and silver formed by the diplomatist 3rd Lord Berwick. The tour ends at Shrewsbury Railway Station by 3.20pm and at Wolverhampton Railway Station by 4.30pm.

Practicalities

Price: £2,710 (deposit £250). There is no single room supplement.


Accommodation. The Lygon Arms, Broadway (pumahotels.co.uk): a 16th-century coaching inn; some parts date back to the 14th century. Situated in the high street of Broadway. Weston Park, Weston under Lizard (weston-park.com): set in 1,000 acres of ‘Capability’ Brown parkland. A country house where one may stay, rather than a hotel, offering the experience of being a guest while the family is away.

How strenuous? Unavoidably, there is quite a lot of walking on this tour and it would not be suitable for anyone who has difficulties with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Coaches can rarely park near the houses, many of the parks and gardens are extensive and the houses visited don’t have lifts. Average distance by coach per day: c. 47 miles.


6–10 July 2015 (mb 392)5 days • £1,160Lecturer: John McNeill

Bristol, Wells & Exeter cathedrals and a cluster of architecturally eminent parish churches

Based in Wells, a lovely country town.

Led by renowned architectural historian and tour leader, John McNeill.

The mediaeval architecture of the English West Country, particularly in the great arc of land between Bristol and Exeter, is rightly celebrated for the regional distinction and inventiveness of its major monuments, qualities which endured throughout the Middle Ages. This imaginative originality was also extended to its parish churches and, most remarkably, can be traced back to a period from which little survives in south-western England, the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

The buildings we visit range from the late Anglo-Saxon to the early Tudor, though it would be foolish not to play to the region’s strengths, and the majority belong to the later Middle Ages.

The pre-eminent buildings are, of course, Bristol, Wells and Exeter cathedrals, each of

them variously extended, refurbished and embellished between the late thirteenth and mid-fifteenth centuries, each of them retaining much of their mediaeval statuary, furniture and stained glass. Each also belongs to wider precincts, that at Wells exceptionally well preserved, in whose vicar’s close and various gates one might glimpse some of the most influential structures of mediaeval England.

Wells is in many ways the ideal place to stay, for it sits towards the middle of an unusual concentration of parish churches of national importance, a significant theme of the tour. And with the buildings of the calibre of Lullington, Isle Abbots, Compton Martin and Steeple Ashton we will not want for masterpieces of parish church design.

Itinerary

Day 1: Bristol. The coach departs at 2.00pm from Bristol Temple Meads railway station for the short drive to Bristol Cathedral. A breathtaking hall church which stands among the most innovative early 14th-century buildings in Europe. Cross the river to the great mercantile parish church, St Mary Redcliffe, a dazzling amalgam of eye-catching porches, fancy vaults and decorated detailing .

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Day 2: Exeter, Ottery St Mary, Glastonbury. South-west to Exeter Cathedral, a building whose contemporary liturgical furnishings and western image screen constitute one of the most complete ensembles of mediaeval work still to be found in a north European city. Visit Bishop Grandisson’s collegiate foundation at Ottery St Mary and the stunning 12th–14th-century ruins at Glastonbury Abbey.

Day 3: Wells, Compton Martin. A morning at Wells Cathedral beginning with the cloisters, progressing through the nave, west front, chapter house and that marvellous sequence of contrasted spaces that make up the east end; architecture, sculpture and stained glass to the fore. The afternoon is spent at St Cuthbert and then over the Mendips to visit the Romanesque church of St Michael at Compton Martin.

Day 4: Isle Abbots, Muchelney, Huish Episcopi. A leisurely morning in south-east Somerset: Isle Abbots, an unusually heterogeneous and satisfying late mediaeval parish church; Muchelney, an important ruined Benedictine Abbey with surviving abbot’s lodging; Huish Episcopi, greatest of the Somerset church towers. A free afternoon.

Day 5: Lullington, Steeple Ashton, Bradford on Avon. The morning is spent hugging the borders of Somerset and Wiltshire. Lullington, a virtually intact Romanesque parish church with exceptional sculpture, Steeple Ashton, superb late 15th-century church with extravagant wooden vault and Bradford on Avon, accomplished and enigmatic late Anglo-Saxon chapel of St Laurence. Return to Bristol Temple Meads station by 4.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £1,160 (deposit £100). Single room supplement £60.


Accommodation. The Swan, Wells (swanhotelwells.co.uk): a 3-star hotel in a 15th-century building close to the cathedral.

How strenuous? This tour would not be suitable for anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking, getting on and off the coach regularly and who cannot stand for the many church visits. Average distance by coach per day: 60 miles.


Combine this tour with Literature & Walking in the Lake District, 29 June–2 July (page 58) or Constable & Gainsborough, 13–15 July (page 54).

The age of Bedeanglo-Saxon Northumbria

anglo-Saxon illuminated letter, engraving c. 1860

4–7 July 2015 (mb 388)4 days • £910Lecturer: Imogen Corrigan

Examines the remarkable efflorescence of culture and learning in Anglo-Saxon northern England.

Jarrow, Monkwearmouth, Holy Island, Hexham and other Anglo-Saxon sites.

Studies also Durham Cathedral, one of the greatest Romanesque buildings in Europe, with special arrangements.

Imogen Corrigan, a specialist in Anglo-Saxon and mediaeval England, leads the tour.

For a few decades around ad 700, a handful of monasteries in Northumbria became beacons of culture and learning in a Britain that was largely tribal, warlike and unstable. Within a century Viking raiders extinguished these fragile flickers of civilization, and destruction and division again ruled the land. England – as it can now be called – steadily recovered, and on the eve of the Norman Conquest had become one of the best-governed and most prosperous territories in Europe. But in the two decades after 1066 the ever-troublesome north was again laid waste.

The tour visits some of the most significant Anglo-Saxon remains in the area – Jarrow and Monkwearmouth, the two-campus monastery to which the Venerable Bede was attached; church architecture at Escomb and Hexham; and sites of powerful resonance, of the royal court at Yeavering and Lindisfarne, now known as Holy Island.

The tour introduces a cast of remarkable men – Benedict Biscop, Aiden, Cuthbert, Bede, characters of extraordinary tenacity, learning, piety and courage. One of the great intellectuals of the Middle Ages, the Venerable Bede (673–735) wrote on science and the measurement of time and on languages and literature as well as compiling a work of inestimable value, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People.

Durham Cathedral is the last resting place of Cuthbert and Bede. In the opinion of some the finest Romanesque church in Europe, its

massiveness and defensibility express the often tenuous hold on the region by institutions representing southern-based royal government.

Itinerary

Day 1: Jarrow and Monkwearmouth. The coach leaves the hotel in Durham (where all three nights are spent) at 1.30pm. The monasteries at Monkwearmouth and Jarrow, ten miles apart but one institution, were founded in 674 and 681 by Benedict Biscop, whose five journeys to Rome resulted in a unique network of international contacts and awareness of European artistry. Parts of the original chapels survive, with stained glass and stone carvings. ‘Bede’s World’ is an excellent museum, with a living Anglo-Saxon farm adjacent.

Day 2: Durham. All day is spent in and around Durham Cathedral, one of the greatest Romanesque churches in Europe and one of the most impressive of English cathedrals. Mighty towers rise above the encircling river Wear, while the interior cannot but move with its power and piety. The bulk of the building is little altered since the forty-year building campaign begun in 1093. There is the opportunity to attend Evensong here.

Day 3: Yeavering, Holy Island. On the journey to Lindisfarne visit Yeavering, evocative site of a royal settlement. The monastery on the little island of Lindisfarne (later ‘Holy Island’) was founded in ad 635 by an Irish monk from Iona, St. Aidan, and became an important centre for scholarship and missionary activity. A place of remarkable charm and tranquillity, there are Anglo-Saxon fragments, ruins of the Norman priory, and a castle, turned into a home by Edwin Lutyens.

Day 4: Escomb, Hexham. The tiny Saxon church at Escomb was built c. ad 675, a rare survival. A lovely market town on a bluff above the Tyne, Hexham grew around a monastery founded by in 671 by St Wilfrid. The magnificent mediaeval church is post-Conquest except for the crypt, the largest surviving expanse of Anglo-Saxon architecture in England. The coach sets down at Newcastle Central Railway station before 3.00pm and returns to Durham before 3.30pm.

Practicalities

Price: £910 (deposit £100). Single occupancy supplement £100.


Accommodation. The Radisson Blu Hotel, Durham (radissonblu.co.uk/hotel-durham) is a modern hotel situated on the river and is about 15 minutes on foot from the town centre.

How Strenuous? This tour would not be suitable for anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and who cannot stand for long periods of time. Average distance by coach per day: 55 miles.


“Interesting with a good spread geographically of architectural period and size of site.”

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Constable & GainsboroughStour Valley landscapes & London galleries

‘The Honourable Mrs Graham’, engraving after Thomas Gainsborough

13–16 July 2015 (mb 395)4 days • £1,040Hugh Belsey mbe

Visit sites associated with both Constable and Gainsborough in London and the Stour Valley.

Travel through beautiful unspoilt scenery that both artists would still recognise.

Visits to major London collections which house the largest density of each artist’s œuvre.

Stay all three nights in the charming village of Dedham.

The idyllic pastoral landscape of the Stour Valley was the birthplace and inspiration for two of Britain’s best known and most influential artists: Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable. Tractors may have replaced peasant workers but the gently undulating countryside checkered with hamlets and fields where livestock graze remains

largely unchanged from the time both artists studied it.

Thomas Gainsborough, although primarily known as a portrait artist, was greatly moved by this scenery and its influence can be seen in the background of his most famous works. He always maintained that he preferred landscape painting and consequently produced numerous studies of the Suffolk countryside. Many of these are on display at Gainsborough House in his home town of Sudbury, which holds the largest collection of his works outside London.

The majority of John Constable’s seminal works were studied and sketched along a three mile stretch of the river Stour where he lived and worked between 1816 and 1821. The works he produced here include The Hay Wain, one of Britain’s most recognisable paintings. Little has changed in the small hamlets of Dedham, Flatford and East Bergholt since Constable lived there, allowing the viewer to explore the scenes immortalised in paint to this day.

The bucolic landscape plays a central role in

the tour, sandwiched between visits to the major galleries in London first to view and digest the great masterpieces of each artist’s oeuvre and then to explore the landscapes that inspired them.

Itinerary

Day 1: London, Dedham. Meet in Central London at 10.00am and visit the National Gallery, the location of many of Constable’s and Gainsborough’s most famous works including The Hay Wain and Mr and Mrs William Hallett (The Morning Walk). Continue to Tate Britain to view drawings not normally on display, as well as the permanent collection. Drive to ‘Constable Country’.

Day 2: East Bergholt, Flatford, Dedham. A day exploring the three charming villages in which Constable lived and worked. St. Mary’s Church in East Bergholt has changed little since he painted The Church Porch. The site of his family home and his studio are also here. The hamlet of Flatford, seat of the family business, provided a convenient location for Constable to study and is the inspiration for many of his most famous works. Lecture and lunch in Flatford Mill, now a field studies centre. Walk a waymarked footpath, a level, grassy trail following the River Stour to Dedham (1½ miles). View Constable’s Ascension in Dedham Church.

Day 3: Sudbury, Ipswich. Drive to Gainsborough House in Sudbury, the artist’s birthplace and family home, now a museum holding the largest collection of his works outside London, with particular focus on his Suffolk works. Images include: Mrs Mary Cobbold with her daughter Anne in a landscape with a lamb and ewe and Portrait of Harriet, Viscountess Tracy. Continue to Ipswich to visit the Wolsey Art Gallery, a recently opened wing of Christchurch Mansion designed specifically to house the town’s collection of works by Constable and Gainsborough.

Day 4: London. Return to London and visit the print collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum which holds the largest collection of Constable’s prints and drawings in the country. The tour ends in central London by 3.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £1,040 (deposit £100). Single room supplement £120.


Accommodation. Milsom Hotel, Dedham (milsomhotels.com) a modern hotel on the banks of the river Stour, overlooking Dedham Vale.

How strenuous? This tour would not be suitable for anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and who cannot stand for long periods of time. The tour includes a walk (1½ miles) along a river bank which requires a good level of fitness. Average distance by coach per day: 51 miles.


Combine this tour with West Country Churches, 6–10 July (page 52).54

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Walking a royal riverart, architecture & history from the source to Hampton Court


Contact us for full details or visit www.martinrandall.com

Walk between two and five miles a day from the source of the Thames to Hampton Court.

Along the towpath and through the gentle hills which flank the valley.

Visit villages, churches, country houses, gardens and palaces with regal connections from the Middle Ages to the present day.

‘The Thames is no ordinary waterway. It is the golden thread of our nation’s history.’ It is not to disparage Churchill’s irresistibly orotund metaphor to assert nevertheless that, by comparison with the other great rivers of the world, the Thames is puny. But therein lies its enchantment.

While in its lower reaches the river passed through what was for a couple of centuries the largest city in the world and host to its largest port, above the tidal limit at Teddington it was too narrow, too shallow and too meandering to contribute much to the industrial or commercial might of Britain in the early modern era. A vital channel of communication when oars and poles were the locomotive forces – not least to transport rulers and courtiers to their country retreats upstream of the capital – for much of its length the Thames is now a bucolic backwater.

This tour selects some of the most attractive stretches of the river to walk along, but it does not follow a linear journey from one end to the other. While resorting regularly to the towpath (now a designated long-distance trail, the Thames Path), it also ranges through varied countryside and gentle hills, and includes a representative spread of the best of the buildings, artefacts and art in the region.

As much as anything, this tour is an exploration of the English village. The numerous examples are as well-preserved as they are various. Parish churches and Iron Age forts, manor houses and major mansions, rapturous gardens and leafy churchyards, mediaeval, classical and railway-era bridges, associations with artists and writers, and of course quintessential riverine landscapes: these are chief among the attractions of the tour.

It omits the larger towns and the more frequented sights. As a travel writer put it in 1910, ‘You cannot rusticate at Reading’. Even Oxford is by-passed; to cram the city into an afternoon would be cruel, and besides, the timing of this tour allows participants to segue into The Divine Office, our five-day festival of music in college chapels.

Itinerary

Day 1: Thames Head. Leave The Swan Hotel, Bibury, at 2.15pm or Kemble Railway Station at 3.00pm. The tour begins with the source of the Thames. A soaring rockface, a majestic spurt: an awesome spectacle. Actually, no. A damp patch,

the trickle varying with yesterday’s weather, reached by walking across three fields. Total walk: 2 miles on grassy, level paths. First of three nights in Bibury.

Day 2: Inglesham, Lechlade, Great Coxwell. Begin the day with Inglesham church, a beautifully isolated church dating to Saxon times. Continue on foot and walk c. 3 miles along the river to Lechlade-on-Thames, a vibrant small town with a fine Gothic church and a handsome bridge. Visit the masterful medieaval barn at Great Coxwell, which King John gave to the Cistercian monks in 1203 as part of the Manor of Faringdon. Return to Bibury with a 2-mile walk along grassy paths and through woodland from Coln St Aldwyns.

Day 3. Buscot, Kelmscott. Begin the walk at Buscot, whose church has a Burne Jones window, and continue c. 2½ miles on a level, grassy path beside the Thames. Visit Kelmscott Manor, the Tudor house acquired by William Morris, founder of the Arts and Crafts movement. In the afternoon visit Buscot Park, a Palladian mansion with Burne Jones paintings and outstanding gardens.

Day 4: Wittenham Clumps, Dorchester, Ewelme. Begin at the river at Shillingford and then walk up to Wittenham Clumps, a pair of hillocks with views over a particularly attractive stretch of the Thames Valley. Descend through woods and across farmland, passing an Iron Age fort, to Dorchester-on-Thames. Total walk: c. 4½ miles. Visit the abbey church here, one of the finest mediaeval buildings in Oxfordshire, where St Birinus baptised King Cynegils of Wessex in 635. Continue to Ewelme, site of a Saxon palace, and today a unique complex of 15th-century church, almshouses and school, all still functioning. First of three nights in Marlow.

Day 5: Hardwick, Henley-on-Thames, Cliveden. Hardwick House is a grand, gabled Tudor

residence: Elizabeth I and Charles I once stayed there. Now privately owned, it is open by special arrangement. See the River and Rowing Museum at Henley-on-Thames, with its extensive collection of art, photographs and boats relating to river history. Cliveden’s magnificent formal gardens and woods beside the Thames have been admired for centuries. Cliveden was once the glittering hub of society, visited by virtually every British monarch since George I, home to Waldorf and Nancy Astor in the early 20th century and renowned for its parties and political gatherings.

Day 6: Cookham, Eton. Walk from the hotel beside the river (4½ miles on a level path along tarmac or grass) to Cookham, life-long home of painter Stanley Spencer (1891–1959); there is a gallery of his work and a fine parish church. Tour the buildings of Eton College (founded 1440 by King Henry VI). Eton College is currently undergoing extensive renovations and is unable to confirm a visit this far in advance. Dinner at a Michelin-starred restaurant in the vicinity of Marlow. Overnight Marlow.

Day 7: Hampton Court Palace, London or Oxford. Hampton Court was begun by Cardinal Wolsey, enlarged by Henry VIII and 150 years later partly rebuilt by Christopher Wren for William III and Mary II. The most sumptuous of surviving Tudor palaces is joined to the most magnificent of 17th-cent. buildings in Britain. Drive to London, arriving by c. 3.00pm.

Practicalities – in brief



Accommodation. The Swan, Bibury (cotswold-inns-hotels.co.uk).


Cookham Church, watercolour by Ernest W. Haslehurst, publ. 1930

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quite rough, and periodically there are rises and falls, sometimes quite steep, though rarely of more than 50 metres and often aided by rough-hewn stone steps recently made for the Hadrian’s Wall Path. It is not a tough trek but nevertheless it should only be attempted by people whose regular country walks include some uphill elements.

A coach takes you to the start of each walk and meets you at the end, eliminating the need to retrace steps or carry much except water and waterproofs. Each day has been planned to provide a balanced mix of archaeology, more general sight-seeing and cross-country trekking, and for this reason the walks do not constitute a linear progression. On most days you return to the hotel by 5.00pm, allowing plenty of time to relax before dinner.

Itinerary

Day 1: Housesteads. The coach leaves Newcastle Central Station at 2.15pm (or from the hotel, Matfen Hall, at 1.30pm) and takes you straight out to Housesteads. With standing remains of up to 10 feet, this is the best preserved of the Wall’s forts and evocatively reveals the usual panoply of perimeter walls and gateways, headquarters building, commander’s palatial residence, granaries, hospital, latrines. Remote and rugged, there are superb views.

Day 2: walk Steel Rigg to Cawfields; Corbridge. The first walk is perhaps the most consistently rugged as it follows long, well-preserved stretches of the Wall through moorland above the cliffs of the Whinsill Crag; a thrilling walk (2¾ miles, up to 2½ hours). Pub lunch. Corbridge began as a fort in the chain built by Agricola c. ad 85 but left to the south by Hadrian’s Wall it became a supply depot and then a largely civilian town.

Day 3: walk Housesteads to Steel Rigg; Chesters. Again for much of the route the Wall rides the crest of the faultline of dolerite crags, dipping and climbing. There are spectacular stretches, excellently preserved milecastles, staggering views: moorland, lakes, conifer forests to the north, richly variegated greens, plentiful livestock, distant vistas to the south (3½ miles, up to 2¾ hours). Pub lunch. Chesters, the most salubrious of the forts (lavish bath house), built for 500 Asturian cavalrymen, in enchanting river valley setting.

Day 4: Vindolanda, Newcastle. The fort and town of Vindolanda is the site of ongoing excavations

Walking Hadrian’s Wallroman civilization at the edge of an Empire

The Wall near Housesteads, wood engraving c. 1888

11–17 May 2015 (mb 308)7 days • £1,910Lecturer: Graeme Stobbs

6–12 September 2015 (mc 429)7 days • £1,910Lecturer: Graeme Stobbs

The archaeology and history of the largest Roman construction in northern Europe.

The most spectacular stretches accessible only on foot, this is also a walking tour through some of the most magnificent scenery in England.

Excursions from coast to coast include all the major Roman sites and relevant museums.

One hotel throughout, the best in the region.

The lecturer is Graeme Stobbs, curator for the Hadrian’s Wall Museums.

Traversing England from the Tyne estuary to the Solway Firth, the Wall was conceived and ordered by Emperor Hadrian in ad 122 to mark and control the northernmost limit of the Roman Empire. The ambition was extraordinary, its fulfilment – far from the pool of skills and prosperity in the Mediterranean heartlands of the Empire – astonishing: a fifteen-foot-high wall 73 miles long through harsh, undulating terrain with 80 milecastles, 161 intermediate turrets and flanking earthwork ditches and ramparts.

Fifteen or sixteen forts, many straddling the Wall, housed a garrison of 12–15,000 soldiers from radically different climes elsewhere in the Empire, including Syria, Libya, Dalmatia, Spain

and Belgium. A populous penumbra of supply bases and civilian settlements grew up nearby. As a feat of organisation, engineering and will-power, Hadrian’s Wall ranks among the most extraordinary of all Roman achievements. Its story does not end with its completion within Hadrian’s reign because for the remaining three centuries of Roman control there were constant changes both to the fabric and to its administration and occupation.

A study of the Wall leads to an examination of practically every aspect of Roman civilization, from senatorial politics in Rome to the mundanities of life for ordinary Romans – and Britons – who lived in its shadow. But the Wall itself remains the fascinating focus, and the subject of endless academic debate.

For the modern-day visitor the Wall has the further, inestimable attraction of passing some of the most magnificent and unspoilt countryside in England. Happily, archaeological interest is greatest where the landscape is at its most thrilling, and it is in this central section, furthest from centres of population, that the tour concentrates. The principal excavated sites can be visited with no more exertion than on an average sightseeing outing, but to see the best surviving stretches of the Wall, and to appreciate the vastness of the Roman achievement, to view many of its details and to immerse fully in the scenic beauties, there is no substitute for leaving wheels behind and walking along its course.

How strenuous are the walks? On each of the five full days there is a walk of between two and three hours, covering between two and four miles. The slow progress is in part due to stops to examine the archaeology and to take in the wonderful views. But also the terrain is often

“Excellent selection of the best parts of Hadrian’s Wall & its environs.”

“The lecturer is an enthusiastic archaeologist, very knowledgeable, entertaining and an excellent teacher.”

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The Divine officeChoral Music in oxford28 September–2 October 2015 (mc 460)Contact us for full details or visit www.martinrandall.com

A celebration of choral music, largely liturgical, with mediaeval and Renaissance plainchant and polyphony prominent.

The centrepiece of the festival is the Divine Office, the eight Offices of the Hours, sung at the appropriate times of day and night.

The performances take place in college chapels: Christ Church, Magdalen, Merton, All Souls, Queen’s and the University Church of St Mary.

The best of Oxford’s college choirs perform together with some of Britain’s leading specialist choirs: The Tallis Scholars, Stile Antico, Tenebrae, Westminster Cathedral Choir and Sospiri.

Access is limited to those who take a package which includes all the concerts, and accommodation in hotels or a college. Magdalen Tower, by Yoshio Markino, publ. 1910

which are revealing everyday artefacts including, famously, the ‘postcard’ writing tablets which uniquely document details of everyday life. In Newcastle the Great North Museum has the best collection of objects excavated along the Wall.

Day 5: walk Gilsland to Birdoswald; Chesters, Brocolitia. Walk through low-lying and pretty farmland with streams and wild flowers. The only mile with both milecastles and turrets visible, and good lengths of Wall (2 miles, 1 hour). Pub lunch followed by a couple of archaeological remains, the Mithraic temple at Brocolitia and the bridge abutments across the river from Chesters.

Day 6: walk Walltown to Cawfields; Carlisle, Bowness-on-Solway. The final walk is spectacularly varied, from rocky hilltops to lowland pasture (3½ miles, 2½ hours). Great Chesters fort has good remains of gates and other structures, with lengths of the Wall up to two metres high. Drive to Carlisle to see the Wall collections in the Tullie House Museum, and continue to the evocative estuarial landscape of the Solway Firth. The Wall ended at the remote village of Bowness-on-Solway.

Day 7: South Shields, Wallsend. At South Shields Arbeia is a fine reconstruction of a fort gateway, as well as reconstructions of a soldier’s barrack block and an opulent house belonging to the Commanding Officer. At aptly named Wallsend and now engulfed in the Tyneside conurbation, Segedunum was the most easterly of the forts, the layout clearly seen from a viewing platform. The coach takes you to Newcastle railway station by 2.30pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Matfen Hall Hotel (matfenhall.com) a 19th-century Jacobean-style mansion, Matfen Hall is a fine country house hotel offering excellent service.

How strenuous? Please read the last two paragraphs of the introduction above. You should not consider this tour unless you possess a well-used pair of walking boots, are more than averagely fit, have good balance and a head for heights.


Combine this tour with Ravenna & Urbino, 6–10 May (page 128), Palaces of Piedmont, 19–24 May (page 114), Agincourt, Crécy & Waterloo, 31 August–4 September (page 28) or Great Houses of the North, 14–23 September (page 47).

Chamber Music WeekendsIn Taunton & Newcastle: Spring 2015

I Fagiolini30 January–1 February 2015 (mb 235)Jesmond Dene House, NewcastleFrom £750 • 2 nights • 4 concerts

The Leonore Piano Trio20–22 February 2015 (mb 244)The Castle Hotel, Taunton£690 (Garden Room £820)2 nights • 6 concertsSpeaker: Richard Wigmore

a Weekend of Mozar t13–15 March 2015 (mb 254)The Castle Hotel, Taunton£720 (Garden Room £860)2 nights • 4 concerts: London Bridge Ensemble, Alasdair Beatson & Mary Bevan • Speaker: Richard Wigmore

Easter at The Castle3–6 April 2015 (mb 274)The Castle Hotel, Taunton£960 (Garden Room £1,130)3 nights • 5 concerts: The Mandelring Quartet & Quartetto di Cremona

Contact us for full details or visit www.martinrandall.comPhotos, clockwise from top: The Leonore Piano Trio; The Mandelring Quartet; The London Bridge Ensemble; Mary Bevan.

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Literature & Walking in the Lake DistrictFollowing Wordsworth & ruskin in spectacular countryside

Dove Cottage (Wordsworth’s house), watercolour by Francis S. Walker, publ. 1907

Dr Charles NichollHonorary Professor of English at Sussex University and the acclaimed author of several books of biography, history and travel. He is a Fellow of the royal Society of

Literature, and recipient of the Hawthornden prize, the James Tait Black prize for biography and the Crime Writers’ association ‘Gold Dagger’ award for non-fiction. all lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

29 June–2 July 2015 (mb 380)4 days • £1,190Lecturer: Dr Charles Nicholl

Wordsworth, Ruskin and Beatrix Potter, their homes and surrounding countryside, combined with four country walks.

Led by acclaimed writer and biographer Dr Charles Nicholl.

Stay all three nights in a country house hotel overlooking Lake Windermere.


For over two hundred years, tourism, agriculture and industry have enjoyed a synergy in the English Lakes thanks in part to its rich and diverse geology. The striking contrasts between fell and dale are apparent to all visitors, the result of glacial action during the last few thousand years, when the snow and ice melting around very hard rocks formed lakes in the valleys left below.

This sheer natural splendour caught the attention of the wider world by two revolutions in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; firstly artistic, as learned English gentlemen travelled to the Lake District to see the ‘picturesque’ landscapes of European masters like Poussin, Lorraine and Rosa, and secondly industrial. A network of roads was built to improve communications, and by 1768 a road north through Westmorland and Cumberland had been built, providing open road to privately-owned carriages. The idea of touring the Lakes for artistic purposes took hold – the poet Thomas Gray travelled between Keswick and Lancaster

in late 1769, observing and commenting on the scenery. His account, published in 1775, was received to great acclaim and the region soon became a popular destination for the ‘touring’ classes, particularly as travelling to continental Europe was impossible.

William and Dorothy Wordsworth returned to their childhood roots (he was born in Cockermouth and educated at Hawkshead) when they moved to Dove Cottage in Grasmere in 1799. From this modest two-storey house he spent many hours walking: to and from Rydal, to Ambleside and to Keswick, the home of Coleridge and Robert Southey. Dorothy recorded his many walks in her Journal; indeed the day that they first saw those daffodils on the shores of Ullswater Lake in April 1802 is immortalised with her diary entry: ‘I never saw daffodils so beautiful’.

Wordsworth’s poetry and essays had a deep impact on other artists, notably John Ruskin. His long poem The Excursion, an essay on the virtues of mankind, and in particular Wordsworth’s social concern and eagerness to promote respect between humans and the rural landscape, chimed with Ruskin’s conservationist views. Ruskin had visited the Lakes many times before making his home at Brantwood on Coniston Water, from where he would observe the colour of the sky

and bemoan changes to the rural idyll that he attributed to human intervention through the local quarrying industry.

The arrival of the steam engine and the first railway into the Lakes in 1847 vexed both men, and as the tourist numbers accumulated year on year, they became increasingly vocal about man-made structures damaging and destroying what they considered the delicate balance between man and nature that defined the Lake District. Beatrix Potter also championed traditional artisanship, and after settling in Hawkshead in the 1900s, used the proceeds from her books to buy properties and land to save them from development. A large part of her estate was left to the National Trust, which was co-founded by her friend H.D. Rawnsley in the 1880s.

The Lake District became one of the UK’s first National Parks in 1951, after nearly a century of campaigning. Today its enduring beauty and rich history continue to attract many visitors, but the vast landscapes ensure there is space for reflection and rejuvenation for everyone. This short tour picks the region’s literary highlights and intersperses them with moderate walks, no more than four miles in distance, and with limited ascents, so that it can be enjoyed by everyone who is used to country walks of up to three hours.

Itinerary

Day 1. The coach leaves Oxenholme Lake District Railway Station at 2.20pm (c. 2 hours 40 minutes from London on the West Coast line). Set in 17 acres above Windermere, Holehird Gardens are some of the finest gardens in England and home to the national collections of Astilbe, Hydrangea and Polystichum Ferns. Walk a total of 2 miles along grassy paths through fields, with steep ascents in places up to Orrest Head, at 784 feet above sea level, with magnificent views of Lake Windermere. Drive to Merewood Country House hotel where all three nights are spent.

Day 2. Drive to the pier at Coniston for the passenger ferry across Lake Coniston, the setting for Arthur Ransome’s novel Swallows and Amazons, and the best way to arrive at John Ruskin’s home from 1872 to 1900. The house has an extensive literary history and a major collection of Ruskin’s drawings, paintings, and scientific collections; it also contains his original furniture and his boat and Brougham carriage

“I thought the itinerary was excellent. Every day was a mix of tours of very interesting venue, as well as stunning walks.”

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The Cathedrals of EnglandTen of the greatest buildings in the country

22–30 April 2015 (mb 300)9 days • £2,580Lecturer: Jon Cannon

A study of ten of Britain’s greatest buildings – their history, architecture, sculpture, stained glass and current life.

Built between the Norman Conquest and Henry VIII’s Reformation, with Coventry Cathedral a moving exception.

Organ recitals exclusively for us, and many other special arrangements.

Five hotels and a lot of driving, but the itinerary has time for rest and independent exploration.

Led by Jon Cannon, writer, lecturer and broadcaster and author of Cathedral: the great English cathedrals and the world that made them.

This is an architectural journey that would be hard to equal for intensity of aesthetic delight. As a way into the minds and lives of the people of the Middle Ages, likewise it would be difficult to surpass. Personalities of extraordinary capability

and vision will be revealed, and the thought processes and techniques used by craftsmen of genius revealed and decoded.

The tour ranges across England – north, south, east and west – to see some of the most glorious mediaeval architecture to be found anywhere. Connoisseurs may carp at the omissions, but logistics exclude only a couple of cathedrals of comparable beauty, magnificence and interest. With an average of little over one cathedral a day, there is plenty of time at each to really get to know them, to assimilate, appreciate and contemplate.

All but one are mediaeval, Norman (as Romanesque is generally called in Britain) and Gothic. It is easy to underestimate the length of time the Middle Ages encompasses: the span from the earliest work we see on the tour to the latest, from the Norman Conquest to the Reformation, equals that from the Reformation to the present day. There was huge variety in the building arts and historical circumstances during those 460 years. The one non-mediaeval cathedral on the itinerary is Coventry. Rebuilt after the Second World War, not only is it a treasure house of mid-twentieth-century art but it is a moving monument to rebirth and reconciliation.

Winchester C

athedral, Bishop Fox’s Chapel, w

ood engraving c. 1880

are displayed in outhouses. An afternoon walk of 4 miles mostly level on footpaths and country tracks, easy underfoot, with a short ascent from Brantwood through Monks Coniston and the restored walled garden to Coniston.

Day 3. A full day in the footsteps of Wordsworth. Beginning at Rydal Mount, the Wordsworth family home from 1813–50, this elegant house and fine gardens welcomed many literary visitors. Walk along the ‘Coffin Route’: coffin bearers used this path from Rydal to Grasmere before the main road was built and heavy flattened stone slabs still intermittently line the path. Visit Dove Cottage, the Wordsworths’ first Lakes home which subsequently belonged to Thomas de Quincey. Walk to the thriving town of Grasmere for independent exploration, rich with literary connections. Return to Rydal Mount along Loughrigg Terrace, a raised footpath which traverses the slope of Loughrigg Fell above Rydal Water. Total for both walks along footpaths and country lanes of 5½ miles, moderate–strenuous in places with some uneven ground and two short climbs.

Day 4. Visit Hill Top, Beatrix Potter’s 17th-cent. farmhouse, before driving to Hawkshead to see Wordsworth’s grammar school. There is also the opportunity to visit the Beatrix Potter gallery. Return to Oxenholme train station by 3.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £1,190 (deposit £150). There is no single occupancy supplement.


Accommodation. The Merewood Country House Hotel (lakedistrictcountryhotels.co.uk/merewood-hotel), is an early 19th-century manor house, located to the east of Windermere lake in 20 acres of woodland and landscaped gardens.

How strenuous? This is a walking tour: it is essential for participants to be in good physical condition and to be used to country walking. There are some short but steep uphill sections and terrain can be uneven and slippery in wet weather. There are four walks (two on one day) of no more than 4 miles or 2½ hours in length. Average distance by coach per day: 21 miles.


Combine this tour with Rhine Valley Music Festival, 10–27 June (page 89) or The Age of Bede, 4–7 July (page 53). en

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The Cathedrals of Englandcontinued

There are many special arrangements to enable you to see more than most visitors. Organ recitals are being organised for us at some cathedrals. There are also opportunities to hear some excellent choirs at Evensong. Cathedrals come with cities, and many of these were relatively little changed during the era of industrialisation and now rank among the loveliest in England. Much beautiful countryside is traversed as well.

For centuries, British scholars and critics laboured under an inferiority complex, believing English Gothic to be a defective derivative of the thoroughbred French version, inferior according to the degree to which it departed from the soaring, clean-limbed and impeccably rational paradigms across the Channel. That cultural cringe has all but evaporated in the last couple of generations, not least because evidence has been piling up that masons and architects in England had entire confidence in their inventiveness and deliberately chose to shun French conventions in favour of England’s own distinctive and fascinating imaginative universe.

Itinerary

Day 1: Ely. The coach leaves King’s Cross, London at 9.30am for Ely, a surprisingly remote and rural location for one of England’s greatest cathedrals. The mighty Norman nave and transepts (c. 1110–30), with their thick walls, tiers of arches and clusters of shafts, leads to the crossing and its unique 14th-century octagonal lantern, a work of genius. The detatched Lady Chapel, also in the Decorated style, is the largest and perhaps the finest in the country; the Early English quire a ravishing setting for the lost shrine to St Etheldreda. Overnight Lincoln.

Day 2: Lincoln. Also largely by-passed by modern urban development, Lincoln’s hilltop site above the broad Witham valley renders this enormous cathedral even more imposing. Largely rebuilt from 1192, it has always been revered as one of the finest of Gothic cathedrals, its fascinations enhanced by myriad minor inconsistencies and variations which reveal the struggle for solutions at the frontiers of artistic fashion and technological capability. The steep streets of the ancient town are a delight. First of three nights in York.

Day 3: Durham. By train to Durham where the topography and riverside walk provide the most exciting approach to any English cathedral. Massive towers rise above the trees which cling to the steep embankment, a defensible bulwark in the frequently hostile North. Largely completed in the decades from 1093 and little altered since, the nave and quire with their great cylindrical pillars, distinguished by their engraved patterns, constitute one of the world’s greatest Romanesque churches. Overnight York.

Day 4: York. York Minster is the largest of English mediaeval cathedrals. Above ground it is all Gothic, from Early English to Perpendicular but predominantly 14th-century, demonstrating an exceptional knowledge of the latest French Rayonnant ideas. It is a treasure trove of original stained glass, and the polygonal chapter house is

without peer. The city retains its mediaeval walls and an exceptional quantity of historic buildings. Overnight York.

Day 5: Coventry. Coventry Cathedral is perhaps internationally Britain’s best-known 20th-cent. building. Built to designs by Sir Basil Spence beside the ruins of its predecessor destroyed in 1940, it is both a showcase for some of the best art of the time (Graham Sutherland, John Piper, Jacob Epstein). In the evening, a walk through Stratford-upon-Avon, which has retained many buildings Shakespeare would have known. Overnight Stratford.

Day 6: Gloucester, Bristol. The procession of tall cylindrical pillars in Gloucester’s nave is unadulterated Norman, but, following the burial of Edward II in 1327, the eastern parts are exquisitely veiled in the first large-scale appearance of Perpendicular architecture. The east window, which retains its mediaeval stained glass, is one of the largest in Europe. Bristol cathedral is a much-overlooked gem with fine work of every era, from the lavishly patterned walls of the Romanesque chapter house to G. E. Street’s great Victorian nave. But its highlight is the east end, among the most innovative and beautiful of early-14th-cent. buildings. First of two nights in Wells.

Day 7: Wells. An exceptionally unspoilt little city, Wells has a fortified bishop’s palace, 14th-cent. houses of the vicar’s choral and much else of charm and interest. The cathedral was one of the first in England to be built entirely in Gothic style. Its screened west front, eastward march of the nave, sequence of experimental contrasted spaces of the Decorated east end, serene chapter house and Perpendicular cloisters all contribute to the cathedral’s exceptional allure. The strainer arches supporting the sagging tower are among the great creations of the Middle Ages. Overnight Wells.

Day 8: Salisbury. One of the most uplifting experiences in English architecture, Salisbury is

unique among the Gothic cathedrals in England in that it was built on a virgin site and largely in a single campaign, 1220–58. To homogeneity are added lucidity of design and perfection of detail. Completed a century later, the spire at 404 feet is the tallest mediaeval structure in Britain. The close is the finest in the country, and the town beyond has an extensive expanse of historic fabric. Overnight Winchester.

Day 9: Winchester. Winchester Cathedral is one of Europe’s longest churches, reflecting the city’s status intermittently from the 9th to the 17th centuries as a seat of English government. The transepts are unembellished early Norman (1079), raw architecture of brute power, whereas the mighty nave was dressed 300 years later in suave Perpendicular garb. The profusion of chantry chapels constitutes an enchanting collection of Gothic micro-architecture. Wall paintings, floor tiles, the finest 12th-cent. Bible. Return to Tothill Street in central London by 4.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. The Castle Hotel, Lincoln (castlehotel.net): an historic building close to the cathedral. The Grange, York (grangehotel.co.uk): also in an historic building with a new wing within walking distance of the city centre. The Stratford (Q Hotels), Stratford on Avon (qhotels.co.uk): a modern hotel, located on the edge of the historic centre of the town. The Swan, Wells (swanhotelwells.co.uk): in a building of 15th-cent. origin in a narrow street close to the cathedral. The Wessex, Winchester (mercure.com): excellently located overlooking the cathedral in a 1960s building. Rooms at all the hotels, being city-centre historic properties, vary in size and outlook.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking on the tour. You ought to be able to walk at about three miles an hour for up to half an hour. There are also a lot of steps and uneven surfaces. Roof and tower visits are optional of course, but at Salisbury there are 332 stairs to climb. Two of the hotels do not have lifts. There are three days without any coach travel, but there is an average on the remaining five days of 73 miles.


Combine this tour with The Heart of Italy, 14–21 April (page 140) or with Classical Greece, 2–11 May (page 99).

“Excellent cultural content, outstanding competence, extremely high comfort level – all made this trip a fantastic experience for me. Thank you.”

York Minster, watercolour by Gordon Home, publ. 1935

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Photograph publ. 1942

In Churchill’s Footstepsoxfordshire, London & Kent

10–13 September 2015 (mc 453)4 days • £1,970Lecturer: Terry Charman

Visit places key to Churchill’s life in the company of Churchill historian Terry Charman.

Several out-of-hours visits and special arrangements.

Two nights in a country house in Oxfordshire where Churchill regularly stayed and one night in central London.

‘Winston Churchill was the greatest Englishman and one of the greatest human beings of the twentieth century, indeed of all time.’ So Max Hastings began Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord (2010). Roy Jenkins concluded his 2001 biography with the verdict that Churchill was ‘the greatest human being ever to occupy 10 Downing Street’. These are the views of first rate historians, not of hagiographers or eccentrics, and are shared by millions around the globe.

It has not always been thus. In 1932 a British delegation in Moscow was being questioned by Stalin about contemporary politics. ‘What about Churchill?’ he asked. ‘Oh,’ replied Nancy Astor with a scornful little laugh, ‘he’s finished.’ Detractors were legion for much of his political career, the years of his wartime premiership being no exception. A steady flow of revisionist historians have followed suit.

Churchill was more right about more things than an average handful of statesmen put together. It is also true that his judgement was intermittently badly flawed, the consequence perhaps of the huge range of matters to which he turned his attention, his exceptionally long political career, his boundless energy, his boldness and his ambition. Anti-Churchill myths are strangely tenacious (no, he didn’t order troops against the strikers at Tonypandy), but on most of the major issues of his time, not only was his judgement sound but it was frequently in defiance of prevailing wisdom, and often demonstrated almost preternatural foresight.

The use of ‘human being’ in both the quoted encomia is striking: alternative substantives are inadequate for such a towering – and humane – personality. Compassion was the virtue he ranked highest, a belief in decency the bedrock of his political life, liberty his goal. Yes, he was possibly the greatest war leader the world has known; but for the quantity and impact of progressive social legislation he shepherded through Parliament he was probably unsurpassed by any other British politician of the twentieth century. He had a will of iron, colossal courage and the intellect of a genius, but he was lovable and approachable, easily moved to tears by the sight of suffering or forbearance. His famous wit was rarely acerbic and never cruel.

This unique tour illuminates Churchill and his tumultuous times through visits to places which played a key role in his life.

in 1705 to John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough. We have a special out-of-hours visit to the WSC collection and state apartments followed by time to enjoy the gardens and the ‘Capability’ Brown park. Then visit the nearby church at Bladon where WSC was buried (1965). Second night at Ditchley.

Day 3: London. Designed by Barry and Pugin, the House of Commons is one of the most richly ornamented Victorian buildings. Walk around Whitehall passing key Churchill sites including the Admiralty, Downing Street, St Margaret’s and Westminster Abbey (for evensong). A private visit to the Cabinet War Rooms. Overnight London.

Day 4: London, Chartwell. On the way to Kent, digress via Sidney Street of ‘Siege’ fame (1911). Then to Chartwell, his beloved family home in the country from 1924 to the end of his life. ‘I love the place – a day away from Chartwell is a day wasted.’ The house, studio, gardens and outhouses are maintained as during the Churchill occupancy with photographs, sound recordings and numerous memorabilia. Return to central London by 5.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Ditchley Park, Oxfordshire (ditchley.co.uk): built in the 1720s by James Gibbs and William Kent, Ditchley Park is now used for discreet political conferences. Not a hotel, visitors are treated as house guests and are able to take advantage of several drawing rooms and extensive grounds. The Royal Horseguards, London (guoman.com): 5-star hotel in the heart of Whitehall adjacent to the National Liberal Club.

How strenuous? The tour involves quite a lot of walking and should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Average distance by coach per day: 58 miles.


Combine this tour with Poets & the Somme, 4–7 September (page 74) or Great Houses of the North, 14–23 September (page 47).

Itinerary

Day 1: London, Harrow. Meet in central London by 9.50am and visit the Churchill Museum in Whitehall, an excellent presentation of his life. Next visit Harrow School, where he spent five years with famously mixed fortunes. Churchill stayed at Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire for 15 weekends 1940–42 when the moon was high (Chequers being feared visible to the Luftwaffe). Built in the 1720s, it is one of the finest country houses of its time. Two nights are spent here.

Day 2: Blenheim, Bladon, Ditchley. Blenheim Palace, Churchill’s birthplace, is the grandest house in Britain. It was given by the nation

right: Blenheim Palace, in The Comprehensive History of England Vol.VII, 1870

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Connoisseur’s LondonLess accessible & lesser-known treasures

Itinerary 1: 6–10 September 2015 (mc 445)5 days • £1,870

Itinerary 2: 11–15 August 2015 (mb 412)5 days • £1,810

Lecturers & guides: various specialists

Great art and architecture and places of interest off the beaten track, not generally accessible or simply overlooked amid London’s vast riches.

Several different lecturers and specialist guides and many special arrangements.

Most evenings are free. Participants are offered theatre or concert tickets or dinners.

Very centrally located 5-star hotel.

Would work well linked to another tour.

London’s riches of art and architecture are both multitudinous and widely dispersed. Has even the most assiduous of Londoners seen everything that merits a visit? Surely not, so the good news for visitors and short-term residents is that there are plenty of delights awaiting discovery.

These tours are intended for those who have some familiarity with the main sights and museums but have seen fewer of the innumerable lesser-known or out-of-the-way treasures. In each case a major item is included – St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey – but special arrangements lift the visit above the ordinary.

During planning, themes emerged, unintended but helpful to differentiate the two tours from each other. Many of the places visited on Itinerary One turned out to be houses and

homes, among them the wonderfully eccentric Soane Museum, the Palladian perfection of Chiswick House, Wellington’s Apsley House and the newly restored Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath. The recurring feature of Itinerary Two is proximity to the Thames, the river Winston Churchill described as ‘a golden thread in the national tapestry’.

Most days are over between 4.30 and 5.30pm, giving opportunity to attend a concert or play. We will buy a few tickets for choice events as they come on sale and offer them to participants.

Itinerary 1: 6–10 September

Day 1: Chiswick, Kensington. Leave the hotel near Whitehall at 11.00am by coach. Chiswick House in west London is a key work in the history of English architecture, a jewel-like Palladian villa of the 1720s in gardens of comparable historical importance. Then visit the mansion Lord Leighton built for himself in Kensington which is of a lavishness surprising even for the leading establishment artist of his day.

Day 2: The City. London’s Livery Halls constitute a unique group of secular buildings of splendour and interest, and we visit one of the grandest. The Guildhall Art Gallery has a little-visited collection of largely 19th- and 20th-cent. paintings and, recently discovered below, evocative remains of the Roman amphitheatre. The visit to St Paul’s Cathedral, Sir Christopher Wren’s greatest work and one of the great classical buildings of the world, includes parts not generally open to visitors. There is opportunity to attend Choral Evensong at 5.00pm.

Day 3: Holborn, Westminster. Sir John Soane’s Museum is one of the most extraordinary in the world: adjacent town houses adapted

by the eponymous architect and filled with his eclectic art collections. At the Wallace Collection the holding of French 18th-century painting, furniture and porcelain is second only to the Louvre, and there are great works by Titian, Rembrandt, Velasquez and others. The Banqueting House in Whitehall, the first truly classical-style building in Britain, was designed by Inigo Jones in 1619 and the ceiling painted by Rubens in 1636.

Day 4: Hampstead, Bloomsbury. Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath is a very fine 18th-cent. mansion by Robert Adam with a marvellous picture collection, re-opened in 2013 after restoration. Hampstead is perhaps the loveliest of London’s villages; visit 17th-cent. Fenton House and its collection of keyboard instruments before descending to the Georgian squares of Bloomsbury and the Foundling Museum. With Handel and Hogarth as benefactors, the art here is remarkable.

Day 5: Whitehall, Hyde Park Corner. The day begins with a walk through parks and quiet streets from the hotel to Hyde Park Corner, viewing historic buildings and monuments along the way. Apsley House is the magnificent home of the Dukes of Wellington and possesses one of the finest art collections in England. There follows lunch at one of the grandest of London’s historic clubs as guests of a member. The tour ends at the Whitehall hotel at c. 3.00pm.

Itinerary 2: 11–15 august

Day 1: Whitehall, Strand. Leave the hotel at 11.00am for a two-hour walk around Whitehall and Strand. After lunch there is a tour of Somerset House, a magnificent classical building designed by Sir William Chambers in 1776 to house civil servants and learned societies. It is now the home of the Courtauld Gallery, an amazing collection renowned for its Charterhouse, wood engraving c. 1880 in Old & New London Vol.II

Lincoln’s Inn, by E.W. Haslehurst, publ. 1924

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Impressionists and Post-Impressionists but also including Old Masters and decorative arts.

Day 2: Westminster, Syon Park. Westminster Abbey is not only one of Britain’s greatest mediaeval churches, displaying all the arts of the era as well as architecture, but also burial place of 17 monarchs and other great names in British history. As a museum of sculpture it has no parallel. Drive out to Syon Park, situated beside the Thames on the western outskirts of the city, whose remodelling by Robert Adam bequeathed some of the finest 18th-cent. interiors in England.

Day 3: Dulwich, Chelsea. Opened in a building designed for it by Sir John Soane in 1817, Dulwich Picture Gallery was Britain’s first public art gallery. The Old Master collection remains one of the best in the country. Chelsea Physic Garden, an enchanting oasis, was established for medicinal purposes in 1673. Also in Chelsea, the Royal Hospital was instituted by Charles II as a home for retired soldiers, a function which continues. Sir Christopher Wren designed the splendid buildings on a site beside the Thames.

Day 4: The City. London’s Roman and mediaeval core has become a major financial centre, resulting in a fascinating mix of narrow streets and alleys, historic parish churches and livery halls, ornamented Victorian office and warehouse façades and a dazzling array of recent architecture. Details of the day will be announced nearer the time (August closures are decided closer to the time) but the itinerary will include a range of art and architecture both old and new, with some special access.

Day 5: Greenwich. Take the water bus downstream to Greenwich. The Old Royal Naval College, founded by Queen Mary in 1692, is claimed by unesco to be the ‘finest and most dramatically sited architectural and landscape ensemble in the British Isles’. Wren is again one of the architects, others include Inigo Jones, Hawksmoor and Vanbrugh. The Queen’s House, a brilliant remnant of the royal palace (1616), houses the picture collection of the National Maritime Museum. Among other sights are the Cutty Sark, a tea clipper, and the Royal Observatory. The tour finishes at the Whitehall hotel by 4.00pm.

Appointments for some visits cannot be confirmed until January 2015.

Practicalities

Price: £1,870 (itinerary 1, Sept.) £1,810 (itinerary 2, Aug.) (deposit £200). Single supplement £360 (both departures, double for single occupancy).

Included meals: 2 lunches, 1 dinner with wine (itin. 1); 3 lunches, 1 dinner with wine (itin. 2).

Accommodation. The Royal Horseguards, London (guoman.com) is a 5-star hotel in the heart of Whitehall.


Combine itinerary 1 with Flemish Painting, 2–5 September (page 27). Combine itinerary 2 with Vienna’s Masterpieces, 16–20 August (page 20).

London DaysNon-residential events to inform & inspire

Explore the art, architecture and history of the most varied and exciting city in the world.

Led by carefully chosen experts who provide informative and enlightening commentary.

Special arrangements and privileged access.

Radio guides enable lecturers to talk in a normal conversational mode while participants can hear without difficulty.

These are active days, often with a lot of walking and standing. Travel is by Underground, taxi, private coach or bus.

You can book with a credit or debit card over the telephone, or online at www.martinrandall.com.

By E.W. Haslehurst, publ. 1924

Details of London Days are released throughout the year and are sent to all registered enthusiasts. Please contact us to register your interest.

More titles from our current list include:

ancient Greecearts & CraftsClaude & TurnerDixon JonesThe Genius of Titian

HawksmoorThe Italian renaissanceThe London Backstreet WalkLondon’s Underground railwayMediaeval art in LondonSeven Churches & a SynagogueStained GlassWar MemorialsWren in the City

London’s Great railway TerminiPaddington, King’s Cross & St Pancras stationsThursday 5th February 2015 (lb 239)Lecturer: Professor Gavin StampTwo eyebrow-raising assertions: the railways were a Georgian invention, all the ingredients being in place before 1830; and the twenty-first century is witnessing a golden age of rail travel. The first is indisputable fact, if surprising to contemplate; the second is likely to provoke an unprintable retort from many a daily commuter.

However, few would quibble with a statement that the greatest achievements of railway architecture and engineering are Victorian. But seeing and appreciating magnificent stations such as those studied today is to a large extent possible because of enlightened intervention in the last ten or twenty years. The adaptation and upgrading of ageing infrastructure to meet modern requirements has been a major achievement, but so has the restoration and cleaning of historic fabric. And the sensitive addition of new structures of the highest quality of design has been a triumph.

Largely the creation of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Paddington is well preserved and in some ways the most appealing of London’s termini. King’s Cross has always been admired for the majesty of its unadorned functionality,

but recent removal of twentieth-century clutter enables it to be better appreciated than for a century. And in 2012 the station acquired a magnificent new lattice steel foyer, the widest span in Europe apparently.

The 240 ft span of the St Pancras train shed far surpassed any previous structure in the world and its conversion for use as the Eurostar terminus, completed 2007, created one of the most exciting sets of public spaces in Europe. The contiguous Midland Grand Hotel by Sir George Gilbert Scott is perhaps the best-known of all Victorian buildings.

Professor Gavin Stamp is a leading authority on 18th–20th-century architecture.

Practicalities

Start: 9.30am at Paddington Station. Finish: c. 4.45pm at St Pancras Station.

Price: £190. This includes refreshments, lunch, travel by Underground and special arrangements.

Group size: maximum 18 participants.

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The Baltic StatesEstonia, Latvia, Lithuania

9–22 August 2015 (mb 411)14 days • £3,480Lecturer: Neil Taylor

Three countries with different languages, diverse histories and distinct cultural identities.

An extensive legacy from German, Polish, Russian and Swedish occupations.

The focus of the tour is history, politics and general culture, rather than art and architecture.

The lecturer, Neil Taylor, is a leading expert on the Baltic States.

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania: the regaining of independence in 1991 by these three states was a happy outcome of the demise of the Soviet Union. Of all the fragments of that former super-power, the Baltic States are perhaps the countries with the brightest future and the least clouded present.

Though geographical proximity leads the countries to be conventionally thought of together as a single entity, the degree of difference between them is surprisingly great in terms of ethnicity, language, historical development and religion.

The Estonians are of Finno-Ugric origin and their language has nothing in common with their Latvian or Russian neighbours. Lithuanian history has for much of the post-mediaeval era been linked with Catholic Poland,

whereas Estonia and Latvia were early recipients of Protestantism.

In the eighteenth century these states succumbed to the bear-hug of the Russian Empire – and only after the First World War did they achieve full independence. In 1940, with the annexation by the Soviet Union, they once more fell under Russian rule. Between 1941 and 1944 they had the additional suffering of the German Occupation. Yet the Baltic States were always among the most prosperous and liberal of the Soviet republics, and among the most independent-minded.

Surprise ranks high among the responses of the visitor now – surprise that there is so much of interest and beauty, and surprise that the Iron Curtain was indeed so opaque a veil that most of us in the West could remain so ignorant of these countries and their heritage. Surprise, perhaps, that on the whole the region functions with considerable efficiency and sophistication.

Itinerary

Day 1: Tallinn (Estonia). Fly at c. 10.20am from Heathrow to Tallinn via Helsinki. First of three nights in Tallinn.

Day 2: Tallinn. The upper town has a striking situation on a steep-sided hill overlooking the Baltic with views over the city. Among the mediaeval and classical buildings are the Toompea Palace (Parliament), Gothic cathedral and late 19th-century Russian cathedral and the 15th-century town hall (visit subject to confirmation). Continue through the unspoilt streets of the lower town with its mediaeval walls, churches and gabled merchants’ houses and see the church of the Holy Ghost and the City Museum. Visit St Nicholas, a Gothic basilica with a museum of mediaeval art. Overnight Tallinn.

Day 3: Lahemaa National Park (Estonia). Drive east into an area now designated as a national park. The charming manor houses of Palmse and Sagadi have full 18th-century classical dress disguising the timber structure. Lunch is in a roadside inn, with wooden buildings – a former postal service station on the road to St Petersburg. Overnight Tallinn.

Day 4: Tartu (Estonia). Drive through a gently undulating mix of woodland and fertile fields, with traditional vernacular farmsteads. Tartu is in some ways the cultural capital of Estonia, the university having been founded in 1632. There are fine 18th- and 19th-century buildings, especially the town hall and university and there is a visit to the restored Jaani church. First of two nights in Tartu.

Day 5: Tartu, Lake Peipsi. After a free morning in Tartu drive to the shores of Lake Peipsi. Visit Mustvee, Raja, Kolkja and Varnja, all villages which provided refuge for the Old Believers, persecuted for their disaffection with the Orthodox Church. Overnight Tartu.

Day 6: Cesis (Latvia). Enter Latvia travelling through hilly landscape renowned for its beauty. Cesis is an historic and well-preserved small town with church and ruined castle. Its manor

house Ungurmuiza (about 10 miles out of town) is constructed in wood with a baroque façade and interior. The drive continues via Straupe, another attractive village. First of three nights in Riga.

Day 7: Riga (Latvia). Explore Latvia’s capital on foot. The Art Nouveau district is a residential quarter of grand boulevards, with classical, historicist and outstanding façades. Within the extensive Old Town there are mediaeval streets, Hanseatic warehouses, Gothic and Baroque churches and 19th-century civic buildings. There are visits to the Menzendorff House, a restored merchant’s house and now a museum, Gothic St Peter with its distinctive tall spire and the cathedral, which is the largest mediaeval church in the Baltic States. Overnight Riga.

Day 8: Riga. A drive via the market, formerly Europe’s largest, situated in five 1920s Zeppelin hangars, followed by a visit to the fascinating outdoor museum of vernacular buildings. Free afternoon when possibilities include the Occupation Museum or the Jewish Museum. Overnight Riga.

Day 9: Rundale (Latvia), Siauliai, Kaunas (Lithuania). Rundale was one of the most splendid palaces in the Russian Empire, built from 1736 by Rastrelli for a favourite of Empress Anna. Lunch is in the palace restaurant. Lithuania is entered via the town of Bauska and there is a stop in Kedainiai to visit the regional museum. First of two nights in Kaunas.

Day 10: Kaunas (Lithuania). A diverse historic town with a wealth of architecture. Near the central square are a number of churches and the Town Museum. The Ciurlionis Art Museum has works of Lithuania’s most famous composer and artist. Other afternoon visits include the Resurrection Church and the Synagogue. Overnight Kaunas.

Day 11: Pazaislis, Vilnius (Lithuania). At Pazaislis is a magnificent Baroque nunnery and pilgrimage church, one of the architectural gems of Eastern Europe. Continue to Vilnius which, far from the sea, has the feel of a Central European metropolis, with Baroque the predominant style. Afternoon walk to the bishop’s palace (now the Presidential Palace), the university, and the Church of St John. First of three nights in Vilnius.

Day 12: Vilnius. Walk to the Gates of Dawn, the Carmelite church of St Theresa, the former Jewish ghetto, the cathedral and the exquisite little Late-Gothic church of St Anne. Visit the church of Saints Peter and Paul with outstanding stucco sculptural decoration and see the Museum of Applied Arts. The recently opened National Gallery houses 20th and 21st-century Lithuanian art. Overnight Vilnius.

“The lecturer was excellent. He is a genial, efficient, erudite tour leader who added greatly to our enjoyment of the trip.”

Tallinn, 20th-century woodcut

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Lithuania

Estonia

Belarus

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TallinnLahemaa National Park

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Rundale

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Vilnius

Day 13: Vilnius. Kazys Varnelis House Museum is an eclectic private collection of art and maps. Visit the Church Heritage Museum. Free afternoon when suggestions include the Genocide Museum, Vilnius Picture Gallery or the Theatre and Music Museum. Overnight Vilnius.

Day 14: Vilnius. Fly from Vilnius to London Heathrow, via Helsinki, arriving c. 3.15pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Savoy Boutique Hotel, Tallinn (boutiquehotelestonia.com): a small stylish hotel in a turn-of-the-century building. The London Hotel, Tartu (londonhotel.ee): modern, centrally located with a good restaurant; decor is quite bright. Radisson Blu Ridzene, Riga (radissonblu.com): a modern well-located hotel with views over the park. Hotel Daugirdas, Kaunas (daugirdas.lt): a 19th-century mansion with modern features. Radisson Blu Astorija, Vilnius (radissonblu.com): an elegant, comfortable hotel, excellently located.

How strenuous? This is a long tour with four hotel changes and some long coach journeys. There is a lot of walking, some of it on cobbled or roughly paved ground. Average distance by coach per day: 52 miles.


Ethiopia Tracing one of Africa’s most fascinating histories

11–26 February 2015 (mb 240)16 days/14 nights • £5,180Lecturer: Jacopo Gnisci

7–22 October 2015 (mc 485)16 days/14 nights • £5,180Lecturer: Jacopo Gnisci

Journeying through some of the most striking landscapes Africa has to offer.

Three days exploring the remote and little-visited rock-hewn churches of eastern Tigray, the country’s best kept secret.

Lalibela: a new Jerusalem in Ethiopia, one of the wonders of Africa. We spend three nights here.

A full day on the beautiful and eerie Lake Tana, with visits to secluded monasteries.

A more measured pace than is the norm for Ethiopian tours, and maximum 18 participants.

Ethiopia is always a surprise to the first-time visitor. Much of it comprises an isolated plateau, riven by deep gorges, that has ensured its physical separation both from its African neighbours and from the lands across the Red Sea. Its peoples and their cultures are also distinct; and for thousands of years this has been reflected in their history and art.

Much of Ethiopia is highly fertile. Its farmers exploit a unique range of crops, some of which are cultivated nowhere else on earth. In rural areas one can still see ox-ploughing, hand-reaping, and threshing and grinding using techniques that have been practised for millennia. Yet the country is now modernising itself with enormous rapidity, only a few decades after some areas were first penetrated by outsiders. Roads are being built into areas previously inaccessible, hydro-electric schemes are bringing electricity to many settlements previously without, and daily flights take visitors to sites that until fairly recently required travelling for more than a week on the back of a mule.

The itinerary concentrates on the country’s northern highlands, with Lake Tana and the headwaters of the Blue Nile, where there have been three thousand years of literate civilisation. Christianity became the official religion even before it enjoyed that status in the Roman Empire, and churches carved from solid rock preserve the sanctified atmosphere of a land where, in Gibbon’s words, ‘the Aethiopians slept near a thousand years, forgetful of the world by whom they were forgotten’.

Sites visited include the ancient temple at Yeha, the first Christian capital at Aksum, the complexes of rock-hewn churches at Lalibela and their less well-known counterparts in eastern Tigray. Here three days are spent exploring these remarkable places of worship. The lonely monasteries on the islands of Lake Tana and the imperial capital at Gondar, visited by James Bruce in the eighteenth-century, are also included.

The result is a journey which balances comprehensiveness with selectivity, which sees nearly all the outstanding buildings and

artworks without cramming the days to excess. The modern bustle of the multicultural capital Addis Ababa is also sampled while – and this can scarcely be overstated – providing a sequence of some of the grandest landscapes in the world.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 8.00pm (Ethiopian Airlines) from London Heathrow for the 7-hour flight to Addis Ababa (currently the only direct flight from London).

Day 2: Addis Ababa. Touch-down c. 7.15am. The rest of the morning is free; hotel rooms are at your disposal and breakfast and lunch are served. Visit Entoto, Menelik’s capital prior to the establishment of Addis Ababa and the scene of his coronation in 1882. Overnight Addis.

Day 3: Addis Ababa, Hawzien. Fly c. 7.00am to Mekele and drive to Hawzien. Visit Abraha-wa-Atsbaha church en route. Early afternoon arrival in the hotel for some rest. First of three nights in Gheralta.

Day 4: Gheralta. The Teka Tesfai church cluster, including one of the finest churches in the area, Medhane Alem Adi Kasho. Picnic lunch in the countryside. Overnight Gheralta.

Day 5: Gheralta. Eastern Tigray is big sky country, mountain peaks like ragged teeth, and arid plains. Scattered throughout this dramatic scenery are several isolated churches, many of them unknown to the outside world until very recently. The day is spent exploring a selection of these, still the focus of worship by the surrounding communities just as they were hundreds of years ago. Final night in Gheralta.

Day 6: Axum. Leaving early, our destination is Axum but we visit Yeha to see the 7th-century bc

Painting capturing the excitement of the arrival of an Italian plane over Ethiopia in 1935. Brahane, Italian-African Institute, Rome

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Adua, wood engraving c. 1875

temple and adjacent church of Maryam. Continue past the ‘Teeth of Adwa’, scene of Emperor Menelik II’s victory over the Italian army in 1896. Time permitting we will visit the monastery of Abba Garima before arriving in Axum early evening. First of two nights in Axum.

Day 7: Axum. The stelae field in Axum is home to some of the world’s largest free-standing stone monuments. Each sculpted from a single piece of rock and intricately decorated, these massive structures highlight the city’s prestige in the ancient world when Axum was a flourishing, powerful capital. After seeing the museum, we visit the tombs of Kings Kaleb and Gebre Meskel, the Ezana inscription and the Cathedral of Tsion Maryam – the most sacred Christian site in Ethiopia and, according to local belief, the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant.

Day 8: Axum, Lalibela. Fly c. 11.00am to Lalibela and the remarkable hidden rock-hewn churches, their scale testament to the faith and devotion of early Christian followers. After lunch at the hotel we visit the south-eastern cluster including the fortified twin churches of Gabriel and Rafael, Beta Merkurios (dedicated to the saint martyred in the third-century) and the impressive Beta Emmanuel and Beta Abba Libanos, reputedly built overnight with the help of a host of angels. First of three nights in Lalibela.

Day 9: Lalibela. This day is dedicated to the north-eastern cluster where the sophistication and sheer scale managed by the craftsmen is best exhibited. Lalibela’s largest church, Beta Madhane Alem (Saviour of the World), as well as Beta Maryam, acknowledged as Lalibela’s oldest and most elaborate, are incorporated. Beta Masqal, Beta Danagel, Beta Mika’el and Beta Golgotha complete the complex.

Day 10: Lalibela. Choice between two visits in the morning: the monastery of Nakuto or the remote but remarkable church of Imrahanna Kristos, located in a cave of Mount Abuna Yosef (the drive is uncomfortable and not suitable for those prone to motion sickness). There is some free time in the afternoon before a sunset visit to Lalibela’s most well-known and breathtaking church, Beta Giyorgis. Final night in Lalibela.

Day 11: Lalibela, Gondar. Fly c. 12noon to Gondar. The seat of the royal family in the 17th and 18th centuries, the town of Gondar is home to some important sites, most notably the royal enclosure of Emperor Fasilidas (a unesco World Heritage site) where Indian, Turkish and Portuguese influences are apparent. Fasilidas’ pool, the location for one of Ethiopia’s most colourful Timkat (Epiphany) celebrations, is also visited. Overnight Gondar.

Day 12: Gondar, Bahir Dar. Morning visit to the church of Debre Birhan Selassie (Mountain of the Enlightened Trinity) displaying some of the most beautiful examples of ecclesiastical art in Ethiopia. In the afternoon we drive along the shores of Lake Tana to the quiet and picturesque town of Bahir Dar. First of two nights in Bahir Dar.

Day 13: Bahir Dar. Through the early morning mist, we take a boat to the Zegie Peninsula. Under a lush green canopy are the round churches of Ura Kidane Mehret and Beta Maryam. Complete with thatched roofs, ostrich egg-adorned crosses and brightly coloured murals, they are the focus for the local community as well as a sanctuary for the abundant plant and bird life. In the afternoon there is an optional visit to one of the lake’s more remote churches, Narga Selassie, built in the 18th-century on the island of Dek for the Princess Mentewab (weather permitting).

Day 14: Bahir Dar, Addis Ababa. After a drive through some wild and unspoilt countryside, we walk over the 17th-century bridge to a view point of the spectacular Blue Nile Falls (during the February departure the water level will be low). The afternoon is free; suggestions include the local market and the Blue Nile outflow from Lake Tana. Flight c. 9.30pm to Addis Ababa.

Day 15: Addis Ababa. The Institute of Ethiopian Studies, an ethnographic museum in Haile Selassie’s palace, is dedicated to Ethiopia’s rich mix of ethnic groups and includes an impressive collection of manuscripts and icons. There is free time in the afternoon to visit Addis’s sprawling market, the Mercato. Overnight Addis Ababa.

Day 16. Fly from Addis Ababa to London arriving Heathrow c. 5.30pm (via Rome, February) or c. 9.15am (direct, October).

Practicalities


Included meals: all lunches (including 3 picnics) and 13 dinners with wine.

Visas. British citizens and most other foreign nationals require a tourist visa. This is not included in the price of the tour because you have to obtain it yourself. We will advise on the procedure but you will need to submit your passport to the Ethiopian Embassy in your country of residence prior to departure. Processing times vary from country to country, but UK residents should expect to be without their passport for up to 10 days. Passports must be valid for 6 months from entry into Ethiopia.

Accommodation. Addis Ababa Hilton, Addis Ababa (hilton.com): a smart, modernised, centrally-located 5-star hotel. Gheralta Lodge, Hawzien (gheraltalodgetigrai.com): spectacular scenery, accommodation in local style stone houses. Yeha Hotel, Axum (yehahotelaxum.com): the best hotel in the town with excellent views over the stelae park and church. Roha Hotel, Lalibela (rohahotels.com): a former government-owned hotel in close proximity to the church complexes, quiet and comfortable. Goha Hotel, Gondar (gohahotel.com): located high above the town, this hotel has spectacular views of Gondar and the surrounding countryside. Kuriftu Resort and Spa, Bahir Dar (kurifturesortspa.com): situated on the shores of Lake Tana this newly opened 5-star lodge has the best accommodation available and includes a spa and health centre.

How strenuous? This is a very demanding tour and a good level of fitness is essential. Unless you enjoy entirely unimpaired mobility, cope with everyday walking and stair-climbing without difficulty and are reliably sure-footed, this tour is not for you. Much of the tour is at a high altitude (approx. 8,900ft) which can exacerbate fatigue. If you have any pre-existing heart or respiratory problems please consult your doctor before travelling. Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard. On some days there are fairly steep ascents to remote churches. There are some long coach journeys on uneven terrain (we will be using modified buses) during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Most sites have some shade but the Ethiopian sun is strong, even in the cooler seasons. Average distance by coach per day: 45 miles.


Combine the February departure with Temples of Tamil Nadu, 26 January–8 February (page 110).

Ethiopiacontinued

Working in partnership with The Ethiopian Heritage Fund. The Ethiopian Heritage Fund, a UK registered charity, was set up in August 2005. Working together with the Ethiopian Church and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in Ethiopia, their aim is to promote and organise the conservation of early Ethiopian churches and their contents and to provide advice on their maintenance.

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Savonlinna OperaTosca, Boris Godunov & La Traviata

20–24 July 2015 (mb 402)5 days • £2,460 (including tickets to 3 performances)Lecturer: Simon Rees

Productions at Savonlinna are musically and dramatically first-rate, in the incomparable setting of a mediaeval castle on an island.

A pleasant, small town amidst the unassertive beauty of lakeland Finland.

Simon Rees, formerly dramaturg of Welsh National Opera, leads the tour.

A massive structure of rough-hewn granite rising from a rocky islet, the castle at Savonlinna is the largest in Scandinavia. It was built in 1475 and frequently re-fortified during the next three centuries, for this was border country: Nordic occupancy alternated with Russian until modern times.

Opera has been performed here in the courtyard since 1912, so it even pre-dates Verona as a festival in a spectacular historic setting. During the last couple of decades its artistic achievements have placed this festival among the best in the world, yet its unlikely and rather inaccessible location keeps the number of international visitors well below what it deserves.

The courtyard is backed by a starkly beautiful wall of rough medieval masonry: its huge gateway and precipitous staircase make a wonderful setting for productions of operas especially if – like Tosca and Boris Godunov – they take place partly or wholly in fortresses and dungeons. Musically, the acoustically-designed temporary roof allows both intimate scenes and vast choral ensembles to sound at their best. Aurelia Florian sings Violetta in the production of La Traviata, while Boris Godunov, conducted by festival favourite Leif Segerstam and the title role sung by the great Finnish bass Matti Salminen, could have been written with Olavinlinna – partly Russian-built – in mind. In all three operas, the Savonlinna Festival Orchestra and Choir – picked from among the best instrumentalists and singers in Scandinavia – will have the greatest opportunities to show their strength.

The lake district of eastern Finland is an area of gently beguiling beauty. Thousands of inter-connected lakes meet forests of birch and pine at an incredibly convoluted shoreline, the pattern varied with scattered patches of pasture and arable land neatly arranged around timber farmsteads. The scenery and pure air provide a restful and refreshing foil to nights at the opera.

Visits include a guided tour of the castle at Savonlinna; a boat trip through beautiful

lakeland scenery; a visit to the Punkaharju nature reserve and the Finnish Forest Museum; and the largest wooden church in the world (1840s) in Kerimäki.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 10.15am (Finnair) from London Heathrow to Savonlinna, via Helsinki.

Day 2. After a morning lecture, take a boat through beautiful lakeland scenery. Evening opera: Tosca (Puccini). Philippe Auguin (conductor), Keith Warner (director); soloists include Johanna Rusanen (Tosca), Kamen Chanev (Cavaradossi), Angelo Veccia (Scarpia).

Day 3. The morning lecture is followed by a visit to the castle of St Olav at Savonlinna. The afternoon is free to explore the attractive old part of the town beside the lake, with its art galleries and museums. Evening opera: Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky). Leif Segerstam (conductor), Nicola Raab (director); soloists include Matti Salminen (Boris Godunov), Artem Grutko (Feodor), Mika Pohjonen (False Dmitry), Jyrki Korhonen (Pimen).

Day 4. Visit the Punkaharju nature reserve and the Finnish Forest Museum. In the afternoon, drive to Kerimäki, the largest wooden church

in the world (1840s). Evening opera: La Traviata (Verdi). Lawrence Foster (conductor), Mariusz Trelinski (director); soloists include Aurelia Florian (Violetta), Sebastian Catana (Giorgio Germont).

Day 5. Fly from Savonlinna to London, via Helsinki, arriving at Heathrow c. 5.15pm.

Practicalities



Music: tickets for 3 operas are included, costing c. £385.

Accommodation. Sokos Hotel Seurahuone (www.sokoshotels.fi), located by the lake in Savonlinna. This functional hotel is the best in town. It is basic but adequately equipped and with modern facilities. All rooms (including rooms for single occupancy) have twin beds.

How strenuous? Access to the castle and the forest walk would be difficult with impaired walking. Average coach travel per day: 19 miles.


“Three different operas and interpretations. Our lecturer’s introductions added greatly to my appreciation of operas I knew well.” Savonlinna Castle

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Finland: Aalto & Others20th-century architecture & design

25 June–3 July 2015 (mb 377)9 days • £3,160Lecturer: Professor Harry Charrington

Journey through Finland surveying the works of Alvar Aalto, ‘the poet of International Modernism’.

See also major buildings by other twentieth-century Finnish architects and look at other areas of design and art.

Led by Dr Harry Charrington who worked in Aalto’s office and is author of the award-winning Alvar Aalto: the Mark of the Hand.

Design is as associated with Finland as bacon with eggs. It is extraordinary what impact such a small country – which only gained independence in 1917 – has had on the look of things in the twentieth century.

Finland was a late starter. From its time at the periphery of European civilization and the following period as a remote part of the Swedish empire, there is not much to show other than vernacular domestic architecture and castles. Only in 1812, when the territory became a Russian grand duchy, did Helsinki acquire a spacious and monumental Neo-Classical centre to rank among the most impressive.

Really interesting art and architecture begins in the later nineteenth century with National Romanticism, a manifestation of

aspiration towards national self-determination. The music of Sibelius is well enough known, but the architecture of Eliel Saarinen deserves much wider acclaim, and the brilliant, haunting paintings of Albert Edelfelt and Akseli Gallén-Kallela will come as a revelation.

These are not isolated figures, for the turn of the century was a highly productive time. But one name stands out: Alvar Aalto. Revered by architects around the world, it is not inconceivable that he will come to be regarded as the greatest architect of our era. His designs differ radically from mainstream mid-twentieth-century modernism architecture in that they are imbued with humanity and an organic beauty. His employment of curved forms and concern with colour and texture provide a spectrum of beauties forbidden to hard-line modernists, and his buildings have a strong sense of place, exemplified by widespread use of that very un-modern but quintessentially Finnish material, wood. Aalto is the poet of International Modernism.

Some of the twentieth century’s finest furniture, glass, ceramics and textiles have been created in Finland, much of it inspired by the principles which imbued Aalto’s work.

Itinerary

Day 1: Helsinki. Fly at c. 10.20am (Finnair) from London Heathrow to Helsinki. Begin with a walk through the Neo-Classical heart of the

city: Senate Square, the domed cathedral and the colourful Market Square by the old harbour. First of four nights in Helsinki.

Day 2: Helsinki, Seurasaari. Morning walk including the Art Nouveau Katajanokka district, Saarinen’s Railway Station (1919) and Aalto’s Rautatalo office building (Iron House; 1951–55). The Ateneum, Finland’s foremost art museum, houses a collection of brilliant National Romantic pictures. Afternoon tour of the National Pension’s Institute (Aalto, 1952–56), considered by many members of the Aalto atelier to be its finest construction. On the coast at Seurasaari the open-air museum shows the whole history of Finnish vernacular building. Overnight Helsinki.

Day 3: Otaniemi, Helsinki. Begin at Aalto’s Technical University in Helsinki’s Otaniemi area. Continue to The Aalto House, the family home and office, completed in 1936, followed by a guided tour of Aalto’s Finlandia Hall (1961–1975). Kiasma holds Finland’s main contemporary art collection in a building by Steven Holl (2000). Dinner in the Savoy Restaurant designed by Aalto. Overnight Helsinki.

Day 4: Tuusula, Helsinki. In the morning visit Tuusula Lake with its turn of the century villa for Sibelius as well as the Kokkonen Villa by Aalto. Afternoon boat trip to Suomenlinna, a cluster of islands off Helsinki converted into a massive fortress in the 18th century, now with several museums. Overnight Helsinki.

Day 5: Säynätsalo, Muuratsalo, Jyväskylä. Drive north into the increasingly scenic Finnish Lakeland. See Aalto’s town hall at Säynätsalo (1952), perhaps his greatest synthesis of a vision of European civic life and the immediacy of the Finnish forest landscape. At nearby Muuratsalo, his summer house (also 1952) is beautifully set in woodland on the shores of a lake. Overnight Jyväskylä.

Day 6: Jyväskylä, Petäjävesi, Seinäjoki. Aalto went to school in Jyväskylä and set up his first independent practice here. Representative of his early, ‘pre-functionalist’ buildings is the Trade Union Club (1923–5), his first important commission. The Teachers’ Training College (1952–7, now university), is one of the finest manifestations of his ‘red’ period, with warm-hued bricks. Visit the Alvar Aalto Museum with a display of Aalto’s life and works. See the unesco-listed wooden church by Leppanen in Petäjävesi. Overnight Seinäjoki.

Day 7: Seinäjoki, Noormarkku, Turku. Seinäjoki has a striking complex by Alvar Aalto (1960–68): the Cross of the Plains church which dominates the townscape, parish hall, town hall-cum-theatre, clad in dark blue tiles, and library. In the afternoon a special arrangement to see the Villa Mairea (1939) in Noormarkku, the most beautiful of Aalto’s private houses. First of two nights in Turku.

Day 8: Turku, Paimio. Morning walk through Turku, Finland’s oldest city, including the market square and mediaeval cathedral. Visit to the cemetery by Aalto’s contemporary Erik Bryggman. In Paimio is Aalto’s Sanatorium

Finnish tar boats, after a drawing by V. Blom

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(1929–33), a classic of modern architecture for which he designed widely-imitated timber furniture. Overnight Turku.

Day 9: Hvitträsk, Helsinki. Drive to Hvitträsk, Saarinen’s home and studio built in 1903, with pretty gardens overlooking a lake. Continue to Helsinki airport and fly to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 6.20pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Haven, Helsinki (hotelhaven.fi): smart, boutique hotel close to the harbour. Boutique Hotel Yöpuu, Jyväskylä (hotelliyopuu.fi): small, friendly, traditional. Sokos Hotel Vaakuna, Seinäjoki (sokoshotels.fi): simple, bland, but well-located. Radisson Blu Marina Palace Hotel, Turku (radissonblu.fi/hotelli-turku): comfortable hotel overlooking the river. All hotels have a local 4-star rating.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking on this tour and four hotel changes. It should not be undertaken by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking. Average distance by coach per day: 76 miles.


The Sibelius Festival, Lahti31 August–6 September 2015Details available in November 2014Contact us to register your interest

Celebrating 150 years since the composer’s birth.

All seven symphonies by Sibelius performed by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Conductors include Osmo Vänskä, Sakari Oramo, Okko Kamu and Jukka-Pekka Saraste.

Professor Harry CharringtonArchitect and Head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Westminster. He read architecture at Cambridge

and obtained his PhD from the LSE. His research focuses on modernism, and his books include the award-winning Alvar Aalto: the Mark of the Hand.

All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

Mediaeval Art in ParisGreat museum collections & great churches

Enamelled shrine in the Museum of Cluny, engraving c. 1875 from The Arts in the Middle Ages

4–6 September 2015 (mc 454)3 days • £1,280Lecturer: Dr Matthew Woodworth

The finest collections in the world of the arts and crafts of the Middle Ages, and some major buildings.

Led by mediaevalist Dr Matthew Woodworth.

Timed to enable participants to combine it with French Gothic, 7–13 September, its ideal companion. See page 70.

Architectural achievements of the Middle Ages remain in abundance – cathedrals, churches and castles are among the most prominent features on the topography of Europe. By contrast, first-rate portable artworks are exceedingly rare. Masonry constructions provide for most people the default mental image of the Middle Ages – magnificent, astonishingly accomplished, but some shade of grey or brown, dull of hue and dark of tone.

Colour was omnipresent, however – brilliant pigments in glass, paint and textile, glowing gold, shining silver and polished precious stones. Consummate workmanship and miniaturistic virtuosity were allied to this chromatic richness. The inner sancta of the mediaeval world were of a sumptuousness of effect which is practically beyond imagining, given the scarcity of examples and at least five centuries of wear and decay.

More than anywhere else, Paris is the place where some of this richness can be experienced. The Cluny Museum is acknowledged as having the greatest display of mediaeval arts and artefacts in the world, but it is rivalled by the recently and splendidly refurbished galleries in the Louvre – which nevertheless receive a tiny fraction of the numbers who flock to see the Mona Lisa and the Raft of the Medusa.

Itinerary

Day 1. Leave London St Pancras for Paris by Eurostar at c. 10.30am. Examine Notre-Dame, one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture, built to rival the Abbey of neighbouring St Denis. Check into the hotel and have an early dinner before going to the Louvre for its weekly late-evening opening for a first visit to its superb mediaeval galleries.

Day 2. Ste Chapelle, built in the 13th century as a shrine for Christ’s Crown of Thorns, is an exquisite example of the Rayonnant Gothic Style which retains its spectacular stained glass. The Musée de Cluny, the National Museum of the Middle Ages, contains the 15th-century tapestry cycle The Lady and the Unicorn as well as outstanding sculpture, carved woodwork and precious metalwork. In the afternoon drive to two of Paris’s finest mediaeval churches, St Etienne du Mont, St Martin des Champs.

Day 3. A second visit to the Louvre to see more of the extensive mediaeval collections. Finish at St Eustache, based on the plans of Notre Dame. Take the afternoon Eurostar from the Gare du Nord, arriving at London St Pancras at c. 5.45pm.

Those combining this tour with French Gothic have 24 hours independent time in Paris before taking a train on 7th September at c. 3.30pm to Laon, where the tour begins.

Practicalities

Price: £1,280 (deposit £150). Single supplement £220 (double for single occupancy). Price without Eurostar £1,140.


Price if combined with French Gothic: £3,410. Single supplement £520. In addition to the elements included in the price of this tour and French Gothic, this includes one additional night’s accommodation in Paris on 6th September and standard class rail travel from Paris to Laon on 7th September.

Accommodation. Hotel Westminster, Paris (warwickwestminsteropera.com): a comfortable 4-star hotel located near the Opéra Garnier.

How strenuous? The visits require a fair amount of walking and standing around. You need to be able to lift your luggage on and off the train and wheel it at stations.


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French GothicCathedrals of Northern France

8–14 June 2015 (mb 354)7 days • £2,110Lecturer: Dr Matthew Woodworth

7–13 September 2015 (mc 430)7 days • £2,110Lecturer: Dr Alexandra Gajewski

The cradle of Gothic, northern Europe’s most significant contribution to world architecture.

Includes nearly all the most important buildings in the development of Early and High Gothic, with an entire day at Chartres.

Unparalleled examples of stained glass, sculpture and metalwork.

Led by mediaevalist architectural historians.

The September departure of this tour is timed to be combined with Mediaeval Art in Paris, 4–6 September, its ideal companion. See page 69.

Gothic was the only architectural style which had its origins in northern Europe. It was in the north of France that the first Gothic buildings arose, it was here that the style attained its classic maturity, and it is here that its greatest manifestations still stand.

From the middle of the twelfth century the region was the scene of unparalleled building activity, with dozens of cathedrals, churches and abbeys under construction. Architects stretched their imaginations and masons extended their skills to devise more daring ways of enclosing greater volumes of space, with increasingly slender structural supports, and larger areas of window.

But Gothic is not only an architectural phenomenon. Windows were filled with brilliant

coloured glass. Sculpture, more life-like than for nearly a thousand years yet increasingly integrated with its architectural setting, was abundant. The art of metalwork thrived, and paint was everywhere. All the arts were coordinated to interpret and present elaborate theological programmes to congregations which included both the illiterate lay people and sophisticated clerics.

Nearly all the most important buildings in the development of the Early and High phases of Gothic are included, and the order of visits even follows this development chronologically, as far as geography allows. A whole day is dedicated to the cathedral at Chartres, the premier site of the building arts of the mediaeval world.

Itinerary

Day 1. Travel by Eurostar at c. 1.00pm from St Pancras to Lille. Continue by coach to Laon and the hotel, in an attractive lakeside setting. First of three nights near Laon.

Day 2: Noyon, Laon. One of the earliest Gothic cathedrals (c. 1150), Noyon’s four-storey internal elevation marks the transition from the thick-walled architecture of the Romanesque to the thin-walled verticality of Gothic. Laon is spectacularly sited on a rock outcrop. Begun c. 1160, the cathedral is the most complete of Early Gothic churches and one of the most impressive, with five soaring towers.

Day 3: Reims, Soissons. Reims Cathedral, the coronation church of the French monarchy, begun 1211, is a landmark in the development of High Gothic with the first appearance of bar tracery and classicising portal sculpture. At the church of St Rémi the heavy Romanesque nave contrasts with the light Early Gothic choir.

Soissons Cathedral is a fine example of the rapid changes which took place in architecture at the end of the 12th century.

Day 4: St Denis. On the outskirts of Paris, the burial place of French kings, St Denis was an abbey of the highest significance in politics and in the history of architecture. In the 1140s the choir was rebuilt, and the pointed arches, rib vaulting and skeletal structure warrant the claim that this was the first Gothic building. 100 years later the new nave inaugurated the Rayonnant style of Gothic with windows occupying the maximum possible area. First of two nights in Chartres.

Day 5: Chartres. Chartres cathedral, begun in 1145 and recommenced in 1195 after a fire, is the finest synthesis of Gothic art and architecture. Sculpture and stained glass are incorporated into an elaborate theological programme. The full day here provides time for unhurried exploration of the building and space to reflect and absorb. See also the church of St Pierre.

Day 6: Mantes-la-Jolie, Beauvais, Amiens. Visit the 12th-century collegiate church at Mantes-la-Jolie. Beauvais Cathedral, begun 1225, was, with a vault height in the choir of 157 feet, the climax in France of upwardly aspiring Gothic architecture and the highest vault of mediaeval Europe. Overnight Amiens.

Day 7: Amiens. The cathedral in Amiens is the classic High Gothic structure, its thrilling verticality balanced by measured horizontal movement. Drive to Lille for the Eurostar to London St Pancras, arriving c. 7.00pm.

Practicalities



Price if combined with Mediaeval Art in Paris: £3,410. Single supplement £520. In addition to the elements included in the price of this tour and Mediaeval Art in Paris, this includes one additional night’s accommodation in Paris on 6th September and standard class rail travel from Paris to Laon on 7th September.

Accommodation. Hôtel du Golf de l’Ailette, Chamouille (ailette.fr): comfortable 3-star located a short drive from Laon in an attractive position by a lake. Hotel Le Grand Monarque, Chartres (legrandmonarque.com): a centrally located 4-star hotel. Hotel Mercure Amiens (mercure.com): a modern 3-star hotel near to the cathedral.

How strenuous? There is a fair amount of walking and standing around. Some long coach journeys. You should be able to lift your luggage on and off the train and wheel it within the station. Average coach travel per day: 89 miles.


You could also combine this tour with Mediaeval Saxony, 15–23 June (page 91).

Chartres Cathedral, south portal, lithograph c. 1860

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The History of ImpressionismPaintings & places in Paris & Normandy

19–24 April 2015 (mb 294)6 days • £2,270Lecturer: Dr Frances Fowle

The finest collections of Impressionism in France and places associated with the artists.

Led by Dr Frances Fowle, Senior Curator of French Art at the National Gallery of Scotland.

First-class rail travel by Eurostar from London and good hotels in Paris and Rouen.

Far more Impressionist pictures can be seen in the region covered by this tour than in any other territory of comparable size. This should be no surprise, as this is the region where Impressionism was born and where it was most practised, and the tour visits some of the key sites in that development. Attention is also paid to the precursors – Pre-Impressionists such as Eugène Boudin and Jongkind – and to some Post-Impressionist successors.

As it was for mainstream artists, so it was for rebels and innovators: throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, Paris was the centre of the art world. All the French Impressionists spent time here, many lived here for most of their lives.

Yet the essence of their art – the recording of the world about them as it presented itself to their eyes in its immediate, transitory aspect – required them to spend time in the countryside. And the countryside they frequented most was in the north and north-west of Paris, the broad valley of the meandering Seine and of its tributaries the Oise and the Epte, and on to the coast.

This can be illustrated by the case of Claude Monet, the most consistent exponent of Impressionism. He was born in Paris in 1840 and was brought up from 1845 in Le Havre on the Normandy coast before returning to Paris to study painting. Though Paris remained the centre of his artistic world, he made frequent painting expeditions to river and sea, and from 1871 he made his homes in the suburbs, progressively further downstream at Argenteuil, Vétheuil, Poissy and finally, in 1883, at Giverny.

Impressionism was developing at the same time as seaside tourism on France’s northern coast (the Mediterranean was not a holiday destination until later) and the relationship between the two is fascinating. Water, fresh or salt, was an important ingredient of Impressionist pictures, its fleeting, changing, evanescent qualities similar to the characteristics of light they sought to capture on canvas. The Impressionist emphasis on the importance of painting en plein air makes a tour that includes sites where painters set up their easel particularly rewarding.

Most of the world’s greatest collections of Impressionism are located in this region, and many of the art museums visited have been refurbished and extended.

Itinerary

Day 1: Paris. Leave London St Pancras at c. 10.30am by Eurostar. In Paris visit the Musée

Marmottan which, through a donation by Monet’s son, has one of the world’s largest collections of Impressionists including Impression: Sunrise. Continue to Rouen in Normandy where four nights are spent.

Day 2: Honfleur, Le Havre. Honfleur is an utterly delightful fishing village at the mouth of the Seine, now crammed with art galleries and antique shops. In the museum are many works by Eugène Boudin, a major influence on the Impressionists. Cross the Seine estuary to Le Havre. After a recent donation and refurbishment, the Musée André Malraux has become the second largest collection of Impressionists in France.

Day 3: Giverny. The morning is devoted to the premier site in the history of Impressionism, Monet’s house and garden at Giverny where he lived from 1883 until his death in 1926, designing and tending the gardens which grew in size as his prosperity increased. Also at Giverny is the newly reconstituted Musée des Impressionismes (formerly Le Musée d’Art Américain) with fine temporary exhibitions. Return in the mid-afternoon for some free time in Rouen, perhaps to study the cathedral, the subject of over 30 of Monet’s paintings.

Day 4: Rouen, Étretat. Spend the morning in Rouen at the Musée des Beaux Arts, which has some good Impressionist paintings in its permanent collection. Either spend a free afternoon in Rouen, architecturally and scenically one of France’s finest cities, or join an excursion to Étretat, a little seaside town flanked by dramatic chalk promontories scooped into arches by wind and sea, painted by Monet and many others. Overnight Rouen.

Day 5: Auvers, Paris. Auvers-sur-Oise was a popular artists’ colony, frequented by Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. See sites associated with Van Gogh, who spent the last few weeks of his life here, and the studio of Daubigny. Return to Paris for an optional visit of the Musée des Beaux Arts in the Petit Palais, an under-appreciated collection for which space has recently been expanded. Overnight Paris.

Day 6: Paris. Walk through the Tuileries Gardens to the Orangerie where an excellent collection of Impressionists, Monet’s famous water-lilies and 20th-century paintings are housed. Cross the river to the Musée d’Orsay; here are displayed not only the world’s finest collection of Impressionism but also masterpieces by important precursors such as Courbet and Millet. Return to London by Eurostar, arriving St Pancras at c. 5.30pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Mercure Rouen Centre Cathédrale (mercure.com): a modern and functional 4-star hotel in the historic centre. Hotel Westminster, Paris (warwickwestminsteropera.com): acomfortable 4-star hotel near the Opéra Garnier with traditional décor.

How strenuous? This is a fair amount of walking as well as standing in the art galleries. You need to be able to lift your luggage on and off the train and wheel it at stations.


Combine this tour with Gastronomic Catalonia, 13–18 April (page 195) or Gardens of Northern Portugal, 13–18 April (page 183).

Paris, watercolour by Donald Maxwell publ. 1932; above: Étretat, wood engraving c. 1880

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Ballet in ParisParis Opera Ballet & St Petersburg Ballet Theatre

10–14 March 2015 (mb 251)5 days • £2,410(including tickets to 4 performances)Lecturer: Jane Pritchard mbe

Two performances by the Paris Opera Ballet: Das Lied von der Erde at the Palais Garnier and Swan Lake at the Opéra Bastille with original choreography by Rudolf Nureyev.

Two performances by the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées: La Bayadère and Romeo & Juliet, with Anna Samostrelova and Irina Kolesnikova.

The lecturer is Jane Pritchard, Curator of Dance at the V&A.

From the pageantry of Italian Renaissance courts, ballet emerged in its earliest, most recognisable form, with an emphasis on participation. As an exclusively royal entertainment, the early development of ballet was heavily influenced by the aristocracy to fulfil personal and political agendas, but it was in France during the reign of Louis XIV that the art form became formalised and performance-focused, progressing from the court to the stage. Louis XIV was a great patron of the arts and had a particular passion for ballet, founding the Académie Royale de Danse in 1661 and later, the Académie Royale de Musique.

Today, the Paris Opera Ballet is the oldest national ballet company, and one of the most pre-eminent in the world, attracting the finest dancers

and choreographers. On this tour the company perform two ballets by choreographers who have made their mark with daring interpretations of well-known classics. Das Lied von der Erde (Song of the Earth) sees the American John Neumeier choreographing to Gustav Mahler, one of his favourite composers, in a production that marks thirty-five years of collaboration with the Paris Opera Ballet. It is performed in the opulent surroundings of the Palais Garnier. The comparatively modern Opera Bastille is the setting for the company’s performance of Swan Lake. Rudolf Nureyev’s choreography for the Paris Opera Ballet was his last staging of the Tchaikovsky ballet in which, typically (to serve his own performing interests) he made Rothbart (who here is also Wolfgang, the Prince’s tutor) more than usually dominant. It is a fascinating tightly-structured, clean production with equal emphasis on dance and drama.

The programme is completed by two performances by the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre, a Russian touring company operating independently of state funding, which focuses on presenting excellent versions of the classics. The Company has built up a strong following in the West with the stunning prima ballerina Irina Kolesnikova at its helm. Their La Bayadère, a tale of deception and murder in an exotic Indian setting, is a fine production of the seminal Petipa’s ballet while Leonid Lavrovski’s three-act Romeo and Juliet to Prokofiev’s score preserves the original Soviet choreography of the ballet inspired by Shakespeare’s young lovers.

Much free time is available for independent exploration of Paris’s excellent museums, a relaxed pace during the day allowing for maximum enjoyment of the evening ballets. However, we do visit sites associated with the rich musical history of Paris, including the Opéra Garnier and the music museum at La Villette.

Itinerary

Day 1. Take the Eurostar from London St Pancras to Paris at c. 10.30am. Lecture and dinner before the evening opera-ballet at the Palais Garnier: Das Lied von der Erde (Mahler), Paris Opera Orchestra and Ballet. John Neumeier (choreographer) Patrick Lange (conductor), Burkhard Fritz (tenor), Paul Armin Edelmann (baritone).

Day 2. Attend a morning lecture followed by a guided tour of the opulent Palais Garnier. The afternoon is free. Evening ballet at the Opéra Bastille: Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky), Paris Opera Orchestra and Ballet. Rudolf Nureyev (original choreographer, 1984), Simon Hewett (conductor).

Day 3. Morning lecture followed by a free day. We make an appointment at the Louvre so you can avoid the queue. Evening ballet at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées: La Bayadère (Léon Minkus), St Petersburg Ballet Theatre and Orchestra. Marius Petipa (choreographer), Konstantin Tachkin (conductor), Vadim Nikitin (director), Anna Samostrelova (principal).

Day 4. Morning lecture. In the afternoon drive to Porte de la Villette to visit the music museum at the Cité de la Musique. Evening ballet at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées: Romeo & Juliet (Prokofiev), St Petersburg Ballet Theatre and Orchestra. Leonid Lavrovski (choreography), Konstantin Tachkin (conductor), Vadim Nikitin (director), Irina Kolesnikova (principal).

Day 5. Free time before a late morning coach transfer to the Gare du Nord. The Eurostar to London St Pancras arrives c. 2.45pm.

Practicalities



Music: tickets (first category) for 4 ballet performances are included, costing c. £300.

Accommodation. Hotel du Louvre, Paris (parishoteldulouvre.hyatt.com): a 5-star hotel in an excellent location.

How strenuous? One of the performances is reached on foot. The visits require a fair amount of walking and standing around. There are some late nights but starts are leisurely. You need to be able to lift your luggage on and off the train and wheel it at stations.


Combine this tour with Opera in Marseille & Lyon, 17–21 March (page 81).

Palais Garnier, by Y. Markino, publ. 1908

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BrittanyMegaliths to Monet

8–14 May 2015 (mb 313)7 days • £2,260Lecturer: Caroline Holmes

Brittany’s landscapes captured and cultivated: gardens, châteaux and historic towns.

Beautiful Belle-Ile, with an optional coastal walk.

The lecturer is Caroline Holmes, a garden historian with close family ties to Brittany.

Some of the finest prehistoric sites in Europe.

The inspiration for colonies of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists.

The landscapes of Brittany are variously dramatic, fertile and rugged, framed by jagged coasts or broad sands. The granite bedrock can be seen carved into poignant sixteenth-century churchyard calvaries and piled high in Quimper’s two spires. The wealth of stone tools that have been found confirm the early agricultural skills of prehistoric Bretons. Armorica stems from Ar Mor, literally land of the sea, to distinguish Brittany’s coasts from the forested interior, Ar Goat, that sheltered wolves, boar and deer as well as Druidic rites.

Over the centuries the fruits of its sea, fields, orchards and gardens fed their bodies and souls with a robust simplicity. Large tracts remained remote from and almost untouched by metropolitan France. In the late nineteenth century avant-garde artists came to see Brittany as an inspirational rural idyll and flocked from Europe, America and Australia.

It was already popular when in 1888 Paul Sérusier, Emile Bernard and Paul Gauguin formed the School of Pont-Aven. Nearby, Monet painted the wild seas and rocks off Belle-Ile and met the critic who was to become his lifelong friend and biographer, Gustave Geffroy. Australian Impressionist John Peter Russell married Marianna Antoinetta Mattiocco, Rodin’s favourite model, and in 1889 built a house at Port Goulphar where they entertained Sisley, Matisse and numerous other artists. In 1894 Sarah Bernhardt took up summer residence in the Fort; her guest list was to include Edward VII.

This tour presents a broad sweep of history, prehistory, art and landscape.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 11.00am from London City Airport to Brest (City Jet). Drive to Quimper via the Abbaye de Daoulas with a good Romanesque cloister and monastically inspired herb gardens. First of three nights in Quimper.

Day 2: Quimper. The Musée des Beaux Arts has an exceptional collection of French paintings and drawings with a special emphasis on Brittany, the Pont Aven School, Max Jacob and Breton landscape and domestic scenes. In 1690 Jean-Baptiste Bousquet created the first faïencerie or pottery in the Locmaria district on the banks of the Odet. Visit the church and mediaeval inspired garden. Afternoon visit to Musée Départemental Breton in the old Bishop’s Palace to see a fine

selection of faïencerie, archaeological finds, Breton costumes, lacework and furniture. The cathedral of St Corentin is the finest example of Gothic architecture in Brittany, with a sumptuous modern high altar in gilded and enamelled bronze.

Day 3: around Quimper. An excursion to three very different gardens. Those of the Parc Botanique de Cornouaille were started in 1983 by M. Gueguen, a plant collector who worked for Hilliers in England. The setting of indigenous oak and pine trees provides a backdrop to a global collection of trees and shrubs. The Parc de Boutiguéry extends to 15 hectares along the banks of the River Odet where the owner has hybridised and bred new rhododendrons with colours infused with ‘warmth’. At the Manoir de Kérazan sweet chestnuts grow alongside pines, palms and flowering shrubs. The house is a showcase of Breton workmanship: fine collections of the Quimper faïencerie, Bigouden furniture and paintings by local artists.

Day 4: Pont-Aven, Carnac. Towards the end of the 19th century, Pont-Aven was almost overrun by avant-garde and aspiring artists. Above it the chapel of Trémalo still harbours the 16th-cent. polychrome statue that inspired Gauguin’s Le Christ Jaune. The newly extended Musée des Beaux Arts is due to reopen in spring 2015 with works by Gauguin, fellow members of the school of Pont Aven and other artists spanning the period 1850–1950. Drive south to Carnac for a guided tour of the extraordinary wealth of orthostats (upright stones) and menhirs (standing stones) dating to c. 4600 bc. Overnight Carnac.

Day 5: Ile de Gavrinis, Locmariaquer. The 23 orthostats in the Cairn de l’Ile de Gavrinis have a wealth of symbolic patterns unmatched elsewhere. There are other stones at the Table des Marchands at nearby Locmariaquer. Catch the late afternoon ferry to Belle-Ile. Two nights are spent on the island: the hotel is on the site of Australian painter John Russell’s house and retains the views which inspired him to live, paint and host here for twenty years.

Day 6: Belle-Ile. Optional morning walk along the beautiful northern Côte Sauvage (c. 5 km), including a visit to the Musée Sarah Bernhardt and the fort that was her summer home at the Pointe des Poulains. Lunch in the small port of Sauzon. Return to the hotel for tea via the Jardin la Boulaye that nestles in the sheltered heart of the island. Afternoon walk in the footsteps of Monet to view the jagged Aiguilles de Port-Coton. Visit the contemporary Jardin la Boulaye that nestles in the sheltered heart of the island. Overnight Belle-Ile.

Day 7. Return by ferry to mainland France and transfer by coach to Nantes airport via the mediaeval walled city of Guérande, centre of the Fleur du Sel Guérande industry dating back 1,500 years. The flight from Nantes to London City Airport arrives at c. 7.00pm.

Quimper, wood engraving c. 1880

Practicalities



Accommodation. Best Western Hôtel Kregenn, Quimper (hotel-kregenn.fr): a functional 4-star hotel five minutes from the cathedral and museums. Hotel Tumulus, Carnac (hotel-tumulus.com): a 3-star hotel with an excellent restaurant. Hotel Castel Clara, Belle-Ile (castel-clara.com) is a spa hotel, with fine coastal views.

How strenuous? This tour involves a lot of walking and standing around. For some of the visits, coach access is restricted. The tour should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair–climbing. Sure-footedness and walking shoes are essential for the (optional) walk along the coast over unevenly paved ground. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 44 miles.


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Poets & The SommePoetry of the Great War in battlefield context

4–7 September 2015 (mc 451)4 days • £1,360Lecturer: Andrew Spooner

First World War poetry in the context of the Battle of the Somme.

A presentation of the poetry through a study of events, landscapes and the wartime lives of individual poets. An actor reads the poems.

Led by military historian Andrew Spooner.

Blending history and poetry, this tour reveals the true landscape of war: locations, topography, events, but also hope, fear, anger, pain and love, all viscerally manifest in the poetry of the First World War.

The opening day of the Battle of the Somme, 1st July 1916, is taken as the starting point for the tour, with an exploration of the front line area and a study of the events of that day and subsequent weeks. A sprinkling of poetry from 1914 and 1915 adds to the modern contextual understanding of the enormous sense of loss. During 1917 and 1918, other war poets became embroiled in later battles and their poetry will be placed into context on ‘the old 1916 battlefield’. This leads on to a wider examination of the nature of trench warfare and of the course of the war as a whole. Much has survived: trenches, shell holes and mine craters. The tangible remains of warfare and the pattern of cemeteries are now woven into the fabric of the modern landscape.

What sets this tour apart is the parallel exploration of the lives of those regular soldiers, volunteers and civilians who bequeathed to us the most emotionally potent body of poetry in English literature. This is not an exercise in literary analysis, however, but poems are placed

in the context of the battlefield and of the lives (and deaths) of the many and varied individuals who wrote them.

Led by the military historian who devised the tour, Andrew Spooner, it is also accompanied by an actor who reads the poems – sometimes at the site where they were composed (often identifiable to within a few yards), sometimes at the scene of the poet’s grave, sometimes at the place of his death or disappearance.

The tour is very much ‘in the field’ with a series of short walks on each day, averaging from a few hundred metres to a maximum distance 1.5 miles, and set to follow the events on particular sections of the front line. The fourteen miles of front line are neatly divided by the Roman road from Albert to Bapaume.

Poets whose works are included are (in alphabetical order) Richard Aldington, Lawrence Binyon, Edmund Blunden, Vera Brittain, Eric Chilman, Eleanor Farjeon, Wilfred Gibson, Sir Alan P. Herbert, William Noel Hodgson, Roland Leighton, Frederick Manning, Lucy Gertrude Moberley, Wilfred Owen, Margaret Postgate Cole, John Edgell Rickwood, Isaac Rosenberg, Siegfried Sassoon, Alan Seeger, Charles Sorley, Hugh Steward Smith, John William Streets, Edward Thomas, Alec Waugh, May Wedderburn Cannan.

Itinerary

Day 1: Foncquevillers, Pozières. Travel by coach at 9.00am from central London to Folkestone for the 35 minute Eurotunnel crossing. Continue by coach arriving in the field mid-afternoon. Drive the length of the front line for an initial orientation of the Somme battlefield, identifying the exact positions of the opposing trenches. The lecturer gives an introduction at the windmill site at Pozières, the highest part of the battlefield,

and the first poem is read; Alec Waugh’s Albert to Bapaume Road. Visit preserved trenches and a military cemetery. Continue to the hotel in Arras.

Day 2: Serre, Mesnil, Thiepval. Explore to the north of the Albert to Bapaume Road. Start at the village of Serre, site of the left flank of the main attack on 1st July where many of the assault battalions were known as ‘pals’, reflecting their recruiting centres based in the large urban cities of the Midlands and the North. Move along the line through Auchonvillers, along the Ancre Valley, with Edmund Blunden, Wilfred Owen and A. P. Herbert. At Thiepval is the Memorial to the Missing, the most monumental of the many Great War memorials, which bears over 72,000 names. Today’s poems include A soldier’s funeral by John William Streets, read at his graveside, Binyon’s For the Fallen and, at Thiepval, Charles Sorley’s When they see the millions of the mouthless dead / Across your dreams in pale battalions go.

Day 3: Péronne, Longueval, Mametz. Start at the ‘Historial de la Grande Guerre’ museum at Péronne, then to the area south of the Albert to Bapaume Road where some battalions were more successful and gained their objectives on the first day, before the arduous struggle of attrition moved into the ‘Horseshoe of Woods’. The site of Siegfried Sassoon’s HQ dugout is near the village of Fricourt, ‘while time ticks blank and busy on their wrists’. At Mametz, on William Noel Hodgson’s ‘familiar hill’, read Before Action: ‘Must say goodbye to all of this / By all delights that I shall miss, / Help me to die, O Lord.’

Day 4: Agny, Contay, Louvencourt. Stray behind the lines, visiting areas associated with the Casualty Clearing Stations. The village of Agny for Edward Thomas and Eleanor Farjeon, Louvencourt for Vera Brittain and Roland Leighton, and Contay as an appropriate location for the choice of women’s poetry, May Wedderburn Cannan and Margaret Postgate Cole. At La Boisselle, astride the Roman road, follow the fortunes of two battalions of the 34th Division. The poetry of Wilfred Owen, Edward Thomas and Alan Seeger features (I have a rendezvous with death). Final lunch before driving to Calais for the Eurotunnel journey home, arriving in central London at c. 7.30pm.

Practicalities

Price: £1,360 (deposit £150). Single supplement £140 (double for single occupancy).

Included meals: all dinners and lunches with wine.

Accommodation. Hôtel de l’Univers, Arras (univers.najeti.fr) a traditional 3-star hotel in Arras, installed in a 16th-century building, with a good restaurant.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of standing around and walking on this tour, most of it over rough ground. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 127 miles.


Combine this tour with In Churchill’s Footsteps, 10–13 September (page 61).Wayside crosses, photograph 191674

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The Western FrontWWI’s theatre of war 100 years on

25–29 June 2015 (mb 375) 5 days • £1,770Lecturer: Major Gordon Corrigan

21–25 July 2015 (mb 403)5 days • £1,770Lecturer: Major Gordon Corrigan

Concise but comprehensive study of the main scenes of action by British and Empire forces 1914–1918.

Military history in its broadest sense, from study of the details of the terrain to the broad strategic and political background.

Led by a military historian, ex-soldier and author of acclaimed Mud, Blood & Poppycock.

The First World War was the first and only conflict in modern British history when nearly all of the British army was fighting the main enemy (Germany) in the main theatre (the Western Front) for the whole of the war. Unlike the armies of France and Germany the pre-war British army was composed of long service professionals – compulsory military service on the European pattern would have been regarded as an unacceptable infringement of the rights of a free born Briton – but it was very small.

Having made the decision to declare war in support of France on land as well as at sea, the British had to create a mass army, which grew from just four infantry divisions and a cavalry division in 1914 to seventy divisions in 1918, from 100,000 men to two and a half million, initially from volunteers and then, from the middle of 1916, from conscripts. As the junior partner on land it was not for British politicians or British generals to dictate the course of the war, and until at least the spring of 1917 it was the French who directed operations on the Western Front.

Thus, the rationale of much of what the British army did may be difficult to understand when viewed solely through Anglo-centric eyes, but makes complete sense when looked at in the context of the war as a whole. It is only possible to understand the Somme when one comprehends what was happening at Verdun 120 miles to the south, and Haig’s insistence on continuing the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) is fully justified only when the state of the French armies is taken into consideration, with the absolute necessity of drawing the Germans onto the British front and away from the French.

There is probably more myth and legend surrounding the Great War than any other aspect of Britain’s long military history: an unnecessary war (so why was pre-war Germany furiously building a blue-water navy?); bungling generals sitting safely in châteaux far behind the lines (so why were so many killed in action?); the loss of a generation (but 74% of all the men who went over the top in the Battle of the Somme came out without a scratch) and there are many more. But for all that, the war cost Britain 700,000 dead.

This tour visits the battlefields and examines not only what happened but why; it will consider the performance of generals and privates, British (and the empire forces of India, Canada,

Australia, New Zealand and South Africa), French, American and German, and will ask whether there was another way, or was a series of long, slogging, bloody battles of attrition the only way to prevent a German Europe?

Itinerary

Day 1: Lille, Loos. Take the Eurostar at c. 11.00am from London St Pancras to Lille (with a light lunch on board). The Battle of Loos in September 1915 involved the largest number of British troops yet deployed in this war. It saw the first use of poison gas by the British, with mixed results, and amongst the British dead were three major generals commanding divisions. Some free time before first evening lecture. First of two nights in Lille.

Day 2: Ypres. Full day visiting the Ypres Salient or ‘Wipers’ to the British who held it for most of the war, and to examine the battles of 1914 and 1915 when the Germans were trying to break through to the Channel Ports. In the evening we attend the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate, where the British dead have been regularly remembered ever since 1928. Overnight Lille.

Day 3: Ypres, Neuve Chapelle. The second day in Ypres examines the highly successful capture of Messines Ridge by British, Australian and New Zealand troops in 1917, followed by the Third Battle of Ypres, the results of which are still controversial. Then travel south, visiting Neuve Chapelle, where in March 1915 the Indians and Gurkhas were the first to break the German line, en route to the hotel in Arras. First of two nights in Arras.

Day 4: The Somme. A day spent studying the opening of the Somme offensive on 1st July 16, considered one of the most traumatic days in modern British history. Overnight Arras.

Day 5: The Somme, Amiens, Vimy Ridge. Continue the tour of the Somme battlefields, this time looking at the later operations and the end of the battle in November 1916. Visit the scene of the August 1918 Battle of Amiens, the beginning of the final Allied offensive which three months later brought the war to an end. On the return to Lille, pause at Vimy Ridge, scene of the significant Canadian advance of 1917. The Eurostar arrives London St Pancras at c. 5.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £1,770 (deposit £150). Single supplement £190 (double room for single occupancy). Price without Eurostar £1,590.


Accommodation. Hôtel Hermitage Gantois, Lille (hotelhermitagegantois.com): a 5-star hotel in a converted 15th century hospice. Décor is traditional with a modern twist. Hôtel de l’Univers, Arras (univers.najeti.fr): a traditional 3-star hotel in Arras, installed in a 16th century building. Rooms vary in size and decoration. There is a good restaurant.

How strenuous? There is a quite a lot of walking and standing for long periods of time, often over uneven ground and in open fields. Fitness is essential.


Combine this tour with Mediaeval Saxony, 15–23 June (page 91).

See also Agincourt, Crécy & Waterloo, September & July 2015 (page 28).

A Dawn, 1914, etching by C.R.W. Nevinson

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Mediaeval BurgundyAbbeys & churches of the High Middle Ages

23–30 May 2015 (mb 338)8 days • £2,360Lecturer: John McNeill

Superb collection of Romanesque and early Gothic buildings.

Exceptionally well-preserved historic towns.

Rural drives through beautiful landscapes.

First-class rail travel.

The key to understanding mediaeval Burgundy is its situation, a cradle of wooded hills drained by three great river systems flowing, respectively, to the north, south and west. Not only did this lend the area the status of a lieu de passage, but it guaranteed its importance, ensuring that the mediaeval duchy was open to the forms and traditions of far-flung regions.

Remarkably, much of Burgundy’s mediaeval infrastructure survives. Even extending back as far as the ninth century, for in the interlocking spaces of the lower church at St-Germain d’Auxerre one might catch a glimpse of western Carolingian architecture and painting, a glimpse that presents this most distant of periods at its most inventive and personal.

It is equally the case that while the great early Romanesque basilicas which once studded the underbelly of the Ile-de-France are now reduced to a ghost of their former selves, what survives in Burgundy is sublimely impressive, as one might see in that great quartet of crypts at Dijon, Auxerre, Flavigny and Tournus.

As elsewhere, the twelfth century is well represented, though the depth of exploratory work undertaken here cannot fail to impress. The fundamental Romanesque research was probably conducted to the south, at Cluny and in the Brionnais, but the take-up in central Burgundy was immediate, and in the naves of Vézelay and Autun one might see two of the most compelling essays on the interaction of sculpture and architecture twelfth-century Europe has produced.

Nor were Cistercians slow to tailor Burgundian architecture to suit their needs, and though her great early monasteries have now perished at least Fontenay survives, ranking among the most breathtaking monastic sites of mediaeval France. Gothic also arrived early, and there began a second wave of experimentation, tentative at first but blossoming in the centre (where the new choir at Vézelay is the first intimation we have that Gothic architecture had a future outside northern France) into perhaps the most lucid of all architectural styles.

It is thus no surprise that the thirteenth century saw the region at the cutting edge of Europe. At Auxerre a definitive account of space as illusion took shape, and at Semur-en-Auxois a theatre of stone clambered aboard the church. Moreover, the patrons invested heavily in glass. No thirteenth-century church was without it - and most have retained it, blazing the interior

with a heady combination of light, meaning and colour. This sublime vigour even continued into the later middle ages, where under the Valois dukes of Burgundy Dijon became a major artistic centre, attracting artists of the calibre of Rogier van der Weyden and Claus Sluter.

Itinerary

Day 1. Take the Eurostar at c. 9.30am from London St Pancras to Paris and then onwards by TGV (high-speed train) to Mâcon. Continue by coach to Tournus where two nights are spent.

Day 2: Cluny, Berzé-la-Ville, Tournus. Cluny is the site of the largest church and most powerful monastery in mediaeval France. Study the magnificent remains of the church and monastic buildings. The tiny chapel at Berzé-la-Ville was perhaps built as the abbot of Cluny’s private retreat, and is embellished with superb wall paintings of c. 1100. At Tournus see the striking and immensely influential early 11th-century monastery.

Day 3: Beaune, Autun, Dijon. The 15th-century Hôtel-Dieu in Beaune houses Rogier van der Weyden’s Last Judgement. The stalwart Romanesque church of Notre-Dame has fine tapestries. At Autun the cathedral of St Lazare is celebrated for its sublime sequence of Romanesque capitals and relief sculptures by Gislebertus. First of three nights in Dijon.

Day 4: St Thibault, Semur-en-Auxois, Fontenay. The church of the market town of St Thibault has a 13th-cent. choir that is the most graceful Burgundian construction of the period. The fortified hill town of Semur-en-Auxois has a splendid Gothic collegiate church. The tranquil abbey of Fontenay is the earliest Cistercian church to survive and has an exceptionally well-preserved monastic precinct.

Day 5: Dijon. A day dedicated to Burgundy’s capital and one of the most attractive of French cities with many fine buildings from 11th to 18th centuries. St Bénigne has an ambitious early Romanesque crypt. Notre-Dame is a quite stunning early Gothic parish church. The palace of the Valois dukes now houses a museum with extensive collections of work from the period of their rule (1364–1477).

Day 6: Saulieu, Avallon, Vézelay. Visit the Basilique St-Andoche in Saulieu, with carved capitals depicting flora, fauna and biblical stories. Drive north to Avallon, whose fine Romanesque church is spectacularly situated above the river Cousin. Vézelay, a picturesque hill town whose summit is occupied by the abbey of La Madeleine, was one of the great pilgrimage centres of the

Tournus, engraving c. 1880

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Middle Ages, and has one of the most impressive of all 12th-century churches for both its architecture and its sculpture. First of two nights in Auxerre.

Day 7: Auxerre. The morning includes the magnificent Carolingian crypt of St Germain and the cathedral, a pioneering 13th-century building with exceptional glass and sculpture. The afternoon is free.

Day 8: Sens. The striking cathedral of Sens is among the earliest Gothic churches of Europe, housing important glass and an exquisitely carved 12th- and 13th-century west front. The diocesan museum also houses an extensive collection of Roman and mediaeval antiquities. Take the Eurostar from Paris arriving at London St Pancras c. 6.30pm.

Practicalities

Price: £2,360 (deposit £250). Single supplement £320 (double room for single occupancy). Price without Eurostar and TGV £2,170.


Accommodation. Hôtel Le Rempart, Tournus (lerempart.com): a 4-star hotel formerly a 15th-century guard house, located on the ramparts of the town. Hostellerie du Chapeau Rouge, Dijon (chapeau-rouge.fr): a centrally located, comfortable 4-star hotel furnished to a high standard. Hôtel Le Parc des Maréchaux, Auxerre (leparcdesmarechaux.com): a 4-star hotel in a delightful 18th-century hôtel particulier.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking, some of it on steep hillsides, and standing around. There is plenty of coach travel and you stay in three hotels. You will need to be able to lift your luggage on and off the train and wheel it within stations.


Combine this tour with Cave Art of France, 1–8 June (page 79) or Art in Le Marche, 1–8 June (page 143).

John McNeillArchitectural historian and a specialist in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. He lectures at Oxford University’s Department of Continuing Education and is Honorary

Secretary of the British Archaeological Association. Publications include the Blue Guide: Normandy, Blue Guide: Loire Valley and Romanesque & the Past.

John McNeill also leads West Country Churches (page 52), The Po Valley (page 129), Normans in the South (page 151), Sicily (page 155) and The Road to Santiago (page 188).All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

Aix-en-Provence, Cathedral of St Sauveur, watercolour by A.H. Hallam Murray publ. 1904

Provence & LanguedocArt & architecture in the Midi

1–10 October 2015 (mc 486)10 days • £3,120Lecturer: Dr Alexandra Gajewski

Fine Roman remains that had a decisive impact on mediaeval architecture and sculpture.

Truly great secular buildings, including the papal palace at Avignon, and pre-eminent Romanesque churches.

Superb modern art at the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence and at the Fine Arts Museum in Marseille.

A natural setting of exceptional attractiveness.

Dr Alexandra Gajewski specialises in mediaeval architecture and is a resident of the Languedoc.

The picture of Mediterranean France as an exotic land subject to a wide range of foreign influences is borne out by a glance at the region’s complex history. This tour traces the wide-ranging influences on Provence and eastern Languedoc throughout the centuries.

Provence was the first province established by the Romans outside Italy and impressive Roman work survives at Nîmes, St-Rémy and Arles. In Arles, as one moves into Late Antiquity, one is also witness to the most significant Early Christian city of Mediterranean Gaul.

This Roman infrastructure is fundamental, and the pre-eminent Romanesque churches of Provence may come as something of a surprise. The sculpture is more skilfully and self-consciously antique than any outside central Italy, and is often organised in a manner designed to evoke either fourth-century sarcophagi or Roman theatres and triumphal arches.

The Italian connection was strengthened when, for much of the fourteenth century, the papacy came to reside in Avignon, one of the loveliest cities in France. We spend five nights here. The complete circuit of walls is an impressive survival from this time, as is the Palais des Papes, perhaps the finest Palace to have survived from the Middle Ages, and several Gothic churches.

Despite the upheavals of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, when Provence lost its independence and the whole region was riven by religious wars, local patrons, such as the Duke of Uzès, began to employ artists capable of creating Italian Renaissance motifs. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, at Nimes and Aix, Parisian Baroque architecture became the dominant model.

The intensity of the light, the brightness of the colours and the raw beauty of the Midi purified palettes, dissolved form and changed the course of western art. Van Gogh and Gauguin sojourned in Arles in 1888, Cézanne returned to his birthplace, Aix-en-Provence, in 1886. Signac, Matisse, Derain, Marquet, Camoin, Dufy, Bonnard and Braque also set up in productive propinquity along the coast and their art has remained in the region’s collections.

Time is spent in Aix, the attractive old capital of Provence and the new capital, Marseille, handsome and vibrant and at times gritty.

Oscillating between small provincial town and big city, Marseille was propelled into the 21st century by Norman Foster, Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid who all contributed to the civic improvements and architecturally striking new museums for its year as European Capital of Culture in 2013.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 1.15pm (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Marseille. Drive to Aix-en-Provence for two nights.

Day 2: Aix-en-Provence. Morning walk through the old town, including the Cathedral of St Sauveur with 5th-cent. baptistry, cloisters and a 15th-cent. triptych of The Burning Bush by Nicolas Froment. The Musée Granet has a good permanent collection of French painting from the 16th-cent. onwards and a room dedicated to works by Cézanne. Cézanne’s studio remains as he left it on his death in 1906, and a short drive away is a fine view of the Mont Sainte-Victoire, the most recognisable motif in modern art. Overnight Aix-en-Provence.

Day 3: Les Baux, St Rémy. Morning walk through the delightful mediaeval and Renaissance town of Les Baux, whose citadel sits on top of a rocky spur in the Alpilles. Continue to St Rémy, Glanum of old, and proud possessor of one of the truly great funerary memorials of the Roman world, the cenotaph erected by three Julii brothers in honour of their forebears. See also the former monastery where Van Gogh was hospitalised, including the Romanesque cloister and scenes that he painted. Continue to Avignon for the first of five nights.

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Day 4: Avignon. The Palais des Papes is the principal monument of the Avignon papacy, one-time site of the papal curia and by far the most significant 14th-cent. building to survive in southern France. The collections of late Gothic sculpture and painting in the Petit-Palais act as a splendid foil to the work at the papal palace.

Day 5: Pernes-les-Fontaines, Vaison, Venasque. Gentle stroll through Pernes, a delightful fortified river town with an important Romanesque church and 13th-cent. frescoed tower. Continue over the Dentelles de Montmirail to the stunning early mediaeval baptistery at Venasque. Free afternoon in Avignon.

Day 6: Nîmes, Uzès, Pont du Gard. Nîmes has two of the most famous of Roman monuments: the amphitheatre and the Maison Carrée, a perfectly preserved temple. The Jardin de la Fontaine is a beautiful 18th-cent. garden around the terminus of an aqueduct – the water brought here across the Pont du Gard, an astonishing feat of engineering over the River Gardon. The Romanesque tower of Uzès cathedral sits against a backdrop of picturesque mediaeval streets and baroque houses. Overnight Avignon.

Day 7: Arles. The amphitheatre at Arles is a justly famous early 2nd-cent. structure of a type developed from the Colosseum. The Romanesque Cathedral of St-Trophime is home to one of the greatest cloisters of 12th-cent. Europe. During his 15 months residing in Arles, Van Gogh created around 200 paintings and the Van Gogh Foundation, opened in April 2014, presents a

small selection alongside works by contemporary artists (dependent on changing exhibitions). The Musée Départmental Arles Antique houses a quite spellbinding collection of classical and early Christian art. Overnight Avignon.

Day 8: Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, Marseille. In the morning see Pope Innocent VI’s now ruined Charterhouse at Villeneuve-lez-Avignon and the Musée Pierre de Luxembourg, displaying works from the 14th–17th cents. in a former Cardinal’s palace. Continue to Marseille. Visit first the Basilique St Victor, which has a 5th-cent. crypt. First of two nights in Marseille.

Day 9: Marseille. Walk through the Vieux Port and Panier districts, including the remains of the city’s ancient Greek then Roman port at the Jardin des Vestiges and La Vieille Charité, 17–18th cent. almshouses with a fine Baroque chapel. The Musée des Docks Romains illustrates the importance of Marseille in Mediterranean maritime trade. In the afternoon visit the Musée des Beaux Arts, where the highlight is a fine collection of 19th-cent. French art.

Day 10: Marseille. Free morning. Suggestions include the modern and contemporary collections of the Musée Cantini or the new Musée des Civilisations d’Europe et de la Méditerranée, containing collections previously at the former Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires in Paris. Fly from Marseille, arriving at London Heathrow at c. 5.45pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Grand Hotel Roi René, Aix-en-Provence (mgallery.com): 4 star, centrally located. Hôtel Cloître Saint Louis, Avignon (cloitre-st-louis.com): 4 star hotel in a converted 16th-cent. convent. Grand Hotel Beauvau, Marseille (mgallery.com): 4 star in the old port area with sea views.


How strenuous? Quite a lot of walking is involved, particularly in the town centres. The tour is not suitable for anyone who has difficulties with everyday walking and stairclimbing. There are some long days and coach journeys. Average distance by coach per day: 32 miles.

Combine this tour with Modern Art on the Côte d’Azur, 22–29 September (page 82).

Provence & Languedoccontinued

Tarascon, René d’Anjou’s château, lithograph c. 188078

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Cave Art of FrancePrehistory in the Dordogne

8–15 June 2015 (mb 355)8 days • £2,680Lecturer: Dr Paul Bahn

This tour encompasses some of the most important Prehistoric caves in Europe including Lascaux II, Pech Merle and Niaux.

Great art, whatever its function or the ‘artist’s’ intention, in an area of outstanding natural beauty and charming villages.

Led by Britain’s leading specialist in Prehistoric art, Dr Paul Bahn.

Visiting the Ice Age decorated caves of Europe may be a pilgrimage, in homage to the region’s artists of 30,000–10,000 years ago, or it may simply be curiosity. But while one’s interest may have been triggered by books, television or lectures, there is simply no substitute for seeing the sites themselves, some of humankind’s greatest artistic achievements in their unusual, evocative and original settings.

In addition, the caves of the Perigord and Quercy are in regions of outstanding beauty, famed for their wine and cuisine. Four nights are spent in the capital of Prehistory, Les Eyzies, a village filled and surrounded by famous Ice Age dwellings, its spectacular limestone cliffs giving it one of the most beautiful and striking landscapes in the world.

Whatever your motivation or interest, a visit to an Ice Age cave is a tremendous privilege. After more than a century of research, we still only know about 400 such sites in Eurasia, and only a small fraction of these are open to the public, because of difficulties of access or conservation concerns. As such, they constitute a very limited and finite resource, and yet visitors can approach these original masterpieces extremely closely, an experience unparalleled in major art galleries.

Unlike a visit to the Louvre or the Prado, in entering a cave you are seeing the images precisely where they were created, you are standing or crouching just where the artists did. In many cases the journey to the cave entrance and the route through the chambers give your experience a sense of immediacy, purity and vividness. Entering a world far removed from one of commerce, of art-dealers and of critics enhances a feeling of connection with the artists. There is nothing like a stalactite dripping on your head to remind you that you are in a pristine and natural setting.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 7.00pm (British Airways), London Gatwick to Bordeaux. Overnight in Bordeaux.

Day 2: Bordeaux, Pair-non-Pair. The Musée d’Aquitaine provides a perfect introduction to the archaeology and art of the Ice Age in southwest France; a particular highlight is the ‘Venus of Laussel’ bas-relief carving. The cave of Pair-non-Pair is small but filled with wonderfully deep engravings of animals – and with no electrical installations provides a more authentic experience. Continue into the Dordogne to Les Eyzies for four nights.

Day 3: Les Eyzies. The National Prehistory Museum, now housed in an ultra-modern building at the foot of the cliffs, has one of the world’s greatest collections of Ice Age material. In addition to the wealth of stone and bone tools, there is fantastic jewellery and portable art objects, as well as the finds from the cave of Lascaux. Font-de-Gaume is one of the greatest of all Ice Age decorated caves, with remarkable polychrome bison and other animals, skilfully placed to take full advantage of the rock shapes. Cap Blanc is the greatest sculpted frieze from the Ice Age that is open to the public.

Day 7: Niaux, Toulouse. The tour ends with Niaux, a fitting climax as the long walk into this Pyrenean mountain leads one to the ‘Salon Noir’ with its stunning drawings of bison, horses and ibex, and its extraordinary acoustics. The afternoon is free in Toulouse; suggestions include the Musée Saint-Raymond and the cathedral.

Day 8. Catch the late morning flight to London Heathrow, arriving c. 12.20pm.

Note that this tour departs from Gatwick and returns to Heathrow.

Day 4: Lascaux II. The extremely accurate facsimile of Lascaux II is now the public’s only chance to see the wonders of the most famous and most beautiful of all decorated caves. The park at Le Thot contains many of the animal species which were familiar to Ice Age people: aurochs, bison, horses, deer and ibex, as well as a robotic mammoth. Rouffignac is a unique experience; a decorated tunnel-like cave so vast that one travels around it in a train. Its art is hugely dominated by drawings of mammoths. The Abri Pataud is the best possible way to see what a major Ice Age excavation site looks like, while the small museum next door still has a carving on its ceiling. Overnight Les Eyzies.

Day 5: Beynac, Cougnac. Perched high above the river and with breathtaking views of the surrounding landscape Beynac Castle is an impressive mediaeval fortress; see the bedroom of Richard the Lionheart. The Grotte de Cougnac is one of the most beautiful of all decorated caves, not only for its art, but also and especially for its natural formations of stalagmites and stalactites.

Day 6: Pech Merle, Cahors, Toulouse. Pech Merle is among the greatest of the decorated caves. It is huge and has spectacular natural formations and a wide variety of artistic techniques, including the famous spotted horse panel. Some free time is spent in Cahors on route to Toulouse, where two nights are spent.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Best Western Etche-Ona, Bordeaux (bordeaux-hotel.com): a central 3-star hotel with renovated rooms. Hotel Le Centenaire, Les Eyzies (hotelducentenaire.com) a small 3-star hotel in a good location. Grand Hotel de l’Opéra, Toulouse (grand-hotel-opera.com) a central 4-star hotel in a converted 17th-century convent, set back from the Place du Capitole; good Brasserie.

How strenuous? There is a fair amount of walking on uneven and sometimes steep and slippery ground and caves are not well lit. Sure footedness is essential. It can get very damp and cold inside the caves. This tour is not suitable for people who suffer from claustrophobia. Average distance by coach per day: 69 miles.


Combine this tour with Flanders Fields, 4–7 June (page 29) or Ardgowan, 18–23 June (page 186).

Cahors, engraving in France Pittoresque 1835

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French Riviera, watercolour by Donald Maxwell publ. 1932

“Caroline Holmes was the perfect lecturer and guide – hugely knowledgeable with an intimate knowledge of each garden visited.”

Gardens of the RivieraIn & around Menton & Nice

18–24 March 2015 (mb 270)7 days • £2,140Lecturer: Caroline Holmes

Inspiring historic gardens in spectacular settings, with exceptional growing conditions.

Includes visits to some gardens not normally open to the public.

Led by gardens expert Caroline Holmes.

Based in Menton throughout.

When Tobias Smollett arrived on the Riviera in 1763, he found himself ‘enchanted’ by a landscape ‘all cultivated like a garden’. A century later Dr Bennett’s discovery of the miraculous winter climate at Menton established the town as a haven for prosperous foreigners in need of climatic therapy. By 1900 this narrow strip of land between the Maritime Alps and the Mediterranean had been transformed into a paradise of villas, palatial hotels, seafront promenades and exotic vegetation.

The migratory nature of the moneyed population meant that the region developed a character quite separate from local cultural

traditions. In a landscape of olive and lemon groves, the villa gardens seem an eclectic collection, disconcerting for those who look for patterns of continuity, but best viewed as separate incidents taking advantage of the exceptional growing conditions.

The Hanbury family famously made the steep Italian cliffs of La Mortola a garden of beauty and experiment. Lawrence Johnston, the maker of Hidcote, established himself in the hills above Menton where his romantically sited garden at La Serre de la Madone provided a home for his huge collection of exotics. The gardens of the villas in Garavan continue to evince the private pleasures of past and present owners of many nationalities and design persuasions.

The French have added their own distinctive contribution to this artificial enclave. Renoir

found new inspiration, as well as some relief from pain, in his garden at Cagnes-sur-Mer. Marguerite and Aimé Maeght established a magnificent modern art collection in a garden setting at St-Paul-de-Vence. Art of a different character adorns the rooms of the Villa Ephrussi Rothschild at St Jean-Cap-Ferrat where the gardens take advantage of an incomparable setting, viewing the Mediterranean through a filter of pines, palms and cypresses. Charles, Vicomte de Noailles, made a garden drawing together a rich variety of cultural influences at the Villa Noailles, looking out over the wooded hills near Grasse.

Itinerary

Day 1: Cagnes-sur-Mer, Menton. Fly at c. 12.00 noon from Gatwick to Nice with British Airways. Renoir spent his last years in the farmhouse at Les Collettes near Cagnes-sur-Mer, painting and sculpting from the olive terraces around the little garden. Transfer by coach to Menton where all six nights are spent.

Day 2: Menton. Lawrence Johnston’s great garden La Serre de la Madone was made between the wars, and though much of the detail has gone, a romantic atmosphere still pervades the dramatic layout. The garden at Clos du Peyronnet is still owned by an Englishman who continues to develop it, blending plants from around the world in a setting of terraces, pools and pergolas.

Day 3: St Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Still a secluded haven for the fortunate, the gardens at the Villa Ephrussi Rothschild, established by Beatrice de Rothschild, are rich and varied, and take full advantage of the exceptional position. The house contains a varied art collection. Les Cèdres is a great forest of exotic planting around a luxurious house built for Leopold III of Belgium and landscaped by Harold Peto. Four generations of the present owner’s family have brought the garden to its state of magnificent maturity.

Day 4: Monaco, La Mortola (Italy). The astonishing outdoor collection of cacti and succulents at the Jardin Exotique in Monaco overlooks the Principality and the sea from its clifftop walks. The Hanbury Botanic Gardens at La Mortola have been famous since their establishment in the 19th century. An unparalleled collection of specimens festoon the steep site. Curtains of plumbago and bougainvillea, perfumed parterres, pergolas, exotic pavilions and citrus orchards adorn this garden paradise on a private headland.

Day 5: Menton. Perched on the hillside villa quarter of Garavan, Val Rahmeh is an early 20th-century villa surrounded by gardens of exceptional richness created by Maybud Campbell in the 1950s. Optional visit to nearby Fontana Rosa whose tiled benches still evoke the ‘Writers’ Garden’ created in 1921 by Vicente Blasco Ibaňez, successful playwright and novelist of Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse fame. Literary threads are drawn in from across the world, the surviving rotunda decorated with 100 tiles illustrating Cervantes’s Don Quixote encapsulates the mood perfectly. Alternatively spend some

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independent time in Menton; a chance to see the Musée Cocteau or his Salle des Mariages.

Day 6: Grasse, St-Paul-de-Vence. The gardens of the Villa Noailles were made during the postwar years in a distinctive style blending English, classical and other influences in a refreshing rural setting. The Fondation Maeght near St-Paul provides a rare opportunity to view modernism in a garden context. There is a remarkable collection of paintings and sculpture.

Day 7: Menton, Nice. Visit a private garden in Menton, not normally open to the public (details will be provided). Transfer to Nice for some free time in the old town before the flight to London Gatwick, arriving at c. 5.00pm.

Some of these gardens can only be visited by special arrangement and the order of visits may vary. A couple are subject to confirmation.

Practicalities

Price: £2,140 (deposit £250). Upgrade to sea view £90 per room (shared room). Single supplement £210 (double room for single occupancy), with sea view £290. Price without flights £1,970.

Included meals: 1 light lunch and 5 dinners with wine.

Accommodation. the Hotel Napoléon is a modern and comfortable 4-star hotel located near the border with Italy, looking back on Vieux Menton. Sea view rooms have balconies but suffer some noise from the busy coastal road. Rooms at the rear are quieter.

How strenuous? A lot of walking and standing. Several gardens are on steep sites and paths are often uneven. Sure-footedness is essential. Average distance by coach per day: 42 miles.


Combine this tour with Granada & Córdoba, 9–16 March (page 202).

Caroline HolmesGarden historian, author and consultant. She lectures for Cambridge University’s ICE, NADFAS and the Landmark Trust and her books include Monet at Giverny, Follies of

Europe – Architectural Extravaganzas and Impressionists in their Gardens. She is a regular contributor to BBC television and radio.All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

Orpheus & Eurydice, engraving c. 1880 after the painting by G.F. Watts (1817–1904)

Opera in Marseille & Lyon Puccini, Gluck, Schreker

17–21 March 2015 (mb 257)5 days • £2,080(including tickets to 3 performances)Lecturer: Dr Michael Downes

In Marseille: Tosca (Puccini) with Adina Aaron, Giorgio Berrugi and Carlos Almaguer.

In Lyon: Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice conducted by Enrico Onofri and Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten with Charles Workman.

The lecturer is Dr Michael Downes, director of music at the University of St Andrews.

Marseille and Lyon are two fine French cities becoming increasingly renowned on the international opera scene, attracting performers of the highest calibre. Marseille is handsome, vibrant and at times gritty. Oscillating between small provincial town and large city, it was propelled into the twenty-first century by Norman Foster, Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid who all contributed to the civic improvements and architecturally striking new museums for its year as European Capital of Culture in 2013. France’s second city by size, Lyon was the most important city in Roman Gaul and boasts substantial remains, a delightful old town and significant museums such as the Musée des Beaux Arts and the Textile Museum (it was – and remains – the leading producer of luxury silk cloth).

If Marseille can be described as both vibrant and gritty, then the opera we see there shares some of the same characteristics. Set in Rome at the turn of the nineteenth century its lurid plot – including torture, murder and suicide – has led some critics to doubt its merits (the late Joseph Kerman famously dismissed it as a ‘shabby little shocker’). However, audiences have invariably appreciated its dramatic power and the thrilling arias Puccini composed for the title character, Floria Tosca, herself a famous diva. This is a new production by Louis Desiré.

In Lyon see Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, one of the most important pieces in operatic history. Premiered in Vienna in 1762, it is the first in his series of ‘reform operas’, which sought to replace the complexities and conventions of opera seria with a more direct and realistic form of musical storytelling. For many generations Glück’s operas were much more familiar to musical historians than to audiences, but in recent decades opera houses have rediscovered their beauty and emotional force, a process accelerated by the tercentenary of the composer’s birth in 2014. This production by the young Hungarian director David Marton, known for his innovative work in both the spoken and musical theatre, promises an intriguing new take on this archetypal narrative.

By comparison with the other two operas in the programme, Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten (the title may be loosely translated as ‘The Stigmatised’) is a real rarity, but one eminently worthy of rediscovery. Franz Schreker was one of the leading opera composers in the Vienna of Mahler and Strauss, and arguably only his Jewish ancestry – which led to his music being banned in 1933, a year before his untimely death – prevented

him from achieving a greater worldwide reputation in his lifetime. Die Gezeichneten was based, like Berg’s Lulu, on a play by Frank Wedekind and premiered in Frankfurt in 1918. Its central role – the hunchbacked but altruistic nobleman, Alviano Salvago, whose true beauty of soul is perceived by the beautiful young female painter, Carlotta – is a tour de force for tenor, sung here by the American Charles Workman.

Itinerary

Day 1: Marseille. Fly at c. 11.15am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Marseille. Visit the recently renovated Musée des Beaux Arts in the 19th-cent. Palais Longchamp where the highlight is a fine collection of 19th-century French art. First of two nights in Marseille.

Day 2: Marseille. Morning lecture. A walk in the Old Port area with a local guide includes the remains of the city’s ancient Greek then Roman port at the Jardin des Vestiges and La Vieille Charité, 17–18th cent. almshouses with a fine Baroque chapel. Free afternoon before the evening performance at the Opéra de Marseille: Tosca (Puccini) Fabrizio Maria Carminati (conductor), Louis Désiré (director), Adina Aaron (Tosca), Giorgio Berrugi (Mario Cavaradossi), Carlos Almaguer (Scarpia).

Day 3: Lyon. Catch a morning TGV train (first class) from Marseille to Lyon (c. 2 hours), arriving in time for lunch and an afternoon lecture. Evening performance at the Opéra de Lyon: Orfeo ed Euridice (Gluck), Enrico Onofri (conductor), David Marton (director), Christopher

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Ainslie/Franz Mazura (Orfeo), Elena Galitskaya (Euridice). First of two nights in Lyon.

Day 4: Lyon. Morning lecture. Visit the alleys and Renaissance courtyards of Vieux Lyon, including the Cathédrale St Jean, with a local guide. Free afternoon, perhaps to visit the Fine Arts Museum. Installed in a monumental 18th-cent convent, it is one of the more important French provincial galleries. Evening performance at the Opéra de Lyon: Die Gezeichneten (Schreker), Alejo Perez (conductor), David Boesch (director), Charles Workman (Alviano), Magdalena Anna Hofmann (Carlotta), Simon Neal (Tamare), Markus Marquardt (Duc Adorno), Michael Eder (Podestà Nardi).

Day 5. Take the lunchtime flight to London Heathrow, arriving c. 1.15pm.

Practicalities



Music: tickets (first category) for 3 operas are included, costing c. £190.

Accommodation. Grand Hotel Beauvau, Marseille (mgallery.com): a comfortable 4-star hotel with traditional décor, near the old port and the opera house. Hotel Le Royal, Lyon (lyonhotel-leroyal.com): a stylish 5-star hotel, well situated on the Presqu’île.

How strenuous? All of the performances are reached on foot. The visits require a fair amount of walking and standing around. There are some late nights but starts are leisurely. You need to be able to lift your luggage on and off the TGV train and carry (wheel) it within stations.


Combine this tour with Ballet in Paris, 10–14 March (page 72).

Opera in Marseille & Lyon continued Modern Art

on the Côte d’Azur

17–24 March 2015 (mb 256)8 days • £2,540Lecturer: Mary Lynn Riley

22–29 September 2015 (mc 434)8 days • £2,680Lecturer: Lydia Bauman

Europe’s greatest concentration of classic modern art in the idyllic Mediterranean setting where it was created.

Old and new collections, with outstanding work by Renoir, Bonnard, Braque, Léger, Miró, Giacometti, Cocteau, Chagall, Matisse, Picasso.

Both lecturers are experts on 19th- and 20th-century art.

Visits to the coastal towns and villages which inspired the artists.

Stays in Nice throughout.

Natural resources and climate have drawn invaders and visitors to Nice and its surroundings from the Greek colonists of classical times to the jet-set of today. But from the late nineteenth century a special category of visitor – and settler – has transformed the Côte d’Azur into the greatest concentration of modern art in Europe.

Monet first visited Antibes in 1883; Signac bought a house in the fishing village of St-Tropez in 1892. Matisse’s first visit to the Midi in 1904 transformed his art, and from 1918 he spent more time on the Côte d’Azur than in Paris.

Matisse, Chagall and Picasso are merely among the most illustrious of the artists who chose to live in the South of France. Many of their fellow modernisers followed suit: Braque, Bonnard, Dufy, Picabia.

This tour is an extraordinary opportunity to see how modernity relates to the past as well as the present, and how gallery displays can be centred on the art, the location or the patron/collector. In Matisse’s Chapelle du

Rosaire at Vence, traditional arts and crafts have been revived by a modern genius, as in the monumental mosaic and glass designs of Léger which can be seen at Biot.

There are also echoes of collecting habits of earlier eras in the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild. The mixture of past and present and the juxtaposition of the Goût Rothschild with the beauty of its location are breathtaking. (Graham Sutherland drew exotic flowers and plants in the extraordinary gardens.)

At Antibes the Picasso Museum is housed in the Château Grimaldi, lent to Picasso as studio space in 1946 where he produced life-affirming paintings.

Old and new galleries abound, such as the Fondation Maeght, St-Paul-de-Vence, whose building (designed by José Luis Sert, 1963) makes it a work of outstanding sympathy to its natural surroundings, in gardens enlivened by Miró’s Labyrinthe and other sculptures.

Itinerary

Day 1: Nice. Fly at c. 12.00 midday from London Gatwick (March) or Heathrow (September) to Nice. There is an afternoon visit to the Musée des Beaux Arts Jules Cheret, concentrating on their 19th- and early 20th-century holdings.

Day 2: Nice, Vence. The Marc Chagall Museum has the largest collection of the artist’s works, notably the seventeen canvases of the Biblical Message, set in a peaceful garden in a salubrious Nice suburb. At Vence see the Chapel of the Rosary, designed and decorated by Matisse. Renoir’s house at Cagnes-sur-Mer is set amidst olive groves, a memorial to the only major Impressionist to settle in the south.

Day 3: Antibes, Vallauris. Most of the paintings Picasso produced in his studio in the Château Grimaldi in 1946 have been donated to the town of Antibes. Vallauris is a centre of contemporary pottery revived by Picasso, whose masterpiece War & Peace is here.

Antibes, oiliograph c. 1870

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Day 4: St-Tropez, Biot. Drive west to St-Tropez, which has been popular with artists since Paul Signac settled here in 1892. The Musée de l’Annonciade is one of France’s finest collections of modern art (Signac, Maillol, Matisse, Bonnard, Vlaminck, Braque). Continue to Biot and visit the Musée National Fernand Léger, built to house the artist’s works bequeathed to his wife.

Day 5: Le Cannet, Nice. The first museum dedicated to the works of Bonnard opened in Le Cannet in 2011. The afternoon is free in Nice or there is an optional visit to the Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain with its excellent collection of post-war art.

Day 6: Cap Ferrat, St-Paul-de-Vence. Drive east to St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat to see the paintings, sculpture and furniture of the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, a mansion set in attractive gardens. The Maeght Foundation at St-Paul-de-Vence is renowned for its collections (Picasso, Hepworth, Miró, Arp, Giacometti, but not all works are shown at once) and for its architecture and setting.

Day 7: Villefranche, Menton. In Villefranche is the small Chapelle St-Pierre, decorated by Cocteau. Along the coast to Menton, the last French town before Italy, is a new Cocteau museum (opened in 2011) and the Salle des Mariages, also painted by Cocteau.

Day 8: Nice. The Musée Matisse unites a wide range of the artist’s work; sculpture, ceramics, stained glass as well as painting. Fly from Nice arriving at London Gatwick (March) or Heathrow (September) at c. 5.00pm.

In recent years, renovation work has led to museum closures. At the moment all visits listed are possible but we cannot rule out the possibility of changes.

Practicalities

Price: £2,540 (March), £2,680 (September) (deposit £250). Single supplement £250 (March), £380 (September). Price without flights £2,310 (both departures).


Accommodation. Hotel Le Beau Rivage, Nice (hotelnicebeaurivage.com): a modern 4-star located in the old town, a short walk from the Promenade des Anglais. Rooms are comfortable and decorated in a contemporary style.

How strenuous? There is a fair amount of walking and standing around in museums. Average distance by coach per day: 51 miles.

Small group: between 10 and 22 participants.

Mary Lynn RileySpecialist in 19th- and 20th-century modern and contemporary art. She lives on the Côte d’Azur where she teaches art courses at the Musée Bonnard in Le

Cannet and the Espace de l’Art Concret at Mouans-Sartoux. Previously she worked at the Smithsonian in Washington DC.

Lydia BaumanArt historian, artist, and lecturer at the National Gallery. Lydia studied at Newcastle University and the Courtauld Institute, specialising in Matisse and

19th–20th century European and American art. She has lectured at the Tate, National Portrait Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Arts Club of Chicago. All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

Nice, etching c. 1925 by Frederick Farrell

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Berlin, Potsdam, DresdenArt & architecture in Brandenburg & Saxony

7–15 September 2015 (mc 458)9 days • £2,790Lecturer: Dr Jarl Kremeier

Chief cities of Brandenburg-Prussia and Saxony, rich in fine and decorative arts.

Internationally important historic and contemporary architecture.

Rebuilding and restoration continues to transform the cities.

Led by Dr Jarl Kremeier, an art historian specialising in 17th- to 19th-century architecture and decorative arts.

Berlin is an upstart among European cities. Until the seventeenth century it was a small town of little importance, but by dint of ruthless and energetic rule, backed by the military prowess for which it became a byword, the hitherto unimportant state of Brandenburg-Prussia became one of the most powerful in Germany. By the middle of the eighteenth century, with Frederick the Great at the helm, it was successfully challenging the great powers of Europe.

Ambitious campaigns were instituted to endow the capital with grandeur appropriate

to its new status. Palaces, public buildings and new districts were planned and constructed. At nearby Potsdam, Frederick’s second capital, he created the park of Sanssouci, among the finest ensembles of gardens, palaces and pavilions to be found anywhere. Early in the nineteenth century Berlin became of international importance architecturally when Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the greatest of Neo-Classical architects, designed several buildings there.

Berlin has museums of art and antiquities of the highest importance. The Pergamon Museum and Gemäldegalerie are among the best of their kind and the recently opened Neues Museum, designed by David Chipperfield, provides an excellent setting for the Egyptian collection. The reunited city is now one of the most exciting in Europe. A huge amount of work has been done to knit together the two halves of the city and to rebuild and restore monuments which had been neglected for decades.

Dresden was the capital of the Electorate of Saxony. Though it suffered terrible destruction during the War, rebuilding and restoration allow the visitor to appreciate once again something of its former beauty. The great domed Frauenkirche has now been triumphantly reconstructed. Moreover, the collections of fine and applied arts are magnificent. The Old Masters Gallery in Dresden is of legendary richness, the Green

Vault is the finest surviving treasury of goldwork and objets d’art, and the Albertinum reopened in 2010 to display a fine collection of nineteenth and twentieth-century art.

Itinerary

Day 1. Dresden. Fly at c. 10.45am from London Heathrow to Berlin (British Airways) and drive to Dresden. Introductory lecture before dinner. First of four nights in Dresden.

Day 2. Dresden. Take a walk around the old centre of Dresden. Visit the great domed Frauenkirche, the Protestant cathedral. The Zwinger is a unique Baroque confection, part pleasure palace, part arena for festivities and part museum for cherished collections. Visit the excellent porcelain museum and the fabulously rich Old Masters Gallery, particularly strong on Italian and Netherlandish painting.

Day 3. Dresden. Start at the Hofkirche, the catholic church commissioned by Frederick Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, to counterbalance the building of the Frauenkirche. The Green Vault of the Residenzschloss displays one of the world’s finest princely treasuries. Some free time for independent exploration before an afternoon visit to the New Masters Gallery in the Albertinum.

Day 4. Dresden, Pillnitz. Take a boat trip to Pillnitz, a summer palace in Chinese Rococo style, with park, gardens and collections of decorative art. Drive back to Dresden for an afternoon visit of the Palais im Großen Garten, the first major Baroque building in the city.

Day 5. Dresden, Berlin. Stroll in Dresden-Neustadt on the right bank of the Elbe, little damaged in the War, taking in amongst others the Baroque Quarter around Königsstrasse, a Japanese Palace and the Dresden Museum for Romanticism. After lunch travel to Berlin by coach. Survey the historic architecture along and around Unter den Linden: the Arsenal, Schinkel’s Guardhouse, Frederick the Great’s Opera House, the Gendarmenmarkt with twin churches and concert hall. First of four nights in Berlin.

Day 6. Berlin. Spend the morning on ‘Museums Island’: the Altes Museum, a major Neo-Classical building by Schinkel, displays the collection of Classical antiquities; the Alte Nationalgalerie houses an excellent collection of 19th-century paintings and sculptures; the Neues Museum (elaborately restored under the direction of British architect David Chipperfield) is the new home of the Egyptian Museum (famous for the bust of Nefertiti); the Bode Museum, houses a splendid, comprehensive collection of European sculpture, including works by Riemenschneider, as well as Byzantine art.

Day 7. Potsdam. The enclosed park of Sanssouci was created as a retreat from the affairs of state by Frederick the Great. It consists of gardens, parkland, palaces, pavilions and auxiliary buildings. In the afternoon, visit his relatively modest single-storey palace atop terraces of fruit trees, the exquisite Chinese teahouse and the large and imposing Neues Palais. Drive through

Berlin, statue of Frederick The Great (Christian Daniel Rauch) mid-19th-century engraving

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GeorgiaAutumn 2015Details available winter 2014/15Contact us to register your interest

Potsdam town centre with its Dutch quarter and cathedral by Schinkel.

Day 8. Berlin. Drive to Schloss Charlottenburg, the earliest major building in Berlin, an outstanding summer palace built with a Baroque core and Rococo wings, fine interiors, paintings by Watteau, extensive gardens, pavilions and a mausoleum. The Berggruen Collection of Picasso and classic modern art is also here and has recently reopened after extensive renovation works. In the evening visit Norman Foster’s glass dome capping the Reichstag and have dinner in the roof-top restaurant.

Day 9. Berlin. In the 1990s Potsdamer Platz was Europe’s greatest building project and showcases an international array of architects (Piano, Isozaki, Rogers, Moneo). Scattered around the nearby ‘Kulturforum’ are museums, the State Library and the Philharmonie concert hall (Hans Scharoun 1956–63). The Gemäldegalerie houses one of Europe’s major collections of Old Masters. Choose between the Neue Nationalgalerie (changing exhibitions in a Mies van der Rohe building) or the Museum of Musical Instruments. Fly from Berlin to Heathrow, arriving at c. 5.45pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Radisson Blu Gewandhaus Hotel, Dresden (radissonblu.de): a traditional 5-star hotel in a reconstructed Baroque building. Regent Hotel, Berlin (theregentberlin.de): an elegant hotel decorated in Regency style, located close to Unter den Linden.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking required and standing around in museums. Average distance by coach per day: 44 miles.


“Very instructive and well-planned, as exemplified in the variety of churches, public buildings, palaces and gardens seen in Berlin, Potsdam and Dresden.”

The Dresden FestspieleArt & music in the electoral capital of Saxony

14–20 May 2015 (mb 327)7 days • £2,680 (including tickets to 5 performances)Lecturer: Dr Jarl Kremeier

Five performances in three historic buildings including Tosca (Puccini) at the Semperoper.

Led by art historian Dr Jarl Kremeier, who leads walks to see the fine 18th- & 19th-century architecture and outstanding art collections.

Rebuilding, restoration and refurbishment has wrought wonders in this once shattered city.

Excursions to the surrounding area.

Dresden’s greatness as a city of the arts was very much the creation of two electors in the 18th century: Frederick Augustus I (‘the Strong’, 1694–1733) and his son Frederick Augustus II. (1733–1763). Though founded at the beginning of the thirteenth century, for its first five hundred years it was a minor city of little distinction. This despite having been selected as residence in 1485 by the branch of the dukes of Saxony that gained the electorate in 1547.

Augustus the Strong’s pillaging of the state treasury to feed his reckless extravagance was both symbol and to some extent the cause of his dismal record in most areas of statecraft, but his achievements as builder, patron and collector rank him among the most munificent of European rulers. Great architecture, a picture collection of legendary richness, magnificent accumulations of precious metalwork and ceramics (porcelain was manufactured here for the first time in Europe) and a glorious musical life transformed Dresden into one of the most admired and visited cities in Europe and a major destination on the Grand Tour.

If to a somewhat lesser degree, subsequent rulers of Saxony continued the tradition of cultural embellishment (and political ineptitude: they had a tiresome habit of joining the losing side). In the nineteenth century, ‘the Florence on the Elbe’ acquired buildings by Schinkel and Semper, and Weber and Wagner were directors of the opera house. In the twentieth century, Richard Strauss added to its illustrious musical history.

Then in February 1945 a tragically propitious set of circumstances conspired to make the air raid on Dresden the most ‘successful’ of Allied bombing missions. Most of the art collections had been removed to safety but 80% of the old centre was destroyed. Under the Communist regime a few of the chief monuments were grudgingly restored, but since unification the painstaking process of rebuilding and restoration has accelerated.

The great dome of the Protestant Cathedral, the Frauenkirche, again dominates the skyline, and the Green Vault in the royal palace again displays the unequalled magnificence of the treasury. Significantly, rank and file buildings are steadily being recreated; the glory of Dresden lay as much in the lesser buildings as in the major ones. Some striking new architecture is being added, notably the all-glass car factory

in the historic centre and the Foster & Partners railway station.

The Dresdner Musikfestspiele is generally of an appropriate standing, but 2015 is again of high musical standards. The venues, too, are varied – one of Europe’s greatest eighteenth-century churches, a baroque palace and a magnificent nineteenth-century opera house.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 9.30am from London City Airport (Cityjet) to Dresden. Lunch is served upon arrival at the hotel. Introductory walk of the Altstadt to include the Catholic Court Church, a splendid Italianate building, followed by dinner.

Day 2: Dresden. Morning visit of the Residenzschloss to see the wonderful Green Vault and its content, one of the world’s finest princely treasuries, once again displayed in their original venue. Evening concert at the Frauenkirche with the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, Aapo Häkkinen (conductor), Julia Lezhneva (soprano): Handel, Overture in F, HWV 342; Florinda’s recitative ‘E tal mi lascia’ and aria ‘Pugneran con noi le stelle’ from Rodrigo, HWV 5; ‘Salve Regina’, HWV 241; Mozart, Exsultate, Jubilate, K.165.

Day 3: Dresden. Visit the New Masters Gallery in the Albertinum, reopened in 2010 after extensive renovations following flood damage and home to the New Masters Gallery. Afternoon visit to the great domed Frauenkirche, whose restoration is now complete. Some free time before the evening opera at the Semperoper with the Saxon State Orchestra and Saxon State Opera Choir: Tosca (Puccini).

Dresden, Hoftheater, by Paul Hey publ. 1908

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The Iron CurtainThe Cold War & after

7–21 September 2015 (mc 432)15 days • £4,340 Lecturer: Neil Taylor

A unique and exciting journey from the Baltic to the Adriatic.

Criss-crosses between west and east, assessing the impact of the Iron Curtain on both sides.

Allows time to see the many pre-20th-century buildings and museums and art galleries along the route, often with local guides.

Led by Neil Taylor, a historian, writer and leading expert on the former communist world.

The shape of post-war Europe was determined at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences in 1945 – unwittingly, to some extent, because the reality of division between East and West was much more profound, more brutal and more permanent than had been envisaged by the western leaders.

A year later, when the Soviet Union was officially and popularly still the heroic ally in the victorious war against Hitler, Winston Churchill in his Fulton speech stated that an ‘Iron Curtain’ had descended across Europe; rarely has a statesman bestowed on language a phrase which was to have such widespread and potent use.

Quite suddenly, and to most observers quite unexpectedly, the Iron Curtain vanished in the autumn of 1989. The barbed wire came down, minefields were cleared, watchtowers disarmed. But this removal of the physical barrier was merely symptomatic of profound changes in the lands behind the Iron Curtain, where governments and institutions collapsed and the lives of tens of millions of people were fundamentally changed. Soon free elections were held, Germany was united and market economics prevailed, binding ‘East’ Europe – which we have now learnt again to call Central Europe – to the rest of the free world.

This tour is a study of one of the most fascinating and bizarre episodes in recent

Graz, photograph by G.F. Randall, October 1945

Day 4: Dresden. Morning concert at the Semperoper with the Dresden Festival Orchestra, Ivor Bolton (conductor), Isabelle Faust (violin): Mendelssohn, Overture ‘The Hebrides’, Op.26; Beethoven, Violin Concerto in D, Op.61; Schumann, Symphony No.2 in C, Op.61. After lunch visit the Zwinger, a unique Baroque confection, a pleasure palace, arena for festivities and museum for cherished collections. See the Old Masters Gallery, one of the finest collections in Europe, particularly strong on Italian and Netherlandish painting.

Day 5: Meissen, Dresden. Drive downstream to Meissen, ancient capital of Dukes of Saxony and location of the discovery of hard-paste porcelain. The largely 15th-century hilltop castle overlooking the Elbe, the Albrechtsburg, is one of the first to be more residential than defensive, and within the complex is a fine Gothic cathedral. Concert at the Palais im Großen Garten with the Dover Quartet: Mozart, String Quartet in D, K.499 ‘Hoffmeister’; Kaija Saariaho, ‘Terra Memoria’; Grieg, String Quartet in G minor, Op.27.

Day 6: Pillnitz, Dresden. Travel by boat upstream to Pillnitz, a summer palace in Chinese Rococo style, with collections of decorative art and a riverside park. After lunch return to Dresden for some free time. Evening opera at the Semperoper with the Saxon State Orchestra and the Saxon State Opera Choir: Der Freischütz (Carl Maria von Weber).

Day 7. Fly from Dresden to London City Airport, arriving c. 2.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Radisson Blu Gewandhaus Hotel, Dresden (www.radissonblu.com/gewandhaushotel-dresden). A traditional 5-star hotel in a reconstructed Baroque building, tastefully decorated, with a friendly, personal atmosphere, c. 20 minutes walk from the Semperoper. Rooms vary in size.

How strenuous? Vehicular access is restricted in the city centre. Participants are expected to walk to the concert venues and there is a substantial amount of walking and standing around in art galleries and museums. Average distance by coach per day: 9 miles.


The Dresden Festspielecontinued

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European history in the form of a thousand-mile journey through the heart of Europe from Lübeck on the Baltic to Trieste on the Adriatic, more or less along the line of the Iron Curtain. Of the divide itself scarcely a trace remains, but we visit places affected by the division and by its ending, and those in which the history expressed by the Iron Curtain was made. There are side expeditions to places significant in the history and life of this great swathe of Europe.

The principal themes of the tour are history and contemporary affairs, and it is on these that the lecturer’s discourse will concentrate. But the tour does nevertheless provide an extraordinary range of visual pleasures. Passing through seven countries, there is much to see in a variety of towns, cities and villages. Having been on the road to nowhere for most of the post-war period, many places escaped disfiguring over-development, and now energetic restoration is doing wonders to the areas formerly in the East. Moreover, the journey for most of the way is scenically enthralling. The obvious concomitant are long coach journeys, an average of 100 miles per day.

Itinerary

The designation after place names (W) or (E) refers to their location west or east of the Iron Curtain.

Day 1: Lübeck. Fly at c. 1.30pm from London Heathrow to Hamburg (British Airways). Drive to Lübeck (W), the great port on the Baltic, leader of the Hanseatic League and home of Thomas Mann. One of the loveliest cities in Germany, there are mediaeval gateways, Gothic churches and splendid merchants’ houses. First of three nights in Lübeck.

Day 2: Lübeck. A leisurely morning exploration of the city includes St Mary, the largest of brick Gothic churches, and the town hall. Afternoon at leisure to explore the mediaeval town, with the St Annen Museum of mediaeval art and furnishings, and the Buddenbrooks House. Overnight Lübeck.

Day 3: Wismar, Schwerin. Cross the Iron Curtain to see two major historic cities which, despite war damage and Cold War neglect, are now fast catching up with Lübeck : Wismar (E), another Hanseatic city which was Swedish for over a century; and Schwerin (E), the seat of the Bishops and Dukes of Mecklenburg, has a mediaeval cathedral and houses, a 19th-century Schloss and a good art collection. Overnight Lübeck.

Day 4: Marienborn. Drive to Marienborn for a guided tour of the zonal border, here the marshalling yard of East-West traffic; though abandoned to weeds, it retains the

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and parks, and set among pine-clad hills, it exudes a melancholy grandeur. Now in the former Habsburg Empire, there is a new range of historical perspectives to consider, including the impact of the 1938 German occupation of the Sudetenland. Overnight Mariánské Lázne.

Day 9: Cesky Krumlov, Trebon. Drive through South Bohemia, a region of rolling hills, woods and lakes. Since the Middle Ages there had been a German-speaking majority in the area until they were expelled after the War. Visit the Baroque theatre at Cesky Krumlov (E) and continue to Trebon (E), a Bohemian town built around arcaded squares. Overnight Trebon.

Day 10: Vienna, Bratislava. Enter Austria and cross the Danube for one of the briefest visits to Vienna (W) in the history of tourism. Visit Schloss Belvedere, built for Prince Eugene, occupied by Heir Apparent Archduke Franz Ferdinand (assassinated at Sarajevo in 1914), and scene of the 1955 treaty which saw the withdrawal of the Soviets from Austria. Drive to Bratislava (E) in Slovakia, the ‘youngest’ capital city in Europe. Overnight Bratislava.

Day 11: Bratislava, Eszterháza. Bratislava (Pressburg), has a sequence of restored streets and squares but has also retained something of a pre-1989 feel. Enter Hungary and visit the bridge at Andau, site of the escape of many Hungarian refugees through Austria to the West. Drive on to the great country palace of Esterháza (E), built by Prince Nicholas (Haydn’s employer). Overnight Sopron.

Day 12: Sopron, Ják, Köszeg. There is some free time in Sopron (E), which has an attractive historic centre. Spend much of the day driving through Hungary close to the border, scene of the flight of 200,000 refugees after the 1956 uprising, stopping to visit the Romanesque church at Ják (E), and small town of Köszeg. Cross into the Austrian province of Styria from where Cossack troops were forcibly repatriated in 1945. First of two nights in Graz (W).

Day 13: Graz. A day at leisure. An enchanting streetscape with outstanding buildings across undulating terrain makes Graz one of the loveliest towns in Central Europe. Among the sights are the Gothic cathedral, the Baroque Habsburg mausoleum, Renaissance Landhaus and the Museum Joanneum in the tranquil setting of Schloss Eggenberg, just outside town. Overnight Graz.

Day 14: Kobarid. Most of the day is spent in Slovenia (E), until 1918 known as the Duchy of Carniola and until 1991 the most progressive and independent part of Yugoslavia. Visit the town of Kobarid (Caporetto) on the Italian border and

“Involved a judicious selection of the many possible places en route without being over-taxing.”

extensive installations of border control and there is now also a fascinating border museum. Overnight Quedlinburg (E).

Day 5: Quedlinburg, Halberstadt. In the Harz are some lovely and unspoilt small towns. The Romanesque church at Quedlinburg possesses a marvellous treasury, key pieces of which had been purloined by GIs and were returned some years ago. Visit the mediaeval town of Halberstadt (E). Overnight Quedlinburg.

Day 6: Weimar. Remote from warring factions in the big cities and redolent of the great names of German culture (Bach, Goethe, Schiller, Liszt), Weimar (E) gave its name to the constitution which ineffectively governed Germany for 14 years after the First World War. There is free time in the afternoon: select from the ducal palace (with picture collection), the ‘Herder’ church, the Bauhaus Museum and Goethe’s house. Continue south from Thuringia (E) to Bavaria (W). Overnight Coburg.

Day 7: Coburg, Cheb. The ducal house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha supplied an amazing number of consorts to royal houses throughout Europe. In Coburg (W) see the Ehrenburg, home of Prince Albert, and the formidable mediaeval fortress above the city (good art collection). In the afternoon cross into the former Kingdom of Bohemia, now in the Czech Republic, and visit the charming town of Cheb (E). First of two nights in Mariánské Lázne.

Day 8: Mariánské Lázne. Spend a leisurely day in Mariánské Lázne (E), once (as Marienbad) one of the most fashionable spa towns in Europe. With opulent 19th-century hotels, apartments

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The Iron Curtaincontinued

drive towards the Adriatic and cross into Italy (W). Overnight Trieste.

Day 15: Trieste. During six hundred years of Austrian rule, Trieste (W) became the largest seaport in the Mediterranean, and was bitterly disputed between Italy and Yugoslavia in the immediate post-war years. Overlooking city and sea, the citadel has Roman remains, fortress and Byzantine mosaics. Grand streets and squares with Neo-Classical buildings give rise to the epithet ‘Vienna-on-Sea’. Return to London Gatwick from Venice at c. 7.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Radisson Blu Senator Hotel, Lübeck (senatorhotel.de): a modern, 4-star hotel just outside the old city gates. Wyndham Garden Stadtschloss, Quedlinburg (wyndhamgardenquedlinburg.com): a centrally located hotel in a converted 16th-century castle. Romantik Hotel Goldene Traube, Coburg (goldenetraube.com): a comfortable 4-star historic hotel. The Falkensteiner Grand Spa Hotel, Mariánské Lázne (falkensteiner.com): a modern hotel in the centre of town. Hotel Zlatá Hvezda, Trebon (zlatahvezda.cz): a 3-star hotel in an old building in the centre. Radisson Blu Carlton, Bratislava (radissonblu.com): a modern, 4-star hotel on one of the old town squares. Hotel Wollner, Sopron (wollner.hu): an old, established hotel in the centre, some rooms are furnished with antiques. Hotel zum Dom, Graz (domhotel.co.at): a 4-star hotel in a 16th-century building with galleried courtyard (now roofed). Grand Hotel Duchi d’Aosta, Trieste (duchi.eu): an excellent, centrally-located 4-star hotel.

How strenuous? Very long drives and frequent changes of hotel (eight) are a feature of this tour. Days begin at 8.30 or 9.00am; arrival at the hotel twice is after 7.00pm. However, there are three relatively restful days. There is a lot of walking. Average distance by coach per day: 98 miles.


Walking the Rhine ValleyConcerts & hikes through woods, fields & vineyards

19–26 June 2015 (mb 382)8 days • £2,980Lecturer: Richard Wigmore

The Rhine Valley Music Festival with six country walks and six private concerts.

Musicians of the highest calibre in appropriate historic buildings.

A musical theme exploring centuries of Anglo-German relationships.

Led by lecturer, critic and musicologist Richard Wigmore.

This tour continues the highly popular format developed several years ago for The Danube Music Festival and inaugurated in 2014 for The Rhine Valley Music Festival. While most of the participants on these festivals eat and sleep on board a river cruiser, a small group stays in hotels and undertakes walks on most days through some of the most attractive stretches of the countryside in the vicinity of the river and the concert venues. Further details of the concerts can be found on-line or in the dedicated brochure for The Rhine Valley Music Festival.

Itinerary

Day 1: Colmar. Travel by rail from London to Colmar, leaving St Pancras at c. 8.30am and changing in Paris. An exceedingly attractive town with richly ornamented half-timbered and stone buildings lining the streets and canals, Colmar’s position in the foothills of the Vosges makes an ideal base for walking tours. Lecture, dinner and the first of two nights in Colmar (France).

Day 2: Colmar, Munster, Basel. Starting uphill from Munster Haut-Rhin, this is a moderate-strenuous circular walk on country lanes, farm tracks and woodland paths, which passes through picturesque villages and farms (5½ miles, 2½ hours). Free time in Colmar. Enlarged and comprehensively refurbished, the Musée d’Unterlinden is due to re-open in April; chief among the 15th- and 16th-century works of art is Grünewald’s searing Isenheim altarpiece. Drive to Basel (Switzerland) to attend the concert. The Queen’s Revels, Joanne Lunn (soprano): songs, dances and consort pieces associated with Elizabeth I and her courtiers. Overnight Colmar.

Day 3: Strasbourg. A walk along part of the Alsace wine route begins in Ribeauville. The path is mostly level with a short descent into Bergheim

Speyer, the cathedral, wood engraving c. 1880

Neil TaylorA leading expert on the former communist world. He read Chinese at Cambridge and has worked in tourism in China, the USSR and many Third World countries. His

publications include The Bradt Guide: Estonia, The Bradt Guide: Tallinn, The Bradt Guide: Baltic Cities and A Footprints Guide to Berlin.


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The Rhine Valley Music Festival20–27 June 2015 (mb 383)Contact us for full details or visit www.martinrandall.com

The tenth Rhine Valley Music Festival includes eight private concerts, all taking place in historic palaces, churches, concert halls and country houses along the Rhine Valley.

Musicians of the highest calibre, from Switzerland, Germany, France and England: Andreas Scholl and Concerto di Viole, James Gilchrist and Anna Tilbrook, The Auryn Quartet, Stile Antico, Le Concert Spirituel, The Queen’s Revels and Joanne Lunn, Vocalensemble Rastatt, and Amphion Wind Octet.

Bacharach, chromolithograph c. 1850 by François Stroobant (1819–1916)

at the end (3½ miles, 1 hour). Strasbourg’s mighty cathedral celebrates a millennium since the foundations were first laid; it is a short walk from here to the afternoon’s concert. The Auryn Quartet: Haydn Op.54 No.1, Ravel’s quartet in F, Mendelssohn Op.44 No.1. Drive north into Germany for the first of two nights in Speyer.

Day 4: Speyer, Schwetzingen. Walk from the hotel to the village of Mechtersheim along a stretch of the pilgrimage route to Santiago. This is on level terrain along country lanes and paths (5½ miles, 2 hours.) Some free time in Speyer, an attractive town with the largest Romanesque cathedral in Germany. The palace at Schwetzingen has very fine and extensive historic gardens and one of the most beautiful theatres to survive from the 18th century, location of the concert. Le Concert Spirituel, Hervé Niquet (director): Exultant Bach & Vivaldi. Overnight Speyer.

Day 5: Vollrads, Bad Godesberg. There is a lot of driving today, so there is no music but a quintessential Rhineland walk. Setting off from the village of Rebhang, it begins in woodland and opens out into vineyards overlooking the Rhine on broad, south-facing slopes (5 miles, c. 2 hours, moderately strenuous). Lunch at the Schloss Vollrads winery before driving to Bad Godesberg near Bonn. Overnight here.

Day 6: Königswinter, Bad Godesberg, Cologne. The morning walk begins directly alongside the Rhine before ascending the hills. There are some steep sections but always on good paths in woodland or on minor roads and country tracks (6 miles, c. 2½ hours). Return to the hotel in time to refresh before lunch and the afternoon performance at Petersberg. James Gilchrist (tenor), Anna Tilbrook (piano): Songs by George Butterworth, Ivor Gurney and John Ireland, and Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin. Drive to Cologne for the late evening concert with Stile Antico: music for compline by the great English Tudor composers – Sheppard, Byrd, Tallis, White, Tye and Taverner. First of two nights in Cologne.

Day 7: Cologne. One of the largest cities in mediaeval Europe, Cologne has an extraordinary concentration of large Romanesque churches. A 3-hour walking tour with a specialist local guide visits five of them. There is also free time for the magnificent Gothic cathedral. There are excellent art galleries and museums as an independent alternative to the morning walk. The final concert in in the Romanesque church of Sankt Andreas: Andreas Scholl (counter-tenor) and Concerto di Viole: penitential and celebratory pieces by Heinrich Schütz, Dietrich Buxtehude, and others with instrumental interludes by Legrenzi and Rosenmüller. Overnight Cologne.

Day 8: Cologne. Board the 11.45am train for Brussels. The Eurostar arrives at London St Pancras at c. 4.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £2,980 (deposit £300). Single supplement £260. Price without trains £2,720.

Accommodation. Maison des Têtes, Colmar (la-maison-des-tetes.com): a charming, independent hotel located in the historic centre of Colmar. Rooms are traditional in style. Hotel Domhof,

Speyer (domhof.de): small and traditional, in an old building around a courtyard and close to the cathedral . Rhein Dreesen Hotel, Bad Godesberg (ringhotels.com/hotels/rheinhotel-dreesen): set a few metres’ back from the edge of the Rhine and a short train ride from the centre of Bonn, this hotel has spacious, well-appointed rooms and excellent service. What it may lack in charm and character it makes up for in location. Mondial am Dom, Cologne (accorhotels.com): a modern hotel located a very short walk from the Cathedral and main railway station. Rooms are comfortable and well-equipped.

How strenuous? This is a walking tour: it is essential for participants to be in good physical condition and to be used to walking in countryside with hills. No walk is more than 6 miles or 3 hours. There is not always the opportunity to return to the hotel to freshen up before every concert or dinner. Average distance by coach per day: 60 miles.


Combine this tour with Mitteldeutschland, 26 June–4 July (page 92).

All of the concerts are private, admission being exclusive to the 140 people who take a package that also includes accommodation, flights, meals, talks, coach transfers and much else besides.

Most of the audience stays aboard a comfortable river cruiser for the duration of the festival, travelling from Basel to Amsterdam. A small number stays in hotels and mixes attendance at the concerts with country walks along selected stretches of the Rhine Valley and its hinterland.

The spoken word plays an important role in the festival. There will be talks on the music by Stephen Johnson, a regular speaker on BBC radio, and on the history of the region by Richard Evans, Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge.

Braubach and Marksburg, watercolour by E. Harrison Compton publ. 1912

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Handel in HalleThe festival in the composer’s birthplace

3–9 June 2015 (mb 356)7 days • £2,510(including tickets to 5 performances) Lecturer: Dr David Vickers

Five performances, including three operas: Silla, Imeneo (concert version) and Alessandro.

Excursions to Leipzig, Merseburg, Wörlitz and Naumburg with its astounding thirteenth-century sculpture.

Britain’s greatest composer was not, of course, born in Britain but in Saxony, in the city of Halle an der Saale. Its prosperity founded on salt and trade, the city reached its apogee in the sixteenth century. But the seeds of its international reputation were sown in the following century with the founding of the university and the birth of George Frideric Handel (or Georg Friedrich Händel), the son of a barber-surgeon, in 1685.

While hearing music in the composer’s home town has a special frisson, a visit to the Handel Festival in Halle is justified by infinitely more than historical association. Now in its sixtieth season, it is in the forefront of Handelian endeavour, and no longer need defer to the slightly more senior and rival festival at Göttingen, which for much of the Halle festival’s history was across the border in West Germany.

The range of performers makes the festival truly international and their quality puts the festival on a par with some of the best in Europe. Equally striking is the rapidity with which the resident orchestra, from the Halle Opera House,

has embraced period performing styles, switching to authentic instruments for the festival.

As with all our music tours, there will be excursions to places of beauty or architectural interest in the vicinity, while allowing plenty of free time in Halle itself. The city survived the war without much damage, and the effects of pollution and neglect during the years of communism have been largely reversed.

Itinerary

Day 1: Halle. Fly at c. 10.50am from London Heathrow Airport to Berlin Tegel (British Airways). Drive to Halle (c. 3 hours), with a stop en route. The first of several lectures on the music is followed by dinner.

Day 2: Halle. An introductory walk in Halle includes the 16th-century Marktkirche, an outstanding example of the very last phase of Gothic with coevil paintings and furnishings, and the Gothic and Baroque cathedral. Visit the excellent Handel Museum in the historic centre, once believed to be his birthplace but well furnished with Handeliana and furniture of the time. Gala concert at the Handelfestspielhaus with Philippe Jaroussky, Nathalie Stutzmann (conductor) and Orfeo 55: programme to be confirmed.

Day 3: Leipzig, Halle. Leipzig, the largest free city in Saxony and always a major centre of trade and industry, especially publishing. A guided walking tour includes the Markt, the large square with the arcaded town hall on one side, the maze of alleys and courtyards behind the streetfronts and the Thomaskirche, the mediaeval church where J. S. Bach was director of music for 26 years. Some free time, opportunity to visit the Bach Museum or the Museum of Fine Arts in its new premises, before returning to Halle mid afternoon. Evening opera at the Opernhaus Halle: Silla. Enrico Onofri (conductor), Stephen Lawless (director) and the Handel Festival Orchestra.

Day 4: Merseburg, Halle. Morning excursion to Merseburg, a small town with a citadel crowned with cathedral, episcopal palace and

castle. Return to Halle for free time before an afternoon concert at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg: Sigrid T’hooft (director), Julia Kirchner (soprano), Anne Schneider, Barockensemble Scenitas: Baroque staging of the Italian cantata ‘Aminta e Fillide’.

Day 5: Naumburg, Halle. Drive out to Naumburg, a well preserved town with a major Romanesque and Early Gothic cathedral which contains some of the finest of mediaeval sculptures including astounding pseudo-portraits of the founders . Return to Halle for a little free time. Afternoon performance at the Handelfestspielhaus: Imeneo (revival of the Dublin 1742 serenata version). Fabio Biondi (conductor), Magnus Staveland, Ann Hallenberg, Monica Piccinini, Luca Tittolo, Cristiana Arcari and Europa Galante.

Day 6: Halle, Bad Lauchstädt. A free morning, opportunity to visit the Moritzburg, a once formidable but partly ruined 15th-century castle; a 19th-cent. range houses an excellent art gallery. In the afternoon drive the few miles to Bad Lauchstädt, a fashionable resort in the early 19th century with a delightful theatre built for the annual visit by Goethe and his troupe of actors from Weimar. Evening opera at the Goethe-Theater Bad Lauchstädt: Alessandro. George Petrou (conductor), Max Emanuel Cencic, Yeree Suh, Blandine Staskiewicz, Xavier Sabata, Juan Sancho, Vasily Khoroshev, Armonia Ateneac.

Day 7: Wörlitz. Visit the park of Schloss Wörlitz, one of the first and most successful of English-style landscaped gardens on the Continent, a delightful ensemble with artfully planned lake, Classical pavilions and Romantic follies. Fly from Berlin Tegel to Heathrow, arriving c. 5.30pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Rotes Ross, Halle (dormero-hotel-rotes-ross.de): a 4-star hotel in the town centre, comfortable and furnished in a classic style.

Music tickets: These will not be confirmed until January 2015.

How strenuous? The tour involves walking in the town centres where vehicular access is restricted and should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Average distance by coach per day: 67 miles.


Combine this tour with Art in Le Marche, 1–8 June (page 143).

G. F. Handel, engraving 1800s

Left: sculpture in Naumburg, engraving c. 183090

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Mediaeval SaxonyCarolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque

15–23 June 2015 (mb 362)9 days • £2,350Lecturer: Dr Alexandra Gajewski

One of the most fascinating areas of early mediaeval art and architecture.

Straddling the former border between East and West Germany and still relatively unfrequented.

Some delightful landscape and attractive towns.

Led by Alexandra Gajewski, specialist in mediaeval architecture.

In amassing territory which stretched from the Atlantic to Bohemia and from the Baltic to central Italy, Charlemagne believed that he was recreating the ancient Roman Empire. Vivid expression was given to this belief by the attempts to emulate Roman forms by the builders and artists who worked on his innumerable projects of construction and embellishment. Few of these survive, but some of the most enlightening are to be seen in Saxony.

The election of Henry of Saxony in 919 to the royal throne of Germany brought to an end a century of disunity and baronial misrule and ushered in a period during which the Saxon kings – two Henrys and three Ottos – achieved a partial reconstitution of Charlemagne’s empire and brought about the emergence of a nation state, arguably the first in Europe.

‘Old’ Saxony, which comprised the Harz mountains and the undulating plains to the north, became the most powerful of the German duchies as well as forming the kernel of the German nation. Subsequently the region gradually lost its pivotal role in national and international affairs; even the name slid across the map to denominate another part of Germany.

A consequence of the region’s central importance in the early Middle Ages is that Old Saxony has no peers in northern Europe for the wealth of Ottonian and early Romanesque architecture, sculpture, precious metalwork and other arts. A consequence of subsequent decline is that much of this heritage is situated in some amazingly lovely and unspoilt little towns amidst a largely rural landscape of wooded hills and rolling farmland. Split after the war between West and East, the region is still far from recovering the popularity it had with travellers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Itinerary

Day 1: London to Hanover. Fly at c. 5.30pm from London Heathrow to Hanover (British Airways). There will be a snack in your hotel room on arrival. Overnight in Paderborn.

Day 2: Paderborn, Corvey. At Paderborn are the fascinating archaeological remains of Charlemagne’s palace and a modern reconstruction of the Ottonian replacement. The 13th-century cathedral has a western tower and spire similar to its pre-Romanesque predecessor. Also see the treasury in the Diocesan Museum. The westwork of the Abbey at Corvey is among the most important of surviving Carolingian

buildings. Drive to Hildesheim for the first of two nights.

Day 3: Hildesheim. Hildesheim is of enormous importance in the history of Romanesque art and architecture. The cathedral has some of the earliest and best bronze sculpture of that era and the treasury is one of the finest in Germany; both reopened in August 2014 after extensive renovations. A pinnacle of Ottonian achievement embodying many influential innovations, the six-towered church of St Michael was begun in 1010. Overnight Hildesheim.

Day 4: Hildesheim, Goslar. Goslar is a lovely little town with outstanding Ottonian art and architecture, of which the palace is a rare secular survival. Works of art including a bronze altar are in the museum. First of five nights in Quedlinburg.

Day 5: Quedlinburg, Gernrode. Quedlinburg is not only a wonderfully preserved mediaeval town but has the authentic feel of a place not spruced up for the tourist trade. The castle hill is crowned by the collegiate church of St Servatius, begun 1070, and contains another of Germany’s finest treasuries. The Wipertikirche has a 10th-century crypt. St Cyriakus at Gernrode is a church of exceptional beauty; begun 961, it is the oldest large-scale Ottonian building surviving. Overnight Quedlinburg.

Day 6: Halberstadt. Halberstadt was a major city in the Middle Ages. The Romanesque Church of Our Lady contains life-size reliefs of apostles. The cathedral is the largest French-style Gothic church in Germany after Cologne, and has a very rich treasury, being particularly good for mediaeval textiles. The rest of the afternoon is free in Quedlinburg.

Day 7: Magdeburg. Magdeburg was the favoured residence of Otto the Great. The cathedral, standing on a bluff above the River Elbe, is the first Gothic building in Germany and a veritable museum of mediaeval sculpture. Overnight Quedlinburg.

Day 8: Königslutter. Königslutter am Elm has a very fine church and cloister from the abbey founded in 1135 and built by Lombard masons; the sculpture is superb. Visit the Monastery and church of St Pankratius in Hamersleben, a hidden gem of Romanesque architecture. Overnight Quedlinburg.

Day 9: Braunschweig. Braunschweig (Brunswick) was residence of Henry the Lion, one of the most powerful princes in 12th-century Europe. The Romanesque cathedral has extensive frescoes of c. 1220, a rare survival. Opposite stands Henry’s castle; now a museum, it displays the Lion Monument, the first free-standing monumental bronze sculpture since Roman times. Fly from Hanover and arrive at Heathrow at c. 9.30pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel zur Mühle, Paderborn (hotelzurmuehle.de): a modern 3-star hotel in the city centre. Van der Valk Hotel, Hildesheim (hildesheim.vandervalk.de): a modern 4-star hotel with a historical facade looking onto the market square. Romantik Hotel am Brühl, Quedlinburg (hotelambruehl.de): a restored heritage building near the historical heart, comfortably furnished.

How strenuous? This tour involves a lot of walking in the town centres where vehicular access is restricted, and should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 89 miles.


Halberstadt, Town Hall, watercolour by E.T. Compton, publ. 1912

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MitteldeutschlandWeimar and the towns of Thuringia & Sachsen-Anhalt

26 June–4 July 2015 (mb 378)9 days • £2,380Lecturer: Jeffrey Miller

A trawl through little-known and largely unspoilt towns at the heart of Germany.

Great mediaeval churches, Baroque and Neo-Classical palaces, enchanting streetscape, fine art collections, beautiful countryside.

The tour can be combined with The Johann Sebastian Bach Journey, 5–11 July (page 93).

Sachsen-Anhalt and Thuringia, the Länder in the middle of Germany, are predominantly rural, with rolling hills, deciduous woodland, compact red-roofed villages and ancient small-scale cities. Only patchily affected by the ravages of war and industrialisation, much of the historic architecture remained intact throughout the twentieth century. Forty years in the chill embrace of the East German state further impeded ‘progress’. The result is that at the heart of Europe’s richest and most modern nation is a region which feels strangely provincial and archaic.

Thuringia was one of the five major states of early mediaeval Germany, but by the end of the Middle Ages it had fragmented into numerous little statelets and free cities. The history of Sachsen-Anhalt was similar: during the tenth century ‘Old’ Saxony was the most powerful of the German duchies and formed the kernel of the German nation, but loss of pre-eminence was followed by subdivision. From the sixteenth century both Länder consisted of innumerable principalities and independent cities, and were political and economic backwaters – though in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Bach family dominated music making here.

And one small dukedom in particular made a quite exceptional contribution to art and thought. Weimar played host to J.S. Bach, Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Liszt, Nietzsche, Richard Strauss, Walter Gropius and many other great names.

For those who knew East Germany before 1991, the subsequent changes appear little short of miraculous – major upgrading of the infrastructure, transformation of the built environment through cleaning, painting and wholesale restoration, recrudescence of commercial and social life. But those who come to the territory for the first time might be less

enamoured. It is as if the region hasn’t fully awoken from a half-century sleep, a corrosive slumber which allowed much of the historic fabric of the towns and villages to slide into desuetude and dereliction.

Yet in an odd sort of way the dilapidation contributes to a powerful sense of the past, and an air of authenticity which can be lost in places more thoroughly spruced up emanates from this fascinating, constantly surprising, frequently beautiful and richly-endowed region.

Itinerary

Day 1: London to Hannover. Fly at c. 5.30pm from London Heathrow to Hannover (British Airways). Drive to Quedlinburg. First of three nights in Quedlinburg.

Day 2: Quedlinburg, Gernrode. Quedlinburg is a wonderfully preserved mediaeval town. The castle hill is crowned by the church of St Servatius, begun 1070, and contains one of Germany’s finest treasuries. See also the Gothic church of St Benedict in the market square and the Wipertikirche with its 10th-cent. crypt. At nearby Gernrode is one of the oldest churches in Germany, and one of the most beautiful, St Cyriakus, begun ad 961. Overnight Quedlinburg.

Day 3: Halberstadt, Blankenburg. Halberstadt was a major city in the Middle Ages, and the cathedral is the largest French-style Gothic church in Germany after Cologne; the treasury is exceptional. Blankenburg is an idyllic little spa town in the foothills of the Harz mountains with two Baroque palaces, the creation of a younger son of the Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel dynasty who made Blankenburg his capital. Overnight Quedlinburg.

Day 4: Mühlhausen. Drive in the morning across the Harz mountains to Thuringia, passing forested vistas, half-timbered hamlets and patches of pasturage. Mühlhausen is astonishing, one of the most delightful and evocative towns in northern Europe, preserving its complete mediaeval wall, an abundance of half-timbered buildings and six Gothic churches. Walk along a section of the wall, visit the soaring, five-aisled church of St Mary, and St Blasius, the church where Bach was organist 1707–08. Overnight Mühlhausen.

Day 5: Gotha, Arnstadt. A Residenzstadt within the principality of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Gotha is dominated by Schloss Friedenstein, which has fine interiors, a picture collection and a Baroque theatre. Walk down a processional way to the Hauptmarkt with its Renaissance town hall. Arnstadt, the oldest town in eastern Germany, has fine streetscape on a sloping site with the church where Bach was organist 1703–7; the Early Gothic Church of Our Lady and a palace which illustrates social hierarchy from the court’s perspective. First of four nights in Weimar.

Day 6: Weimar. Two centuries of enlightened patronage by members of the ducal family enabled the little city-state of Weimar to be home to many great writers, philosophers, composers and artists. Today, visit the Stadtkirche, the main

Quedlinburg Schloss, after a draw

ing 1920.

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church with an altarpiece by Cranach, Goethe’s house, a beautifully preserved sequence of interiors and garden, the ducal Schloss, with Neo-Classical interiors and a fine art museum, and an English-style landscaped park with Goethe’s summer house. Overnight Weimar.

Day 7: Erfurt. Capital of Thuringia, Erfurt well preserves its pre-20th-century appearance with a variety of streetscape and architecture from mediaeval to Jugendstil. Outstanding are the Krämerbrücke, a 14th-century bridge piled with houses and shops, and the cathedral, framing Germany’s largest set of mediaeval stained glass. See also the Severikirche, the friary of St Augustine where Luther was a monk, the Predigerkirche which retains its late mediaeval appearance intact, and the 17th-cent. hilltop citadel. Overnight Weimar.

Day 8: Weimar. A walk includes Haus am Horn and Van de Velde’s School of Arts and Crafts from which the Bauhaus emerged. Free afternoon in this beautiful little city. Among the many other museums to choose from are the Bauhaus Museum, the 18th-century Wittumspalais and the Schiller House . An excursion to Buchenwald concentration camp can be arranged. Overnight Weimar.

Day 9: Naumburg. Architecturally, Naumburg Cathedral is an outstanding embodiment of the transition from Romanesque to Gothic, but its great importance lies in its 13th-century sculpture, including statues of the founders, among the most powerful and realistic of the Middle Ages. Fly from Berlin, arriving London Heathrow at c. 8.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Romantik Hotel am Brühl, Quedlinburg (hotelambruehl.de): a restored heritage building near the historical heart, comfortably furnished. Brauhaus ‘Zum Löwen’, Mühlhausen (brauhaus-zum-loewen.de): a converted brewery in the centre of the town; characterfully rustic dining area and bar, simple but spacious rooms. Dorint Am Goethepark, Weimar (hotel-weimar.dorint.com): a modern hotel, situated by the park and on the edge of the town centre.

How strenuous? This tour is fairly long and there is quite a lot of walking in the town centres where vehicular access is restricted. It should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Average distance by coach per day: 56 miles. There are long transfers between each hotel and the airports, otherwise coach travel is limited to short excursions.


The Johann Sebastian Bach Journey5–11 July 2015 (mb 400)Contact us for the full details or visit www.martinrandall.com

A pilgrimage to the places where Johann Sebastian Bach lived and worked.

Twelve private concerts in historic venues with world-class artists and ensembles: Steven Isserlis, Rachel Podger, Gabrieli Consort & Players, Barocksolisten München, Cantus Cölln, Vox Luminis and organist Martina Pohl.

Talks on the music by Sir Nicholas Kenyon, director of the Barbican Centre, formerly head of music at BBC Radio 3 and director of the BBC Proms, and biographer of Bach.

Journeying to the places where Johann Sebastian Bach lived and worked is an experience as near to pilgrimage as is offered by the history of music. And hearing his music in buildings which he frequented, or even where it was first performed, must rank among the highest delights available to music lovers. This unique festival provides the opportunity.

Twelve concerts, ranging from a solo violin partita to the St Matthew Passion, in several different venues, present a comprehensive range of Bach’s output. For this, the sixth Johann Sebastian Bach Journey, we have assembled artists and ensembles who are world leaders in performance of the repertoire.

The distances travelled are quite small, but the event is emphatically a journey. It starts, as Bach did, in the little towns and cities of the principality of Thuringia and finishes, again like Bach, in the free city of Leipzig. The audience stays in hotels in three places, Mühlhausen, Weimar and Leipzig, and the concerts take place here and in four other towns.

Admission to the concerts is exclusive to those who take a complete package which includes hotels, flights from the UK, coach travel, most dinners and lectures.

Dresden & Meissen1–5 July 2015 (mb 399)5 days • £1,620Lecturer: Dr Jarl Kremeier

Contact us for the full details or visit www.martinrandall.com

This tour is exclusive to participants on The Johann Sebastian Bach Journey.

Once one of the most admired cities in Europe, rebuilding and restoration in Dresden has reached its peak.

Visit Meissen with its impressive Gothic cathedral and world-famous porcelain factory.

The tour is led by Dr Jarl Kremeier, an art historian resident in Germany.

“Extremely interesting – would not have missed it for the world. I had no idea of the riches and cultural significance of Dresden.” Meissen, watercolour by E. T. Compton publ. 1912

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Organs of Bach’s TimeSilbermann & Baroque organs in Saxony & Thuringia

makers was an important element in refining the skills of both sides.

The most famous of these organ builders was Gottfried Silbermann. He was born the son of a carpenter in the mountainous backwoods of Saxony in 1683, gained an almost monopolistic grip on keyboard manufacturing in the region and died a rich man in 1753. Nearly thirty of his fifty Saxon organs survive, some very nearly in original condition. They are famous – and always were – for their distinctive sounds, from the silver flutes to the strong and characterful 16’ Posaune in the pedal.

Other organ builders whose work we see and hear on this tour include Zacharias Hildebrandt (1688–1757), an apprentice and later a rival of Silbermann, and Heinrich Gottfried Trost (c.1680–1759). All had some sort of collaborative or critical relationship with J. S. Bach.

This tour selects some of the finest instruments in a region exceptionally richly endowed with historic organs. Many are located in village churches far from cathedral or court, leading the visitor through terrain which is rural and remote. None on this itinerary are in large cities, and most of the towns visited have wonderfully picturesque historic centres. Some organs have hardly been altered since they were built.

The tour is accompanied by organist James Johnstone, who performs regularly in Europe and America and who has won several prizes for his recordings.

The eight included recitals are exclusive to this group and twenty to thirty minutes long, performed by James Johnstone or the local organist.

Itinerary

Day 1: London to Merseburg. Fly at c. 10.45am from London Heathrow to Berlin (British Airways) and continue by coach (c. 2 hours) to Merseburg, a cathedral town on the river Saale; first of two nights here.

Day 2: Pomßen, Naumburg. The village of Pomßen has a church with an organ of the 1660s, a delightful instrument which is more Renaissance than Baroque, set in a painted wood ensemble of gallery, chest and panelled ceiling. The church of St Wenceslas in Naumburg has a major Hildebrandt organ of 1748. There is also time for the cathedral with its exceptional 13th-century sculpture. Overnight Merseburg.

Day 3: Rötha, Störmthal, Altenburg. Visit two small towns outside Leipzig with outstanding organs. In the fine mediaeval church of St George in Rötha there is a Silbermann organ tested in 1721 by Johann Kuhnau, Bach’s predecessor in Leipzig. Störmthal has an organ by Hildebrandt which was inspected and approved by Bach in 1723 and is still in its original condition. The court city of Altenburg is one of the rarely visited jewels of the former DDR, with a hilltop ducal residence featuring mediaeval fortifications, Baroque apartments and a quite remarkable collection of Italian Renaissance paintings. The chapel has a fine organ by Trost of 1739. Overnight Freiberg.

Day 4: Freiberg, Frauenstein, Helbigsdorf. Freiberg cathedral is one of the most beautiful of Late Gothic buildings in Germany and has retained an exceptional panoply of furnishings. The organ by Silbermann (1711–1714) is one of the world’s finest instruments; three manuals, 44 stops, largely unaltered. There also is another Silbermann masterpiece (1718–19), brought here from another church. In the afternoon drive out to Frauenstein, where Silbermann spent his childhood, and visit the museum dedicated to him. Overnight Freiberg.

Day 5: Freiberg to London. Drive to Berlin and fly to London Heathrow, arriving c. 3.30pm.

Recitals are subject to confirmation from the relevant churches. Itinerary changes are possible.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Radisson Blu, Merseburg (merseburg-radissonblu.com): in the historic centre of the town, within walking distance of the cathedral, this modern 4-star hotel is housed in the former Zech’sche Palace. Hotel Obermarkt, Freiberg (hotel-am-obermarkt.de): a well-situated hotel with a colourful history as a prison, cigar factory and school. All rooms were renovated in 2008 and are fairly basic, but functional.

How strenuous? A lot of coach travel; some long journeys. Average coach travel per day: 102 miles.

Group size: maximum 32 participants.

1–5 July 2015 (mb 398)5 days • £1,720Lecturers: James Johnstone & Dr Matthew Woodworth

Recitals on the finest Baroque organs to survive, some of them instruments which Bach and Handel knew.

Accompanied by organist James Johnstone, a Bach specialist, who gives recitals and demonstrations in association with the local organists, and by Dr Matthew Woodworth, art historian.

The organs are located in towns and villages off the beaten track.

For a maximum of 32 participants, the format of this tour is a hybrid between our own-brand music festivals and our small group tours.

The tour can be combined with The Johann Sebastian Bach Journey.

With clocks, organs were the most complex of mechanical instruments developed before the Industrial Revolution. As such they were a source of awe and admiration far beyond musical cognoscenti and their makers often enjoyed a level of fame greater than the musicians who played them.

The greatest of the composers for the organ, Johann Sebastian Bach, had the good fortune to live at a time and in a place where organ-building reached a peak of excellence which perhaps has never been surpassed. This was not entirely coincidence: interaction between players and

Copper engraving c. 1730

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The Lukas CranachsArt, religion, courts & towns in the heart of Germany

11–15 May 2015 (mb 317)5 days • £1,740Lecturer: to be confirmed

Celebrates the art of the Cranachs, father and son, in the attractive but little-visited towns where they lived and worked.

Several special exhibitions mark the quincentenary of the birth of Lukas Cranach the younger (1515).

As well as art history, a study of Renaissance and Reformation, ducal courts and urban citizens, the development of modern Germany.

Lukas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553) was a painter, printer (he published Luther’s Bible), general businessman, city counsellor (repeatedly mayor of Wittenberg) and one of the town’s highest tax payers. He was also a friend and intimate of three Saxon Electors and of Martin Luther, the leading figure of the Reformation. But mainly he was a painter, and ran one of the biggest workshops in sixteenth century Europe, providing memorable imagery of the Lutheran Reformation. His son Lukas (1515–1586) continued the business.

Plying their craft on the cusp between the Middle Ages and the modern world, they lived through turbulent times. There are some indications of this in their paintings and woodcuts, but many of their works exude a strange stillness and depict a world of mannered beauty and exquisitely crafted realism. The quincentenary of the birth of the younger Cranach falls in 2015 and will be marked by several exhibitions examining the life and times as well as the art of the family.

These are scattered through little towns and cities in Thuringia and Franconia, the heart of Germany, where the Ernestine branch of the House of Saxony ruled as Dukes and Electors. The territory was divided by the Iron Curtain, as is still evident, but most of the towns are very attractive, well stocked with historic architecture and picturesque streetscape. Landscape in parts is equally lovely.

Ostensibly a study of two painters, the tour is more than that, provoking thoughts about religion and reform, courts and citizens, and the development of Germany through the centuries.

Itinerary

Day 1: London to Weimar. Fly at c. 5.40pm from London Gatwick Airport to Erfurt (Germania Airlines) and drive (30 mins) to Weimar. There is an introductory lecture before dinner. First of two nights in Weimar.

Day 2: Wittenberg, Dessau. In the sixteenth century Wittenberg was the principal seat of the Electors of Saxony, location of Germany’s largest university and, as home to Luther and Melanchton, one of the leading centres of the Reformation. The so-called Reformation altar by both Cranachs is in the Church of St Mary. There are temporary exhibitions in the artists’ house and workshop and in the monastery where

Luther lived for 38 years; here also is Cranach’s Ten Commandments altarpiece. In St John’s at Dessau there are two major paintings by the son, including The Last Supper, and one by the father. Overnight Weimar.

Day 3: Weimar, Neustadt an der Orla. The morning is spent in Weimar looking at paintings by both Cranachs in the Church of SS Peter & Paul, in the museum in the Schloss, which has a good collection, and in a special exhibition which is split between the Schloss and the Schiller Museum. In the afternoon drive to Neustadt an der Orla, an attractive small town where in the Church of St John there is the only Cranach altarpiece unaltered and in its original position. Continue into the lovely landscape of Franconia to Coburg where the next two nights are spent.

Day 4: Coburg, Kronach. The magnificent castle on the heights above Coburg has large and varied collections including several paintings by Cranach and contemporaries. Walk down through a park to the lovely town centre for a little free time before the afternoon excursion. One of the largest fortresses in Europe, Rosenberg rises above the small town of Kronach and houses an outstation of the Bavarian National Museum devoted to German art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The several Cranachs here will be augmented by an exhibition. Overnight Coburg.

Day 5: Gotha. The town of Gotha is dominated by the Schloss Friedenstein, the first of the great early Baroque residences in Germany. Cranachs from the princely collection are displayed in the adjacent art gallery which will house an exhibition, Cranach in the Service of Court and Reformation. Travel from here by rail to Frankfurt Airport and then to London Heathrow

(Lufthansa), arriving at c. 6.30pm. Note that the tour departs from London Gatwick and returns to London Heathrow.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Dorint Am Goethepark, Weimar (hotel-weimar.dorint.com): a modern hotel, situated by the park on the edge of the town centre. Romantik Hotel Goldene Traube, Coburg (goldenetraube.com): a comfortable 4-star historic hotel, conveniently located.

How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of walking in the town centres where vehicular access is restricted, and should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. You will need to be able carry your own luggage on and off the train from Gotha to Frankfurt. The duration of the train journey is approximately 2 hours 20 minutes. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 101 miles.


Combine this tour with Central Macedonia, 17–24 May (page 101) or Palaces of Piedmont, 19–24 May (page 114).

Coburg, watercolour by E.T. Compton, publ. 1912

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King Ludwig II & the Wittelsbach palaces of Bavaria

“The itinerary was excellent. We went to the sites in the right order for the development of Ludwig’s life and work.”

Linderhof, wood engraving from The Magazine of Art 1887

7–12 July 2015 (mb 393)6 days • £2,360Lecturer: Tom Abbott

Explore eight royal palaces and castles set against the breathtaking backdrop of Germany’s most beautiful state.

Learn about the lives, loves and legacies of King Ludwig II and the House of Wittelsbach, rulers of Bavaria for over 700 years.

Art and architecture from the Renaissance through to Late Romanticism, much of it opulent and theatrical.

Includes a performance of Wagner’s Tristan & Isolde at the Bavarian State Opera.

Led by Tom Abbott, specialist in architectural history from the Baroque to the 20th century with a wide knowledge of the performing arts.

Germany’s large and beautiful south-eastern state of Bavaria is an established destination for Martin Randall Travel, with a number of tours over the years dedicated to a variety of themes. This tour has a different focus, that of the legendary ‘Swan

King’ Ludwig II and the House of Wittelsbach from which he hailed, and his extraordinary architectural and cultural legacy.

Architecturally and artistically, the tour encompasses outstanding examples of Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neo-Classical and Romantic styles as well as Ludwig’s fairytale follies. Historically it examines the eccentric world of one of Europe’s most controversial monarchs and the story of what, until German unification, counted as one of the continent’s most important little states.

It is true that Ludwig II’s predilection for aesthetic absorption over political and legal leadership gained him fierce opposition and criticism, but this handsome young king and his elaborate castles are responsible for a considerable proportion of Bavaria’s appeal today. Ironically, the dream world into which the sovereign retreated in order to escape the responsibilities of state now benefits Ludwig’s former kingdom in a way it never did when he inhabited it.

Was he, to quote one of his more defamatory labels, insane? Or simply weak, of solitary disposition, and therefore tragically unsuited to the role imposed upon him at a time of Bavaria’s considerable political fragility and conflict with

Prussia, Austria and France? Once deposed in 1886, what was the cause of his untimely death? Was it suicide, or did it take place at the hand of murderous detractors? Or was it mere accident? Was he an impotent and irresponsible sybarite or a luminous benefactor of the arts?

Itinerary

Day 1. Schleissheim, Munich. Fly at c. 9.00am from London Heathrow to Munich (Lufthansa). Between airport and city, the palace and garden at Schleissheim form a rare ensemble of Baroque taste from an early 17th-century retreat, through the 1684 Lustheim pavilion at the far end of a canal of absolutist straightness, to the magnificent Neues Schloss, begun 1701 but whose progress continued haltingly into the Rococo period. There is a gallery of Baroque art, sculpted stucco of exceptional quality in the state apartments, Hofgarten (Court Garden) and a collection of Meissen porcelain in Schloss Lustheim. First of two nights in Munich.

Day 2. Munich. The Residenz in the centre of the city was the principal Wittelsbach palace and seat of government; a magnificent sprawl of buildings, courtyards, state apartments and museums of every period from Renaissance to the end of the 19th century. There are fine works of art and sumptuous interiors of the highest importance, especially the Rococo interiors and the Cuvilliés Theatre (subject to confirmation as the theatre can close for rehearsals at short notice). Evening opera at the Bavarian State Opera: Tristan & Isolde (Wagner).

Day 3. Nymphenburg, Linderhof, Murnau. Drive to the city’s outskirts and the palace and park of Nymphenburg, birthplace of Ludwig II. An extensive complex including bathhouses and the Rococo Amalienburg lodge. After lunch drive to Ettal, site of the only one of Ludwig II’s commissioned castles to have been completed. 1870s Linderhof was reputed to have been the King’s favourite castle; it draws, like Herrenchiemsee, on French influences, lavish interiors in Renaissance and Baroque styles, extravagant terrace gardens including grottos and Oriental adornments. First of three nights in Murnau am Staffelsee.

Day 4. Hohenschwangau, Neuschwanstein. Drive south to Hohenschwangau castle, site of Ludwig II’s childhood, owned by his parents Maximilian II of Bavaria and Princess Marie of Prussia. Majestic lakeside Alpine location, frescoes featuring medieval Swan-Knight Lohengrin which led to Ludwig II’s obsession with Wagner. Then continue to Neuschwanstein, the famous fairytale turreted

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Munich, Frauenkirche, watercolour by E. Harrison Compton, publ. 1912

Opera in Munich & Bregenz

21–27 July 2015 (mb 404)This tour is currently full

Three operas at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, one of the world’s most dependable houses: Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti), L’Orfeo (Monteverdi) and Don Carlo (Verdi).

Bregenz offers perhaps the most spectacular productions of any open-air festival – in 2015 it is Turandot (Puccini).

Accompanied by two lecturers – musicologist David Vickers and art historian Tom Abbott.

Contact us for full details or visit our website: www.martinrandall.com

Munich is perhaps the most attractive of Germany’s cities, and has always been a major centre for opera. The Nationaltheater is at the moment enjoying a reputation as one of the finest houses in Europe: ‘La Scala may be grander…, Vienna more stately, the Metropolitan more prestigious… but for all-round excellence in pretty well every department, Munich’s Nationaltheater… has the edge, both in matters of creature comforts and sheer dedication to the art’.

Opera apart, Munich is widely considered to be the most agreeable city in Germany in which to live, and ranks only with Berlin for wealth of art and historic architecture.

The thrilling eccentricity of the Bregenz Opera Festival is that the main stage, the Seebühne, sits on an island a few yards from the shore of one of Europe’s largest lakes. From a seat in Austria, the mise-en-scène is framed by the vast expanse of Lake Constance from which rise hills in Germany and Switzerland as well as Austria.

Even though night gradually shrouds this backdrop, it requires performances of exceptional potency to compete with nature’s spectacle. In recent years this requirement has been amply fulfilled, for Bregenz has developed a tradition of immensely exciting productions unconstrained by the conventional limitations of walls and roof. Musical quality is not sacrificed to visual effects, however: that Bregenz is the summer venue of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra is adequate indication of that.

The investment necessitates that each production runs for two successive seasons. The offering for 2015 will be the first year of Turandot.

Itinerary – in brief

Day 1: London to Munich. Fly at c. 12.45pm from London Heathrow to Munich. Tour the city by coach to see Munich’s historic architecture.

Day 2: Munich. Morning walk, including the Gothic cathedral and the Asamkirche. Free afternoon. Evening at the Nationaltheater: Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti).

Day 3: Munich. Drive out to Nymphenburg, the summer retreat of the ruling Wittelsbachs. In the afternoon, an opportunity to visit more of Munich’s many art collections. Evening at the Prinzregenten Theater: L’Orfeo (Monteverdi).

Day 4: Munich. In the morning a second walking tour which culminates in a visit to the Alte Pinakothek, one of the world’s greatest Old Master galleries. Free afternoon. At the Nationaltheater: Don Carlo (Verdi).

Day 5: Ottobeuren, Bregenz. Travel through the lovely landscape of Upper Bavaria, skirting the Alpine foothills before entering the Vorarlberg region of Austria. Break at the little town of Ottobeuren to see the magnificent monastery.

Day 6: Bregenz. Bregenz is the attractive little capital of the Vorarlberg, the western-most province of Austria. A guided walking tour in the morning and a free afternoon. Evening opera on the lake stage: Turandot (Puccini), cast tbc.

Day 7. Fly to Heathrow, arriving at c. 3.45pm.


Price: £3,110 (deposit £300). Single supplement £190 (in Munich: single bed, in Bregenz: double for single use) or £360 (double for single use throughout). Price without flights £2,920.


Music: four operas are included, costing c. £610.

Accommodation. Hotel Torbräu, Munich (torbraeu.de). Hotel Germania, Bregenz (hotel-germania.at). Both are close to the opera venues.

How strenuous? A lot of walking in the town centres where coach access is restricted.


castle ordered by Ludwig II in homage to Wagner though never completed.

Day 5. Herrenchiemsee. In the countryside southeast of Munich and surrounded by a park, woodland and a great lake, Schloss Herrenchiemsee is a copy of Versailles. Ludwig II’s megalomaniac hymn of homage to the absolutism of Louis XIV, his final folly, brought the Bavarian state to the brink of bankruptcy.

Day 6. Berg, Starnberg. Leave Murnau, drive to Berg and the mock Gothic castle to which Ludwig II retreated from his ministers, and where he was placed under house arrest after his forced abdication in 1886 on grounds of insanity. Lake Starnberg surrounds the castle and is the scene of Ludwig II’s death and that of his doctor, officially by drowning. Visit the Memorial Chapel and have lunch in Starnberg. Fly from Munich, returning to London Heathrow at c. 5.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £2,360 (deposit £250). Single supplement £190 (in Munich: room with a single bed, in Murnau: double room for single occupancy) or £270 (double room for single occupancy throughout). Price without flights £2,180.


Accommodation. Hotel Torbräu, Munich (torbraeu.de): a well-located 4-star, traditional in style and decor. Hotel Alpenhof, Murnau (alpenhof-murnau.com): a rambling 5-star hotel on the outskirts of Murnau with a country house feel.

How strenuous? This is a strenuous tour with long coach journeys and a lot of walking and standing around in the castles and gardens. Average distance by coach per day: 65 miles.


Lindau, steel engraving c. 1830

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Baroque & RococoIn Southern Germany

5–13 August 2015 (mb 410)9 days • £2,530Lecturer: Tom Abbott

Some of the most uplifting and spectacular buildings in Europe.

Glorious countryside, unspoilt towns, charming villages, all well maintained.

Led by Tom Abbott, a specialist in architectural history from the Baroque to the 20th century.

Baroque and Rococo reached a triumphant fulfilment in the churches and palaces of southern Germany, and the styles are manifested in the region. It is astonishing that these marvels are not better known, but the artistic heritage of Germany continues to be sadly undervalued. Moreover, many of the choicest items on this tour are not easily accessible, being situated deep in the countryside.

Around the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was something of an economic miracle in the German lands, accompanied by a frenetic upsurge in building activity. This followed nearly a whole century which was blighted by wars and economic collapse. At the end of it the Catholic Church emerged revitalised, wealthier than ever and triumphant in its defeat of Protestantism. In the temporal sphere, the creed of absolutism, which imposed few constraints on the power of the prince or local lord, was at its height.

The Baroque style was the perfect expression both for the Church Triumphant and for the temporal ruler who, taking his cue from Louis XIV at Versailles, wished to overawe his subjects and impress on all visitors the might and

of Bavaria, with sumptuous Rococo interiors and recently restored theatre by the architect Cuvilliés. Free afternoon. Overnight Munich.

Day 5: Nymphenburg, Augsburg. On the outskirts of Munich, the palace, pavilions and gardens of Nymphenburg, summer residence of the Electors of Bavaria; the Amalienburg pavilion is the apogee of secular Rococo interiors. Continue to the magnificent Schaezlerpalais in Augsburg. Its sumptuous gilded, mirrored, ballroom, built between 1765–70, has survived in its original condition. Overnight Munich.

Day 6: Weltenburg, Rohr, Pommersfelden. Two abbey churches by the Asam brothers: Rohr, with the altar of The Assumption, highpoint of Baroque sculpture, and Weltenburg, with controlled lighting and rich decoration suggestive of transcendental theatricality. Take a short cruise along the Danube. Visit Schloss Pommersfelden, a splendid country house with one of the grandest of Baroque staircases. First of two nights in Bamberg.

Day 7: Bamberg. One of the loveliest and least spoilt of German towns, Bamberg has fine streetscape, riverside walks and picturesque upper town around the Romanesque cathedral. The Diocesan Museum has outstanding mediaeval textiles, the Baroque former town hall built on a bridge houses a porcelain collection. Free afternoon. Overnight Bamberg.

Day 8: Bayreuth, Vierzehnheiligen. An enchanting version of Rococo decoration developed in Bayreuth in the town palace and at the Hermitage, a complex of gardens, palaces and pavilions and the wonderful Baroque opera house (by Giuseppe Bibbiena). Visit the pilgrimage church of Vierzehnheiligen (Balthasar Neumann), perhaps the greatest of Rococo churches. Overnight Bamberg.

Day 9: Würzburg. Visit the Residenz in Würzburg, the Archbishop’s palace, the finest Baroque palace in Germany, designed by Balthasar Neumann with frescoes by G.B. Tiepolo. Fly from Frankfurt, arriving London Heathrow c. 5.45pm.

Practicalities


Included meals: 1 lunch, 6 dinners with wine

Accommodation. Hotel Altdorfer Hof, Weingarten (altdorfer-hof.de): a quiet 4-star hotel with a good restaurant. Hotel Torbräu, Munich (torbraeu.de): a well-located 4-star, traditional in style and decor. Hotel Villa Geyerswörth, Bamberg (villageyerswoerth.de): 4-star hotel, elegant and quiet.

How strenuous? There is a fair amount of walking on this tour. It would not be suitable for anyone with difficulties with everyday walking and stairclimbing. The average distance covered by coach per day is 86 miles.


magnificence of his person.The Rococo, which arrived in Germany in

the 1730s, was delicate and light-hearted by comparison with the imposing magnificence of High Baroque, but produced some of the most exquisite interiors in the history of art.

Itinerary

Day 1: Zwiefalten, Steinhausen. Fly at 8.45am (German Wings) from London Heathrow to Stuttgart. Visit two pilgrimage churches: the double-towered church of Zwiefalten by J.M. Fischer and the oval church at Steinhausen, built and decorated by the Zimmermann brothers. First of two nights in Weingarten.

Day 2: Weingarten, Bad Schussenried, Birnau. Begin with a visit to the magnificent Baroque basilica of Weingarten Abbey, ‘the St Peter’s of Germany’, then on to the glorious library hall at Bad Schussenried convent with abundant imagery. Finally, to Birnau, among vineyards above Lake Constance and one of the most delectable of Rococo churches. Overnight Weingarten.

Day 3: Ottobeuren, Wies. A pinnacle of Baroque and Rococo emotional power is achieved at J.M. Fischer’s church and abbey at Ottobeuren. The pilgrimage church of Wies in the foothills of the Alps, created by the Zimmermann brothers, is of astounding beauty. First of three nights in Munich.

Day 4: Munich. Visit the Italian-built Theatinerkirche, one of the first Baroque churches north of the Alps. The little church of St John Nepomuk, created by the Asam brothers for their own use. The Residenz, palace of the Electors

‘Rocaille’ cartouche, engraving c.1750

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Classical GreeceThe Peloponnese, Attica & Athens

Athens, Acropolis, watercolour by Jules Guérin, publ. 1913

2–11 May 2015 (mb 310)10 days • £3,240Lecturer: Dr Oswyn Murray

19–28 September 2015 (mc 435)10 days • £3,240Lecturer: Dr Andrew Farrington

A comprehensive survey of the principal Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic sites in mainland Greece.

Highlights include Mycenae, Olympia, Delphi.

The lecturers both have expert knowledge of ancient Greece

In Athens, a full day on the Acropolis and in the ancient Agora.

The Ancient Greeks had far greater influence on western civilization than any other people or nation. For two and a half millennia, philosophy and ethics, the fundamentals of science and mathematics, prevailing notions of government and citizenship, literature and the visual arts have derived their seeds, and a large amount of their substance, from the Greeks. In the words of H.D.F. Kitto ‘there gradually emerged a people not very numerous, not very powerful, not very well organized, who had a totally new conception of what human life was for, and showed for the first time what the human mind was for.’

Whatever the depth of our Classical education, there is a deep-seated knowledge in all of us that the places visited on this tour are of the greatest significance for our identity and way of life. A journey to Greece is like a journey to our homeland, a voyage in which a search for our roots is fulfilled.

In no field is the Greek contribution to the modern world more immediately evident than in architecture. The grip upon the imagination that the Greek temple has exerted is astonishing, and in one way or another – ranging from straightforward imitation of the whole to decorative use of distorted details – has dominated nearly all monumental or aspirational building ever since. A striking and salutary conclusion, however, which inevitably emerges from participation on this tour, is that the originals are unquestionably superior. This is also true of sculpture.

This tour includes nearly all of the most important archaeological sites, architectural remains and museums of antiquities on mainland Greece. It presents a complete picture of ancient Greek civilization beginning with the Mycenaeans, the Greek Bronze Age, and continuing through Archaic, Classical and, to a lesser extent, Hellenistic and Roman Greece. It also provides a glimpse of the spiritual splendour of Byzantine art and architecture.

It is a full itinerary, but the pace is manageable. Plenty of time is available on the sites and in the museums, allowing opportunity both for adequate exposition by the lecturer and time for further exploration on your own.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at midday (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Athens. The little port of Nauplion is one of the most attractive towns in mainland Greece. Arrive here in time for dinner. First of three nights in Nauplion.

Day 2: Nauplion, Tiryns, Mycenae. Today’s theme is the Mycenaean civilisation of the Argolid Plain, the Greece of Homer’s heroes (16th–13th centuries bc). Visit Tiryns, a citadel with massive Cyclopean walls of enormous blocks of masonry, and Mycenae, reputedly Agamemnon’s capital, with Treasury of Atreus (finest of beehive tombs) and Acropolis (Lion Gate). There are spectacular views from the 18th-century Venetian Fortress of Palamidi.

Day 3: Corinth, Epidauros. The site of Ancient Corinth has the earliest standing Doric temple on mainland Greece, and a fine museum with evidence of Greece’s first large-scale pottery industry. Epidauros, centre for the worship of Asclepios, god of medicine, where popular magical dream cures were dispensed, remains here and includes the best-preserved of all Greek theatres.

Day 4: Arcadia, Bassae. Drive across the middle of the Peloponnese, through the beautiful plateau of Arcadia and past impressive mountain scenery. A stunning road leads to the innovatory and well-preserved 5th-century Temple of Apollo (in a tent for protection) on the mountain top at Bassae (3,700 feet) and through further breathtaking scenery to Olympia. Overnight Olympia.

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Classical Greececontinued

Day 5: Olympia. Nestling in a verdant valley, Olympia is one of the most evocative of ancient sites; never a town, but the principal sanctuary of Zeus and site of the quadrennial pan-Hellenic athletics competitions. Many fascinating structures remain, including the temples of Hera and Zeus, the workshop of Phidias and the stadium. The museum contains fragments of pediment sculpture, among the most important survivals of Classical Greek art. First of two nights in Delphi.

Day 6: Delphi. Clinging to the lower slopes of Mount Parnassos, Delphi is the most spectacularly evocative of ancient Greek sites. Of incalculable religious and political importance, the Delphic oracle attracted pilgrims from all over the Hellenic world. The Sanctuary of Pythian Apollo has a theatre and Athenian Treasury, and the Sanctuary of Athena has a circular temple. The museum is especially rich in Archaic sculpture. Some free time amidst the austere beauty of the valley.

Day 7: Hosios Loukas, Athens. Visit the Byzantine monastery of Hosios Loukas in a beautiful setting in a remote valley, one of the finest buildings of mediaeval Greece with remarkable mosaics. Walk in the Plaka district of Athens. First of three nights in Athens.

Day 8: Athens. The Acropolis is the foremost site of Classical Greece. The Parthenon (built 447–438 bc) is indubitably the supreme achievement of Greek architecture. Other architectural masterpieces are the Propylaia (monumental gateway), Temple of Athena Nike and the Erechtheion. At the Theatre of Dionysos plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides were first performed. The new Acropolis museum has superb Archaic and Classical sculpture, including some by Phidias and his assistants. The Agora (market place) was the centre of civic life in ancient Athens, with the small Doric Hephaisteion, the best-preserved of Greek temples.

Day 9: Athens. Kerameikos Cemetery was where Athenians were buried beyond the ancient city walls. The refurbished National Archaeological Museum has the finest collection of Greek art and artefacts to be found anywhere. The vast Corinthian Temple of Olympian Zeus was completed by Hadrian 700 years after its inception. Some free time.

Day 10: Athens. Drive to the 5th-century Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, overlooking the sea at the southernmost tip of the Attic peninsula, visited by Byron in 1810. Fly from Athens, arriving Heathrow c. 3.30pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Ippoliti, Nauplion (ippoliti.gr): a small comfortable hotel in a converted 19th-century mansion situated near the harbour. Best Western Hotel Europa, Olympia (bestwestern.com): a characterful hotel outside the town. Hotel Amalia, Delphi (amalia.gr/delphi-hotel): a modern hotel a short coach ride from the archaeological site. Electra Palace Hotel, Athens (electrahotels.gr): a smart hotel near the picturesque Plaka quarter.

How strenuous? This is a long tour with three hotel changes and some long journeys. You will be on your feet for long stretches of time, in some cases on exposed sites and walking over rough terrain and therefore sure-footedness and agility are essential. The average distance travelled by coach per day is 70 miles.


Combine this tour with Piero della Francesca, 24–30 April (page 139) or St Petersburg, 10–16 September (page 185).

See also Athens & Rome, 3–10 October 2015. Page 147.

“Superbly balanced, thoughtfully coherent, a modern pilgrimage.”

“We got an outstanding perspective of Greek classical history.”

Dr Oswyn MurrayClassics Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, for almost forty years, widely travelled in the Mediterranean and a specialist on Greek drinking customs and the history of

pleasure in general. Among his books: Early Greece, The Greek City and In vino veritas and he is a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement.

Dr Andrew FarringtonAssistant Professor in Ancient History at the Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, in northern Greece. He also teaches for the Greek Open University

and previously held academic posts in Australia and New Zealand. His specialism is the sporting life of the ancient Greeks, especially under the Roman empire.All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.Mycenae, Tomb of Tholos, engraving c. 1850

GUATEMALA.: See page 168 for Lands of the Maya, 26 January–11 February 2015.100

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Central MacedoniaThessaloniki & northern Greece

17–24 May 2015 (mb 325)8 days • £2,610Lecturer: Dr Oswyn Murray

Hellenistic and Roman architecture, art and archaeological sites in the home territory of Alexander the Great.

Byzantine churches and artefacts of the highest importance in Thessaloniki, second only to Constantinople.

Led by an eminent ancient Greece historian.

Agricultural and mountainous landscapes in a little-visited part of Greece.

To the Classical Greeks the Macedonians were barbarians. Hailing from beyond Mount Olympos, only relatively recently had they abandoned nomadism for settled agriculture and life in cities, and they persisted with the ‘primitive’ political system of hereditary kingship.

But it served the Macedonians well, with territorial expansion proceeding steadily under a succession of Temenid kings, accelerating dramatically under Philip II (who conquered most of Greece) and achieving legendary scale under his son, Alexander the Great, conqueror of the known world. Meanwhile, mainstream Classical Greece gained several footholds on the islands and coastal areas in the form of colonies, before succumbing to the Macedonians in the fourth century bc, and in the second century the whole region became part of the Roman Empire.

Athenian snobbishness not withstanding, the Macedonians became thoroughly Hellenised (Euripides and Aristotle, among others, graced the royal court). The treasures from the Royal Tombs at Vergina and elsewhere are among the most startlingly accomplished and beautiful artefacts to have survived from the ancient world.

St Paul established the first Christian community in Europe in Macedonia, at Philippi, and later Thessaloniki (Salonica) became a major cultural and religious centre in the Byzantine empire, second only to Constantinople. Several impressive churches from the fifth century to the fifteenth centuries survive, with frescoes, furnishings and mosaics, despite earthquake, sack and billeting.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 8.30am from London Gatwick to Thessaloniki (British Airways). From there drive eastwards via the newly constructed Egnatia motorway to the harbour town of Kavala. First of two nights in Kavala.

Day 2: Thasos, Kavala. Reached by ferry, Thasos is a very attractive island, rugged and densely forested. The remains of the ancient city include one of the best-preserved agora complexes in Greece. The old part of Kavala, crowned by a Byzantine castle, sits on a promontory above the port joined to hills behind by a massive Ottoman aqueduct. Depending on ferry times, there may be a visit the archaeological museum. Overnight Kavala.

Day 3: Philippi, Amphipolis. Philippi is known (courtesy of Shakespeare) for the battles in 42 bc which led to the victory of Octavian and Anthony over Brutus and Cassius, and as the place where St Paul established the first Christian community in Europe. Striking ruins of a theatre, agora and Early Christian basilicas are situated in an attractive valley. Amphipolis was an important and prosperous city from its founding as an Athenian colony in 437 bc until its demise in the 8th/9th century. The gymnasium is the best preserved in Greece. First of five nights in Thessaloniki.

Day 4: Thessaloniki. Start the day with a walk in the upper town along the ramparts, the Vlattadon Monastery and the little church of Hosios David with early Byzantine mosaics. Visit three great churches: the Archeiropoietos, an extraordinarily well preserved 5th-century basilica, Agios Demetrios, a centre of pilgrimage since the 6th century, and 8th-century Agia Sophia with beautiful wind-blown capitals. Among the smaller places seen are the exquisite little monastery church of Agios Nikolaos Orphanos with 14th-century wall paintings. Overnight Thessaloniki.

Day 5: Pella, Lefkadia, Vergina. From the 5th century Pella was the luxurious capital of Macedonia, birthplace of Philip II and his son Alexander the Great. The extensive but only partly excavated site has good floor mosaics, and there are excellent finds in the little museum. A Macedonian tomb at Lefkadia has extremely rare high-quality paintings. Vergina is the site of the tombs of Philip II and members of his family. Only fairly recently discovered, the astonishing grave goods are among the finest survivals from the ancient world. Overnight Thessaloniki.

Day 6: Olynthos. The most important of the Greek colonies on the fertile peninsula of Chalkidiki, Olynthos never recovered after destruction by Philip II (348 bc). The ruins, set in rolling farmland, provide a rare chance to walk the residential streets of a Classical Greek

city and provides the best evidence there is for Greek houses of the late 5th and early fourth century. Back in Thessaloniki, the Archaeological Museum is an excellent, extensive and well presented collection. Overnight Thessaloniki.

Day 7: Thessaloniki. Most of the significant Roman remains date to the time of Emperor Galerius (ad 305–311): parts of his palace, the Arch of Galerius and the impressive bulk of the Rotonda, which was probably built as his mausoleum. It was later converted into the Church of St George and contains superb mosaics. Free afternoon. Overnight Thessaloniki.

Day 8: Thessaloniki. The excellent Museum of Byzantine Culture, winner of a European prize in 2005, well presents outstanding material. Drive from here to the airport and return to London Gatwick at c. 4.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Egnatia Hotel, Kavala (egnatiahotel.gr): a modern hotel well located with fine views. Daios Hotel, Thessaloniki (daioshotels.com): a newly constructed 4 star hotel on the waterfront.

How strenuous? You will be on your feet for lengthy stretches of time in some cases on exposed sites and walking over rough terrain. Sure-footedness and agility are essential. Average distance by coach per day: 60 miles.


Combine this tour with Minoan Crete, 4–13 May (page 102).

Thessaloniki, engraving from Byzantine & Romanesque Architecture, 1920

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Minoan CreteHistory & archaeology

4–13 May 2015 (mb 321)10 days • £2,640Lecturer: Dr Alan Peatfield

Concentrates on the extraordinary civilization of the Minoans, but also pays due attention to Classical and later cultures.

Dr Alan Peatfield is an archaeologist specialising in the Minoan Bronze Age civilisation of Crete.

Plenty of time for Knossos and the main sites and includes many remote and little-visited ones.

Wonderful, contrasting landscapes at a beautiful time in the island’s calendar.

‘Land of contrasts’ is the king of clichés, but for Crete it is difficult to avoid, not only because of the variety of natural environments but also because of the influence these have had on the built environment and the history of the island.

The contrasts in the landscape, vegetation and people are dramatic. Crete has its ‘deserts and jungles, its arctic and its tropics’. The high mountains and upland plains are bleak and remote; the gorges in the highly erosive limestone are lush. The west provides a retreat from the more developed stretch of north coast between Iràklion and Agios Nikolaos. The south is difficult of access, scored by gorges and with the Asterousia mountains dropping sharply to the sea. The Sphakia region further west on the south coast is one of the most culturally distinct regions.

Lying between Europe, Africa and the Near East, variety also marks the island’s cultural legacy. The tour will focus primarily on the Bronze Age civilization of the Minoans. Flourishing in the second millennium bc, the Minoans created the first great palace civilization of Europe. Their art is wonderfully expressive, and its influence spread throughout Greece, Egypt and the Near East. Pottery, sealstones,

(this is a closed site and permission for access can be withdrawn). The town also has a beautiful museum. Another ‘villa’ site, Vathypetro is situated in verdant farmland overlooking the Pediadha district of Central Crete. Some free time in Iràklion.

Day 5: Malia, Agios Nikolaos. At Malia visit the Minoan Palace and houses belonging to the Minoan town. The Archaeological Museum at Agios Nikolaos houses a fine collection of Minoan art. First of three nights in Sitia.

Day 6: Sitia, Toplou, Zákros. The museum at Sitia has a good collection of artefacts from eastern sites of the island. Positioned in the barren low hills of east Crete, Toplou monastery has a history of fierce resistance to the island’s various invaders. Káto Zákros, at the foot of the Gorge of the Dead, is an excavated Minoan palace.

Day 7: Gournia, Vasiliki. The largest excavated Minoan town, Gournia’s over seventy cramped houses lie dotted about the hillside with a mini-palace at the top. Situated on the Ierapetra isthmus, Vasiliki shows the beginnings of palatial architecture in its use of a west court.

Day 8: Knossos, Hania. Second visit to Knossos and a private visit of outer-lying buildings. Drive to Hania, the spiritual capital of Crete, a beautiful town with delightful restaurants and good craft shops. First of two nights in Hania.

Day 9: Aptera, Hania. One of the most powerful Graeco-Roman city states, Aptera is a huge site with Roman ruins, a theatre and a Turkish fort. See the British war cemetery at Souda Bay. Moni Agias Triadas on the Akrotiri peninsula above Hania was founded in 1630 by Venetian nobles and has some of the finest monastic architecture on the island.

Day 10. Fly to London Heathrow via Athens, arriving at c. 3.30pm.

The opening of sites on Crete is arbitrary and can be influenced by the politics at the time of the tour. This may mean that at short notice not all sites listed can be visited.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Lato Boutique Hotel, Iràklion (lato.gr): family-run 3-star hotel with small but well-appointed rooms. Located by the Venetian port. Sitia Beach Hotel, Sitia (sitiabeach.com): Large, 4-star resort hotel on the edge of the town. Kydon Hotel, Hania (kydon-hotel.com): a 4-star well located close to the old town and port.

How strenuous? Quite a lot of walking and scrambling over archaeological sites and this tour is not suitable for anyone who is not sure-footed. Average distance by coach per day: 56 miles.


Combine this tour with Central Macedonia, 17–24 May (page 101).

Crete, wood engraving c. 1890

frescoes and architecture reached peaks of excellence unforeseen in the prehistoric Aegean.

Mycenaean, Hellenistic, Classical Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian and Turkish domination followed. The books written on the island’s World War II history alone fill a bookshelf. And yet throughout these millennia of foreign occupation and domination, Crete remained strong and proud and retained its own unique and captivating character.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 12.15pm from London Heathrow to Iràklion via Athens (Aegean Airlines). First of four nights in Iràklion.

Day 2: Knossos, Iràklion. The capital of Minoan Crete and centre of the Bronze Age Aegean, Knossos is shrouded in myth both ancient and modern. At its peak it comprised a magnificent palace with courts, religious buildings and mansions. Excavated by Sir Arthur Evans at the turn of the century, his reconstructions not only protect the excavated remains but grandly illustrate the splendour of palatial civilization. Visit the Archaeological Museum which houses the island’s largest collection of Minoan art.

Day 3: Gortyn, Phaestos, Agia Triada, Matala. A day in the Mesara, a rich agricultural plain along the south coast. Gortyn was the Roman capital of Crete; a famous 5th century bc inscription has details of Greek law. On a ridge Phaestos is the second largest Minoan palace. Agia Triada, interpreted as the summer resort for Phaestos, has beautifully sited and architecturally elaborate villas. Visit the charming town of Matala, a harbour of Roman Gortyn, with rock-cut tombs in a cliff nearby.

Day 4: Arhanes, Vathypetro, Iràklion. Another pretty town, Arhanes possesses remarkable archaeological remains and one of the best excavated cemeteries on Crete, Phourni

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Vienna & Budapest 1900‘Fin de siécle’ art, architecture & design

4–9 September 2015 (mc 461)6 days • £2,420Lecturer: Dr Diane Silverthorne

Two of the cities best endowed with Art Nouveau art, design and architecture.

Study similarities and differences within the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the context of contrasting cultural developments and nationalistic aspirations.

Art Nouveau and its innumerable variants and synonyms never quite became mainstream, didn’t thrive for long and in some places was never much more than a cheeky decorative affectation, but it spread like wildfire to practically every corner of Europe. It was a movement rather than a style, being amazingly diverse in its forms and applications and, particularly in the Habsburg Empire, encompassing painting, sculpture and architecture as well as the decorative arts.

Defining Art Nouveau is a challenge; one universally applicable feature is a negative, that it abandoned the imitation of historical styles, but another is a positive, if vague in the extreme: that whatever other impulses and motivations there may have been, the pursuit of beauty was paramount.

Vienna and Budapest are among the half-dozen cities where the largest quantity of Art Nouveau art and design can be found. And, more than in most places, in each there was originality and a fecund variety of forms. But particularly striking is the sharp difference between the Austrian and the Hungarian variants. In Vienna, as in many places, ‘Secessionism’ developed in opposition to artistic orthodoxy and social conservatism; in Budapest, ‘Eclecticism’ was all this but additionally a manifestation of Magyr resentment of the cultural and political dominance of their Austrian overlords.

Both countries were within the Habsburg empire, and the Emperor of one was the King of the other. Even though since 1867 Hungary enjoyed a large measure of independence, the crescendo of national revivalism led increasingly to a desire to identify difference and express nationalist aspirations through the plastic arts. Artists rummaged among ancient myth and modern anthropology to develop specifically Hungarian forms and symbols.

The social and cultural roots of turn-of-the-century art and design in these two capitals are fascinating and illuminating, and an understanding of the nationalistic and political undercurrents is illuminating. But above all, this tour is a study of an artistic phenomenon which is of astonishing diversity, prolixity and, let it be said, exquisite beauty.

Itinerary

Day 1: Vienna. Fly at c. 10.00am from London Heathrow to Vienna (British Airways) and drive to the Gallery of Austrian Art in the Belvedere Palace. Here amidst Baroque magnificence is a splendid collection of paintings by Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka and contemporaries. First of three nights in Vienna.

Day 2: Vienna. The Secession Building was designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich (1898) to exhibit artists ‘seceding’ from the academy system; Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze is here. The Leopold Collection possesses excellent paintings and drawings by Egon Schiele and by most of his peers. Otto Wagner successfully straddled establishment and progressive patronage and became the most influential designer in Vienna; works by him include colourful apartment façades, his villa in the suburbs and the Kirche am Steinhof, a hilltop hospital church of refulgent beauty, the apogee of Secessionism.

Day 3: Vienna. A walk in the inner city looks at turn-of-the-century buildings and interiors including the notorious gentleman’s outfitters in Michaelerplatz by Adolf Loos and the Post Office Savings Bank by Wagner. There is a superb collection of furnishings of the era at the Museum of Applied Arts, and paintings and interiors in the Vienna Museum. Two former metropolitan railway pavilions, white and gold, by Wagner and Olbrich, epitomise the modernity and beauty of Viennese Secessionism.

Day 4: Vienna to Budapest. By rail to Budapest (2¾ hours). In the last third of the 19th cent. the population tripled and prosperity peaked so major Art Nouveau buildings of all sorts abound in Pest on the north bank of the Danube – offices, department stores, government institutions, banks, apartments. The afternoon walk passes many including the Parisian Court with a façade enriched with Gothic and Eastern motifs, the Klotild and Matilde Palaces, office blocks faced with glazed tiles, and the Philanthia Florist, which continues its original function. First of two nights in Budapest.

Day 5: Budapest. Its façade open to the Danube, József Vágó’s Gresham Palace (1907) is as monumental as Art Nouveau gets. Other places seen on a morning walk include the former Stock Exchange by Ignác Alpár and the Post Office Savings Bank by the leading architect of the time,

Ödön Lechner. Across the Danube in Buda, the National Gallery houses a magnificent collection of Hungarian art. Return to the hotel in Pest by the funicular and walk back to the hotel. Dinner is in a restaurant with an art nouveau interior.

Day 6: Budapest. The Museum of Applied Arts (1893–6) and the Geological Institute (1896–99) are two of Ödön Lechner’s most radical and memorable buildings, elaborated with forms from Hungarian folk art and Asia with symbolic references to Attila the Hun in a determined attempt to create a national style. The Calvinist Church by Aladar Arkay (1913) is a ceramic-clad synthesis of German, Scandinavian and American Art Nouveau with stained glass windows by Miksa Roth – international in inspiration therefore. Fly from Budapest to Heathrow, arriving c. 4.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Bristol, Vienna (bristolvienna.com): a 5-star hotel in a superb location on the Ringstrasse near the opera house, traditionally furnished and decorated. Intercontinental Hotel, Budapest (budapest.intercontinental.com): a modern, international 5-star hotel excellently situated beside the Danube in Pest and close to the Chain Bridge.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking in the town centres and standing around in museums. This tour should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Public transport, metro or tram is used on some occasions. Average distance covered by coach per day: 6 miles.


Bavarian Cartoon of 1900

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Essential IndiaHindu temples, Rajput palaces & Mughal tombs

20 February–6 March 2015 (mb 245)This tour is currently full

26 February–11 March 2016 (mc 580)15 days • £5,760Lecturer: Dr Giles Tillotson

Includes some of India’s most celebrated sites and also lesser-known but quintessential places. Arrangements for special access a feature.

Spends more time at the centres visited than most mainstream tours, and free time is allowed for rest or independent exploration.

Varanasi, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, and the most sacred in India; the Hindu temples of Khajuraho; Rajput and Mughal forts, palaces and funerary monuments.

Seven unesco World Heritage Sites.

Led by Dr Giles Tillotson, a leading expert in Mughal and Rajput history and architecture.

The rich and fertile riverine plains of northern India have long formed a corridor allowing migrations and invasions to spread across the

Subcontinent. The result is an area of fascinating cultural diversity.

Like the Ganges and the Yamuna, the sacred rivers of Hindu lore, this tour runs through the modern state of Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring Madhya Pradesh. But these geo-political boundaries do not restrict it thematically. Participants are treated to a comprehensive overview of the history of the Subcontinent, from the emergence of Hinduism and Buddhism to the decline of the Mughal Empire, the last Islamic power before the British Raj of the nineteenth century.

Located on the banks of the Ganges, Varanasi is India’s most sacred place and claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Founded by Lord Shiva, the city is mentioned in scriptures dating from the early Vedic period, in the second millennium bc. It was known as Kashi, the Luminous, during the life of the Buddha who visited on several occasions on his way to Sarnath nearby where he preached his first sermon. Pilgrims still flock here to wash away their sins in the holy Ganges. The modern Varanasi is also a place of learning and culture, with the first Hindu university in India.

The Chandelas of Khajuraho and the Bundelas of Orchha are two Rajput clans tracing lineage to

the Lunar Dynasty from Varanasi, a commonly used device to claim political authority. The eleventh-century Chandelas built intricately carved temples in Khajuraho, today celebrated (and often misunderstood) for their sensual carvings. They are superb examples of the Nagara or northern style of sacred architecture, with its linear succession of halls leading to the sanctum, topped by a Sikhara, or mountain-peak tower.

Later Bundela Rajputs built impressive palaces and temple-like cenotaphs in the lush landscape of northern Madhya Pradesh. Their palaces bring together elements borrowed from both the Rajput and Mughal traditions, while their funerary architecture asserts their dynastic authority.

The buildings and arts of the Mughals in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are often regarded as the apex of India’s artistic achievements, a prestige due no doubt in no small part to its best-known representative, the Taj Mahal, a creation which hovers somewhere between architecture, jewellery and myth. White marble is typical of the late period, while earlier buildings are of red sandstone – the deserted capital of Akbar at Fatehpur Sikri, and the Red Forts of Agra and Delhi.

Delhi is among a rare elite of the world’s cities which have been capital of several successive regimes. With most new ruling powers establishing their headquarters on a site adjacent to its predecessors, the architectural legacy ranges from a monumental thirteenth-century minaret to the majestic expansiveness of Lutyens’s New Delhi. Empire succeeds empire; eighteen years after the Viceroy took up residence in Government House it was handed over to an independent India.

Itinerary in 2016

Days 1 & 2: London to Delhi. Fly from Heathrow (British Airways) at about noon and after a 5½ hour time change reach the hotel in New Delhi c. 3.00am. Free morning, lunch in the hotel. The severely beautiful 15th-cent. tombs of the Sayyid and Lodi dynasties are located in the serene Lodi Gardens, close to the hotel. Humayun’s striking tomb, with its high-arched façades set in a walled garden, is an important example of early Mughal architecture. Overnight Delhi.

Day 3: Delhi. Visit the imposing Red Fort, founded in 1639 under Shah Jahan. Exquisite pietra dura work remains intact in the throne pavilion. Together with the fort, the Jami Masjid, India’s largest mosque, dominates Old Delhi with its minarets and domes. Rickshaw through the labyrinthine streets near Chandni Chowk. After lunch, visit New Delhi where Lutyens, Baker and other British architects created a grand city with unique designs. Baker’s Secretariat buildings on the Raisina hill are Classical buildings at first glance but closer attention reveals Mughal motifs. Subject to special permission, it may be possible to visit the manicured gardens and interior of the vast Rashtrapati Bhavan, the former Viceroy’s residence. Overnight Delhi.

Day 4: Delhi to Varanasi. Fly from Delhi to Varanasi (Jet Airways) at c. 10.30am. After lunch in the hotel, walk in the old town, visiting hidden Agra, the Taj Mahal, watercolour by Donald Maxwell (1877–1936)104

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shrines and experiencing the busy life along the river. Ends near Dasaswamedha Ghat, named after the ancient ten horse sacrifice which took place here in mythical time. A boat ride along the Ganges ends with the evening river blessing ceremony (Aarti), a ritual going back to the Vedic Age. First of two nights in Varanasi.

Day 5: Sarnath, Varanasi. Begin the day with a boat ride at sunrise, followed by breakfast and a morning walk through the alleys of the old city. Buddha preached his first sermon at Sarnath and the site remains an active Buddhist centre. The Dhamek stupa in the Deer Park marks the spot where the Buddha sat to preach. The museum houses the 3rd-cent. bc lion capital which has become the symbol of modern India since independence. Overnight Varanasi.

Day 6: Varanasi to Khajuraho. Fly to Khajuraho (Jet Airways) in the morning. After lunch, visit the Jain temples in the eastern group. The Parasnath Temple is conspicuous for its absence of erotic depictions. First of three nights in Khajuraho.

Day 7: Khajuraho. In the morning, visit the spectacular western group of temples built during the Chandela Rajput dynasty, famous for the beautifully carved erotic scenes. The awe-inspiring 11th-cent. Kandariya Mahadev Temple is one of the finest examples of North Indian temple architecture, richly embellished with sensuous sculptures depicting the god’s heavenly abodes. Nearby, the Jagadambi Temple contains excellent carvings of Vishnu. In the afternoon, visit the eastern and southern groups of temples. Overnight Khajuraho.

Day 8: Khajuraho. Full day at leisure.

Day 9: Khajuraho to Orchha. Drive to Orchha. Located close to the Betwa River on dramatic rocky terrain, Orchha’s former glory as capital of the Bundela kings is evident in the multi-chambered Jehangir Mahal with lapis lazuli tiles and ornate gateways. The Raj Mahal palace contains some beautiful murals with religious and secular themes. Elegant Royal Chhatris (cenotaphs) line the ghats of the Betwa. Overnight Orchha.

Day 10: Orchha. A walk in the old town includes a visit to the high-ceilinged Chaturbhuj Temple; the cross plan represents the four-armed Vishnu. The Lakshmi Temple incorporates fortress elements and its 19th-cent. frescoes depict scenes of the 1857 Mutiny. Afternoon train journey from Jhansi to Gwalior. First of two nights in Gwalior.

Day 11: Gwalior. Athwart a steep-sided hill, the formidable Gwalior Fort is lavishly embellished with cupolas and blue tiles; inside are superb 9th- and 11th-cent. temples. The afternoon is at leisure with the option of a visit to a nearby palace. Overnight Gwalior.

Day 12: Gwalior, Agra. Drive to Agra and in the afternoon visit the Itimad ud Daula (c. 1628), an exquisite garden tomb and the first Mughal building clad in white marble inlaid with pietra dura inlay. A stroll in Mehtab Bagh, a former Mughal garden by the Yamuna river, is rewarded with a view of the Taj Mahal; any anxiety about

it failing to live up to it reputation for sublime beauty is misplaced. Overnight Agra.

Day 13: Agra, Fatehpur Sikri. Rise early to visit the Taj Mahal in the first light of day. It was commissioned by Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, and completed 1648. Breakfast at the hotel. The magnificent Red Fort was built by Akbar and is the best preserved of the palaces built during his reign. Drive out to Fatehpur Sikri, a new capital built by Akbar (1570) but abandoned after a mere 15 years. The palace complex consists of a series of courtyards and beautifully wrought red sandstone pavilions. Overnight Agra.

Day 14: Sikandra, Delhi. Drive to Delhi via Akbar’s mausoleum at Sikandra, built on his death in 1605. Set in a traditional char-bagh, it has no central dome unlike other Mughal mausolea. In Delhi, visit the Qutb Minar, site of the first Islamic city of Delhi, established in 1193 on the grounds of a defeated Rajput fort. The towering minaret and its mosque survive as testament to the might of the invaders. Overnight Delhi.

Day 15: Delhi to London. Fly from Delhi in the morning (British Airways), arriving in London Heathrow early afternoon.

Practicalities

Price in 2016: £5,760 (deposit £500). Single supplement £860 (double for single occupancy). Price without international flights £5,090.

Included meals: 11 lunches and 9 dinners with wine or beer.

Visas: Most foreign nationals require a tourist visa and this is not included in the tour price. The current cost for UK nationals is around £95. We will advise on the process.

Accommodation. Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi (tajhotels.com): 5-star centrally located hotel. Taj Gateway Ganges Hotel, Varanasi (tajhotels.com): comfortable 4-star outside city centre. Lalit Temple View Hotel, Khajuraho (thelalit.com): modern hotel located within walking distance of the main sites. Hotel Amar Mahal, Orchha (amarmahal.com): the most basic of the hotels on the tour, this 3-star equivalent is conveniently located and adequately equipped. Usha Kiran Palace Hotel, Gwalior (tajhotels.com): former palace converted into a charming hotel. ITC Mughal Hotel, Agra (itchotels.in): modern 5-star close to the main sites. The Leela Ambience, Gurgaon (theleela.com): a 5-star hotel conveniently close to the airport.

How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Unless you enjoy entirely unimpaired mobility, cope with everyday walking and stair-climbing without difficulty and are reliably sure-footed, this tour is not for you. A rough indication of the minimum level of fitness required is that you ought to be able to walk briskly at about three miles per hour for at least half an hour, and undertake a walk at a more leisurely pace for an hour or two unaided. You may be on your feet for lengthy stretches of time. Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard. There are three 3-hour long coach journeys where facilities are limited. There are some fairly steep ascents to forts and palaces. Steps to temples and palaces can be steep and slippery. Unruly traffic and the busy streets of Delhi also require vigilance. Average distance by coach per day: 45 miles.


Combine this tour with Bengal By River, 12–25 March 2016 (contact us for full details of this tour or visit www.martinrandall.com).

“We were very pleased with the itinerary as it not only included the iconic cities of Delhi, Agra and Varanasi, but also less touristy cities of Gwalior and Orchha.”

Delhi, The Qutb Minar, steel engraving 1848 after Samuel Prout (1783–1852)

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Sacred IndiaAncient religious art & architecture

2–15 March 2015 (mb 250)14 days • £5,430Lecturer: Charles Allen

A journey through the heartland of India to see many of India’s most remarkable religious sites.

Varanasi, India’s most sacred city and Sarnath, where the Buddha preached his first sermon.

The Hindu temples of Khajuraho and the caves of Ajanta and Ellora.

Led by Charles Allen, acknowledged authority on ancient and colonial India.

‘The sacredness of India haunts me like a passion.’ So declared that great proconsul Lord Curzon just over a century ago. To this day the notion of India as a specially sanctified space continues to shape but perhaps also to distort our image of the subcontinent, thanks in part to the Beatles, the Guru Maharishi and the Swinging Sixties. But what really sets India apart from other exotic corners of the globe is not so much its religiosity as the sheer abundance and variety of religious expression to be found there, together with the remarkable art and architecture it has generated.

It is through the visual arts that the religious impulse finds its finest expression, and in India that expression extends over a period of some 3,500 years, moving from the snake- , tree- and fertility-goddess-worship of the original forest dwellers right through to the present. This span of time encompasses the advent of the Aryan pastoralists with their Vedic gods; the challenges to Brahmanical authority by the founders of Buddhism and Jainism; Emperor Ashoka’s unifying imperial dharma; the counter-reformation of devotional Hinduism and the cults of Shiva, Vishnu and Krishna; and the advance of Islam in both Sufic and militant form – to say nothing of Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Christianity and even Judaism.

This ambitious and varied tour of India takes you on a journey through its very heartland which includes almost a dozen of India’s most remarkable religious sites, many of them on the World Heritage list. But it must be stressed that this is not a religious tour per se. Its object, quite simply, is to explore and, above all, enjoy India’s varied forms of religious experience in their proper context: not in museums and galleries but in those theatres where they have found their highest expression, both in terms of religious practice and artistic activity, whether beside the bathing ghats at Kashi, the City of Light (otherwise known as Benares and Varanasi), the finely carved temples at Khajuraho with their Tantric erotic carvings (yet to be fully understood), the ancient and austere rock-cut caves and temples at Ajanta, Ellora and Elephanta, or the sublime artistry of the great Buddhist stupa complex at Sanchi.

Itinerary

Days 1 & 2: London to Delhi. Fly from London Heathrow (British Airways) at about noon and after a 5½ hour time change reach the hotel in New Delhi c. 3.00am. Free morning, lunch in the hotel. In the afternoon, visit the towering minaret and mosque at Qutb Minar, site of the first Islamic city of Delhi, established in 1193 on the grounds of a defeated Rajput fort. Overnight Delhi.

Day 3: Delhi to Varanasi. Fly to Varanasi (Benares) in the morning (Jet Airways). Afternoon walk through the old city and a boat ride on the holy Ganges at sunset to witness the

Aarti ritual. This fire offering, which dates back to the time of the Buddha himself and revived in the 19th century, is a daily blessing ceremony and a central element of the religious life of this sacred city. First of three nights in Varanasi.

Day 4: Sarnath, Varanasi. Sarnath is where the Buddha preached his first sermon and remains an active Buddhist centre. The Dhamek stupa in the Deer Park marks the spot where the Buddha sat to preach. The Sarnath museum houses the Ashokan lion capital, the symbol of modern India since independence. Afternoon visit to the Bharat Kala Bhavan, the university museum. Overnight Varanasi.

Delhi, the Qutb Minar, Gate of Alladeen, wood engraving c. 1880

Contact us for full details of all our tours in INDIA, or visit our website: www.martinrandall.com106

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Watercolour by Mortimer Mempes. publ. 1905

Day 5: Varanasi. An early morning boat ride to witness the morning prayers and ablutions of the devout is followed by a walk among the sacred temples and holy ponds of the south part of the city, near Assi Ghat. Breakfast on the ghats (stepped embankments). Some free time in the afternoon. Overnight Varanasi.

Day 6: Varanasi to Khajuraho. Fly to Khajuraho (Jet Airways). The spectacular group of temples built during the Chandela Rajput dynasty (9th–11th-cent.) is celebrated for the beautifully carved erotic scenes. The Kandariya Mahadev Temple is one of the finest examples of North Indian temple architecture and is richly embellished with sensuous sculptures depicting the gods’ heavenly abodes. The Jagadambi Temple excels for its carvings of Vishnu. First of two nights in Khajuraho.

Day 7: Khajuraho. In the morning, visit the eastern group of temples with the intricately carved Jain Temple. The Chaturbhuj Temple is unique in its absence of any erotic depictions. The afternoon is at leisure with an optional return visit to the western group of temples. Overnight Khajuraho.

Day 8: Khajuraho to Bhopal. Leaving at 8.00am, we drive to Jhansi and take an express train (3½ hours) to Bhopal in the afternoon. Arrival at the hotel c. 6.00pm. First of two nights in Bhopal.

Day 9: Sanchi, Vidisha. Remotely located in open, hilly and sparsely populated countryside, Sanchi is one of the treasures of India and a unesco heritage site. On top of a hill with lovely views all around, the site was supposedly founded by the Great Ashoka. The 2nd-cent. ad stupa with stone railings and four magnificently elaborately carved gateways survives almost intact. Nearby Vidisha was an important Hindu centre under the Gupta dynasty as seen in the majestic carving of Varaha, the boar incarnation of Vishnu. Overnight Bhopal.

Day 10: Bhopal to Mumbai. In the morning, fly to Mumbai (Jet Airways). The Dr Bhau Daji Lad City Museum (built 1885) was formerly known as the Victoria & Albert and is the oldest museum in Mumbai. A private visit led by the curator explores the city’s distinctive communities and their respective religious practices. Overnight Mumbai.

Day 11: Mumbai, Aurangabad. In the morning, take a privately chartered boat to Elephanta Island. The largest of the two groups is dedicated to Lord Shiva. The relief panels depict the god in various forms. The central Trimurti image, or three-headed Shiva, is said to represent the three aspects of the deity and considered a masterpiece of Gupta art. After lunch, fly to Aurangabad. First of three nights in Aurangabad.

Day 12: Ajanta. Cut into the volcanic lava of the Deccan plateau, the Buddhist caves at Ajanta were first excavated around the 2nd cent. bc. A later group of caves was built during the Gupta era in the 5th-6th cent. ad before the site was abandoned in the 7th century in favour of Ellora. Celebrated for their fine statuary and the refined wall paintings, they are often considered

one of the greatest achievements in Indian art. Overnight Aurangabad.

Day 13: Ellora. With their uninterrupted sequence spanning four centuries, the caves and rock-cut temples at Ellora are both artistic masterpieces and technological achievements. The various monasteries dedicated to Buddhism, Jainism and Brahmanism also attest to the religious tolerance which prevailed under the Rashtrakuta dynasty. The impressive rock-cut, monolithic Kailashanatha Temple marks the transition between rock-cut and structural architecture, which took place around the 8th century across the Deccan. Overnight in Aurangabad.

yet comfortable 4-star hotel with contemporary touches to the recently renovated rooms; located close to the centre but removed from the bustle in its 40 acres of garden, with a pool. Khajuraho (2 nights): the Lalit Temple is a modern hotel within walking distance of the main site, surrounded by a well-tended garden; rooms are spacious with large windows overlooking the pool or garden. Bhopal (2 nights): the Jehan Numa Palace is a former royal residence on the edge of the city with gardens, verandas and a swimming pool. Bedrooms vary but all are comfortable and well equipped. Mumbai (1 night): the Taj Mahal Palace is an iconic landmark and a masterpiece of Indo-Saracenic architecture, comfortable, centrally

Charles AllenBritish writer and historian born in India where several generations of his family served under the British Raj. He has published numerous books, most recently Ashoka:

The Search for India’s Lost Emperor, and in 2012 filmed a documentary for the National Geographic entitled Unearthing the Bones of the Buddha.


Day 14: Mumbai. Fly early in the morning to Mumbai (Jet Airways) to connect with the BA flight to London, arriving at Heathrow c. 6.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £5,430 (deposit £500). Single occupancy supplement £680. Price without international flights £4,890.

Included meals: 10 lunches (including 1 packed lunch) and 9 dinners with wine or beer

Accommodation. Delhi (2 nights): the Taj Mahal, a modern and comfortable hotel catering for both the business and leisure traveller, ideally situated in the heart of Lutyens’s Delhi; attractive garden and swimming pool. Varanasi (3 nights): the Taj Gateway Ganges is a large, functional

located and with excellent service. Aurangabad (3 nights): the Taj Residency is a pleasant hotel set amid well-tended gardens. The rooms are comfortable, with private balconies.


How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Unless you enjoy entirely unimpaired mobility, cope with everyday walking and stair-climbing without difficulty and are reliably sure-footed, this tour is not for you. A rough indication of the minimum level of fitness required is that you ought to be able to walk briskly at about 3 miles per hour for at least half an hour, and undertake a walk at a more leisurely pace for an hour or two unaided. Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard. Sure-footedness is essential to board the river boats. Unruly traffic and the busy streets of larger cities require vigilance. There are some fairly steep ascents to hilltop forts and temples and numerous steps in Ajanta and Ellora. There are 2 coach journeys over 2 hours during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Most sites have some shade but the Indian sun is strong, even in the cooler seasons. We regret that we do not accept bookings from people who would be 81 or over at the time of the tour. Average distance by coach per day: 38 miles.


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Amritsar, the Golden Temple, wood engraving from Across India at the Dawn of the 20th Century 1898

Indian SummerDelhi, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Shimla

30 March–11 April 2015 (mb 272)13 days • £5,320Lecturer: Raaja Bhasin

A fascinating selection of places which have the common feature of relating to the last years of the Raj.

Led by Raaja Bhasin, historian, author, lecturer and Shimla resident.

Shimla, the grandest hill station, the buildings a hotch-potch of bastardised European styles. Reached by the famous mountain ‘toy train’.

Chandigarh, the modern ideal city built by Le Corbusier.

Both the high noon of the British Empire in India and its closing years were played out in the city of Delhi and in the ‘summer capital’, Simla (now Shimla), dubbed by many the grandest outpost of the Pax Britannica. Tracing the ebb and flow of the Raj in two imperial capitals, this tour covers architecture, events, lifestyles, landscapes of the Western Himalaya and numerous stories of places and people. Amritsar is part of this story,

and Chandigarh provides a glimpse into Indian Utopia after Independence.

Built, destroyed and rebuilt a dozen times, Delhi is one of the oldest cities in the world, and also one of the most multilayered. It is home to some fifteen million people and its heterogeneous population has genetic strands that span the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia and several other parts of the world. Today, towers of chrome and steel stand side by side with centuries-old monuments built by the Mughal rulers. Between the two, the immense architectural momentum of the Raj culminated in the creation of New Delhi, still the core of this fast-expanding city.

Up in the hills of the Western Himalaya, Simla was the summer capital of British India, the grandest of the British hill stations. For around a century, a fifth of the human race was ruled from its heights for the better part of every year. The architecture is practically a gazetteer of western styles, but often with a twist, a nod to the heritage of the subcontinent.

The town created an enigmatic way of life and the steamier side of its social world gave inspiration to Rudyard Kipling, who as a young correspondent spent some summers amidst the cedars. Many decisions that shaped India and the

region were made within sight of the snow-clad Himalayas. Today it is the capital of the state of Himachal Pradesh and many of the grander buildings, bungalows and streets still evoke the heyday of a past age.

West of it lies the fertile ‘Land of Five Rivers’, the Punjab. Here is the sacred city of Amritsar, site of the Golden Temple, the most sacred shrine of the Sikh faith. This was also where the Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place in 1919, when a crowd of unarmed civilians was fired upon. The event totally altered the face of Indian nationalism. Even Winston Churchill was moved enough to remark, ‘It is an extraordinary event, an event which stands in singular and sinister isolation’.

The border with Pakistan is close to Amritsar, and with belligerence which is almost histrionic, the sundown ceremony of lowering the flags and closing the gates is played out daily. Nearby is the former princely state of Kapurthala where the Francophile ruler, Jagatjit Singh, completed a palace in 1908, loosely modelled on Versailles. He tried to introduce French as his court language.

When the Punjab was divided between India and Pakistan in 1947 the state capital Lahore was replaced in the Indian portion by a brand new city, Chandigarh. Its building in the 1950s was a deliberate break with the past. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru called it ‘a new city of free India, totally fresh and wholly responsive to the future generations of this great country.’ Led by Le Corbusier, the city design and urban elements were unabashedly modern and western. Still admired and criticized in equal measure by planners, architects and urban historians, it is yet rated as among the best cities in India in which to live.

Itinerary

Days 1 & 2: London to Delhi. Fly from London Heathrow at c. 9.30am (British Airways) and, after a 5½-hour time change, reach the hotel in New Delhi early the following morning. Nothing is planned before a pre-lunch talk. In the afternoon, visit Old Delhi for a short walk on The Ridge, taking in Flagstaff Tower, a safe haven for the British during the Mutiny of 1857. The Mutiny Memorial commemorating those killed in action is a Neo-Gothic spire with elements of Indian design. First of three nights in New Delhi.

Day 3: New Delhi. New Delhi was created 1912–31 by Lutyens, Baker and others as a uniquely grand and spacious city. The Secretariat buildings on Raisina Hill are Classical at first glance, but closer inspection reveals Buddhist and Mughal motifs. Subject to special permission, it may be possible to visit the interior of the vast Rashtrapati Bhavan, the former Viceroy’s residence. The fortress-like garrison church of St Martin, designed by Arthur Shoosmith (1930), has been called one of the great buildings of the 20th century. Overnight New Delhi.

Day 4: Delhi to Amritsar. The Teen Murthi Bhavan was built in Classical style in the 1930s as Flagstaff House before becoming the home of the first Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Today, it is a museum dedicated to one

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The Porcelain Dome, Amritsar, M. Menpes c.1905

Shimla, steel engraving 1845

of the fathers of modern India. Fly from Delhi to Amritsar (SpiceJet) at c. 2.00pm. First of two nights in Amritsar.

Day 5: Amritsar, Wagah. Amritsar was founded by the 4th Sikh guru in 1579 and is home to Sikhism’s holiest shrine, the Golden Temple. The sacred lake surrounding the temple dates from this period but the current form of the temple is 18th-cent., and the gilt early 19th-cent. Jallianwala Bagh was the scene of the massacre of demonstrators against British rule in 1919 and now is a moving memorial garden. In the afternoon, drive to Wagah for the theatrical sunset closing ceremony of the border with Pakistan. Overnight Amritsar.

Day 6: Kapurthala, Chandigarh. In the morning, drive to Kapurthala, where the local ruler, an ardent francophile, built his palace (1900–1908) loosely modelled on the palace of Versailles and the chateau of Fontainebleau. Now a boys’ school, the interior is lavish, while the gardens are embellished by fountains and statuary in the traditional French style. Continue to Chandigarh to arrive at the hotel in time for dinner. First of two nights in Chandigarh.

Day 7: Chandigarh. The joint capital of the states of Haryana and Punjab emerged from the partition of the Punjab in 1947. Conceived by Le Corbusier and Maxwell Fry following the principles of the International Modern movement, it is laid out on the grid principle. The Capital Complex is the home of the administrative buildings, the ‘head’ of the city and some of Le Corbusier’s most ambitious planning. Overnight Chandigarh.

Day 8: Chandigarh, Shimla. Transfer to Kalka in the foothills of the Himalayas to board the ‘toy train’ to Shimla. The Kalka–Shimla Railway has been operating daily since 1903 and is a remarkable feat of engineering. After a 5-hour ride through stunning scenery, transfer to the hotel. First of three nights in Shimla.

Day 9: Shimla, Mashobra. The former summer capital of British India, Shimla is set in the lush pine and cedar forests of the Himalayan foothills. Its impressive colonial architecture is best admired through walks along the Mall. Viceregal Lodge, the summer residence of the British viceroy is probably Shimla’s best-known building. Built in 1888, the grey sandstone structure retains the British royal coat of arms on its façade. After lunch at Wildflower Hall, visit Bishop Cotton School, Shimla’s oldest educational institution, founded in 1859. Overnight Shimla.

Day 10: Shimla. Walk eastward along The Mall towards Christ Church. The Gaiety Theatre was built in 1887 as the original Town Hall. The Gothic building has been the centre of Shimla’s social life for over a century. The tower of Christ Church (1857) dominates Shimla’s skyline from the Ridge, above the town. Time for independent exploration in the afternoon. Overnight Shimla.

Day 11: Kasauli, Chandigarh. Morning drive to Kasauli via Dagshai, scene of the Connaught Rangers’ Mutiny in 1920. The Central Jail (1849) is where the executions took place. The pretty

hill station of Kasauli has some interesting 19th-cent. buildings such as Christ Church and the Kasauli Club. Afternoon drive to Chandigarh. Overnight Chandigarh.

Day 12: Chandigarh to Delhi. In the morning, fly to Delhi (SpiceJet). Coronation Park in north Delhi was the location of the 1911 Durbar, at which George V announced the shift of the British capital from Calcutta. Following Independence, it became the resting place of the statues of kings and officials of the British Raj. Overnight New Delhi.

Day 13: Delhi to London. Rise early for the BA flight, arriving London Heathrow at c. 1.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £5,320 (deposit £500). Single supplement £760. Price without international flights: £4,610.



Accommodation. Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi (tajhotels.com): 5-star centrally located hotel. Ranjit Svaasa, Amritsar (svaasa.com/htmlwebsite): colonial mansion converted into a characterful boutique hotel. Taj Chandigarh, Chandigarh (tajhotels.com): modern 4-star city hotel. The Oberoi Cecil, Shimla (oberoihotels.com): landmark 19th-cent. building, converted into a luxury hotel in the 1930s.

How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Unless you enjoy entirely unimpaired mobility, cope with everyday walking and stair-climbing without difficulty and are reliably sure-footed, this tour is not for you. A rough indication of the minimum level of fitness required is that you ought to be able to walk briskly at about three miles per hour for at least half an hour, and undertake a walk at a more leisurely pace for an hour or two unaided. Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard. There are some steep walks. Unruly traffic and the busy streets of larger cities require some vigilance. There is a 5-hour train journey during which facilities are limited and may be of poor quality. Most sites have some shade but the Indian sun is strong, even in the cooler seasons. We regret that we do not accept bookings from people who would be 81 or over at the time of the tour. Average distance by coach per day: 33 miles.


“A wonderful holiday which has informed me about India and inspired me to learn more and visit again. Thank you to all involved.”

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INDIA, 2015 & 2016The full programme

Temples of Tamil NaduArchitecture, sculpture & ancient rituals26 January–8 February 2015 (mb 232)14 days • £4,790Lecturer: Asoka Pugal

Essential IndiaHindu temples, Rajput palaces & Mughal tombs20 February–6 March 2015 (mb 245)26 February–11 March 2016 (mc 580)15 days • £5,670Lecturer: Dr Giles TillotsonSee pages 104–105 for full details

Sacred IndiaAncient religious ar t & architecture2–15 March 2015 (mb 250)14 days • £5,430Lecturer: Charles AllenSee pages 106–107 for full details

Indian SummerDelhi, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Shimla30 March–11 April 2015 (mb 272)13 days • £5,320Lecturer: Raaja BhasinSee pages 108–109 for full details

Gastronomic KeralaTraders, spices & churches of the Malabar Coast7–17 November 2015 (mc 525)11 days • £4,780Lecturer: Dr Elizabeth Collingham

Architecture of the British RajEvolution of styles in Bombay, Calcutta & Delhi23 January–4 February 2016 (mc 565)13 days • £5,640Lecturer: Professor Gavin Stamp

Bengal by RiverCalcutta & a week’s cruise along the Hooghly12–25 March 2016 (mc 585)14 days • £5,130Lecturer: Dr Rosie Llewellyn-Jones

Mughals & RajputsDelhi, Agra & Rajasthan24 October–6 November 2015 (mc 505)14 days • £5,660Lecturer: Dr Giles Tillotson

Contact us for full details of any tours here that do not appear in this brochure or visit www.martinrandall.com

“A varied and interesting trip which has given me a much clearer view of this fascinating country.”

The Village Market, watercolour by Carlton A. Smith, from The Times of India Annual 1935

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PersiaAncient & Islamic Iran

23 April–7 May 2015 (mb 384)This tour is currently full


A selection of the most interesting cities, major buildings and archaeological sites in this vast and varied country.

Three full days to explore Isfahan; three full days in Tehran; ample time in Shiraz and Yazd.

Suitable either for first-time visitors or for those with some familiarity already.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 11.25am from London Heathrow (Turkish Airlines) to Shiraz (via Istanbul), arriving early the following morning.

Day 2: Shiraz. Arrive Shiraz airport at c. 2.30am and drive to hotel where rooms will be ready for a rest before lunch. In the afternoon explore the city of gardens and poets. Naranjestan Palace, a 19th-cent. town house and garden of a wealthy patrician. Eram Gardens, the evocative tombs of Hafez and Sa’di, delightful mosques, madrassas and bazaars. First of three nights in Shiraz.

Day 3: Persepolis. Excursion to Persepolis, the spectacular Achaemenid ceremonial city built by Darius I and Xerxes in the 5th and 4th cents.bc. In the afternoon continue to the Achaemenid royal tombs cut into the cliffs at Naqsh-e-Rustam.

Day 4: Firuzabad. Full day excursion beginning with the scenic drive past the large salt lake of Maharlu and the impressive Qalh Dokhtar that is perched on a cliff top. Visit the large Sassanid palaces and the ancient city of Ardashir Khurreh, known as Gur. Final night in Shiraz.

Day 5: Pasargadae, Yazd. At Pasargadae, see the ruins of the first Persian capital built by Cyrus the Great, whose tomb is situated in the windswept upland plain surrounding the city. Arrive Yazd for the first of two nights.

Days 6: Yazd. An ancient caravan city on the edge of the desert with unique traditional architecture and some of the earliest fully-tiled monuments in Iran. Islamic monuments include the 14th and 15th-cent. Friday Mosque with its spectacular tiled entrance portal, the highest in the country. The centre of the ancient Zoroastrian religion, Yazd has one of the largest surviving of such communities in Iran. Visit the fire temple and funerary Towers of Silence.

Day 7: Maybod, Mohammediye, Na’in, Isfahan. Visit the citadel in the traditional pottery-making centre of Maybod. Stop at Mohammediye to see traditional wool-weaving. In Na’in, the geographical heart of Iran, visit the mosque which retains 10th-cent. features. Drive to Isfahan, where four nights are spent.

Days 8, 9 & 10: Isfahan. Three full days in Isfahan to experience the sights of the monumental capital of Safavid Persia (17th and 18th cent.). Opportunity to visit all the main monuments

beginning with the great rambling Friday Mosque, a classic work of Persian art and a veritable textbook of Islamic architecture, incorporating most periods and styles. The great works of the royal city laid out by Shah Abbas include the tiled bridges and the palace pavilions of Chehel Sutun and Hasht Behesht. Surrounding the vast Imam Square (formerly Royal Square) are the Ali Qapu Pavilion, the Shaikh Lutfollah Mosque with near perfect dome, the monumental entrance to the grand bazaar and the immense tiled bulk of the Imam Mosque (formerly Royal Mosque). Some free time in Isfahan, to shop in the famous bazaars or relax in a teahouse.

Day 11: Natanz, Kashan, Tehran. Drive via Natanz to see the Friday Mosque and the Shrine of Sheikh Abdul-Samad. In Kashan visit Bagh-é Fin, perhaps the most beautiful of classical Persian gardens. First of four nights in Tehran.

Day 12: Tehran. Visit the Gulistan Palace, a jewel of Qajar-period architecture. The Abguineh Glass and Ceramics Museum is one of the most impressive in Tehran, not least for its architecture from the Qajar period. The Reza Abbasi Museum houses a fine collection of ceramics, fabrics and decorative arts and a very fine collection of Achaemenid and Sassanian gold and silver. End the day at the Malek Museum which has many excellent paintings and carpets.

Day 13: Tehran. Morning visit to the State Jewels Museum. The archaeological section of the National Museum of Iran contains items from many of the places visited on the tour. In the afternoon visit the Carpet Museum and the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.

Day 14: Tehran. In the morning a visit to the Saad Abad Palace complex with its many museums and onto the Niravan palace, the home of the last Shah and the Empress Farah. End with a visit to the beautiful adjacent Niravan park.

Day 15. Morning flight to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 3.15pm.

Practicalities


Included meals: all meals with soft drinks (alcohol is banned throughout Iran).

Visas: required for most foreign nationals; we will advise on obtaining these.

Accommodation. The best available; all graded as 5-star apart from Yazd which is a 3-star.

How strenuous? Early starts and days with a lot of coach travel. A fair amount of walking, some of it over rough ground; sure-footedness is essential. Average distance by coach per day: 110 miles.


At the time of printing there is no British embassy or consulate in Iran and the Foreign Office advises against travel to the country. Unless these circumstances change we will not run this tour. However, there are signs that relations are improving and that the British embassy will reopen in Tehran soon. We will make a final decision about whether the tour can go ahead or not before Christmas. If not, we will refund deposits in full.

Low relief sculpture from Persepolis, engraving 1803

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Israel & PalestineArchaeology, architecture & art in the Holy Land

Jerusalem, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, wood engraving c. 1880

24 March–2 April 2015 (mb 261)10 days • £4,280Lecturer: Dr Garth Gilmour

13–22 October 2015 (mc 492)10 days • £4,430Lecturer: Dr Garth Gilmour

Some of the most significant and evocative archaeological sites in the western hemisphere.

Ancient and mediaeval and modern architecture, from Herod to Bauhaus – Judean, Roman, Christian and Islamic.

Dr Garth Gilmour is a Biblical archaeologist who has lived and worked in Israel.

Enthralling vernacular building in ancient walled towns; varied landscapes, from rocky deserts to verdant valleys.

Several days in Jerusalem – surely the most extraordinary city on earth?

Ancient Canaan, the bridge between Egypt, Phoenicia, Syria and Mesopotamia; land of the Patriarchs, home to the Philistines, the Jebusites and the tribes of Israel. A land where the kingdom of David triumphantly rose around 1000 bc and where the splendour of Solomon’s Temple was created. Jews, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans and Turks all made their mark; the history of the land is characterised by conquest and exile.

Herod the Great (37–4 bc) was one of the greatest builders of the ancient world. Christianity brought a new wave of construction after Emperor Constantine and his mother, St Helena, in the fourth century ad consecrated the sites associated with Jesus. The final monotheistic religion to arrive was Islam when in ad 637 Caliph Omar conquered Jerusalem. Another religion, and yet another monumental building, this time the Dome of the Rock.

The Crusaders instigated another burst of building activity, planting European Romanesque and Gothic churches and castles tempered by local techniques. Mamluks and Ottomans trampled and rebuilt, and after the First World War, with Jewish immigration accelerating, the British were left to hold the rope until the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Jerusalem is the most extraordinary city in the world. Within the walls – and the complete circuit survives, the current edition being sixteenth-century – it is a vibrant, authentic Middle Eastern city, but one with sharply distinct communities and largely composed of ancient and mediaeval masonry. Nowhere else is the historical interpretation of archaeological remains so crucial to current political debate.

Israel and Palestine are extraordinary places where Biblical names on road signs demonstrate the closeness of the distant past and where history, politics and religion are impossible to separate. The tour is led by an archaeologist who uses the remains to illuminate peoples and civilizations of the past. It is not a pilgrimage tour in that buildings and sites are selected for

intrinsic aesthetic or historical merit rather than religious association.

The tour ranges across two countries, and in none: strictly speaking, the old walled centre of Jerusalem is neither Israel nor Palestine.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 8.10am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Tel Aviv, and then drive to Jerusalem, reaching the hotel c. 5.30pm. Four nights are spent here.

Day 2: Jerusalem. The buildings in the Old City and around (the walled kernel has shifted over the millennia) comprise an incomparable mix of

ages and cultures from the time of King David to the present day, while continuing to be a thriving, living city. The massive stones and underground tunnels of Herod’s Temple Mount are highly impressive survivals from the ancient world. In the afternoon a walk along a section of the ramparts leads to further Roman-era structures in the Ecce Homo Convent and the Bethesda Pools, and to the Crusader church of St Anne. View the seeming panorama of belfries, domes, minarets and city wall from the Mount of Olives. Overnight Jerusalem.

Day 3: Jerusalem, Bethlehem. The intact 7th-cent. Dome of the Rock stands majestically in the vast Haram ash-sharif complex, complete

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Jerusalem, Mosque of Omar, watercolour by Phoebe Allen, publ. 1913

“This was a fascinating tour – everything about it was rewarding, from the area itself, the lectures, the people – there was an extra dimension to Israel. Wonderful.”

with Umayyad and Mamluk buildings and the El-Aqsa Mosque, all on the site of Solomon’s Temple. Drive through the ‘Separation Wall’ into occupied territory on the West Bank. On the edge of the Judaean Desert, the Herodion is a remarkable fortified palace and tomb complex built by King Herod. The 4th/6th-century Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem is one of the greatest buildings of its era, and probably the oldest church in continuous use for Christian worship. Overnight Jerusalem.

Day 4: Jerusalem. Mainly Constantinian and Crusader, but confusingly complex, compartmentalised and embellished with later ornamentation, a proper study of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre reveals a deeply fascinating building. Among the items seen during the rest of the day are the Roman colonnaded Cardo, the largely 13th-century Armenian Cathedral, and a 17th-century synagogue. Free time is an alternative, possibly with a visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum. Overnight Jerusalem.

Day 5: Masada, Ein Gedi. Drive through Israel to the Dead Sea Valley, the lowest place on earth. Rising high above the Judaean desert, Herod’s fortified palace of Masada, last redoubt of the Jewish rebellion against Roman occupation, is one of the most impressive archaeological sites in the Levant. A little to the north lies the oasis of Ein Gedi, where there is time to enjoy the botanical gardens or for a swim in the Dead Sea. One night is spent at Ein Gedi.

Day 6: Qumran, Jericho, Galilee. Re-enter occupied Palestinian Territories. Qumran is the site of the settlement of the Essenes, a Jewish sect, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. The palm-shaded oasis of Jericho is the world’s most low-lying town and perhaps its oldest continuously inhabited one, the Tell as-Sultan dating back 10,000 years. Nearby, Hisham’s Palace is a remarkably well preserved 8th-century Umayyad palace. Continue north, re-enter Israel and spend the first of two nights in Tiberias.

Day 7: Sea of Galilee, Tzefat. Visit first the archaeological site of Tell Hazor, and then ascend the Galilean highlands to the mediaeval synagogues and cobbled streets of the town of Tzefat. The churches of the Heptapegon (known today as Tabgha) are locations of Jesus’s ministry where pilgrims from all over the world share the sites and view the magnificent mosaics. See the remains of the fishing village of Capernaum, Jesus’s most permanent residence and site of a 5th-century synagogue. Take a boat on the Sea of Galilee, and overnight Tiberias.

Day 8: Akko, Caesarea. Akko (Acre) was the principal city of the Crusaders, though the vaulted halls surviving from that period lie below an enthralling maze of narrow streets, Ottoman khans and modern suqs. Drive beside the Mount Carmel range to Caesarea, founded by Herod the Great and capital of Judaea for over 600 years. Once the largest city of the eastern Mediterranean, remains include the Herodian theatre, Byzantine residential quarters and a Crusader church. First of two nights Tel Aviv.

Day 9: Tel Aviv, Jaffa. Tel Aviv began as an English-style garden city suburb of Jaffa, sprouted a Bauhaus extension (the ‘White City’, a unesco World Heritage Site) and grew remorselessly in the later 20th century. The Museum of Art has Impressionists and Post-Impressionists and we visit various other exhibits. Jaffa was a port city from the time of Solomon and remains a charmingly picturesque enclave. Overnight Tel Aviv.

Day 10: Jerusalem. Drive back to Jerusalem to visit the excellent Israel Museum. This incorporates, among other collections, the Shrine of the Book which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls and the outstanding archaeological collection. Fly in the afternoon from Tel Aviv, returning to Heathrow at c. 8.30pm.

Practicalities

Price: £4,280 (March), £4,430 (October) (deposit £400). Single supplement £710 (March), £760 (October). Price without flights £3,880 (March), £3,800 (October).


Visas: are obtained on arrival at no extra charge for most nationalities.

Accommodation. King David, Jerusalem (danhotels.com): a 5-star hotel in West Jerusalem within walking distance of the Old City. Ein Gedi (ein-gedi.co.il): a renovated

kibbutz near the Dead Sea with comfortable cottages set among beautiful botanic gardens. The Scots Hotel, Tiberias (scotshotels.co.il): a long-established 5-star hotel by the lake in Tiberias. Intercontinental David, Tel Aviv (intercontinental.com): a 5-star hotel with all expected amenities and well-appointed rooms.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking involved in the tour, some of it over rough archaeological sites. Sure-footedness is essential. Average distance by coach per day: 36 miles.


Combine the October departure of this tour with Athens & Rome (3–10 October (page 147).

Dr Garth GilmourBiblical archaeologist based at Oxford University. His interests include eastern Mediterranean trade in the Late Bronze Age and the archaeology of religion

in ancient Israel. He has excavated at the Philistine sites of Ekron and Ashkelon and is currently researching the Palestine Exploration Fund’s excavation in Jerusalem in the 1920s.All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

See also Palestine, 12–20 October 2015. Page 178.

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Palaces of PiedmontCourtly splendour in & around Turin

19–24 May 2015 (mb 332)6 days • £2,080Lecturer: Dr Luca Leoncini

Based in Turin, a lively city developed on a grand scale in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Magnificent castles and royal residences, with other treats such as Romanesque abbeys, Gothic frescoes and outstanding paintings.

A richly endowed and scenically attractive region, unaccountably neglected by tourists.

Led by Dr Luca Leoncini, art historian specialising in northern Italian paintings.

First emerging as an independent territory in the eleventh century, Savoy from the middle of the sixteenth century to the middle of the nineteenth grew from a minor duchy to a prosperous and powerful little kingdom. Straddling Alpine territory in what is now France, Switzerland and Italy, and adding Sardinia in 1720, it became larger than modern Belgium and was a significant player in European affairs.

The capital moved from Chambéry to Turin in 1563, enabling extensions to be built on relatively unencumbered terrain, planned in accordance with Renaissance and, later, Baroque principles. Italy has little else to match the grandeur and homogeneity of its sequence of squares, boulevards and palaces dating to this period. The city looks, and is, as much French and Central European as Italian, and has always impressed visitors with its orderliness, regularity and magnificence.

The capital was not the only material manifestation of Baroque culture in Piedmont. The House of Savoy and their courtiers created a

constellation of residences and hunting lodges, gardens and parks around their capital which constitute as fine a group as is to be found anywhere in Europe. The patrons were fortunate in their choice of architects, especially Guarino Guarini (1624–83) and Filippo Juvarra (1678–1736). Guarini was a priest, a mathematician and creator of the some of the most original and beguiling architectural forms of the Baroque era. Juvarra trained in Rome and developed an international practice but his best works are in Piedmont, perfecting the easeful magnificence characteristic of the dying decades of the Age of Absolutism.

Despite its cultural and linguistic orientation towards its western and northern neighbours, Savoy became the vanguard of the unification of Italy and the expulsion of foreign rulers, providing the firepower and diplomatic clout which facilitated the success of the Risorgimento in 1861. It also provided the kings of a newly united Italy. Shorn of the territories west of the Alps, France’s reward for assistance, the Italian residue of Savoy came to constitute the region of Piedmont, one of Italy’s most progressive and prosperous but unaccountably neglected by tourists.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 1.30pm (British Airways) from London Gatwick to Turin and reach the hotel in time for dinner. All five nights are spent in Turin.

Day 2: Turin. Begin with a walk through the beautiful, arcaded Piazza San Carlo. The Palazzo Carignano has a remarkable curvaceous facade by Guarini. Piazza Castello is splendid, the greatest of the buildings being Palazzo Madama by Filippo Juvarra (1721), now housing the

art gallery. Palazzo Reale, the principal royal residence, is largely of the late 17th cent. but has interiors of the 18th and 19th cents. and the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, Guarini’s masterpiece (1694). Housed here are masterpieces from the Galleria Sabauda.

Day 3: Staffarda, Manta, Racconigi. Drive south to the Abbey of Staffarda which retains an impressive Romanesque church with cloister and chapter house. Continue to the castle of Manta which has an early 15th-cent. fresco cycle, the Fountain of Youth, an important and beautiful example of secular International Gothic painting. The Castello di Racconigi was one of the summer residences of the Savoys; the front overlooking the park is by Guarini (1676).

Day 4: Superga, Turin. The basilica of Superga (1731), a votive church and burial place of the royal family with a magnificent hilltop location just outside the city, is Juvarra’s finest work. Though altered in the 18th cent., the Villa della Regina (1620) is a good example of an early Baroque residence. The afternoon is free; there is plenty to do and see in Turin, equally it is a good place in which to relax.

Day 5: Agliè, Masino, Albugnano. The Castello di Agliè to the north of Turin was rebuilt as a ducal palace in 1646 and further refurbished in the 18th and early 19th cents. With a similarly long history of embellishment, but with the 18th cent. predominant, the Castello di Masino is one of the best-preserved royal residences in Piedmont. Nestling in an isolated rural setting, the small Romanesque Abbey of Vezzolano is outstanding for its architecture, stone carvings and frescoes.

Day 6, Stupinigi, Venaria. The Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi is a royal hunting lodge built to a fascinating ground plan by Filippo Juvarra in 1730. Lavish interiors, fine gardens. The Venaria Reale (Amedeo Castellamonte 1660, Juvarra 1714–28) is the largest of the suburban palaces, a magnificent complex which reopened in 2007 after comprehensive renovation. Drive from here the short distance to the airport; return to Gatwick at c. 5.45pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Grand Hotel Sitea, Turin (grandhotelsitea.it): a 4-star hotel, comfortable, elegantly furnished and very central.

How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of walking in the town centres where vehicular access is restricted and standing in museums, and should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Average coach travel per day: 20 miles


Palazzo Madama, wood engraving in The Art Journal c. 1880114

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Genoa & TurinPalaces & galleries

“Our lecturer was exemplary in all aspects of the role – this was one of the most enjoyable tours overall I have done with you.”

Genoa, Cathedral of S. Lorenzo, watercolour by G.T.G. Formilli, publ. 1927

13–19 April 2015 (mb 286)7 days • £2,310Lecturer: Dr Luca Leoncini

Two cities, often overlooked. One, a leading city state of mediaeval Italy, the other developed on a grand scale in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Magnificent palaces and churches, from mediaeval to Baroque.

Led by Dr Luca Leoncini, art historian specialising in Italian painting.

Exceptional picture collections with particularly fine examples of Van Dyck and Rubens.

‘Secret cities’ would have been an absurd subtitle for two such major places, but did seem to suggest itself because of the rarity with which Britons find themselves there. But every art lover should go.

The prevailing images are perhaps still predominantly commercial and industrial, but not only do both Genoa and Turin have highly attractive centres but both are distinguished by the preservation of a large number of magnificent palaces and picture collections.

Genoa lays claim to the largest historic centre of any European city. It was one of the leading maritime republics of mediaeval Italy (with Marseilles it remains the largest port in the Mediterranean), and enjoyed a golden age during the seventeenth century. In the 1990s civic improvements and building restorations were undertaken to prepare the city for celebrations connected with the quincentenary of Columbus’s first voyage to the Americas, and the cultural momentum has continued.

In the earlier seventeenth century, Genoa was artistically the equal of almost anywhere in Italy except for Rome and Naples. More than any other Italian school of painting, the Genoese was indebted to the Flemish school: Rubens made a prolonged visit to Genoa in 1605 and Anthony Van Dyck was based there from 1621 to 1627. Many of his paintings remain here.

Turin, the leading city of Piedmont, was formerly capital of Savoy and later of the kingdom of Sardinia. Developed on a grand scale in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the historic centre is laid out on a regular plan with broad avenues and spacious piazze. Architecture is mainly Baroque and classical. Guarino Guarini and Filippo Juvarra, among the best architects of their time, worked here for much of their lives.

Itinerary

Day 1: Genoa. Fly at c. 9.15am (British Airways) from London Gatwick to Genoa. In the afternoon see palaces in the Via Balbi, one of the grandest streets in Europe, including the Palazzo Reale which has a magnificent stairway, splendidly furnished rooms and a fine collection of pictures. First of three nights in Genoa.

Day 2: Genoa. Visit some of the main monuments of mediaeval Genoa. The Cathedral of S. Lorenzo, built 12th–16th centuries, possesses many works of art and a fine treasury. Palazzo Spinola has good pictures, Van Dycks in particular.

Visit the church of S. Luca with its beautifully decorated interior and the churches of Il Gesù and San Donato.

Day 3: Genoa. See the Via Garibaldi, lined with magnificent palazzi, most from the 16th century. Palazzo Rosso has fine furnishings and excellent pictures. See also the adjacent church of the Annunciation, the Villa del Principe with Perin del Vaga frescoes and the Piazza S. Matteo, formed by the imposing palaces of the Doria family, which overshadow the small family church of S. Matteo. Free time in the afternoon. Possible visits include the refashioned dock area (architect: Renzo Piano).

Day 4: Cherasco, Turin. Leave Genoa and take a cross-country route through the beautiful countryside and wine-producing area of Le Langhe. Stop in Cherasco which has a 14th-century Visconti castle for a typical Piedmontese lunch. See the magnificent royal hunting lodge of Stupinigi (Filippo Juvarra, 1730) en route to Turin. First of three nights in Turin.

Day 5: Turin. A morning walk through Piazza S. Carlo, with arcades and 18th-century churches. Visit the Royal Palace, built 1660, with wonderful interiors from the 17th–19th centuries, and the Galleria Sabauda, housed in the Palace, an excellent picture collection. In the afternoon visit the little church of S. Lorenzo, a Guarini masterpiece, the cathedral (with Guarini’s Chapel of the Holy Shroud under restoration for the foreseeable future), and the sumptuous Consolata church.

Day 6: Turin. Visit the votive church of Superga, a magnificent hilltop structure by Juvarra, and the Pinacoteca Giovanni and Marella Agnelli at Lingotto which has a small but excellent quality collection in a building designed by Renzo Piano. Some free time in Turin.

Day 7: Turin, Venaria. Morning visit to the Palazzo Madama in the centre of Piazza Castello, now housing the City Art Museum. Outside Turin is the magnificent royal palace of Venaria (Amedeo Castellamonte, 1659) reopened in 2007 following extensive renovation work. Fly from Turin, returning to Gatwick c. 5.45pm.

Practicalities


Included meals: 3 lunches, 4 dinners with wine

Accommodation. Grand Hotel Savoia, Genoa (grandhotelsavoiagenova.it): a 5-star hotel close to the Palazzo Reale. Grand Hotel Sitea, Turin (grandhotelsitea.com): a 4-star hotel, comfortable, elegantly furnished and very central.

How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of walking in the town centres where vehicular access is restricted and standing in museums, and should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. The transfer day between Genoa and Turin involves a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 25 miles


Combine this tour with Palladian Villas, 7–12 April (page 122), Pompeii & Herculaneum, 20–25 April (page 150), Villas & Gardens of Campagna Romana, 20–25 April (page 146).

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Gardens & Villas of the Italian LakesComo & Maggiore

Lake Como, mezzotint by J. Alphege Brewer c. 1910

9–15 April 2015 (mb 278)7 days • £2,960Lecturer: Steven Desmond

17–23 September 2015 (mc 440)7 days • £2,960Lecturer: Steven Desmond

1–7 October 2015 (mc 471)7 days • £2,960Lecturer: Steven Desmond

Among the loveliest and most romantic spots on earth – the summer retreat of the wealthy, aristocratic and intellectual since the time of Pliny.

Some of the finest gardens in Europe, glorious in their design and range.

Led by Steven Desmond, landscape consultant and architectural historian, specialist in the conservation of historic parks and gardens.

Sublime mountain scenery, the inspiration of Bellini and Stendhal.

Historic lakeside hotels.

The gardens of the Italian lakes fall into two categories: formal, terraced, parterred, allegoried and enclosed summer residences of native landowners, and the expansive, landscaped villa grounds of the rich and splendid. Some are small, others huge; some ostentatious, others retiring; some immaculate, others picturesquely mouldering. Many are the former homes of Austrian aristocrats, Napoleonic grandees, bel canto composers or British seasonal emigrants. All respond to the setting, gazing out across bays and peninsulas, or up to mountain scenery of heroic dimensions.

The tour is divided between Lake Como and Lake Maggiore. Lake Como, the home of Pliny, is intensely romantic: Shelley, Bellini and Stendhal found inspiration here on the shores of a long and slender lake divided in three parts. The little town of Bellagio surveys all three from its glittering headland, and provides a convenient (and luxurious) base for visiting the lakeside villa gardens.

Lake Maggiore is altogether broader and more open, extending northwards into Switzerland, with the air of an inland sea. The great western bay includes the famous Borromean Islands, among them the contrasting garden retreats of Isola Bella and Isola Madre. As early as 1686

Bishop Burnet gushed that these were ‘certainly the loveliest spots of ground in the World, there is nothing in all Italy that can be compared to them’.

Our tours are scheduled at times of the year when there is the possibility of clear, brilliant sunshine. Each lake, each shore, each promontory and island, has its own character, but everywhere is pervaded by the abundance of light, perfume and natural beauty.

Itinerary

Day 1: Bellagio. Fly at midday (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Milan. Drive to Bellagio on Lake Como. First of three nights in Bellagio.

Day 2: Bellagio. The neoclassical Villa Melzi at Bellagio was built in 1810 for Francesco Melzi d’Eril, vice-president of Napoleon’s Italian Republic. It overlooks the lake in an undulating English landscape park, richly planted and decorated with ornamental buildings. The Villa Serbelloni, probably built on the site of one of Pliny the Younger’s two villas on Lake Como, occupies the high ground above Bellagio. The woods offer magnificent views to all parts of the lake. The mediaeval remnants, 16th-century villa and later terraces are the setting for planting schemes in a backdrop described by Stendhal as ‘a sublime and enchanting spectacle’.

Day 3: Lake Como. Villa Carlotta on the western shore of Lake Como, built as a summer residence for a Milanese aristocrat, combines dramatic terracing, parterre and grottoes with an extensive landscape park and arboretum. The house contains notable collections from the Napoleonic period. The Villa Balbianello occupies its own headland projecting into the middle of Lake Como. This glorious site is terraced to provide sites for lawns, trees, shrubs and a chorus of statuary. The villa stands among groves of oak and pine.

Day 4: Renaissance villa gardens. At the Villa Cicogna Mozzoni at Bisuschio, north of Varese, the 16th-century house and garden are thoroughly intertwined; the courtyard of pools and parterres leads to a water staircase, grottoes and giochi d’acqua. Lunch is served at the villa. The Villa della Porta Bozzolo, tucked away in a mountain valley near Lake Maggiore, is a hidden treasure of a garden, shooting straight up a dramatic hillside from the village street of Casalzuigno. The beautiful 17th-century villa is unexpectedly set to one side to increase the visual drama. First of three nights in Pallanza.

Day 5: the Borromean Islands. Isola Bella is one of the world’s great gardens (and correspondingly popular), a wedding cake of terraces and greenery floating improbably in Lake Maggiore. The sense of surrealism is enhanced by the symbolic statuary and the flock of white peacocks. Isola Madre is the ideal dessert to follow Isola Bella: a relaxed, informal landscape garden around a charmingly domestic villa. Visual entertainments include the marvellous plant collection, revitalised by Henry Cocker in the 1950s, the chapel garden, puppet theatre and ambulant aviary.

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Lake Maggiore, by Ella du Cane publ. 1905

Day 6: Pallanza, Stresa. The Villa Taranto at Pallanza is an extravagant piece of 20th-century kitsch created by Henry Cocker for his patron, the enigmatic Neil McEacharn. The alarmingly gauche design is superbly planted and maintained with loving zeal by the present staff. Free afternoon, with an optional visit to either the Giardino Botanico Alpinia (April) or the Villa Pallavicino (September/October).

Day 7. Fly from Milan to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 5.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, Bellagio (villaserbelloni.com): excellently situated on the edge of the lake, a historic 5-star hotel with lavishly decorated public rooms and well-appointed bedrooms (they vary in size). Rooms with a lake view here are available on request and for a supplement. Grand Hotel Majestic, Pallanza (grandhotelmajestic.it): a recently renovated, privately owned 4-star Belle Epoque hotel with lakeside gardens; bedrooms vary in size and all have lake views.

How strenuous? Quite a lot of walking; some of the gardens are extensive, and all have uneven ground. Participants need to be fit and sure-footed. Average coach travel per day: 23 miles


Combine the April departure with Pompeii & Herculaneum, 20–25 April (page 150) or Villas & Gardens of Campagna Romana, 20–25 April (page 146).

Combine the September departure with Palladian Villas, 10–15 September (page 122) or Sardinia, 26 September–4 October (page 154).

Combine the October departure with Essential Puglia, 23–30 September (page 152).

Verona Opera Lyric spectacle in the Veneto

16–20 July 2015 (mb 396)5 days • £2,390Don Giovanni • Nabucco • AidaLecturer: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott

27–31 August 2015 (mb 422)5 days • £2,390The Barber of Seville • Nabucco • AidaLecturer: Dr R. T. Cobianchi

In the setting of a Roman amphitheatre, the most famous of open-air opera festivals.

Accommodation is a 5-star hotel in the historic centre, with an optional minibus to the operas.

Both tours are accompanied by art historians who lead walks and visits during the day, rather than by a musicologist.

The first magic moment comes well before the conductor raises his baton. Unless you have led a team onto the pitch at Wembley, or won the New Hampshire primaries, you are unlikely to have experienced anything quite like the wall of heady high spirits which hits you as you emerge from the entrance tunnel into the arena.

Filling the vast ellipse of the almost two-thousand-year-old Roman amphitheatre are fourteen thousand happy people, bubbling with joyous expectation of the spectacle which is to follow. Even the most dour of dusty-hearted opera purists cannot help but be uplifted.

Then the floodlights go down, the chaotic chatter quietens to a reverential whisper, and the enveloping dusk is pierced only by flickering candle flames as uncountable as the stars above. Magic again; for these special moments the Verona Festival remains without rival.

The list of unique assets continues. There is the inestimable advantage of the stage and auditorium, one of the largest of ancient amphitheatres which, though built for rather less refined spectacles (‘arena’ is Latin for sand, used in quantity after the slaughter of animals and gladiators) provides miraculously sympathetic

acoustics. The elliptical form also seems to instil a sense which can best be described as resembling an embrace, bonding the audience however distant or disparate the individual members might be.

Then there is the benefit of being at the heart of one of the most beautiful of Italian cities. Verona is crammed with magnificent architecture and dazzlingly picturesque streets and squares. Surprisingly, the city seems scarcely deflected from a typically Italian dedication to living well and stylishly by the annual influx of festival visitors.

Enough of the spectacle, what of the music? Most performances reach high standards, with patches of stunning singing. For the (largely Italian) casts, to perform at Verona is still a special event, and there remains as an incentive to excellence the typically Italian expression of audience disapproval, instant and merciless. Besides, the younger singers know that they will be judged by more agents, casting directors and peers in one performance than usually would see them in a season.

Opinions vary concerning the best place to sit. All the seats we have booked are numbered and reserved (no queuing for hours and elbowing to seize the best of what remains), and a proportion are poltronissime gold, cushioned stalls seats, which we offer for a supplement. The rest are on the lowest tiers, the gradinate numerate, with clear sight lines, while plastic seating is mercifully interposed between you and the marble.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 2.45pm from London Gatwick to Verona (British Airways). Overnight Verona where all four nights are spent.

Day 2. Visit the church of Sant’Anastasia with its Pisanello frescoes, and the spectacular mediaeval tombs of the ruling della Scala family. Take an introductory walk in Verona, passing through the beautiful streets and squares at the heart of the city, and visit the Romanesque church of San Fermo. Some free time; opera in the Arena.

Verona, the Arena, late 18th-century copper engraving

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Verona Operacontinued

The Dolomites and the Cadore Valley, wood engraving 1893 after John McWhirter

Day 3. A walk leads to the Romanesque cathedral, then across the River Adige to the well-preserved Roman theatre. Alternatively, there are bus and train services offering the opportunity to see more of the region, perhaps Lake Garda or Venice. The afternoon is free or take an optional visit to the church of S. Zeno, a major Romanesque church with sculpted portal and a Mantegna altarpiece; evening opera in the Arena.

Day 4. The morning walk includes the Castelvecchio, a graceful mediaeval castle and fortified bridge, now housing an art museum. Lunch is at a privately owned villa in the countryside (by special arrangement). There is some free time; evening opera in the Arena.

Day 5. Fly from Verona, arriving at London Gatwick at c. 12.45pm.

Practicalities


Supplement for poltronissime gold seats £250. Available on request.

Included meals: 1 lunch and 4 dinners with wine

Accommodation. Hotel Due Torri (hotelduetorri.duetorrihotels.com/en): A luxurious 5-star hotel c. 20 minutes walk from the Arena (a shuttle is provided to and from the operas).

How strenuous? To participate fully in the itinerary, a fair amount of walking is involved. Average distance by coach per day: 18 miles


Dr Michael Douglas-ScottAssociate Lecturer in History of Art at Birkbeck College, specialising in 16th-century Italian art and architecture. He studied at the Courtauld

and lived in Rome for several years. He has written articles for Arte Veneta, Burlington Magazine and the Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes.

Dr R. T. CobianchiArt historian and lecturer. He completed his PhD at Warwick University, was a Rome Scholar at The British School in Rome and was fellow of both the Biblioteca

Hertziana, Rome, and Villa I Tatti, Florence . His research includes iconography and patronage of the late Middle Ages to the Baroque.All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

The Venetian HillsRenaissance art in the foothills of the Dolomites

1–5 October 2015 (mc 479)5 days • £1,780Lecturer: Dr Joachim Strupp

Ravishingly beautiful landscapes from vine-clad foothills to the peaks of the Dolomites.

Altarpieces and frescoes by Venetian masters, mediaeval to Rococo.

Some of the loveliest hill towns in Italy, including the birthplace of Titian.

The lecturer is Dr Joachim Strupp, an expert in Venetian art.

Combine this tour with Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 5–10 October 2015 (see opposite).

‘Hills’ and ‘Venice’ are not accustomed to finding themselves in the same sentence; sited on (and sometimes under) an estuarial lagoon, elevation above (or below) sea level in Venice is measured in centimetres. But on a clear day a range of hills can be seen rising to the north. On a very clear day the snowy peaks of the Dolomites come into view.

Towards the end of the Middle Ages the proud little communities which populated these hills one by one submitted to the rule of La Serenissima, as did much of northern Italy. Political hegemony was followed by cultural influence, clearly manifested still in the disorientating sight of Venetian-style Renaissance palazzi set against precipitous pine-clad hillsides.

But the cultural forces did not flow only in one direction. As is often the case with an artistically flourishing metropolis, many of the creators were outsiders. Titian was born in the rugged Cadore mountains, Cima from the gentler hillside town of Conegliano, Marco Ricci from hilltop Belluno. These and many other artists enjoyed successful careers in Venice, but most kept in contact with

their natal towns, accepting commissions for, or donating paintings to, their parish church.

These hill towns are among the loveliest in Italy, and they are set in ravishing landscapes which range from vine-clad foothills to soaring limestone peaks. Most of them are quite small, but the architectural ambitions of their inhabitants were otherwise: the historic centres are dense with fine buildings and arcaded streets which give protection from mountain downpours and summer sun.

The ostensible theme of this tour is painting of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but other aspects of the art and history of the region will not be ignored. The base is Follina, a tiny community which grew up around a monastery in the mountains.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 1.00pm (British Airways) from London Gatwick to Venice. Drive through the hills to Follina where all four nights are spent.

Day 2: Vittorio Veneto, Conegliano. The tiny city of Serravalle (now joined with Cèneda to form Vittorio Veneto), occupying a gorge scoured by the River Meschio, has a fine group of mediaeval and Renaissance buildings, 15th-century frescoes in the chapel of S. Lorenzo and a Titian in the cathedral. In the church of Santa Maria in Cèneda there is an exquisite Annunciation by Previtali. Drive to the birthplace of Giambattista Cima del Conegliano, the lovely town from which the artist took his name, that spreads down a hillside below the remains of a castle. Visit Cima’s house and the cathedral to see one of his greatest works (1492).

Day 3: Pieve di Cadore, Belluno. Titian was born in the little town of Pieve di Cadore; see here the family home and the parish church with paintings by Titian and family. In the afternoon drive north along the valley of the

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“This tour gave me access to places that I would never have seen on my own. ”

Piave into an ever more dramatic mountain landscape. Sitting athwart a promontory looped by the Piave, Belluno is a beautiful little city with a Renaissance cathedral and Venetian-style palaces. Among the fine paintings is an exquisite Madonna & Child by Cima in the Museo Civico.

Day 4: Bassano, Feltre. Bassano del Grappa is a highly attractive town in the foothills of the Dolomites with a series of picturesque squares with painted façades. Home of the prolific Bassano family of painters, there are several of their works in the art gallery. Stacked up along the ridge of a hill, Feltre is another architectural outpost of Venice with striking buildings in various styles. See the Rizzarda collection of early 20th-century arts and crafts and the 1802 theatre in the town hall.

Day 5: San Fior. Descend to San Fior, a little town on the densely populated plain at the foot of the hills. Riven by canals and streams, San Fior has an altarpiece by Cima. Once an important fortress city, Treviso has a fine historic centre with imposing public buildings and many painted façades. Selective visits here include the extraordinary frescoes of learned monks in the chapter house of St Nicholas by 14th-cent. painter Tommaso da Modena. Fly from Venice airport, arriving at Gatwick c. 6.45pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel dei Chiostri (hoteldeichiostri.com): a 4-star hotel in the hill town of Follina, inside former abbey buildings.

How strenuous? There is a lot of walking, much of it on steep and roughly paved streets: agility, stamina and sure-footedness are essential. Coaches are not allowed into historic centres. Many of the historical buildings visited are sprawling and vast. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average coach travel per day: 88 miles


Apart from Friuli-Venezia Giulia, this tour can be combined with Essential Puglia, 23–30 September (page 152).

Cividale, by F. Hamilton Jackson 1906

Friuli-Venezia GiuliaThe border lands of northeast Italy

5–10 October 2015 (mc 481)6 days • £1,680Lecturer: Dr Joachim Strupp

Combine this tour with The Venetian Hills, 1–5 October 2015 (see opposite).

A wide variety of art and architecture: Roman, Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance, Palladian.

Tiepolo is a recurrent theme and the tour is based in Udine where he worked early in his career.

Cumbersome by name, complex by history, the region of Friuli–Venezia Giulia is tucked within the north-eastern borders of Italy and bound by Austria, Slovenia, the Veneto and the Adriatic. Much of the region was ceded to Italy by Austria only after the First World War; a border dispute with Yugoslavia rumbled into the 1970s. Understandably, it is marked by variety – ethnic, linguistic, cultural, gastronomic and topographical.

The south and centre consist of a broad alluvial plain whose glistening fecundity is fed by rivers descending from the Julian Alps and the Dolomites. The mediating foothills produce some of the finest white wines in the world. Populous and prosperous, there are many towns with historic kernels where virtually every period of Italian art and architecture is represented, from Roman to modern. Some of the early mediaeval buildings are particularly striking and important – Aquileia, Grado and Cividale.

There is much fine Renaissance painting and architecture: Palladianism was the dominant creed for a couple of centuries after Palladio’s death, and in addition to painters who established themselves in Venice there are several lesser-known figures of talent who are not well known outside the region. Painting reached another climax in the eighteenth century as Tiepolo spent the years of his early maturity in Udine.

Udine is the base for the tour. A lively city, it has an extensive historic centre with a succession of enchantingly picturesque streets and squares and a central piazza as fine as almost any in Italy. The other big city visited is Trieste, for centuries the principal Austro-Hungarian outlet to the sea and one of the most important ports in the Mediterranean.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 2.00pm (British Airways) from London Gatwick to Venice. Drive to Udine where all five nights are spent.

Day 2: Udine. In Udine, visit the main piazza with its Gothic and Renaissance loggias, and the cathedral, basically Gothic but much augmented later. The main theme is Tiepolo, the greatest painter of the 18th century, who created several major works in the cathedral, the Oratorio della Purità and the Archbishop’s Palace. A hillock at the centre is the site of the castle, an imposing 16th-century residence housing the art gallery, a fine collection of paintings by artists from

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Friuli-Venezia Giuliacontinued

the region. See also S. Maria di Castello, the oldest church in Udine, and S. Giacomo with its Renaissance façade.

Day 3: Aquileia, Grado. See two of Italy’s best early-mediaeval churches, the Basilica at Aquileia, rebuilt in the 11th century but retaining a 4th-century mosaic floor, and S. Eufemia at Grado with mosaics, pulpit and silver altar frontal. Aquileia was a major Roman city and seat of the patriarchate while Grado was its outer port.

Day 4: Trieste. Before 1919 Trieste was the principal seaport of the Habsburg Empire and the busiest port in the Mediterranean, and its broad straight streets and 19th-century buildings have a distinctly Viennese cast. After a troubled 20th century its fortunes have revived since 1989. This is demonstrated through grand seafront architecture and the Museo Revoltella, the well-stocked mansion of a 19th-century financier. Towering above, the ancient Capitol has remains of the Roman forum, castle and the cathedral of S. Giusto, an agglomeration of buildings from the 5th century onwards with Byzantine mosaics.

Day 5: San Daniele, Spilimbergo, Pordenone. Three towns in the broad valley of the River Tagliamento. The Renaissance frescoes by Pellegrino di San Daniele in the church of Sant’Antonio at San Daniele are the finest in the region. Spilimbergo has a Gothic cathedral with 14th-century frescoes, and a castle courtyard with painted façades. Snaking through Pordenone an arcaded street widens towards the town hall and cathedral, which contains fine paintings including some by G. A. Sacchis, called Il Pordenone.

Day 6: Cividale is in the hills bordering Slovenia. Founded by Julius Caesar and capital of the first Lombard duchy in Italy, the Tempietto Longobardo possesses the finest 8th-century sculpture to survive in Europe. Fly from Venice, arriving at London Gatwick at c. 6.15pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Astoria Hotel Italia, Udine (hotelastoria.udine.it): a well established 4-star in one of the principal squares of the centre of town.

How strenuous? The tour involves quite a lot of walking, some of which is uphill and some of which is in the town centres where vehicular access is restricted. Streets are often cobbled, and the tour should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stairclimbing. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 53 miles


This tour can also be combined with Sardinia, 26 September–4 October (page 154), Siena & San Gimignano, 30 September–4 October (page 135), or Caravaggio, 12–19 October (page 149).

Venetian PalacesThe greatest & best-preserved palaces of La Serenissima

24–28 March 2015 (mb 260)5 days • £2,270Lecturer: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott

17–21 November 2015 (mc 530)5 days • £2,270Lecturer: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott

Explores many of the finest and best-preserved palaces, once homes to the wealthiest nobles and merchants in Venice.

Access to many by special arrangement, including some which are still in private hands. Also a private after-hours visit to St Mark’s Basilica.

Led by Dr Michael Douglas-Scott, specialist in 16th-century Italian art and architecture.

Stay in a 4-star hotel on the Grand Canal.

Just as Venice possesses but a single piazza among dozens of campi, it has only one building correctly called a ‘palazzo’. The singularity is

important: the Doge’s Palace (Palazzo Ducale), like the Piazza San Marco, was the locus of the Serenissima’s public identity and seat of her republican government. Unlike her rivals in Florence and Milan she had no ruling dynasties to dictate polity, by contrast developing a deep aversion to individual aggrandizement and over-concentrated power. While the person and Palazzo of the Doge embodied their municipal identity, it was in their private houses that Venice’s mercantile oligarchs expressed their own family wealth and status.

These case (in Venetian parlance ca’) were built throughout the city. In the absence of primogeniture, many branches sprung from the two hundred-odd noble families, leading to several edifices of the same name – an obstacle for would-be visitors.

These houses were unlike any other domestic buildings elsewhere in the world: erected over wooden piles driven into the mud flats of the lagoon, they remained remarkably uniform over the centuries in their basic design, combining the functions of mercantile emporium (ground level)

Entrance to the Palazzo Ducale, wood engraving c. 1880

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Monteverdi in VeniceThe Four Operas

and magnificent residence (upper floors).They were however built in a fantastic

variety of styles, Veneto-Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo. Sometimes there is a touch of Islamic decoration. As new families bought their way into the aristocracy during the long period of the Republic’s economic and political decline, they had their residences refurbished in Rococo splendour by master artists such as Giambattista Tiepolo. Many of these palaces have survived the virtual extinction of the Venetian aristocracy and retain their original, if faded, glory.

Palaces for nobles will be considered in conjunction with those for the non-noble cittadino (wealthy merchant) class and the housing projects for ordinary Venetian popolani, which rise cheek by jowl in the dense urban fabric.

Some of the places visited are familiar and readily accessible to the public. Others are opened only by special arrangement with the owners, whether a charitable organisation, branch of local government, or descendants of the original occupants. Some of these cannot be confirmed until nearer the time.

A private, after-hours visit to the Basilica San Marco, the mosaic interior illuminated for your benefit, is a highlight of this tour. As is an opportunity to see up close ‘the most beautiful street in the world’, the Grand Canal, from that most Venetian of vantage-points, a gondola.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 12.30pm (British Airways) from London Gatwick to Venice. Cross the lagoon by motoscafo (water taxi) and travel up the Grand Canal to the doors of the hotel. Luggage is transported separately to the hotel by porters. Take an introductory walk in Piazza San Marco.

Day 2. Visit the Palazzo Ducale, supremely beautiful with its 14th-century pink and white revetment outside, late Renaissance gilded halls and paintings by Tintoretto and Veronese inside. See the palazzi on the Grand Canal from the viewpoint of a gondola. The former Casino Venier (by special arrangement) is a uniquely Venetian establishment that was part private members’ bar, part literary salon, part brothel. There is an after-hours private visit to the Basilica San Marco, an 11th-century Byzantine-style church enriched over the centuries with mosaics, sculpture and various precious objects.

Day 3. Designed by Longhena (c. 1667) and Giorgio Massari (c. 1751), the Ca’ Rezzonico is perhaps the most magnificent of Grand Canal palaces, and contains frescoes by Tiepolo; it is now a museum of 18th-century art. Visit the grand ballroom of late 17th-century Palazzo Zenobio (by special arrangement). In the afternoon visit the Palazzo Barbarigo della Terrazza (by special arrangement), a 16th-century palazzo with remarkable views of the Grand Canal. The Palazzo Grimani at Santa Maria Formosa became in the mid-sixteenth century the purpose-built site of the family collection of antiquities, which were then bequeathed to the Venetian Republic.

Day 4. With its elegant tracery and abundant ornamentation, the Ca’ d’Oro, also on the Grand Canal, is the most gorgeous of Venetian Gothic palaces; it now houses the Galleria Franchetti. The 13th-century Fondaco dei Turchi is a unique survival from the era; today it is the natural history museum. In the afternoon visit two privately-owned palaces, the 16th-century Palazzo Corner Gheltoff Alverà and Palazzo Contarini dal Zaffo-Polignac (both by special arrangement).

Day 5. Visit the privately-owned 17th-cent. Palazzo Albrizzi which has some of the finest stucco decoration in Venice (special arrangement). Travel by motoscafo to Venice airport. Fly to London Gatwick, arriving c. 5.15pm.

The tour is dependent on the kindness of many individuals and organisations, some of whom are reluctant to make arrangements far in advance, so the order of visits outlined above may change and there may be substitutions for some palaces mentioned.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Palazzo Sant’Angelo, Venice (palazzosantangelo.com): a 4-star hotel in an excellent location on the Grand Canal near Campo Sant’Angelo and the Rialto Bridge.

How strenuous? The nature of Venice means that the city is more often than not traversed on foot. Although part of her charm, there is a lot of walking along the flat and up and down bridges; standing around in museums and palaces is also unavoidable. The tour should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Fitness is essential.


Combine the March departure with Gardens of the Riviera, 18–24 March (page 80).

Combine the November departure with Florentine Palaces, 11–15 November (page 134).

2–7 November 2015Details available in December 2014Contact us to register your interest

A festival devoted to the operas of Claudio Monteverdi: Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria performed by La Venexiana, L’incoronazione di Poppea with the Academy of Ancient Music, L’Orfeo with I Fagiolini and L’Arianna, the world première of a reconstruction by Claudio Cavina.

Additionally there are three concerts exploring his other music. Historic venues include the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista and Ateneo Veneto.

Access to the concerts is exclusive to those who take an all-inclusive arrangement which includes hotel, flights, meals, travel and much else besides.

Watercolour by Mortimer Menpes publ. 1904

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Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza, 18th-century engraving

Palladian VillasThe greatest house builder in history

7–12 April 2015 (mb 277)6 days • £1,910Lecturer: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott

10–15 September 2015 (mc 433)6 days • £1,910Lecturer: Professor Fabrizio Nevola

A survey of nearly all the surviving villas and palaces designed by Andrea Palladio (1508–80), the world’s most influential architect.

Stay throughout in Vicenza, Palladio’s home town and site of many of his buildings.

Led by expert architectural historians.

With many special appointments, this itinerary would be impossible for independent travellers.

Utility is the key to understanding Palladio’s villas. In sixteenth-century Italy a villa was a farm, and in the Veneto agriculture had become a serious business for the city-based mercantile aristocracy. As the Venetian maritime empire gradually crumbled before the advancing Ottoman Turks, Venetians compensated by investing in the terra ferma of their hinterland.

But beauty was equally the determinant of form, though beauty of a special kind. Palladio was designing buildings for a clientele who, whether princes of commerce, traditional soldier-aristocrats or gentlemen of leisure, shared an intense admiration for ancient Rome. They were

children of the High Renaissance and steeped in humanist learning. Palladio was the first architect regularly to apply the colonnaded temple fronts to secular buildings.

But the beauty of his villas was not solely a matter of applied ornament. As can be seen particularly in his low-budget, pared-down villas and auxiliary buildings there is a geometric order which arises from sophisticated systems of proportion and an unerring intuitive sense of design. It is little wonder that Andrea Palladio became the most influential architect the western world has ever known.

Most of his finest surviving villas and palaces are included on this tour, as well as some of the lesser-known and less accessible ones.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 2.00pm (British Airways) from London Gatwick to Venice. Drive to Vicenza where all five nights are spent.

Day 2. See in Vicenza several palaces by Palladio including the Palazzo Thiene and the colonnaded Palazzo Chiericati. His chief civic works here are the Basilica, the mediaeval town hall nobly encased in classical guise, and the Teatro Olimpico, the earliest theatre of modern times. The hilltop ‘La Rotonda’, a ten-minute drive away, is the most famous of Palladio’s buildings, domed and with four porticoes. Adjacent is the 17th-century Villa Valmarana ‘ai Nani’ with frescoes by Giambattista and Domenico Tiepolo.

Day 3. The Villa Pisani at Bagnolo di Lonigo, small but of majestic proportions, is considered by many scholars to be Palladio’s first masterpiece. The Villa Badoer at Fratta Polesine, from the middle of his career, is a perfect example of Palladian hierarchy, a raised residence connected by curved colonnades to auxiliary buildings.

Day 4. In the foothills of the Dolomites, Villa Godi Malinverni is an austere cuboid design with lavish frescoes inside, and at the lovely town of Bassano there is a wooden bridge by Palladio. The Villa Barbaro at Maser, built by Palladio for two highly cultivated Venetian brothers, has superb frescoes by Veronese, while the Villa Emo at Fanzolo typically and beautifully combines the utilitarian with the monumental.

Day 5. Drive along a stretch of the canal between Padua and the Venetian Lagoon which is lined with the summer retreats of Venetian patricians. The Villa Foscari, ‘La Malcontenta’, is one of Palladio’s best known and most enchanting creations. Explore one of Palladio’s most evolved, most beautiful and most influential buildings, the Villa Cornaro at Piombino Dese.

Day 6. The Villa Pojana, an early work, is restrained but of noble proportions and contains models of Palladio’s works. The Villa Cordellina Lombardi is a fine example of 18th-century Palladianism. Fly from Venice to London Gatwick, arriving c. 6.45pm.

Please note that most of the villas are privately owned and require special permission to visit. The selection and order of visits may therefore vary a little from the description here.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Campo Marzio (hotelcampomarzio.com): a 4-star hotel just outside a city gate of Vicenza, well located and comfortable, with decent-sized rooms.

How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of walking, sometimes uphill and over unevenly paved ground, as the coach can rarely get close to the villas or enter town centres. There is a lot of standing outside and inside villas. Fitness is essential. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 66 miles


Combine the April departure with Lucca, 13–19 April (page 136), Genoa & Turin, 13–19 April (page 115), Sicily, 13–25 April (page 155), or The Heart of Italy, 14–21 April (page 140).

Combine the September departure with Gardens & Villas of the Italian Lakes, 17–23 September (page 116).

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Venice & FlorencePainting, sculpture, architecture

Venice Campanile, by R. Barratt, publ. 1907

7–14 March 2015 (mb 252)8 days • £2,770Lecturer: Dr Kevin Childs

Some of the finest and best-known art and architecture in the western world.

Wide-ranging survey with Renaissance emphasis.

Special arrangements include a private after-hours visit to St Mark’s Basilica in Venice.

Off-peak dates, small group.

To achieve a proper appreciation of Italian art and civilization, there can be no better way than immersion in the incomparable cities of Venice and Florence. There are similarities between the two city-states: the simultaneity of their periods of greatness (with consequent rivalry); the extraordinary wealth generated by pioneering commercial and manufacturing enterprise; republican and democratic political systems; and, above all, the brilliance of their material culture, both bequeathing a corpus of painting, sculpture and architecture of incomparable quantity, quality and influence.

And there are differences. Florence, an inland city, is largely built of local rough-hewn pietra forte, a tough brown stone, with columns and arches of pietra serena, grey and severe. Venice, the greatest maritime power of its time, imported coloured marbles and white limestone from around the Mediterranean and brick from its hinterland. Florentine art is muscular, linear and monumental, while in Venice primacy is given to colour, gorgeous and evanescent. Venice’s lagoon location and its myriad canals is beyond different, it is unique.

Florence was, of course, the cradle of the Renaissance. Giotto, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo are some of the great names studied on this tour. Today Florence is a vibrant, contemporary city, but the past is omnipresent – the city walls, distant vistas of olive groves, narrow alleyways, expansive piazzas and imposing palazzi, all reminders of the vast banking and manufacturing wealth which drove its artistic preeminence. Trade with the East was the source of Venice’s wealth, and the eastern connection has left its indelible stamp, with western styles tempered by a richness of effect and delicacy of pattern redolent of oriental opulence.

Seeing the highlights of these two cities in succession, with enough time in each to enable some depth of experience, provides one of the great aesthetic journeys the world has to offer.

Itinerary

Day 1: Venice. Fly at c. 8.45am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Venice. Cross the lagoon by motoscafo (water taxi) to the hotel. There is an introductory walk which includes a visit to S. Zaccaria, with its outstanding Renaissance altarpiece by Bellini. First of three nights in Venice.

Day 2: Venice. Spend the morning at the incomparably beautiful Doge’s Palace with pink

Gothic revetment and rich Renaissance interiors. In the afternoon cross the bacino to Palladio’s beautiful island church of S. Giorgio Maggiore and then to the tranquil Giudecca to see his best church, Il Redentore.

Day 3: Venice. The day is spent across the Grand Canal in the Dorsoduro district. The great Franciscan church of S. Maria Gloriosa dei Frari has outstanding artworks including Titian’s Assumption, and the Scuola Grande di San Rocco has dramatic paintings by Tintoretto. The Accademia is Venice’s major art gallery, where all the Venetian painters are represented. In the evening there is a private after-hours visit to the Basilica of S. Marco, an 11th-century Byzantine church enriched over the centuries with mosaics, sculpture and precious objects (subject to confirmation as bookings had not yet opened at time of printing).

Day 4: Venice, Florence. Visit the vast gothic church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, the early Renaissance S. Maria dei Miracoli with its multicoloured stone veneer, and S. Giovanni Crisostomo with its Bellini altarpiece. Travel by rail to Florence (first class) for the first of four nights there.

Day 5: Florence. The Dominican church of S. Maria Novella has many works of art (Masaccio’s Trinità, Ghirlandaio’s frescoed sanctuary), while the church-cum-granary of Orsanmichele is adorned with important Renaissance statuary. The cluster of cathedral buildings occupies the afternoon, the baptistry with its Byzantine mosaics and Renaissance sculpture, the polychromatic marble Duomo itself capped by Brunelleschi’s massive dome and the excellent collections in the cathedral museum (at the time of printing the cathedral museum is almost entirely closed for restoration but due to reopen in 2015).

Day 6: Florence. A Medici morning includes San Lorenzo, the family parish church designed by Brunelleschi, their burial chapel in the contiguous New Sacristy with Michelangelo’s largest sculptural ensemble, and Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library. The afternoon is devoted to the Uffizi, Italy’s most important art gallery, which has masterpieces by every major Florentine painter as well as international Old Masters.

Day 7: Florence. Visit the Bargello, a mediaeval palazzo housing Florence’s finest sculpture collection with works by Donatello, Verrocchio and Michelangelo. Walk to the vast Franciscan church of Santa Croce, favoured burial place for leading Florentines and abundantly furnished with sculpted tombs, altarpieces and frescoes. In the afternoon visit the redoubtable Palazzo Pitti, which houses several museums including the Galleria Palatina, outstanding particularly for High Renaissance and Baroque paintings.

Day 8: Florence. In Santa Trìnita there are fine frescoes by Ghirlandaio. See the Masaccio fresco cycle in the Brancacci Chapel, which constitutes the most important work of painting of the Early Renaissance, and Santo Spirito, Brunelleschi’s last great church, with many 15th-century altarpieces. Fly from Pisa to Heathrow, arriving c. 4.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Westin Europa & Regina, Venice (westineuropareginavenice.com): an elegant and historic hotel on the Grand Canal, opposite the Salute. Hotel Santa Maria Novella, Florence (hotelsantamarianovella.it): a 4-star hotel in a very central location.

How strenuous? The nature of both Venice and Florence means that the cities are more often than not traversed on foot. Although part of their charm, there is a lot of walking along the flat (and up and down bridges in Venice); standing around in museums and churches is also unavoidable.


Combine this tour with Sicily, 16–28 March (page 155).

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Courts of Northern ItalyPrincely art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance

8–15 March 2015 (mb 262) 8 days • £2,190Lecturer: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott

24–31 May 2015 (mb 341) 8 days • £2,190Lecturer: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott

4–11 October 2015 (mc 476) 8 days • £2,190Lecturer: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott

Northern Italy’s independent city states: Mantua, Ferrara, Parma, Ravenna and Urbino.

Some of the greatest Renaissance art and architecture, commissioned by the powerful ruling dynasties: Gonzaga, Este, Sforza, Farnese, Montefeltro and others.

Led by Dr Michael Douglas-Scott, specialist in Renaissance Italian art and architecture.

Highlights include the most glorious concentration of Byzantine mosaics and important work by Alberti, Mantegna, Piero della Francesca and Correggio.

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Italy gradually fragmented into numerous little territories. The city states became fiercely independent and were governed with some degree of democracy. But a debilitating violence all too often ensued as the leading families fought with fellow citizens for dominance of the city council and the offices of state. A common outcome from the thirteenth century onwards was the imposition of autocratic rule by a single prince,

and the suspension of democratic structures: but such tyranny was not infrequently welcomed with relief and gratitude by a war-weary citizenry.

Their rule may have been tyrannical, and warfare their principal passion, but the Montefeltro, Malatesta, d’Este and Gonzaga dynasties brought into being through their patronage some of the finest buildings and works of art of the Renaissance. Many of the leading artists in fifteenth- and sixteenth- century Italy worked in the service of princely courts.

As for palace art of earlier epochs, little survives, though a glimpse of the oriental splendour of the Byzantine court of Emperor Justinian can be had in the mosaic depiction of him, his wife and their retinue in the church of San Vitale in Ravenna. It is not until the fifteenth century, in Mantegna’s Camera degli Sposi at Mantua, that we are again allowed an unhindered gaze into court life.

Itinerary

Day 1: Mantua. Fly at c. 8.45am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Bologna. Drive to Mantua where the first four nights are spent. After a late lunch, visit the Ducal Palace, a vast rambling complex, the aggregate of 300 years of extravagant patronage by the Gonzaga dynasty (Mantegna’s frescoes in the Camera degli Sposi, Pisanello frescoes, Rubens altarpiece). At the time of printing, the Camera degli Sposi is closed due to the earthquake in 2012, and may not reopen until the end of 2015.

Day 2: Mantua, Sabbioneta. In the morning visit Alberti’s highly influential Early Renaissance church of Sant’Andrea, the Romanesque Rotonda of S. Lorenzo and Giulio Romano’s uncharacteristically restrained cathedral. In the afternoon, drive to Sabbioneta, an ideal Renaissance city on an almost miniature scale, built for Vespasiano Gonzaga in the 1550s; visit the ducal palace, theatre, and one of the world’s first picture galleries.

Day 3: Parma, Fontanellato. Parma is a beautiful city; the vast Palazzo della Pilotta houses an art gallery (Correggio, Parmigianino) and an important Renaissance theatre (first proscenium arch). Visit the splendid Romanesque cathedral with illusionistic frescoes of a tumultuous heavenly host by Correggio. Also by Correggio is a sophisticated set of allegorical lunettes in grisaille surrounding a celebration of Diana as the goddess of chastity and the hunt in the Camera di San Paolo. In the afternoon, visit the moated 13th-century castle and Farnese theatre in Fontanellato, seeing frescoes by Parmigianino.

Day 4: Mantua. After a free morning, an afternoon walk takes in the exteriors of Alberti’s centrally planned church of S. Sebastiano, and the houses that court artists Mantegna and Giulio Romano built for themselves. Also visit Palazzo Te, the Gonzaga summer residence and the major monument of Italian Mannerism, designed and with lavish frescoes by Giulio Romano.

Day 5: Ferrara was the centre of the city-state ruled by the d’Este dynasty, whose court was one of the most lavish and cultured in Renaissance

Italy. Pass the Castello Estense, a moated 15th-century stronghold, and the cathedral. The Palazzo Diamanti houses the art gallery, and the Palazzo Schifanoia is an Este retreat with elaborate allegorical frescoes. First of three nights in Ravenna.

Day 6: Ravenna, Classe. The last capital of the western Roman Empire and subsequently capital of Ostrogothic and Byzantine Italy, Ravenna possesses the world’s most glorious concentration of Early Christian and Byzantine mosaics. Visit the Basilica of S. Apollinare Nuovo with its mosaic Procession of Martyrs. Drive to Classe, Ravenna’s port, which was once one of the largest in the Roman world; virtually all that is left is the great Basilica of S. Apollinare. In the evening, there is a private visit to the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, lined with 5th-century mosaics, and the splendid centrally planned church of S. Vitale with 6th-century mosaics of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora.

Day 7: Urbino. Drive into the hills to Urbino, the beautiful little city of the Montefeltro dynasty. See the exquisite Gothic frescoes in the Oratorio di San Giovanni. In the afternoon, visit the Palazzo Ducale, a masterpiece of architecture which grew over 30 years into the perfect Renaissance secular environment. See the beautiful studiolo of Federico of Montefeltro and excellent picture collection here (Piero, Raphael, Titian).

Day 8: Cesena, Rimini. The Biblioteca Malatestiana in Cesena is a perfectly preserved renaissance library established by Malatesta Novello, and contains over 300 valuable manuscripts. In Rimini visit the outstanding Tempio Malatestiano, designed by Leon Battista Alberti for the tyrant Sigismondo Malatesta, which contains superb decoration by Agostino di Duccio and particularly fine sculptural detail. Fly from Bologna, arriving at Heathrow c. 8.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Casa Poli, Mantua (hotelcasapoli.it): a 4-star hotel a short walk from the historic centre. Hotel Bisanzio, Ravenna (bisanziohotel.com): a bland modern façade hides a small and welcoming but relatively basic 4-star hotel.

How strenuous? There is a lot of walking, much of it on steep and roughly paved streets: agility, stamina and sure-footedness are essential. Coaches are not allowed into historic centres. Many of the historical buildings visited are sprawling and vast. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average coach travel per day: 88 miles


Combine the March departure with Sicily, 16–28 March (page 155).

Combine the May departure with Palaces of Piedmont, 19–24 May (page 114).

Urbino, Ducal Palace, watercolour by Edward Hutton publ. 1875

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Dark Age BrillianceLate Antique & Pre-Romanesque

20–27 September 2015 (mc 443)8 days • £2,140Lecturer: Dr Ffiona Gilmore Eaves

A journey through north-east Italy to Croatia, via Ravenna, Torcello and Cividale.

Private evening visit to San Vitale, Ravenna’s finest church, and the adjacent Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, to see the magnificent mosaics.

Includes some of the finest art and architecture of the Early Middle Ages to be found anywhere.

Byzantine heritage of unique range and richness, with exceptional mosaics.

It is now commonplace to believe, contrary to the assumptions of centuries, that the Dark Ages which succeeded the glories of the Roman Empire were not so dark, and that the later history of the Empire was not so glorious. A concomitant reappraisal has led to the acceptance of Early Christian and Byzantine art not as a regression to primitivism – an aspect of the decline and fall – but as one of the most brilliant chapters in the history of Western art.

But it remains true that in the territories of the Western Empire from the fifth to the ninth century there was little in the way of monumental building or large-scale artistic production. Only in a few dispersed pockets was the flame of ambitious artistic and intellectual endeavour kept alive.

A string of such pockets gathered around the northern end of the Adriatic and north-east Italy, the last redoubt of the Empire in the West. Born of an Umbrian past and raised in Imperial retreat, Ravenna remains anchored in the Adriatic marshes, humbled by the rise of her great neighbours, Bologna and Venice, and unhindered by later political commerce. The effect of this marginal status has been to spare her Early Christian buildings and leave a Byzantine heritage of unique range and richness. Given the intensity with which Ravenna developed between 402, when Honorius chose it as his capital, and 751, when the last of the Exarchs returned to Constantinople, it makes a fitting introduction to Early Christian and early mediaeval culture in north-eastern Italy.

Arising from the need to cater for the spiritual requirements of newly emancipated Christianity, the clarity and humanism of the classical tradition were superseded by images and decoration designed to instil a kind of sacred dread, and to intimate the glories of the world to come. Mosaic was the key element in creating church interiors of awesome splendour and intense spirituality.

Early Christian forms were endorsed throughout the whole of the Adriatic seaboard, and the second half of the tour embraces Aquileia, Grado, Poreč (Parenzo) in Croatia and Concordia Sagittaria. The theme is rounded off with the astonishing little eighth-century church in Cividale in the foothills of the Julian Alps which preserves the earliest monumental sculpture of the Middle Ages.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 3.00pm (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Bologna. Drive to Ravenna for the first of three nights.

Day 2: Ravenna. Begin with an exploration of the 5th-century forms at the cathedral and Orthodox Baptistery, and the superlative 6th-century ivory throne of Maximian in the Museo Arcivescovile. In the afternoon study Arian Ravenna at the Arian Baptistery and Theodoric’s great Palatine church of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo. Investigate the 5th-century basilica design which provided Theodoric’s court with its most immediate models, and Galla Placidia’s splendid ex-voto basilica of San Giovanni Evangelista.

Day 3: Ravenna, Classe. In the morning see the outstanding National Museum, with excellent Byzantine ivory carvings. Travel by coach to Theodoric’s superb Mausoleum and to the ancient port of Classe for the great 6th-century basilica of Sant’Apollinare. Private

evening visit to the church of San Vitale, the greatest 6th-century building of the West; the invention with which form, colour, space and narrative meaning are combined is breathtaking. The Mausoleum of Galla Placidia is the earliest Christian structure in Europe to retain its mosaic decoration in its entirety.

Day 4: Pomposa, Concordia Sagittaria. Drive north to the Po delta. Pomposa is an important 8th-century Benedictine abbey, richly extended by Abbot Guido’s magnificent 11th-century porch and campanile. Lunch in Chioggia. The Roman road station at Concordia Sagittaria, whose modest mediaeval cathedral was built alongside a 4th-century basilica and martyrium, is splendidly revealed through archaeological excavation. Stay four nights in Cividale.

Day 5: Cividale. Although founded as Forum Julii in the 1st century bc, Cividale is best known to historians as the site of the earliest Longobard settlement in northern Italy, and most celebrated by art historians for the astonishing quality

Ravenna, Sant’Apollinare Nuova, wood cut by Giulio Ricci c. 1930

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and quantity of the 8th-century work which has survived here. See the superb ‘Tempietto’ of Santa Maria in Valle, Longobardic work in the cathedral museum and spectacular early mediaeval collections in the archaeological museum. The afternoon is free in Cividale.

Day 6: Poreč (Croatia). Drive south, cross Slovenia and enter the part of Croatia formerly known as Istria. The sole object of the excursion is to visit Poreč (Parenzo), a longish journey justified by the existence of an unusually complete 6th-century cathedral complex: basilican church, baptistery and bishop’s palace. The church proper was built above an earlier basilica c. 540 by Bishop Euphrasius, whose complete episcopal throne is set within an apse which, for once, has retained its full complement of furnishings and fittings.

Day 7: Aquileia, Grado. Aquileia was a major Roman city whose influential cathedral was complete by 319. Sections of walls and mosaic pavements were preserved within the present 11th-century cathedral, a rather wonderful survival. The Longobard sack of 568 resulted in the removal of the see to the more defensible position on the coast at Grado, whose two great 6th-century churches, Santa Maria della Grazie and the cathedral, also have outstanding floor mosaics.

Day 8: Torcello. Drive to the Adriatic and take a water taxi to the island of Torcello in the Venetian lagoon, a major city while Venice was little more than a fishing village. Visit the largely 11th-century cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta and adjacent Greek-cross reliquary church of Santa Fosca. Continue to Venice Airport and fly to London Gatwick, arriving at c. 7.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Palazzo Bezzi, Ravenna (palazzobezzi.it): a new 4-star superior hotel, located on the edge of the historic centre of town. Hotel Roma, Cividale (hotelroma-cividale.it): a simple, functional and friendly 3-star, located in the centre of town.

How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of walking in town centres where vehicular access is restricted and a lot of standing in museums and churches. It should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 76 miles


Combine this tour with The Greeks in Sicily, 14–21 September (page 157), The Heart of Italy, 15–22 September (page 140), Siena & San Gimignano, 30 September–4 October (page 135), The Venetian Hills, 1–5 October (page 118), Gardens & Villas of the Italian Lakes, 1–7 October (page 116).

Gastronomic Emilia-RomagnaFood & art along the Via Emilia

Parma, woodcut c. 1550

11–17 April 2015 (mb 280)7 days • £2,830Lecturers: Marc Millon & Dr R. T. Cobianchi

One of the world’s most famous food-producing regions.

A food-lover’s paradise: source of the best ham, cheese, vinegar, fresh pasta. See how they are made and meet their producers.

Two lecturers: an expert art historian and a gastronomic specialist, author of The Food Lover’s Companion to Italy.

Emilia-Romagna, shaped like a wedge of its renowned Parmesan cheese, is rich in every way – artistically, culturally, economically and, by no means least, gastronomically. To journey along the Via Emilia, the long, straight Roman road from Milan to the Adriatic coast, is to immerse oneself in a gloriously hedonistic garden of Eden that is the source of some of the greatest foods in the world.

The lovely cities of Parma and Bologna are the ideal bases from which to explore some of the masterpieces of Italian gastronomy, including

the two jewels in the region’s crown; sweet Prosciutto di Parma, air-cured by dry mountain winds that sweep down from the Apennines, and Parmigiano-Reggiano, the king of cheeses. Here, within their strictly defined areas of origin, you have a rare opportunity to see the production of these protected foods and to taste them in the company of the producers themselves.

We also visit two family-run acetaia to discover the mysterious art of producing traditional balsamic vinegar, the rich, complex condiment that must be aged for a minimum of twelve years. Vast oceans of inferior imitations may be found on tables all around the world, but the real thing, aged in batteries of wood, unctuous and thick, is known as ‘black gold’, an incredibly concentrated elixir that is part of the region’s great gastronomic patrimony.

The trademark of Bologna is its hand-made egg pasta, which appears in many guises from filled tortellini to rich, luscious lasagne. A visit to Bologna’s food market with its vast array of fresh pasta, mortadella and salami, breads, cakes and ice cream explains why this city is known as la grassa (the fat one).

Wine, too, is an important feature throughout. Starting in the Colli Piacentini (hills of Piacenza), we discover expressions of the grape that may

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“Marc was superb: adaptive, fluent, interesting; we particularly liked his readings during coach trips”

Bologna, Torre Pendenti, wood engraving c .1890

not be as exalted as the region’s foods but which are perfect accompaniments, made from ancient grapes such as Malvasia, Trebbiano and Sangiovese. We also discover the real Lambrusco, foaming wildly, raspingly dry and rich in acidity.

Although the main focus of this tour is gastronomy, both Parma and Bologna have a wealth of artistic treasures and time is allowed to explore these in the expert company of an art historian. Feeding the body, feeding the mind: this is the gastronomy of Emilia-Romagna.

Itinerary

Day 1: Piacenza, Parma. Fly at c. 10.30am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Milan. On the border of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna is Piacenza, with many mediaeval buildings on its Roman grid plan, among them an outstanding town hall and a Romanesque cathedral. The equestrian statue of Alessandro Farnese is a masterpiece of Baroque sculpture. Visit the Romanesque basilica of S. Savino before continuing to Parma. Dinner is at a Michelin-starred restaurant. The first four nights are spent in Parma.

Day 2: Parma, Polesine Parmense, Colli Piacentini. Parma is of great importance in particular for its High Renaissance school of painting. In the Palazzo della Pilotta is a good art collection. Discover the rare and prestigious culatello di Zibello, made from the rump of a specially bred pig and cured for over a year in cellars at the 13th-century Corte Pallavicina. Normally such conditions are not conducive to the curing of meats – there is a great risk of spoilage – but when successful, the result is a cured meat product of near unbelievable intensity of flavour and sweetness. Lunch is in the family-run restaurant here, which has a Michelin star. In the afternoon, visit the Romanesque collegiata in Castell’Arquato before continuing to Vigolo Marchese for a tasting of wines of the Colli Piacentini.

Day 3: Parma and surroundings. Parmigiano-Reggiano has been made in the area around Parma using the same methods for over 700 years. Watch the process at a modern caseificio, with tasting. See the hand production of traditional balsamic vinegar at an acetaia, followed by a demonstration of fresh pasta-making and lunch. To see pasta being made by hand is to witness a near miraculous transformation of the simplest ingredients, flour and eggs, into the most ingenious collection of shapes and forms. Return to Parma to see the astonishingly vital and illusionistic frescoes by Correggio, Parma’s finest painter, in the cathedral, the church of S. Giovanni Evangelista and the exquisite Camera di S. Paolo. In the early evening the lecturer leads a wine tasting in the hotel.

Day 4: Torrechiara, Langhirano. In the morning visit the 15th-century castle in Torrechiara. Continue to a producer of Prosciutto di Parma and see the age-old process of curing and drying, before tasting it later with wines and lunch at a good winery. Return to Parma for some free time.

Day 5: Modena, Nonantola. In Modena visit the cathedral, among the finest Romanesque buildings in the region. Visit another family-run acetaia in a converted convent, with a tasting followed by lunch at a restaurant on the property. Continue to Bologna for a visit to the vast Gothic church of S. Petronio, with sculpture by Jacopo della Quercia. The last two nights of this tour are spent in Bologna.

Day 6: Bologna, Dozza, Imola. The famous food market in Bologna sprawls through a maze of streets where shops and stalls display an overwhelming array of fresh pasta, artisanal mortadella, hams and salamis, cheeses, fresh fruit and vegetables, and an irresistible variety of bread and pastries. Taste some of these products in one of the city’s historic food shops. Other visits include the early mediaeval churches of

S. Stefano and the Pinacoteca Nazionale, which includes works by Raphael, the Carracci family and Guido Reni. In the evening drive to Dozza for a tasting of wines from Romagna, before continuing to Imola for dinner at one of the finest restaurants in Italy.

Day 7: Brisighella, Forlimpopoli. In the morning drive to Brisighella, where the extra virgin olive oil produced by a cooperative of local olive growers enjoys DOP status. Forlimpopoli is the birthplace of Pellegrino Artusi, the author of the original Italian national cookbook. A demonstration of making the typical flatbread of Romagna, piadina, is followed by lunch before driving to the airport. Fly from Bologna, arriving Heathrow at c. 8.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Stendhal, Parma (hotelstendhal.it): a quiet 4-star hotel, excellently located in the middle of the historic centre. Hotel Corona d’Oro, Bologna (bolognarthotels.it/hotel-corona-d-oro.aspx): an elegant 4-star hotel in the heart of Bologna.

How strenuous? There is a lot of walking and standing on this tour, and it would not be suitable for anyone who has difficulties with everyday walking or stair-climbing. Coaches can not enter some of the historical town centres. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 71 miles


Combine this tour with Pompeii & Herculaneum, 20–25 April (page 150) or Villas & Gardens of Campagna Romana, 20–25 April (page 146).

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Ravenna & UrbinoByzantine capital, Renaissance court

6–10 May 2015 (mb 314)5 days • £1,430Lecturer: Dr Luca Leoncini

14–18 October 2015 (mc 491)5 days • £1,430Lecturer: Dr Luca Leoncini

A study in contrasts: one a city with origins as a major Roman seaport, the other an enchanting little Renaissance settlement high in the hills.

In Ravenna, some of the greatest buildings of late antiquity with the finest Byzantine mosaics.

In Urbino the ducal palace, the greatest secular building of the Early Renaissance.

Private evening visit to San Vitale, Ravenna’s finest church, and the adjacent Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, to see the magnificent mosaics.

Led by art historian Dr Luca Leoncini.

Why combine them? Both are somewhat out of the way, yet near to each other. First run almost 30 years ago and still a firm favourite.

Ravenna was once one of the most important cities in the western world. The last capital of the Roman Empire in the West, she subsequently became capital of the Gothic kingdoms of Italy and of Byzantine Italy. Then history passed her by. Marooned in obscurity, some of the greatest buildings and decorative schemes of the late antique and early mediaeval era were allowed to survive unmolested until the modern age recognised in them not the onset of decadence and the barbarity of the Dark Ages but an art of the highest aesthetic and spiritual power. The Early Christian and Byzantine mosaics at Ravenna are the finest in the world.

Urbino, by contrast, is a compact hilltop stronghold with a very different history and

an influence on Renaissance culture out of all proportion to her size. The Ducal Palace, built by the Montefeltro dynasty over several decades, is perhaps the finest secular building of its period. Piero della Francesca, Raphael and Baldassare Castiglione were among those who passed through its exquisite halls.

The justification for joining in one short tour these two centres of diverse artistic traditions is simple. They are places to which every art lover wants to go but which are relatively inaccessible from the main art-historical centres of Italy, yet are close to each other. For many years this has been one of our most popular tours.

Itinerary

Day 1: Ravenna. Fly at c. 3.00pm (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Bologna. Drive to Ravenna, where all four nights are spent.

Day 2: Ravenna. In the morning see the outstanding National Museum, with excellent Byzantine ivory carvings. The Orthodox baptistry has superlative Early Christian mosaics and S. Apollinare Nuovo has a mosaic procession of martyrs marching along the nave. In the evening, there is a private visit to the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, lined with 5th-century mosaics, and the splendid centrally planned church of S. Vitale with 6th-century mosaics of Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora.

Day 3: Ravenna. The Cathedral Museum possesses a range of marvellous objects, including an ivory throne. Visit the Cooperativa Mosaicista, a laboratory for the restoration of mosaics (by appointment only and subject to confirmation) and the Mausoleum of Theodoric. The afternoon is free.

Day 4: Urbino. The Palazzo Ducale grew during 30 years of Montefeltro patronage into the perfect Early Renaissance secular environment, of the

highest importance for both architecture and architectural sculpture. The picture collection in the palace includes works by Piero della Francesca, Raphael and Titian. See also the exquisite International Gothic frescoes by Salimbeni in the Oratory of St John.

Day 5: Classe, Rimini. Drive to Classe, Ravenna’s port, which was one of the largest in the Roman Empire. Virtually all that is left is the great basilica of S. Apollinare. Continue to Rimini and visit the Tempio Malatestiano, church and mausoleum of the Renaissance tyrant Sigismondo Malatesta (designed by Alberti, fresco by Piero della Francesca, sculpture by Agostino Duccio). Drive on to Bologna airport for a late-afternoon flight; arrive at Heathrow at c. 8.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £1,430 (deposit £200). Single supplement £140 (double room for single occupancy). Price without flights £1,270 (May), £1,200 (October).


Accommodation. Palazzo Bezzi, Ravenna (palazzobezzi.it): a new 4-star superior hotel, located on the edge of the historic centre of town.

How strenuous? There is inevitably quite a lot of walking and standing in museums in this tour. Some of the walking is uphill or over cobbles. The town centres are not accessible by coach. Average distance by coach per day: 65 miles


Combine the May departure with Palaces of Piedmont, 19–24 May (page 114).

Combine the October departure with Gastronomic Sicily, 19–25 October (page 159).

Ravenna, after a mosaic in Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, engraving c. 1850128

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The Po ValleyRomanesque & Renaissance architecture in the Val Padana

6–13 June 2015 (mb 353)8 days • £2,410Lecturer: John McNeill

Enthralling conspectus of architecture from the Late Antique to the early Renaissance.

A core of Romanesque work, including much of the greatest sculpture of the 12th century.

Based in just two centres, Parma and Verona.

Tour led by renowned architectural historian John McNeill.

The Po Valley, or Val Padana, consists of a great alluvial plain formed by the river Po, bounded to the south by the Apennines and to the north by the foothills of the Alps. Its historical development owes most to Roman settlement, when the cities were established and the fertile and well-watered land between them was farmed from substantial rural villas. Matters changed with barbarian settlement, and though it is rare to find material from this period surviving, the eighth-century royal nunnery at Brescia stands as one of the most compelling structures of Longobardic Italy.

By contrast, the major Romanesque buildings are twelfth century, and the quality and quantity of work that survives here is impressive. The crucial first step was taken at Modena cathedral, and its combination of architectural scale and narrative relief sculpture exerted a profound influence on later building across the region. Capitals, corbels, arches and stringcourses were embellished with new and unexpected forms - developing into vehicles of mesmerising virtuosity as designers and patrons sought to create buildings of unparalleled richness and expressive power. By the second quarter of the twelfth century public spaces were enlivened by costly and ambitious facades, those at San Zeno in Verona, and the cathedrals of Piacenza and Fidenza ranking among the most exciting essays on the interaction of sculpture and architecture of twelfth-century Europe. And other art forms were not neglected – as is beautifully illustrated by the stunning wall paintings of the baptistery at Parma, while the treasuries of Modena and Brescia house some of Italy’s greatest metalwork.

Full dress Gothic never arrived in the Po valley, though there is another type of building – a rather chaste, elegant, almost modular Renaissance architecture – that constitutes the second of the tour’s main themes, brilliantly realised in the interlocking cloisters of San Giovanni at Parma, the Casa Romei at Ferrara or the magnificent interiors of the new monastery of San Benedetto, Po.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. midday (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Milan, then transfer by coach to Parma. First of three nights in Parma.

Day 2: Parma, Fidenza, Fornovo. Though superb, Parma’s Romanesque cathedral is excelled by its free-standing octagonal baptistry, one of the architectural triumphs of its time (begun

1196) and richly ornamented with sculpture and paint outside and in. Visit the Benedictine Abbey, its three interlocking cloisters were exquisitely rebuilt towards the end of the 15th cent. In the afternoon visit Fidenza, whose cathedral possesses the greatest assemblage of late Romanesque sculpture in northern Italy, and the stunning early Romanesque parish church at Fornovo di Taro.

Day 3: Piacenza and environs. Situated on a terrace above the southern bank of the River Po, Piacenza was a strategic Roman city and an important bishopric. Visit San Savino, a remarkable parish church with 11th-cent. capitals. The interior of the 12th-cent. cathedral vies with Pisa for complexity and majesty. In the afternoon visit the wonderfully well-preserved Cistercian monastery of Chiaravalle della Colomba. Continue on to see the delightful complex of hexagonal baptistry and church at Vigolo Marchese and the breathtaking juxtaposition of collegiate church and 14th-cent. castle (exterior only) at Castell’Arquato.

Day 4: Modena, Nonantola, San Benedetto Po. Modena cathedral is one of the great buildings of Romanesque Europe, and was highly influential in Lombardy-Emilia; begun in 1099, it possesses the earliest and most famous of the region’s programmes of elaborate relief sculpture, Willigelmo’s magnificent Genesis frieze. In the afternoon visit two Benedictine monasteries to the north of the Po, San Silvestro at Nonantola, reconstructed after the earthquake of 1117, and San Benedetto Po, greatest of the Cluniac houses of northern Italy. Both monasteries were partially damaged in the 2012 earthquake, restoration work is slowly progressing. Continue to Verona where four nights are spent.

Day 5: Verona. A morning walk leads across the River Adige to the well-preserved Roman theatre for views of one of the most architecturally enthralling cities of Europe. Nearby Santo Stefano embodies the standard features of Veronese mediaeval architecture. The ravishing display of Romanesque sculpture on the west front of the cathedral is in exhilarating contrast to the Late Gothic élan of its interior. In the afternoon visit the great Benedictine church of San Zeno, begun c. 1120, which features a dramatic two-tier east end and bronze doors with narrative scenes. See the 14th-cent. Castelvecchio with an excellent collection of mediaeval painting and sculpture.

Day 6: Verona. An astonishing clutch of palaces and loggie that housed the organs of mediaeval city government are ranged around a sequence of beautiful squares. Situated in the heart of the city’s mercantile quarters, the churches of the Dominicans at Sant’Anastasia and the Franciscans at San Fermo Maggiore were effectively transformed into funerary basilicas, and their chapels are a virtual primer of Italian late mediaeval painting. The afternoon is free.

Day 7: Brescia. The historic core of Brescia is perhaps the most extensively excavated of any in Italy, and consequently it is possible to demonstrate the importance of the Roman city, the impact of Barbarian invasions and the re-

orientation of the settlement away from the forum and around the cathedral and bishop’s palace. The Museo della Città reveals an 8th-cent. nunnery built on top of Imperial Roman courtyard houses and displays many precious early mediaeval artworks. Also seen are Vespasian’s Capitoline temple, the centrally-planned Romanesque cathedral and its rebuilt predecessor, the mighty Duomo Vecchio.

Day 8: Ferrara. The outer shell of Ferrara cathedral remains largely of the 12th cent., with a majestic portal composition by Master NiccolÒ, but with its late-mediaeval/early-Renaissance palaces the city brings the tour to a fitting end. The Casa Romei and Palazzo Schifanoia both retain impressive painted interiors, the breathtaking Cycle of the Months at the Schifanoia surviving as one of the most accomplished and intellectually demanding painted interiors of 15th-cent. Europe. Fly from Bologna, arriving at London Heathrow c. 8.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Stendhal, Parma (hotelstendhal.it): a quiet and tasteful 4-star hotel, excellently located in the middle of the historic centre. Hotel Due Torri, Verona (hotelduetorri.duetorrihotels.com): a luxurious 5-star, situated next to Sant’Anastasia in the centre of town.

How strenuous? A lot of walking, much of it on steep and roughly paved streets: agility, stamina and sure-footedness are essential. Coaches are not allowed into historic centres. Many of the

Verona, Sant’Anastasia, wood engraving in The Magazine of Art, 1887

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historical buildings visited are sprawling and vast. The tour should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Fitness is essential. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 71 miles


Combine this tour with Connoisseur’s Vienna, 15–21 June (page 21), or Mediaeval Saxony, 15–23 June (page 91).

Parma Verdi FestivalOctober 2015Details available in May 2015Contact us to register your interest

FlorenceCradle of the Renaissance

16–22 February 2015 (mb 242)7 days • £2,230Lecturer: Dr Antonia Whitley

The world’s best location for an art-history tour: here were laid the foundations of the next 500 years of western art.

Led by art historian Dr Antonia Whitley.

Still retains an astonishingly dense concentration of great works of art.

The Renaissance is centre stage, but mediaeval and other periods also feature prominently.

Avoids the crowds of busier months, and a smaller group than usual, 8–18 participants.

A first visit to Florence can be an overwhelming experience, and it seems that no amount of revisiting can exhaust her riches, or stem the growth of affection and awe which the city inspires in regular visitors.

For hundreds of years the city nurtured an unceasing succession of great artists. No other place can rival Florence for the quantity of first-rate, locally produced works of art, many still in the sites for which they were created or in museums a few hundred yards away. Giotto, Brunelleschi, Donatello, Masaccio, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo – these are some of the artists and architects whose works will be studied on the tour, fully justifying Florence’s epithet as the cradle of the Renaissance.

Florence is, moreover, one of the loveliest cities in the world, ringed by the foothills of the Apennines and sliced in two by the River Arno. Narrow alleys lead between the expansive piazze, supremely graceful Renaissance arcades abound while the massive scale of the buildings

impressively demonstrates the wealth once generated by its precocious economy.

It is now a substantial, vibrant city, yet the past is omnipresent, and, from sections of the mediaeval city walls, one can still look out over olive groves.

Though the number of visitors to Florence has swelled hugely in recent years, it is still possible during winter, and with careful planning, to explore the city and enjoy its art in relative tranquillity.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 11.15am (British Airways) from London City to Florence. In the late afternoon visit the Piazza della Signoria, civic centre of Florence with masterpieces of public sculpture.

Day 2. Brunelleschi’s Foundling Hospital, begun in 1419, was the first building to embody stylistic elements indisputably identifiable as Renaissance. See Michelangelo’s David, the ‘Slaves’ in the Accademia and the frescoes and panels of pious simplicity by Fra Angelico in the Friary of S. Marco. In the afternoon see the Byzantine mosaics and Renaissance sculpture in the cathedral baptistry, and the cathedral museum (many parts of the museum are closed for restoration at the time of printing).

Day 3. In the morning visit S. Maria Novella, the Dominican church with many works of art (Masaccio’s Trinità, Ghirlandaio’s frescoed sanctuary). See Renaissance statuary at the church-cum-granary of Orsanmichele. The afternoon is devoted to the Uffizi which has masterpieces by every major Florentine painter as well as international Old Masters.

Day 4. A Medici morning includes San Lorenzo, the family parish church designed

Florence, watercolour by A.H. Hallam Murray, publ. 1904

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by Brunelleschi, their burial chapel in the contiguous New Sacristy with Michelangelo’s enigmatic sculptural ensemble and the chapel in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi which has exquisite frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli. Visit Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library, whose architectural components would herald the onset of Mannerism. Free afternoon.

Day 5. Visit the Bargello, housing Florence’s finest sculpture collection with works by Donatello, Verrocchio, Michelangelo and others. Walk to the vast Franciscan church of Santa Croce, favoured burial place for leading Florentines and abundantly furnished with sculpted tombs, altarpieces and frescoes. Lunch is at a restaurant on the Piazzale Michelangelo before a visit to San Miniato al Monte, the Romanesque abbey church with panoramic views of the city.

Day 6. In Santa Trìnita there are fine frescoes by Ghirlandaio. See the Masaccio/Masolino fresco cycle in the Brancacci Chapel, a highly influential work of art which influenced all subsequent generations of Renaissance artists. Visit Santo Spirito, Brunelleschi’s last great church, with many 15th-century altarpieces, and the extensive Boboli Gardens, at the top of which is an 18th-century ballroom and garden overlooking olive groves. In the afternoon visit the redoubtable Palazzo Pitti, which houses several museums including the Galleria Palatina, outstanding particularly for High Renaissance and Baroque paintings.

Day 7. In the morning visit the Palazzo Vecchio, fortified civic centre of the republic, which has several rooms designed by Vasari and contains works by Michelangelo, Donatello and Bronzino. There is some free time, and a second, selective visit to the Uffizi. Fly from Florence Airport, arriving at London City at c. 9.00pm.

Practicalities



Florence, tribune of the Ufizzi, aquatint c. 1830

Dr Antonia WhitleyArt historian and lecturer specialising in the Italian Renaissance. She obtained her PhD from the Warburg Institute on Sienese society in the 15th century and has

published on related topics. She has lectured for the National Gallery, organises adult education study sessions and has led many tours in Italy.Amongst several tours in 2015, Dr Antonia Whitley also leads Piero della Francesca (page 139) and Walking in the Footsteps of Leonardo & Michelangelo (page 138).All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

Accommodation. Hotel Santa Maria Novella (hotelsantamarianovella.it): a delightful, recently renovated 4-star hotel in a very central location.

How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of walking in the town centre where the ground is sometimes uneven and pavements are narrow. It should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair- climbing. Fitness is essential.


Combine this tour with Connoisseurs’ Rome, 24 February–1 March (page 145) or Essential Rome, 24 February–2 March (page 144).

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Leonardo da VinciTracing the roots of the Renaissance master

22–26 April 2015 (mb 298)5 days • £1,810Lecturer: Charles Nicholl

Works by the artist and places associated with his life in Vinci, Florence and Milan.

Visits Leonardo 1452–1519 in Milan, the largest exhibition ever dedicated to the artist in Italy.

Vinci, his birthplace, has a museum dedicated to Leonardo’s scientific achievements.

Led by the renowned biographer of Leonardo da Vinci, Charles Nicholl.

Florence was the cradle of the Renaissance and home to an unrivalled quantity of first-rate, locally-produced works of art. At the age of fourteen, Leonardo moved here to become an apprentice to Verrocchio, in whose studio his technical training began. The tour begins here to explore areas of the city in which the artist lived and worked, as well as seeing important works by Verrocchio in the Bargello and by Leonardo in the Uffizi.

To the west of Florence is Vinci, Leonardo’s childhood town in the Tuscan countryside, a charming place with a fine museum displaying many of his designs for machines and tools. The remote hamlet of Anchiano in which he was born is also visited.

In the fifteenth century Milan was capital of the most powerful territory in Italy and, when Leonardo was employed there, probably the largest city in Europe. It is here that he received some of his most important commissions, notably The Last Supper for the wall of the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Two nights are spent in Milan, with two visits to The Last Supper and also to the Pinacoteca Brera, one of the world’s great galleries, for a study of works influenced by Leonardo. From April to June 2015 the Palazzo Reale hosts the Leonardo 1452–1519 exhibition,

the largest ever dedicated to the artist in Italy. An exploration of sites around the city where the artist left his mark completes the tour.

Itinerary

Day 1: Vinci, Anchiano. Fly at c. 8.45am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Pisa. Drive to Vinci in the Tuscan hills where the artist was born. The Museo Leonardiano has one of the largest collections of Leonardo’s technological designs and models constructed from them, housed in a 12th-century castle. Continue through olive groves to the reconstructed farmhouse where Leonardo was born, which now houses some of his early drawings of the Tuscan countryside. First of two nights in Florence.

Day 2: Florence. A morning lecture is followed by a walk to see the sites of Leonardo’s father’s office and his master Verrocchio’s workshop. See the great sculpture museum in the Bargello, which possesses a collection by Leonardo’s master Verrocchio, including his David, thought to be the likeness of a young Leonardo. In the afternoon visit the Uffizi for several major works by Leonardo, including the Annunciation.

Day 3: Florence, Milan. The Palazzo Vecchio was the fortified civic centre of the republic and has several rooms designed by Vasari. Some free time in Florence. In the afternoon, travel by first class rail to Milan for the first of two nights.

Day 4: Milan. The first of two visits to Leonardo’s Last Supper. The Dominican friary of S. Maria delle Grazie was lavishly endowed by Duke Ludovico Sforza in the 1490s, the consequences including Bramante’s monumental eastern extension of the church and the Last Supper on the wall of the refectory. The Pinacoteca Ambrosiana has works by Raphael, Bramantino, Luini and other contemporaries and followers of Leonardo. See also the major exhibition dedicated to Leonardo in the Palazzo Reale.

Day 5: Milan. Visit the Brera, one of Italy’s major art collections, and the Castello Sforzesco, the vast fortified palace of Leonardo’s ducal patrons. Return to Leonardo’s Last Supper for a second viewing (there is a time limit for each visit). Return to London Heathrow arriving at c. 4.45pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Santa Maria Novella, Florence (hotelsantamarianovella.it): a delightful 4-star hotel in a very central location. Hotel De La Ville, Milan (delavillemilano.com): a 4-star Belle Epoque style hotel excellently located 50 metres from the Duomo.

Train travel. We choose to travel by train from Florence to Milan because it is less harmful to the environment, quicker and more comfortable than travelling by coach. However, trains can be crowded, there is often little room for luggage, even on the Frecciarossa, and buffet cars can run out of food. You will need to be able to carry (wheel) your own luggage on and off the train and within stations. Some train stations do not have escalators or lifts and porters are not always readily available.

How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of walking in the town centre where the ground is sometimes uneven and pavements are narrow. It should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Fitness is essential. There is a lot of standing in galleries. Average distance by coach per day: 26 miles


The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, engraving 1808 by M. Dutertre

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History of MedicineFlorence, Bologna & Padua in the age of humanism

7–13 September 2015 (mc 431)7 days • £2,280Lecturers: Professor Helen King & Dr Luca Leoncini

Italy’s two oldest university towns, Bologna and Padua, where Vesalius and Galileo lectured.

Historic anatomical theatres, including a special arrangement to see the earliest in the world

Some of the best scientific museums in Italy, and an exploration of the anatomical studies of Leonardo and Michelangelo.

Accompanied by both a historian of medicine and an art historian.

It is almost impossible to over-emphasise the leading role that Italy played in creating the civilization of the modern world.

Developments in the arts of painting, sculpture and architecture during the Italian Renaissance came to dominate the art of the western world until the beginning of the last century. Humanism, a range of intellectual endeavour which built on the achievements of the classical world, matured into the critical, liberal attitude which underlies current modes of thought and ideas about education. From patisserie to opera, boarding schools to astronomy, in countless areas of human endeavour and intellectual achievement a seminal Italian input can be traced.

In no field is the contribution of Italy greater than in the science of medicine. Bologna and Padua are homes to the oldest universities in Italy – indeed, in Europe – and their medical schools have for centuries made important contributions to the study of anatomy and the practice of surgery. Florence also has a good range of historical medical institutions, as well as the finest artistic patrimony of any city in the world.

This unique tour is jointly led by a leading professor of classical medicine and an expert art historian.

Itinerary

Day 1: Florence. Fly at c. 8.45am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Pisa. Visit the Museo Galileo, which covers scientific studies from the Medici right through to current theory. First of three nights in Florence.

Day 2: Florence. Visit the Natural History Museum, ‘La Specola’. The oldest scientific museum in Europe, it also houses an excellent anatomical section. In the afternoon visit the Museo del Bigallo, a 14th-century orphanotropium, and the polychromatic marble cathedral capped by Brunelleschi’s massive dome, and the Piazza della Signoria, civic centre of Florence with masterpieces of public sculpture.

Day 3: Pisa. In the High Middle Ages Pisa was one of the most powerful maritime city-states in the Mediterranean, the rival of Venice and Genoa, deriving great wealth from its trade with the Levant. The ‘Campo dei Miracoli’ is a magnificent Romanesque ensemble of cathedral, monumental

burial ground, campanile (‘Leaning Tower’) and baptistery. The ‘Campo Santo’, for centuries the burial place of the Pisan upper classes, was built using earth brought back from Golgotha during the crusades and has frescoes depicting death. In the afternoon visit the botanical gardens.

Day 4: Florence. See the Ospedale degli Innocenti, a children’s orphanage designed by Brunelleschi, before visiting Casa Buonarroti, house of Michelangelo’s family, which has models revealing his unprecedented knowledge of anatomy. Some free time. Leave Florence for Bologna, where the next three nights are spent.

Day 5: Bologna. The Archiginnasio has an eighteenth-century anatomical theatre and écorché figures by Lelli. At the oldest university in Italy visit the Museo di Palazzo Poggi, which has sections devoted to obstetrics and anatomical waxworks. The museum of mediaeval art is housed in a Renaissance palace, notable for tomb reliefs depicting university lectures of the period.

Day 6: Padua. A full-day excursion to Padua, an important university city where Galileo once lectured. In the university itself, items include Galileo’s chair, William Harvey’s emblem and, above all, the sixteenth-century Anatomical Theatre, the oldest in the world. The Palazzo della Ragione has representations of early alchemy and medicine, and frescoes that make up one of the largest existing astrological cycles. See also Giotto’s fresco cycle in the Arena chapel, one of the landmarks in the history of art.

Day 7. Fly from Bologna to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 2.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Santa Maria Novella, Florence (hotelsantamarianovella.it): a delightful 4-star hotel in a very central location. Hotel Corona d’Oro, Bologna (bolognarthotels.it/hotel-corona-d-oro.aspx): an elegant 4-star hotel in the heart of Bologna, rooms vary in size and decor but are all classically furnished and comfortable.

How strenuous? There is a lot of walking on this tour; it would not be suitable for anyone who has difficulties with everyday walking or stair-climbing. Average coach travel per day: 63 miles


Combine this tour with The Greeks in Sicily, 14–21 September (page 157), The Heart of Italy, 15–22 September (page 140).

Florence, Piazza Santa Croce, watercolour by Frank Fox, publ. 1913

“The lecturer was superb; extremely knowledgeable.”

“Nice balance of lectures, sight-seeing, and free time.”

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Florentine PalacesDefence, humanism, magnificence & beauty

11–15 November 2015 (mc 523)5 days • £2,120Lecturer: Dr Joachim Strupp

An examination of one of the most fascinating aspects of the Florentine Renaissance, the private palace.

Mediaeval, Baroque, Neo-Classical and 19th-century examples as well.

Led by Dr Joachim Strupp, Italian art expert who lived in Florence for several years.

Several special arrangements to see palaces not usually open to the public.

Renaissance Florence experienced one of the most spectacular property booms of all time. From the second half of the fourteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth century as many as 100 private palazzi were built throughout the city. The period

was also one of the pivotal moments of western architecture, witnessing a design revolution that was to have an impact on the rest of Europe and the Americas for 500 years.

In the preceding couple of centuries, intense clan and class rivalries required palazzi to be highly defensible structures. Like many Italian cities, Florence bristled with tower houses, of which several stubs can still be seen, and the massive Palazzo Vecchio, the town hall, retains its fortress-like aesthetic. While an intimidating monumentality remained a design feature of the Renaissance palace, decreasing lawlessness and increasing wealth fortuitously combined with new humanist concepts of ‘magnificence’ and ‘virtue’ by which the elite were required to demonstrate their greatness with ‘fitting expenditure’.

Constructed on a magnificent scale, three times the height of a three-storey building today, its spread was equally expansive, frequently swallowing up a multitude of smaller dwellings.

And the design of these high-fashion mansions represented a dramatic shift in architectural language. The credit for their creation, however, remained the patron rather than the architect. A Renaissance palazzo was intended as a statement of dynastic ambition, its facade emblazoned with coats of arms, its interior trumpeting the family name in every visual detail.

Fortunes were spent – and lost – keeping up with the Medici. Many palaces remained unfinished through lack of funds (neither the Gondi nor the Rucellai were complete at the time of their founder’s death); and even more – including the Pitti and the Davanzati – changed hands through financial necessity within a generation.

By the end of the sixteenth century, the Florentine palazzo was being adapted to accommodate more elaborate households and lifestyles, but splendour remained their defining characteristic. Certainly no Renaissance patron would have felt embarrassed by the endeavours of his seventeenth- and eighteenth-century successors, such as Alessandro Capponi or the Corsini family.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 11.15am (British Airways) from London City Airport to Florence. Visit the Palazzo Vecchio, a sturdy fortress at the civic heart of the city with outstanding interiors and lavish frescoes by Ghirlandaio in the sala dei gigli and by Bronzino in the Chapel of Eleanor of Toledo.

Day 2. Visit Palazzo Davanzati, built in the second half of the fourteenth century in one of the oldest quarters of Florence. See Palazzo Strozzi, a late fifteenth-century construction of formidable proportions. In the afternoon visit the privately-owned Palazzo Corsini (by special arrangement), a vast baroque palazzo with views over the Arno. See the exterior of Palazzo Lanfredini, built by a member of an important Republican family during the Medicis’ absence from Florence in the early sixteenth century with handsome sgraffiti on the façade. Visit also the chapel in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi which has exquisite frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli.

Day 3. Visit the Bargello, a mediaeval palazzo housing Florence’s finest sculpture collection with works by Donatello, Verrocchio, Michelangelo and others. Following this see Palazzo Capponi all’Annunziata (by special arrangement), built in the early 18th century for one of the most distinguished of Florence’s ancient families and designed by the most fashionable architect of the day, Carlo Fontana. In the afternoon

“The visits to the private palazzi and to meet their owners was a real privilege and to be hosted in their homes a real treat.”

Palazzo Strozzi, lithograph by Valfredo Vizzotto c. 1930

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visit the Palazzo Corsini al Prato (by special arrangement), begun in 1591 to designs by Bernardo Buontalenti, the palazzo was acquired in 1621 by Filippo Corsini and most of the palace and gardens date to his refurbishment.

Day 4. Begin at the Uffizi, Italy’s most important art gallery, which has masterpieces by every major Florentine painter as well as international Old Masters. Walk through the Vasari Corridor (by special arrangement) from the Uffizi to the Pitti Palace, viewing the Medici collection of artists’ self-portraits. In the afternoon, visit the privately-owned Palazzo Gondi (by special arrangement), designed in 1490 by Giuliano da Sangallo, the favourite architect of Lorenzo de Medici. There are remarkable views of the city from the terrace.

Day 5. In the morning visit the redoubtable Palazzo Pitti, which houses several museums including the Galleria Palatina, outstanding particularly for High Renaissance and Baroque paintings. The visit includes rooms not generally open to the public. The afternoon is free. Fly from Florence to London City Airport, arriving at c. 9.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Santa Maria Novella, Florence (hotelsantamarianovella.it): a delightful 4-star hotel in a very central location.

How strenuous? There is a lot of walking on this tour in the city centre and it would not be suitable for anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Fitness is essential. The first and last days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 21 miles


Combine this tour with Connoisseurs’ Rome, 3–8 November (page 145), Essential Rome, 3–9 November (page 144), Venetian Palaces, 17–21 November (page 120).

Dr Joachim StruppArt historian and lecturer. He lived in Venice and Florence for several years and specialises in the sculpture of the Italian Renaissance, though his interests include

German and Italian art of most ages. He lectures at the V&A and organises adult art history courses and tours. Joachim Strupp also leads The Venetian Hills (page 118) and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (page 119).All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

Siena, watercolour by Walter Tyndale, publ. 1913

Siena & San GimignanoHilltop towns of Tuscany

30 September–4 October 2015 (mc 470)5 days • £1,530Lecturer: Dr Antonia Whitley

Based in one of the most extraordinary of Italian hill towns, San Gimignano.

Visits to nearby places – Volterra, Monteriggioni and Siena (two visits).

Led by art historian Dr Antonia Whitley, whose PhD is on Sienese society in the 15th century.

Beautiful landscape, wonderful streetscape, outstanding mediaeval and Renaissance painting, great buildings.

Towards the end of an autumn afternoon, when the last of the day trippers have departed and the shutters have clattered down on the souvenir shops, an ineffable timelessness descends. While dusk begins to obscure the hills and darken the

streets, the inhabitants get on with their lives – shopping, socialising, doing business – amidst the most extraordinary streetscape in Europe. The ordinary within the quite extraordinary – that is the charm of Italy. San Gimignano is not a museum but a living country town.

It is also so improbable a phenomenon, with fourteen hundred-foot stone tower houses, that a day trip does not always suffice to eradicate incredulity, let alone allow the visitor to feel the austere magic of the place. Scarcely changed in appearance for six hundred years, and looking like a balding porcupine in a searingly beautiful Tuscan landscape, the town provides a microcosm of life and art in mediaeval Italy.

The towers and circuit of walls were built not only in response to hostilities with neighbouring city-states but also to the incessant conflict

between the swaggering, belligerent nobility and the emergent merchants and tradesmen.

Nevertheless, the little city flourished. A nodal point on the main north-south road to Rome, hospices and friaries swelled to serve pilgrims, officials and traders. Wealth, pride and piety conspired to attract some of the best artistic talent to embellish the churches. But San Gimignano never recovered from the double blow of the Black Death of 1348 and submission to Florence shortly after.

Extending the theme of hilltop towns, the tour also includes Monteriggioni, a one-horse village with magnificent fortifications. And visits are made to two of the greatest: Volterra, rugged and dour, and Siena, the largest and the most beautiful of them all. Spilling across three converging hilltops, Siena contains perhaps the most extensive spread of mediaeval townscape in Europe.

Culturally the town reached its peak in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries.

There is plenty of excellent Renaissance art here, but it is mediaeval painting for which the city is best known. Duccio, Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers were among a host of brilliant artists who created the distinctive Sienese style: exquisite delicacy of design, detail and colour, and images which are godly yet humane, numinous yet naturalistic.

This tour provides opportunity for a concentrated study of Siena, not only its art and architecture but also its history. Mediaeval sculpture and painting is its main subject matter because of its exceptional quality and quantity, but Renaissance and Mannerist painters such as Pinturicchio, Sodoma and Beccafumi will also be surveyed. There is also good representation of Florentine masters from Ghiberti to Michelangelo.

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LuccaSculpture & architecture in northern Tuscany

Itinerary

Day 1: Monteriggioni. Fly at c. 11.15am (British Airways) from London Gatwick to Pisa. Situated on the Florence-Siena border, the fortress of Monteriggioni is little more than a hamlet surrounded by an extraordinary circuit of 13th-century walls. All four nights are spent in San Gimignano.

Day 2: San Gimignano. In San Gimignano, visit the Romanesque collegiate church containing two great cycles of trecento frescoes depicting scenes from the Old and New Testaments, the town hall, also with 14th-century frescoes and a small art gallery. Among the Renaissance works of art seen today are frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli and an altarpiece by Pollaiuolo in the church of Sant’Agostino. Study the development of the city in the streets, alleys and squares, and walk along a stretch of the walls.

Day 3: Siena. Siena is the largest of hilltop towns in Tuscany, distinguished by red brick and architectural and artistic design of an exquisite elegance. The cathedral museum contains Duccio’s Maestà, the finest of all mediaeval altarpieces. The 14th-century Palazzo Pubblico has frescoes by Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers. Visit also the cathedral, an imposing Romanesque and Gothic construction of white and green marble with outstanding Renaissance sculpture and painting including Pinturicchio’s brilliant frescoes in the Piccolomini Library and the font by Ghiberti, Donatello and Jacopo della Quercia.

Day 4: Volterra, Siena. A wonderful morning drive through Tuscan hills to the episcopal seat of Volterra (which in the early Middle Ages claimed suzerainty over San Gimignano), a rugged mediaeval hilltop town. Visit the art gallery and the Romanesque cathedral, which has fine Renaissance sculpture. Return to Siena to visit the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala, with its exceptional collection of Renaissance frescoes.

Day 5. Drive to Pisa for the flight to London Gatwick, arriving c. 4.45pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Leon Bianco, San Gimignano (leonbianco.com): a 3-star hotel in the central square, with fine views.

How strenuous? There is a lot of walking on this tour, some of it on uneven ground and much of it uphill. Coaches are not allowed inside the walls of any of the towns visited. Fitness is essential. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 51 miles


Combine this tour with Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 5–10 October (page 119) or Sicily, 5–17 October (page 155).

Siena & San Gimignanocontinued

13–19 April 2015 (mb 289)7 days • £2,180Lecturer: Dr Antonia Whitley

A leisurely exploration of one of the most beautiful and engaging of Tuscan cities.

Exceptional ramparts enclosing a city rich in sculpture, painting, and Romanesque architecture.

Led by art historian Dr Antonia Whitley, specialist in the Italian Renaissance.

Excursions to Prato, Pistoia, Pisa and Barga. Work by renowned masters, including Filippo Lippi, Donatello and Jacopo della Quercia.

Nowhere in Tuscany can claim to be undiscovered. Some places are more undiscovered than others, however, and for no good reason Lucca is one of the most underrated

of ancient Tuscan cities. Many know of its exceptional attractions, but few allow themselves the opportunity of getting to know it properly. Only by staying for several nights, and by allowing time to absorb, observe and reflect can real familiarity develop – not only with its historic fabric and works of art but also with the rhythm of life of its current inhabitants. For Lucca is not a museum but an agreeable and vital lived-in city.

To the approaching visitor, Lucca immediately announces its distinctiveness and its historical importance, while at the same time secreting the true extent and glory of its built heritage. The perfectly preserved circumvallation of pink brick, ringed by the green sward of the grass glacis, is one of the most complete and formidable set of ramparts in Italy.

Unlike many Tuscan cities, Lucca sits on the valley floor. This feature and the traces of the grid-like street pattern – albeit given a mediaeval inflection – betray its Roman origin.

Lucca, arch from the façade of S. Michele, etching from The Seven Lamps of Architecture by John Ruskin, 1901

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Within the walls, the city is a compelling masonry document of the Middle Ages. There is a superb collection of Romanesque churches with the distinctive feature of tiers of arcades applied to the façades. There is good sculpture, too, including the exquisite tomb of Ilaria del Carretto, and some quite exceptional (and exceptionally early) panel paintings. Looming over the dense net of narrow streets are the imposing palazzi of the mercantile elite, including some grand ones from the age of Baroque.

The Romanesque theme of the tour is continued on the excursions to the nearby cities of Prato, Pistoia and Pisa, where the style has its greatest manifestation in Tuscany in the ensemble of cathedral, baptistery and campanile (the now not-quite-so-leaning tower) at Pisa. Likewise mediaeval sculpture features prominently in all these places.

The Renaissance is represented by some of the best loved works of the Florentine masters – by Filippo Lippi and Donatello at Prato cathedral, for example, and by the della Robbia workshop in Pistoia. There are also visits to small towns and to a country villa of the eighteenth century.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 11.30am (British Airways) from London Gatwick to Pisa and drive to Lucca. On the way visit the Romanesque basilica of San Piero a Grado.

Day 2: Lucca. Visit San Michele in Foro and the cathedral of San Martino, Romanesque churches with important sculptures (tomb of Ilaria del Carretto) and paintings, and the Villa Guinigi, a rare survival of a 14th-century suburban villa and now a museum with outstanding mediaeval panel paintings. In the afternoon drive to the Villa Torrigiani which has a 19th-century landscaped garden with a sunken garden from the 1750s. Return to Lucca to visit Torre Guinigi.

Day 3: Prato. Drive inland to Prato, a city that built its wealth on cloth-working. The mediaeval cathedral has outstanding Renaissance sculpture and painting, notably Donatello’s pulpit with dancing putti and the Filippo Lippi frescoes. Visit also the Museo di Palazzo Pretorio, recently reopened after a long period of restoration, housing works by both Lippis, among others.

Day 4: Barga, Lucca. Drive up through forested hills to Barga, a delightful little town with a fine Romanesque cathedral at its summit. The afternoon in Lucca is free.

Day 5: Pistoia. The exceptionally attractive town of Pistoia has important art and architecture. Buildings include the octagonal baptistry and the cathedral, both at one end of the main square, and the Renaissance hospital, Ospedale del Ceppo. Sculpture includes the pulpit in Sant’Andrea carved by Giovanni Pisano, one of the finest Gothic sculptures south of the Alps, and a unique silver altarpiece in the cathedral, the product of 150 years’ workmanship.

Day 6: Pisa. In the High Middle Ages Pisa was one of the most powerful maritime city-states in the Mediterranean, the rival of Venice and Genoa,

deriving great wealth from its trade with the Levant. The ‘Campo dei Miracoli’ is a magnificent Romanesque ensemble of cathedral, monumental burial ground, campanile (‘Leaning Tower’) and baptistery, all of gleaming white marble. Among the major artworks here are the pulpit by Nicola Pisano (1260) and the 14th-century Triumph of Death fresco. There is an optional afternoon walk to the historic centre.

Day 7: Lucca. Visit the Romanesque church of San Frediano, one of the finest in Lucca, with façade mosaics and chapel tombs sculpted by Jacopo della Quercia. The flight from Pisa arrives into London Gatwick at c. 4.30pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Ilaria, Lucca (hotelilaria.com): an excellently situated 4-star, within the city walls, with friendly staff.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking, much of it on roughly paved streets. There is a lot of standing in churches and galleries. The tour is not suitable for anyone with any difficulties with everyday walking and stair climbing. Average distance by coach per day: 39 miles


Combine this tour with Palladian Villas, 7–12 April (page 122), Pompeii & Herculaneum, 20–25 April (page 150) or Gardens & Villas of Campagna Romana, 20–25 April (page 146).

Torre del LagoAugust 2015Details available in December 2014Contact us to register your interest

“One of the nicest things on a tour of the Randall type is the little extra added especially if one could not do it on one’s own.”

“Another very successful Martin Randall holiday. Can’t wait for the next one.”

Lucca Cathedral from Some Tuscan Cities 1924

Pisa, 18th-century engraving

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Walking in the Footsteps of Leonardo & Michelangelo

22–29 May 2015 (mb 335) 8 days • £2,810Lecturer: Dr Antonia Whitley

Countryside, gardens, villas & sculpture in northern Tuscany.

Five country walks amid the beautiful scenery around Fiesole and Lucca (between 2–5 miles).

Special arrangements to visit villas and gardens, some with proprietors or gardeners.

Visits to places of artistic and gastronomic interest, and to picturesque towns and villages.

Led by Dr Antonia Whitley, art historian and lecturer specialising in the Italian Renaissance.

Pleasing views, cooling breezes, the cultivation of vine and olive, light and space: these were key in encouraging wealthy merchants in Florence and Lucca to build villas in the surrounding countryside as their summer residences. But just as the town houses were constructed to demonstrate the accomplishments of the patron and the skills of his architect, their country villas did the same, with the added benefit of a garden.

In these less-visited corners of Tuscany (we deliberately avoid crowded spots), there is an extraordinary number of villas and gardens. This tour includes some of the best, linking them by geographical proximity – and in some cases the feasibility of walking between them – and for the purposes of aesthetic and architectural comparison. There is something about discovering these villas and gardens on foot which enables one better to understand their genius loci and their merits.

As gardens were considered extensions of the villa, they were designed to display artworks of the horticultural variety as well as sculpture of stone and bronze. The shapes of the topiary, the patterns of parterres and the delight of the vistas combine with the beauties of Renaissance and Baroque sculpture carefully positioned to best effect. Traditional sculpture is still practised in

Tuscany; in the gracious town of Pietrasanta, there are dozens of small workshops where the five-hundred-year long tradition of delicately shaping a block of marble into art is still very much alive.

Beyond the gardens, the Tuscan climate lends itself to producing a number of well-structured red wines based on Sangiovese and refined white wines, as well as excellent olive oil. The combination of care for provenance of ingredient and excellent cooking means that the meals should be of a high order. Matching local wines with food is an increasingly popular craft, and this tour offers an opportunity to experience this first hand.

Itinerary

Day 1: Villa La Pietra, Fiesole. Fly at c. 9.00am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Pisa. Villa La Pietra was built in the 15th century by Francesco Sassetti, manager of the Medici Bank, and owned and embellished last century by aesthete and historian Sir Harold Acton. Tour the magnificent garden and visit the villa’s interior. Drive to the hotel in Fiesole for the first of three nights.

Day 2: Fiesole, San Domenico. Visit Fiesole’s cathedral and then walk through the town to Monte Ceceri on small roads and woodland paths, passing stone quarries where Leonardo launched his flying machines (4.5 km, steeply uphill at the beginning of the walk). Visit Villa Medici, built in the 15th century and subsequently home to Sibyl Cutting and Iris Origo, and Villa Le Balze, where Cecil Pinsent designed a series of green ‘rooms’ which cling to a steep slope. Walk the old road to the convent of San Domenico where Fra’ Angelico first worked, and see his altarpiece there.

Day 3: Settignano, Pian de’ Giullari. Morning walk to Settignano on farm tracks and chalky paths through olive groves and woodland (easy to moderate, undulating, c. 5.5 km). Villa Gamberaia is one of the most perfect examples

of garden art, 18th- and late 19th-century with a formal water garden and high hedges. Drive to Pian de’ Giullari for lunch and a visit to Villa Capponi, to which Cecil Pinsent contributed. Overlooking Florence, San Miniato al Monte is a splendid Romanesque basilica with a superb Early Renaissance Chapel.

Day 4: Pistoia, Lucca. The exceptionally attractive town of Pistoia has important sculpture including the pulpit in Sant’Andrea by Giovanni Pisano, one of the finest Gothic ensembles south of the Alps, and a silver altarpiece in the cathedral, the product of 150 years’ workmanship. Visit one of Pistoia’s nurseries to see large-scale plant production in its showroom. Arriving in Lucca, there is time for a climb up the Guinigi Tower to admire the panoramic view of this exceptionally well-preserved city. First of four nights in Lucca.

Day 5: Lucca, Matraia, Villa Oliva Buonvisi. San Martino is a Romanesque cathedral with the exquisite Gothic effigy of Ilaria del Carretto. Drive mid-morning to Matraia to begin a walk through the olive groves, a route beside some of the finest of Lucca’s summer retreats. Lunch and olive-oil tasting at a farm overlooking the hillside. Continue walking downhill to Marlia on country paths and lanes (total 5 km; a steep downhill section at the start, walking poles are essential for this part of the walk). Visit the 15th-century Villa Oliva, once owned by the powerful Buonvisi family.

Day 6: Compitese villages, Pietrasanta. A walk on footpaths and country roads through the villages of Sant’Andrea di Compito and San Giusto di Compito (c. 3.5 km, moderate to easy terrain). Pietrasanta is famous for its skilled marble workers; visit a workshop where classical and contemporary works are produced using methods unchanged since the Middle Ages.

Day 7: Camigliano, Villa Torrigiani. Drive to Camigliano to begin a 7 km country walk on grassy paths and lanes to Sant’Andrea in Caprile (of which 3.5 km is steadily uphill). Picnic lunch before visiting Villa Torrigiani and its garden. Dating back to the 16th century when it was owned by the Buonvisi family, the garden was transformed in the late 17th century by Niccolao Santini, the Lucchese ambassador to Louis XIV. Return to Lucca for an optional cooking demonstration; a wine tasting is followed by dinner.

Day 8. Fly from Pisa to London Heathrow, arriving c. 2.30pm.

Practicalities


Included meals: 4 lunches (including 1 picnic), 4 dinners with wine.

Accommodation. Pensione Bencistà, Fiesole (bencista.com): a family-run hotel, located on the hillside 4 km outside Fiesole, locally rated a 3-star. Hotel Ilaria, Lucca (hotelilaria.com): an excellently situated 4-star, within the city walls.

‘A Tuscan Villa’, watercolour by Frank Fox publ. 1915

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How strenuous? This tour should only be considered by those who are used to regular country walking, with some uphill content. There are five walks of between 3.5 and 8 km, that are described as easy to moderate walks, and on terrain that includes footpaths, country lanes and woodland paths. Paths are often not well tended and can be rubbly and slippery underfoot, particularly after rain; they require sure-footedness and strong knees. Average distance by coach per day: 32 miles


Lucca, S. Michele, engraving from Mediaeval Towns: Lucca, publ. 1912

Perugia cathedral, lithograph by V. Faini c. 1930

Piero della FrancescaFrom Umbria to Milan

13–19 March 2015 (mb 264)7 days • £2,390Lecturer: Dr Antonia Whitley

A journey to nearly every surviving work in Italy by the Early Renaissance master.

The lecturer is Dr Antonia Whitley, expert art historian and lecturer specialising in the Italian Renaissance.

A new, extended itinerary with more time in Milan and Florence, and a visit to Rimini.

Big cities and tiny country towns – visits in Urbino, Monterchi, Arezzo, Sansepolcro and Perugia.

This tour is an exhilarating study of one of the best-loved and most intriguing artists of the fifteenth century. It also takes you to a select handful of some of Italy’s loveliest places and best-stocked galleries, and through some of her most enchanting countryside.

Though the theme is a specialised one, the tour is by no means intended only for serious students of the subject. Few art lovers are untouched by the serenity and beauty of the high-key palette of Piero’s works; even fewer would be unmoved by seeing most of his surviving works in the towns and landscapes in which he created them.

Born about 1412 in the small town of Sansepolcro on the periphery of Florentine

territory, Piero spent little of his life in the Tuscan capital to which most provincial artists flocked. Though he was not without influence, he had no ‘school’ or direct successors. A mathematician, his images beguile with their perfect perspective, architectonic form and monumentality.

There is little documentation for his life, and he seems to have been a slow worker. Few works survive, despite the fact that he lived until the age of eighty.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 8.45am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Bologna. Drive to Rimini to visit the outstanding Tempio Malatestiano, designed by Leon Battista Alberti for the tyrant Sigismondo Malatesta. See Piero’s fresco of St. Sigismund and Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta. Continue on to the hotel in Città di Castello for the first of three nights.

Day 2: Perugia, Sansepolcro. Perugia, the capital of Umbria, is one of Italy’s most beautiful towns. The National Gallery of Umbria in the mediaeval town hall has a polyptych with The Annunciation by Piero. There is a wealth of other monuments, including a fine merchants’ hall with frescoes by Perugino. In the afternoon visit Borgo Sansepolcro, Piero’s birthplace and home town. Visit the museum in the former town hall, where Piero’s early masterpiece, Madonna della Misericordia, a panel of St Julian, and the

Trasimeno Music Festival3–11 July 2015Details available in January 2015Contact us to register your interest

Opera in Macerata & PesaroAugust 2015Details available in January 2015Contact us to register your interest

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Piero della Francescacontinued

marvellous Resurrection fresco are housed. Walk around the town centre, passing Piero’s house and the Romanesque Gothic cathedral.

Day 3: Urbino, Monterchi. Drive through mountains to the hilltop town of Urbino. As one of the most enlightened and creative courts of the Renaissance, it has an importance in the history of art out of all proportion to its small size. Piero possibly contributed to the design of the beautiful Ducal Palace, which houses his exquisite Flagellation of Christ and the Madonna di Senigallia. Visit San Bernardino, where Federigo da Montefeltro was buried. In the afternoon visit Monterchi to see Piero’s beautiful fresco The Madonna del Parto.

Day 4: Arezzo, Florence. See Piero’s great fresco cycle, The Legend of the True Cross, executed over a twenty year period, at San Francesco, Arezzo; and in the cathedral, his fresco Mary Magdalene. Continue on to Florence where one night is spent. See the Masaccio/Masolino fresco cycle in the Brancacci Chapel, a highly influential work of art which influenced all subsequent generations of Renaissance artists, including Piero.

Day 5: Florence. The Uffizi contains the portrait panels of Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, and his wife Battista Sforza. In the afternoon, travel by first class rail to Milan for the first of two nights.

Day 6: Milan. In Milan the Poldi-Pezzoli Museum and the Pinacoteca di Brera contain paintings by Piero. Visit the Renaissance church of Santa Maria delle Grazie; the refectory houses Leonardo’s Last Supper.

Day 7: Milan. The morning is free. Fly from Milan Linate to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 5.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Tiferno, Città di Castello (hoteltiferno.it): a central 4-star hotel, renovated respecting the original architecture; a successful blend of old and new, with helpful staff. Hotel Santa Maria Novella, Florence (hotelsantamarianovella.it): a delightful 4-star hotel in a very central location. Hotel De La Ville, Milan (delavillemilano.com): a 4-star Belle Epoque style hotel excellently located 50 metres from the Duomo.

How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of walking in the town centres where vehicular access is restricted, and should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. There is a lot of walking over unevenly paved ground. For the train journey from Florence to Milan, you will need to carry your own luggage on and off the train and within stations. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average coach travel per day: 62 miles


The Heart of ItalyUmbria’s finest art & architecture

14–21 April 2015 (mb 297)8 days • £2,320Lecturer: Professor Ian Campbell-Ross

15–22 September 2015 (mc 448)8 days • £2,320Lecturer: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott

One of our most popular tours – an excellent survey of the art and architecture of Umbria, heartland of the Renaissance.

Based throughout in the hilltop town of Spello, amidst ageless undulating countryside.

Perugia, Spoleto, Assisi and significant smaller towns away from the main tourist centres.

Also known as the ‘green heart of Italy’, Umbria contains a vast and varied array of what visitors most love about central Italy: ancient streetscapes crammed onto hilltops, exquisitely undulating countryside of olive, cypress and vine, and an abundance of wonderful art.

Rarely can the spirit of the Middle Ages be so potently felt as in the hill towns of central Italy. That such small communities could have built each dwelling so massively, raised churches and public buildings of such magnificence and created works of art of such monumentality inspires awe bordering on disbelief among today’s visitors.

This is also the heartland of the Renaissance, and several of the leading artists of the era were natives who worked here before being inveigled to the great metropolises of Florence and Rome.

Many of the most important and beautiful of Italy’s incomparable patrimony of paintings and frescoes are included on this tour. The great Giottesque cycle at Assisi stands at the

beginning of the modern era of art, and the Last Judgement frescoes by Signorelli in Orvieto are on the cusp of the High Renaissance. While in the field of architecture Romanesque and Gothic predominate, there are many major Renaissance buildings, including the centrally planned church at Todi.

The man-made environment melds with the natural in a picturesque union of intense beauty. It is a landscape of rumpled hills, sometimes rugged and forested, sometimes tamed in the struggle to cultivate, always speckled with ancient farmsteads, fortified villages and isolated churches. Even from the central piazze of many of these towns there are views of countryside which seems scarcely to have changed for centuries.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 10.45am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Rome Fiumicino airport. Drive to Spello, the small, quiet town which is the base for this tour.

Day 2: Assisi. Drive the short distance to Assisi and spend much of the morning at San Francesco, mother church of the Franciscan Order. Here is one of the greatest assemblages of mediaeval fresco painting, including the controversial cycle of the Life of St Francis. In the afternoon walk through the austere mediaeval streets and visit the church of S. Chiara and the Romanesque cathedral.

Day 3: Todi, Spello. Visit S. Maria della Consolazione in Todi, a centrally planned Renaissance church influenced by Bramante’s ideas. Walk through the town, seeing the cathedral and the church of San Fortunato, with its richly decorated central doorway and

Orvieto, low

reliefs from the cathedral façade, w

ood engraving 1882

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Spoleto, Ponte delle Torri, reproduction of a 19th-century steel engraving

frescoes by Masolino. Return in the afternoon to the small hilltop town of Spello, which has fine Roman remains and richly coloured Renaissance frescoes by Pinturicchio in the church of S. Maria Maggiore.

Day 4: Perugia, capital of Umbria, is one of the largest and loveliest of Italian hill towns and has both major works of art and architecture and an authentic, age-old liveliness of a prosperous market town. Morning visits include the Palazzo dei Priori, the mediaeval town hall now housing the National Gallery of Umbria, and a merchants’ hall. An afternoon walk includes an impressive Etruscan city gateway, the mediaeval walls and the richly carved façade of the Renaissance church of S. Bernardino.

Day 5: Foligno, Montefalco. Known to the Romans as Fulginium, Foligno lies on the banks of the river Topino. It offers a range of exceptional attractions and yet is little known to tourists. See the restored palace of the Trinci family, lords of Foligno, and home to extensive frescoes now known to be the work of the greatest Italian master of International Gothic, Gentile da Fabriano. Continue to Montefalco, a delightful hilltop community with magnificent views of the valley below and hills around. In the deconsecrated church of Francesco are frescoes by Benozzo Gozzoli. Return to Spello for some free time.

Day 6: Spoleto. A morning walk in Spoleto includes the Roman theatre and Casa Romana, and finishes at the cathedral square. One of

the most imposing in Italy, it slopes like an auditorium towards the imposing cathedral façade with its mosaics and rose windows; inside there are frescoes by Pinturicchio and Filippo Lippi. In the afternoon see the Rocca Albornoziana, the fourteenth-century fortress built at the command of Cardinal Albornoz to secure the city for the papacy. The museum within has an outstanding collection of mediaeval art.

Day 7: Orvieto. Spend the day in this entrancing hilltop town, with its glistening marble Gothic cathedral. Among its treasures are the low relief sculptures by Maitani and the apocalyptic Last Judgement frescoes by Signorelli (1505). Visit also the cathedral museum, richly endowed with art, sculpture and religious artefacts.

Day 8: Caprarola. Break the return journey to Rome with a visit to the imposing pentagonal villa at Caprarola, with an extensive park adorned with fountains, walled gardens and a casino. Drive on to Rome Fiumicino airport for a late-afternoon flight arriving at London Heathrow at c. 7.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Palazzo Bocci, Spello (palazzobocci.com): a modest 4-star in the centre of town, converted from a family palazzo dating back to the 17th century.

How strenuous? Many visits take place in hill towns, with very steep, uneven inclines leading from the coach park. The hotel in Spello is also a steep uphill walk from the coach park. There is a lot of walking. Agility and sure-footedness are particularly essential. There is a lot of coach travel. Average coach travel per day: 72 miles


Combine the April departure with Palladian Villas, 7–12 April (page 122).

Combine the September departure with History of Medicine, 7–13 September (page 133), Essential Puglia, 23–30 September (page 152) or Sardinia, 26 September–4 October (page 154).

“I very much enjoyed the balance between holiday and study!”

“A wonderful mix of landscape, architecture and art.”

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Footpaths of UmbriaWalks, art & wine between Arezzo & Assisi

26 October–2 November 2015 (mc 507)8 days • £2,480Lecturer: Dr Antonia Whitley

Six walks of between 5 and 8km between Arezzo and Assisi through the inimitable Umbrian countryside.

Enjoy the art of Piero della Francesca, Luca Signorelli and Giotto.

Visit isolated hermitages, churches and cathedrals associated with St Francis.

Led by Dr Antonia Whitley, art historian and lecturer specialising in the Italian Renaissance.

Umbria brings together art and architecture of the highest importance, unspoilt countryside of breath-taking beauty and pockets of rare tranquillity. Land-locked, and located more or less in the centre of the peninsula, the region is crisscrossed by ancient paths, used for millennia by myriad travellers, traders, pilgrims and preachers. Two itinerant denizens in particular are encountered time and again on this tour, St Francis of Assisi and Piero della Francesca.

Stimulated by the movement of people, goods and ideas along the Via Flaminia, the main route from Rome to Ravenna, the economic and artistic life of Umbria began to flourish in the Middle Ages. Ideas absorbed from Byzantium were encountered and transformed by stylistic novelties from Rome, Florence and Siena.

In the early thirteenth century, the son of a rich cloth merchant in Assisi, one Francis, came to prominence in the region; he shunned the

material excess and increasing secularization around him and embraced humility, simplicity and harmony with nature as an alternative Christian approach. Perambulating throughout Umbria and central Italy he preached with fervour, touched the hearts of thousands and attracted devoted disciples. Out of this movement the Franciscan Order grew.

Building work on the Basilica di San Francesco began two years after Francis’s death in Assisi in 1226; the fresco cycles here are some of the most art historically important in Italy. Cimabue, Giotto, Cavallini, Pietro Lorenzetti and Simone Martini are all thought to have been involved in the work and, despite varying degrees of restoration and preservation, they constitute one of the great achievements of western civilisation.

The early Renaissance painter Piero della Francesca is also associated with the region. Born c. 1415 in Sansepolcro, which lies just over the border in Tuscany, like all artists of his time he led a peripatetic existence, travelling wherever work took him. In many ways, he stands like a lone star, one who did not leave an obvious trail in terms of followers, but one so bright as still to shine today. Appropriately, this tour begins in Arezzo with the quiet power and subtle beauty of The Legend of the True Cross. Our Piero trail also includes The Resurrection, dubbed by Aldous Huxley ‘the best picture’, remarkably still in the building for which it was painted.

Itinerary

Day 1: Arezzo. Fly c. 8.30am from London Heathrow to Bologna. Drive to Arezzo tosee Piero della Francesca’s great fresco cycle, The Legend of the True Cross, painted for the Franciscan order and executed over a twenty year period. Spend the first of four nights in Città di Castello.

Day 2: Montecasale, Sansepolcro. St Francis passed through the Convent of Montecasale in 1213 on his journey to the Adriatic and Jerusalem, and a small community of friars have continued to provide pilgrim accommodation since then. Walk in the countryside around Sansepolcro before lunch (downhill on woodland paths, c. 5km). Afternoon visits include Piero della Francesca’s Resurrection and other works in the museum.

Day 3: Monterchi, Città di Castello. Morning walk to Monterchi on farm tracks and chalky paths through olive groves and woodland (easy to moderate, undulating, c. 5km). Picnic lunch near Monterchi. Piero della Francesca’s beautiful Madonna del Parto has its own museum in the town. Return to Città di Castello for the afternoon, where artists flourished in the High Renaissance under the patronage of the wealthy Vitelli family.

Day 4: Le Celle, Cortona. Start the morning’s walk from the immaculately-kept Eremo Le Celle, which Francis visited in 1226. The path begins uphill in the woods towards Monte Egidio before joining a Roman path downhill to Cortona (8km, uneven cobbled paths). Cortona is a highly attractive small town with a good art

gallery, notable for paintings by Fra Angelico and Signorelli, and an Etruscan Museum.

Day 5: Collepino, Spello. Drive to Collepino, a beautifully restored medieval borgo with views of Monte Subasio and, on a fine day, the Monti Sibillini. Walk 6km downhill and on a level track to Spello, through olive groves running alongside the Roman aqueduct built to supply the ‘splendissima colonia Julia’. Time to enjoy Spello’s harmonious architecture and the richly coloured Renaissance frescoes by Pinturicchio in the church of Sta. Maria Maggiore. First of three nights in Spello.

Day 6: Assisi. A 7km walk on farm tracks, tarmac and through woodland to Assisi. Undulating, with some steep descents, it culminates in an ascent through the Bosco di San Francesco. The walk ends through the city gate which leads directly to the Basilica. Here we see one of the greatest assemblages of medieval fresco painting, including the cycle of the Life of St Francis which some attribute to Giotto. There is time to walk through the austere medieval streets and visit the church of Sta. Chiara.

Day 7: Bevagna, Montefalco. Known as the ‘Balcony of Umbria’, Montefalco’s mediaeval church houses 15th-century frescoes of the Florentine and Umbrian school; the town is also well-known for its inky and full-bodied Sagrantino wines. Walk (c. 5km, mostly downhill) on tracks and paths to Bevagna, the Roman Mevania, home to one of Italy’s most harmonious squares.

Day 8. Drive to Rome, with a break in the journey en-route. Fly from Fiumicino to Heathrow, arriving c. 8.30pm.

Practicalities


Included meals: 4 lunches (including 1 picnic) and 4 dinners with wine.

Accommodation. Hotel Tiferno, Città di Castello (hoteltiferno.it): a central, 4-star hotel, renovated respecting the original architecture. Hotel Palazzo Bocci, Spello (palazzobocci.it): a modest 4-star hotel in the centre of town, converted from a family palazzo dating back to the 17th century.

How strenuous? This tour should only be considered by those who are used to regular country walking, with some uphill content. There are six moderate to strenuous walks of between 5 and 8 km. Strong knees and ankles are essential, as are a pair of well-worn hiking boots with good ankle support, and if you are used to them you may find walking poles useful. Walks have been carefully selected but some steep paths are unavoidable (both uphill and downhill) and terrain can be loose underfoot, particularly in wet weather. Average coach travel per day: 60 miles


Assisi, St Francis, by Frank Fox publ. 1915

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Art in Le Marchea wealth of lesser-known fine art & architecture

by rivers and wooded hills, where the first three nights are spent.

Day 2: Ascoli Piceno, Monte S. Martino. Explore the centre of Ascoli, an unspoilt agglomeration of mediaeval, Renaissance and Baroque buildings around arcaded squares and narrow streets. One of Crivelli’s finest altarpieces is in the cathedral and paintings by him and others in his circle are in the diocesan and municipal museums. In the afternoon, drive through the foothills of the Monti Sibillini, among the most dramatic ranges in the Apennines, to the village of Monte San Martino. Here, there is a little church with excellent 15th-century polyptychs, by Carlo Crivelli, his brother Vittore and two ‘Crivelleschi’.

Day 3: Montefiore dell’Aso, Offida. At Montefiore dell’Aso a Crivelli is preserved in the museum of San Francesco. Offida is built on a spur and ringed by walls with a 13th-century church at its apex and a delightful 18th-century theatre in the main square.

Day 4: Fermo, Monte S. Giusto. Drive through the hills and towards the coast, first stopping in the hilltop town of Fermo where there is a sequence of architectural delights and a good art gallery. At Monte San Giusto see the great Crucifixion by Lotto, described by Berenson as the finest of the 16th century. Continue to Recanati where the next three nights are spent.

Day 5: Recanati, Loreto. A charming town, Recanati spreads along the ridge of a neighbouring hill; four of Lotto’s paintings are in the museum, including the famous Annunciation. Then spend the afternoon in Loreto, another great pilgrimage centre, where some of the finest artists and architects of Renaissance Italy worked, including Bramante, Signorelli, Melozzo da Forli and Lotto, several of whose last works are here.

Day 6: Cingoli, Tolentino. From the perimeter of the hilltop town of Cingoli there are magnificent views over vast tracts of rolling landscape. Arising from dour mediaeval streetscape, the church of San Domenico contains a masterpiece by Lotto, the Rosary Madonna. Now something of a backwater, the shrine of S. Nicola da Tolentino once made the town a major pilgrimage destination and the sumptuous church has fine mediaeval frescoes.

Day 7: Ancona, Jesi. The ancient port of Ancona clings to the cliffs around a busy harbour with the beautiful pre-Romanesque cathedral of S. Ciriaco at the summit. Other churches contain an Assumption by Lotto and a Crucifixion by Titian. From here drive through some of the loveliest landscape so far, high and hilly but undulating and cultivated, to Jesi, a handsome little city with a Renaissance town hall and a superb Rococo palace, now an art gallery. Continue to Urbino, Duke Federico da Montefeltro’s principal residence and one of Italy’s loveliest towns. Overnight Urbino.

Day 8: Urbino. Unravel the building history and examine the interior of the finest Renaissance palace in Italy, built over half a century from the 1450s for the dukes of Urbino, with the loveliest of all arcaded courtyards, serene halls of state, beautifully carved ornament and exquisite study. The art collection includes paintings by Piero della Francesca, Raphael and Titian. See also the outstanding International Gothic frescoes by the Salimbeni brothers. Fly from Bologna, arriving at London Heathrow at c. 8.00pm.

There is a possibility that not all of the works mentioned above will be seen; sometimes galleries and churches loan them at short notice.

Ascoli Piceno, Palazzo Governativo, engraving 1897

1–8 June 2015 (mb 347)8 days • £2,380Lecturer: Polly Buston

Explores the small cities in the hills and valleys of Le Marche.

Paintings by Crivelli and Lotto provide pegs around which the tour is planned.

Led by Polly Buston, expert art historian with an MA from the Courtauld Institute.

Wonderful landscape and streetscape.

Nearly everywhere hilly and in some parts mountainous, the Italian Marches have always been difficult of access. Even now, away from the coast the roads are slow, as is the pace of life. The Marches look and feel much like the Italy of a generation ago, and compared with Tuscany and Umbria there are few tourists.

For some travellers these are sufficient reasons for going there immediately, and that is without citing the captivating landscape and the innumerable unspoilt hilltop towns. Ragged hills are spattered untidily with pasturage, fruit trees, vineyards and woods, and each peak is crowned with a pink-grey clump of walls and towers. The topography did not lead to poverty or cultural backwardness, however, and tucked away in churches and museums are many gems of mediaeval and Renaissance art.

If you seek a succession of mainstream masterpieces which provide the shock of recognition, the Marches should not be a priority for you. For the adventurous aesthete, however, the region has plenty to delight and much of great merit. Two painters in particular are associated with the area, Carlo Crivelli and Lorenzo Lotto, and the best of the pictures by these wayward geniuses are pegs around which this tour has been designed.

Carlo Crivelli (c. 1435–1494) was one of the greatest artists of the Early Renaissance. Avidly collected in the nineteenth century, he became an embarrassment to art historians in the twentieth because he didn’t fit into the received schemes of stylistic development. He persevered with gold backgrounds, low relief ornament and elaborate framing long after they were abandoned elsewhere in Italy. But within these conservative conventions he created an emotionally charged use of line, powerfully tactile detail, virtuosic use of perspective and intensity of expression.

Lorenzo Lotto (c. 1480–1557) was similarly individualistic, and his works evince similar emotional power. Also born in Venice, most of his long and peripatetic career was spent in small cities in the Venetian Empire and the Marches. While the major figures of Italian painting – Bellini, Raphael and Titian – provided the foundations of his style, he was also influenced by the angular expressiveness of German painting.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 10.45am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Rome. Drive to Ascoli Piceno, an exceedingly attractive little city, ringed

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Art in Le Marchecontinued

Practicalities



Accommodation. Palazzo Guiderocchi, Ascoli Piceno (palazzoguiderocchi.com): a converted Renaissance palace in the heart of the city, which retains many original features. Gallery Hotel, Recanati (ghr.it): a former private palazzo, the rooms are furnished and decorated in a contemporary style. Hotel San Domenico, Urbino (viphotels.it): converted from a monastery building and the most centrally located hotel, opposite the Ducal Palace.

How strenuous? This tour involves a lot of walking in town centres on steep cobbled streets. Therefore it should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Taxis may not be an option as there is restricted access in some of the towns. Some days involve a lot of driving through hilly terrain. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 78 miles


Combine this tour with Great Houses of the South West, 9–16 June (page 50).

Essential RomeThe complete spectrum of art, architecture, antiquities

Rome, Trevi Fountain, watercolour by C.T.G. Fornilli, publ.1927

Urbino, early-20th-century etching

24 February–2 March 2015 (mb 247)7 days • £2,690Lecturer: Dr Thomas-Leo True

3–9 November 2015 (mc 521)7 days • £2,690Lecturer: Christopher Newall

Major buildings, monuments and works of art, a representative selection of all periods from Ancient Rome onwards.

Led by Dr Thomas-Leo True and Christopher Newall, art historians specialising in Renaissance and Baroque architecture in Rome.

Private visit to the Sistine Chapel, shared with participants travelling on Connoisseur’s Rome.

Rome presents three major challenges to the cultural traveller. First, it is big. Items of major importance – many of which on their own would make any town in the world worth visiting – are generously strewn through an area that is approximately four miles in diameter. The second problem is that there are hundreds of such places in the city.

The third is that these items are from such a wide span of time, well over two millennia, for much of which Rome was the pre-eminent city in its sphere – as capital of the Roman Republic and Empire, as centre of western Christianity, a role regained with consequent splendour with the triumph of the Catholic Reformation, and finally, from 1871, as capital of a united Italy.

Over the years MRT has devised many tours to Rome, but apart from Christmas itineraries, hitherto they have all attempted only a single episode or theme – Ancient, Mediaeval, Baroque; Caravaggio, Michelangelo, Raphael, music. This is the first time we have devised a tour which selects from the whole range of Rome’s heritage.

The key has been generally to give preference to geography over chronology, proximity over

theme. Meandering walks explore a particular district, picking out the most significant buildings and works of art, enjoying alluring vistas as they arise, glimpsing minor treasures – whatever period they belong to. It is fair to say that the itinerary includes most of the most important places and works of art in Rome.

There is a lot of walking, though regular use is made of minibuses and taxis (coaches are highly restricted in the city centre). Not every place seen is mentioned in the description below, and the order may differ. There is, incidentally, almost no overlap with the items on Connoisseurs’ Rome, except for the private visit to the Sistine Chapel. This great space, with frescoes by Early Renaissance masters as well as Michelangelo, is blighted most days of the year by the press of visitors, so the opportunity to view it in the company only of the other participants on this tour (and those on Connoisseur’s Rome) is an extraordinary privilege.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 11.00am (British Airways) from London Gatwick to Rome. The tour starts with the glorious Byzantine mosaics in the churches of Sta Maria Maggiore and Sta Prassede.

Day 2. Among today’s highlights are the Pantheon, the best preserved of Roman monuments (whose span was only twice exceeded in the next 1,750 years); the lively and wonderfully adorned Piazza Navona, which retains the shape of the Roman hippodrome on which it was built; and the 5th-cent. church of Sta Sabina, as perfect an Early Christian basilica as survives anywhere. Also visited is Sant’Ivo, a masterpiece of Baroque architecture with a cupola designed by Borromini, and two Roman temples, of Vesta and Fortuna Virile.

Day 3. The Basilica of St Peter in the Vatican was the outcome of the greatest architects of several generations – Bramante, Raphael, Sangallo,

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Michelangelo, Maderna, Bernini – and contains major sculpture. Originally Emperor Hadrian’s mausoleum, Castel Sant’Angelo became a fortress in the Middle Ages and a residence in the Renaissance. After some free time, return to the Vatican in the evening for a private visit to see Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in peace, together with Raphael’s frescoes in the adjacent Stanze.

Day 4. The morning includes the superb sculpture of the Altar of Peace (Ara Pacis) erected by Augustus, paintings by Pinturicchio and Caravaggio in Sta Maria del Popolo, and a walk in the Pincio Gardens (good views across Rome) to the Spanish Steps. The Palazzo Barberini is a great palace which became Rome’s National Gallery, with paintings by most of the Italian Old Masters.

Day 5. Drive in the morning to three contrasting churches largely or partly dating to the early Middle Ages: the 6th-cent. circular Mausoleum of Santa Costanza, the historically complex but exceptionally beautiful basilica of San Clemente, and St John Lateran, the cathedral of Rome. The afternoon is free.

Day 6. The day is largely devoted to Ancient Rome, beginning with the Colosseum, largest of all amphitheatres, completed ad 80. The Forum has evocative remains of the key temples and civic buildings at the heart of the Roman Empire. The present appearance of the Capitol, first centre of ancient Rome, was designed by Michelangelo, and the surrounding palazzi are museums with outstanding ancient sculpture and a collection of paintings.

Day 7. Before departing for the airport, visit two churches to see paintings by Caravaggio, Sant’Agostino (Loreto Madonna) and San Luigi dei Francesi (St Matthew series). Return to Gatwick c. 4.45pm.

Practicalities

Price: £2,690 (deposit £250). Single supplement £380 (double room for single occupancy). Price without flights £2,550 (Feb.), £2,530 (Nov.).


Accommodation. Residenza di Ripetta, Rome (residenzadiripetta.com): a recently renovated 4-star hotel in a former 17th-century convent just south of Piazza del Popolo, with spacious rooms.

How strenuous? There is unavoidably a lot of walking. The historic area is vast, and vehicular access is increasingly restricted. Minibuses or a coach are used on some occasions but otherwise the city is traversed on foot. The tour should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Fitness is essential. Average coach travel per day: 9 miles


Combine the February departure with Florence, 16–22 February (page 130).


Connoisseur’s RomeWith private visits including the Sistine Chapel

24 February–1 March 2015 (mb 246)6 days • £2,670Lecturer: Dr Michael Douglas-Scott

3–8 November 2015 (mc 519)6 days • £2,670Lecturer: Dr Kevin Childs

Artistic riches which are difficult to access or are rarely open to the public, including an out-of-hours visit to the Sistine Chapel.

Highlights of the Renaissance and Baroque.

Led by Dr Michael Douglas-Scott and Dr Kevin Childs, both specialists in Renaissance Italian art.

As appealing for those new to the city as for frequent visitors.

Many of Rome’s artistic riches are not easily accessible to the visitor. The emphasis of this tour is on places which are difficult of access or are rarely open to the public – on treasures which lie beyond normally impenetrable portals.

Privileged access also takes the form of visits to places outside their normal opening hours. Instead of sharing the Sistine Chapel with hundreds of others, around forty Martin Randall Travel clients, from two tours which do not otherwise meet (the other is Essential Rome), will have the place to themselves for a couple of hours. The two tours overlap so that the high cost of private admission to the Vatican museums is spread between the two.

What we manage to include varies each time we run the tour. Though it is likely that most of the places mentioned in the itinerary given below will be visited, arrangements depend on the generosity of owners and institutions and are occasionally subject to cancellation, but our network of contacts and know-how would enable us to arrange alternatives.

Some better-known and generally accessible places are included in the itinerary as well, so the tour should appeal both to those who are unfamiliar with the city as well as to those who have been many times before. Except for the Vatican, there is almost no overlap between this tour and Essential Rome.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 12.45pm (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Rome Fiumicino.

Day 2. See Bernini’s oval church of S. Andrea, and in the attached monastery the rooms of St Stanislav Kostka with sculpture by Pierre Legros. The ceiling fresco by Guido Reni in the Casino dell’Aurora in the garden of the Palazzo Pallavicini Rospigliosi is one of the greatest works of 17th-century classicism. In the afternoon visit the Sancta Sanctorum, adjacent to St John Lateran, part of the mediaeval papal residence and decorated with Cosmati mosaics dating to 1278. Michelangelo’s unfinished tomb of Pope Julius is in the church of S. Pietro in Vincoli.

Day 3. In the morning visit the stunning collection of sculpture and painting in the Villa Borghese. Continue to the Villa Ludovisi, which houses Caravaggio’s early ceiling painting Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto. In the evening there is a private visit to the Vatican to see the Sistine Chapel and the adjacent Stanze. With Michelangelo’s ceiling fresco, his Last Judgement on the end wall and the quattrocento wall frescoes, together with Raphael’s frescoes in the Stanze, this is the most precious assemblage of painting in the western world.

Day 4. By special arrangement, visit the 16th-century Villa Medici, now the seat of the French Academy. The Villa Madama (now used for diplomatic receptions), designed by Raphael and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger for Cardinal

The Vatican, copper engraving c. 1720

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Gardens & Villas of Campagna Romana

20–25 April 2015 (mb 295)6 days • £2,260Lecturer: Helena Attlee

Renaissance villas and gardens, many accessible only by special arrangement.

Led by Helena Attlee, a garden writer specialising in the cultural history of Italian gardens.

Beguiling scenery of tufa hills and ‘classical’ compositions.

The countryside around Rome has long been the playground of the privileged, but it was in the sixteenth century that the region of Lazio took the lead in garden design. The wealthy families of popes and cardinals such as the Farnese and Este commissioned villas and gardens in the campagna romana to escape from the noise and worldly cares of the capital to places of tranquillity and repose. Vasari wrote of Caprarola in the sixteenth century that it was ‘marvellously situated for one who wishes to withdraw from the worries and tumult of the city’.

But Renaissance gardens developed to offer more than a haven of peace and a chance for contemplation; they also provided the patron with the opportunity to vaunt his knowledge of the antique world. Garden design and

ornamentation were steeped in references to classical mythology. Gardens also became places of entertainment, whether formal or frivolous. The use of water tricks or giochi d’acqua – allowing the owner to ‘drown’ an unsuspecting visitor at the pull of a hidden lever – is a prime example of the latter.

The towns, villas and gardens to the north of Rome are set against a backdrop of an almost fantasy, surreal landscape: villages perch high on volcanic outcrops, villas and gardens are carved out of purple tufa. To the west and south of Rome this often extraordinary scenery gives way to more classically pastoral scenes, offering glimpses of Claude Lorrain’s inspiration for many of his depictions of the campagna romana, which in turn became the foundation of the landscape style of gardens in eighteenth-century England.

Some of the gardens can only be visited by special arrangement and it is possible that the order of visits will change from that listed here.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 10.45am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Rome Fiumicino. Drive to the countryside near Viterbo where the first two nights are spent.

Day 2: Bagnaia, Caprarola. The Villa Lante at Bagnaia, designed by Vignola, has been

Villa d’Este, after a watercolour by Walter Tyndale c. 1910

Giulio de’ Medici, is one of the most important, as well as most beautiful, of Italian Renaissance villas. The delightful Villa La Farnesina has frescoes by Raphael.

Day 5. The Palazzo della Cancelleria, begun in 1485 by Cardinal Raffaele Riario, is a masterpiece of Early Renaissance secular architecture and has frescoes by Vasari of the life of Pope Paul III. The Palazzo Colonna is an agglomeration of building and decoration of many centuries, and has a collection which includes works by Bronzino, Titian, Veronese and Guercino. The 17th-century Great Hall is surely one of the most magnificent secular rooms in Europe. Palazzo Doria Pamphilj holds a famous picture collection (Caravaggio, Velasquez), and S. Ignazio has an illusionistic ceiling painting by Andrea del Pozzo.

Day 6. Some free time. Fly from Rome, arriving at London Heathrow at c. 7.00pm.

This gives a fair picture of the tour, but there may be substitutes for some places mentioned and the order of visits will probably differ.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Bernini Bristol, Rome (berninibristol.com): a 5-star hotel excellently located on the Piazza Barberini.

How strenuous? There is unavoidably a lot of walking. The historic area is vast, and vehicular access is increasingly restricted. Minibuses or a coach are used on some occasions but otherwise the city is traversed on foot. The tour should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Fitness is essential. Average coach travel per day: 9 miles


Combine the February departure with Florence, 16–22 February (page 130).


“This tour gave me the opportunity to see places that were difficult to access”

Connoisseur’s Romecontinued

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universally admired since its creation: the twin casinos are subordinate to the design of the delightful terraced gardens with restored giochi d’acqua and fountain by Giambologna. On a hilltop at Caprarola, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese had an imposing pentagonal villa built by Vignola, with an extensive park adorned with fountains, walled gardens and a casino.

Day 3: Bomarzo, Vignanello, Frascati. Vicino Orsini created a Renaissance ‘theme park’ at Bomarzo of extraordinary grotesque animals and statues based on figures from Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso. Visit the Renaissance Castello Ruspoli and its enchanting gardens (by special arrangement). In Frascati, the gardens of the Villa Aldobrandini are richly appointed with terraces, grottoes and iconographical statuary. First of three nights in Grottaferrata, near Frascati.

Day 4: Tivoli. Spend the morning at Hadrian’s Villa, designed entirely by him and inspired by sites he visited during his travels in the Empire, undoubtedly the richest building project in the Roman Empire. Lunch is in a good restaurant with astonishing views. The vast garden at Villa d’Este became one of the classic visits on the Grand Tour.

Day 5: Ninfa, La Landriana. Drive to Ninfa, one of the most famous and best-loved English gardens abroad, where the ruined buildings of a mediaeval town have been transformed into a place so extraordinarily beautiful that it has long been a place of pilgrimage for gardeners. Continue to La Landriana where Lavinia Taverna worked with Russell Page to create one of the most important modern Italian gardens of its day.

Day 6. Visit the Villa Mondragone in Frascati before driving to the airport. Fly from Rome, arriving at London Heathrow at c. 3.15pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Alla Corte delle Terme, near Viterbo (allacortedelleterme.it): a comfortable 4-star in the countryside outside of Viterbo, all rooms are suites. Park Hotel Villa Grazioli, Grottaferrata (villagrazioli.com): an outstanding 4-star hotel overlooking Frascati and Rome, a 16th-century villa containing frescoes by Caracci and Pannini.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking, much of it on rough, uneven ground in the gardens. The tour would not be suitable for anyone who has difficulties with everyday walking and stair climbing. Average distance by coach per day: 60 miles


Combine this tour with Lucca, 13–19 April (page 136) or Genoa & Turin, 13–19 April (page 115).

Athens & RomeWhat did the Greeks & Romans ever do for us?

Statue of Marcus Aurelius, wood engraving from The Magazine of Art 1881

3–10 October 2015 (mc 487)8 days • £3,070Lecturer: Professor Roger Wilson

A comprehensive look at the two of the most influential civilizations of the Western World.

Two full days exploring Athens – the Acropolis, Agora and the city’s finest museums; and an excursion to the temple at Sounion.

Three full days in and around Rome, and half a day in the city’s port, Ostia, almost as well preserved as Pompeii.

The civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome had an enormous impact on the shaping of modern Europe: this tour will focus on two key sites that remarkably preserve outstanding ancient remains that enable us still to appreciate today both the astonishing sophistication of ancient Greece and Rome and our continuing debt to them today.

Athens has been the ‘capital’ of Greece only since 1834. In the fifth century bc this city enjoyed under the enlightened leadership of Pericles a cultural flourishing of incredible intensity, extraordinary versatility, superlative skill and remarkable originality. We will be looking in detail at three iconic fifth-century bc buildings on the Athenian acropolis, the Propylaea, the Parthenon and the Erechtheum, asking ourselves what makes these buildings so very special and why their impact has been so

profound. Visits to the museum of the Athenian Acropolis and to the National Museum will enable us to appreciate the full gamut of Greek visual culture from its beginnings in the tenth century bc down into the Roman period. We will also visit the Theatre of Dionysus and in the Athenian marketplace (the Agora) we will be visiting the very birthplace of democracy, and seeing in its museum in the reconstructed Stoa of Attalus precious archaeological documents of that democracy in action.

Rome, by contrast, from humble origins, grew to be a capital city of a million inhabitants at the centre of a far-flung empire. It too was blessed by architects and artists of genius, and inside another iconic building, the Pantheon, we will see how radically different from the Greek was the Roman approach to building, with an emphasis on an architecture of interior space and on the use of new materials. In the Forum Romanum and nearby we shall see monuments associated with some of the greatest figures of Roman history, such as Julius Caesar, Augustus and Constantine, while our visits to the emperors’ palace on the Palatine and Hadrian’s self-indulgent rural retreat in the countryside near Tivoli provide a glimpse of the luxurious lifestyles of the imperial family itself. The tour concludes with a visit to Rome’s harbour town of Ostia near the mouth of the Tiber, which better than anywhere else allows us to imagine what an entire Roman town in central Italy would have looked like in the second and third centuries ad.

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Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 12.45pm (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Athens, for three nights.

Day 2: Athens. The Acropolis is the foremost site of Classical Greece. The Parthenon (built 447–438 bc) is indubitably the supreme achievement of Greek architecture. Other architectural masterpieces are the Propylaia (monumental gateway), Temple of Athena Nike and the Erechtheion. At the Theatre of Dionysos plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides were first performed. The new Acropolis museum has superb Archaic and Classical sculpture, including some by Phidias and his assistants.

Day 3: Athens. The Agora (market place) was the centre of civic life in ancient Athens, with the small Doric Hephaisteion, the best-preserved of Greek temples. The refurbished National Archaeological Museum has the finest collection of Greek art and artefacts to be found anywhere. The vast Corinthian Temple of Olympian Zeus was completed by Hadrian 700 years after its inception.

Day 4: Athens to Rome. Drive to the 5th-century Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, overlooking the sea at the southernmost tip of the Attic peninsula, visited by Byron in 1810. Fly at c. 3.30pm from Athens to Rome (Aegean Airlines), where four nights are spent.

Day 5: Rome. Visit the Colosseum, the largest of ancient amphitheatres, and the Arch of Constantine, sculpturally the richest of triumphal arches. The Palatine Hill was the site of the luxurious palaces of successive emperors. In the afternoon visit the Capitoline Museums, which have important collections of ancient sculpture, and see the Pantheon, the most complete of Roman buildings to survive.

Day 6: Tivoli, Rome. Drive to Tivoli to see Hadrian’s Villa, designed entirely by him and inspired by sites he visited during his travels in the Empire, undoubtedly the largest and most lavish Roman country retreat anywhere in the Roman Empire. Lunch is in a good restaurant. In the afternoon, see the awesome bulk of the ruins of the Baths of Caracalla, the best preserved of the several bath complexes that Roman emperors constructed in Rome for the enjoyment of the Roman people.

Day 7: Rome. Morning visit to the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, built on the site of the Baths of Diocletian. Palazzo Massimo, home to the majority of the National Roman Museum’s collection, contains wonderful Roman frescoes and stuccoes. In the afternoon, visit the Forum Romanum, the civic, religious and social centre of Ancient Rome, which has the remains of many structures famed throughout the Empire.

Day 8: Ostia. Drive to Ostia, the ancient port of Rome, comparable to Pompeii for its state of preservation. Fly from Rome Fiumicino to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 7.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £3,070 (deposit £300). Single supplement £490 (double room for single occupancy). Price without flights £2,890 (this is the price without flights to and from London, but includes the flight on day 4 between Athens and Rome).


Accommodation. Electra Palace Hotel, Athens (electrahotels.gr): a smart hotel near the picturesque Plaka quarter. Hotel Bernini Bristol, Rome (berninibristol.com): a 5-star hotel excellently located on the Piazza Barberini.

How strenuous? There is unavoidably a lot of walking, some over rough ground on archaeological sites, and a lot of standing in museums and sites. The historic areas of both cities are vast; coach access is increasingly restricted. Mainly the cities are traversed on foot. Fitness is essential. Average distance by coach per day: 26 miles


Combine this tour with Pompeii & Herculaneum, 12–17 October (page 150).

Rome, lithograph by W.H.M. McFarlane c. 1880

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CaravaggioFrom Lombardy to Naples, via Rome

The Entombment of Christ (detail), engraving after Caravaggio’s painting in The Art Journal 1862

12–19 October 2015 (mc 482)8 days • £3,360Lecturer: Dr Helen Langdon

Unhurried appreciation of the finest painter of the Italian Baroque, in the company of his foremost biographer, Caravaggio expert Dr Helen Langdon.

Almost twenty of Caravaggio’s works in all: most in Italy’s greatest art museums, some in their original chapels, and one in private ownership.

First class rail travel between Milan, Rome and Naples.

When Caravaggio died in 1610 aged 38 he was the most famous painter in Italy, and the most influential. His reputation slumped in subsequent centuries but in recent decades his stock has risen steadily to a new peak. His works are now widely regarded as the most immediately compelling and dramatically charged in the whole history of Italian art.

With unflinching realism, stark contrasts of light and shade and intense emotional power, his art burst upon the tired, febrile artistic scene of fin-de-siècle Italy like a Damascene conversion. His paintings were radically innovatory, even shocking; his personality was arrogant, tempestuous and violent. Accused of murder, he fled Rome and sought exile successively in Naples, Malta and Sicily, time and again obliged by further conflict to make a fresh start.

Nevertheless, in his own lifetime connoisseurs clamoured for works. His patrons and protectors were among the richest and most powerful of cardinals, bankers and aristocrats. Though paintings by him now hang in museums around the world, many remain in the cities where he produced them, some still in the chapels for which they were made.

This tour begins in Lombardy, including the small town from which the artist took his name. It ends in Rome, where he established both his reputation and his notoriety, with a day in Naples where he was received with acclaim. Throughout it allows unhurried viewing of many of his finest paintings. The focus on a single artist provides not just a thematic stringency, but also a springboard to enhance the appreciation of the arts of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Italy.

Itinerary

Day 1: Caravaggio. Fly at c. 10.30am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Milan. Drive to the town of Caravaggio for an introductory walk. In the evening there is a lecture in the hotel. Stay two nights in Milan.

Day 2: Milan. Visit the Brera, one of the premier art collections in Italy, which includes the Supper at Emmaus. The Pinacoteca Ambrosiana houses Caravaggio’s Still Life: Basket of Fruit.

Day 3: Milan, Rome. Free time in Milan. In the afternoon travel by train to Rome (1st class, less than 4 hours). First of five nights in Rome.

Day 4: Rome. Walk in the street where

Caravaggio rented rooms near the Corso, and see three churches containing major religious paintings, including San Luigi dei Francesi (The Calling of St. Matthew), Sant’Agostino (Madonna di Loreto), and Santa Maria del Popolo (The Conversion of St. Paul and The Crucifixion of St. Peter). In the afternoon visit the Galleria Doria-Pamphilj to see Caravaggio’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt and Penitent Magdalene.

Day 5: Rome. The Palazzo Barberini holds several important works, including Judith Beheading Holofernes. Continue to the Villa Ludovisi, which houses Caravaggio’s early ceiling painting Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto (special arrangement).

Day 6: Rome. Cross the river into Trastevere for the gallery in Palazzo Corsini (St. John the Baptist). More paintings by Caravaggio and his peers are seen in the Capitoline Museums, which also house a breathtaking and recently-renovated collection of Ancient Roman statuary. In the afternoon visit the Villa Borghese, which contains Sick Bacchus and Boy with a Basket of Fruit.

Day 7: Naples. Travel by train (1st class), Rome to Naples. Here see two works by Caravaggio, his Martyrdom of St Ursula in a bank and his Seven Acts of Mercy in the chapel for which it was commissioned. In the afternoon drive into the hilly suburbs to visit the palace of Capodimonte, originally a giant hunting lodge. Here is located one of Italy’s greatest art galleries, with a magnificent range of art from the Middle Ages onwards, including The Flagellation of Christ by Caravaggio. Return to Rome by train.

Day 8: Vatican City. Visit the Vatican’s painting gallery, including Caravaggio’s Entombment of Christ, for long his most famous work. Free time to explore the rest of the Vatican follows. Fly from Rome arriving at London Heathrow at c. 7.00pm.

There is a possibility that not all of the works mentioned above will be seen; sometimes museums lend to exhibitions elsewhere at very short notice.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel De La Ville, Milan (delavillemilano.com): a 4-star Belle Epoque style hotel located 50 metres from the Duomo. Hotel Bernini Bristol, Rome (berninibristol.com): a luxurious 5-star hotel at the bottom of the Via Veneto, on Piazza Barberini.

How strenuous? Despite central hotels there is unavoidably a lot of walking on this tour. In each of the cities, the historic area is vast, and vehicular access is increasingly restricted. On many occasions we get about on foot or occasionally by metro and even when a minibus is used there may often be a walk of several hundred metres due to traffic restrictions. Participants need to be able to lift their own luggage onto and off trains.


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Pompeii & HerculaneumAntiquities of the Bay of Naples

NaplesArt, antiquities & opera23–28 March 2015Includes a performance of TurandotDetails available in November 2014Contact us to register your interest

Pompeii, watercolour by Frank Fox, publ. 1915

20–25 April 2015 (mb 293)6 days • £2,040Lecturer: Dr Mark Grahame

28 September–3 October 2015 (mc 467)6 days • £2,040Lecturer: Dr Mark Grahame

12–17 October 2015 (mc 484)6 days • £2,040Lecturer: Professor Roger Wilson

One of the most exciting tours possible dealing with Roman archaeology.

Two principal sites, both buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in ad 79 and preserved with unparalleled completeness.

Led by experts on the ancient world.

A unique insight into everyday life in the Roman Empire.

Important early Greek settlements, including Paestum, Cumae and Pozzuoli.

Campania’s favourable climate, fertile soils and natural harbours were attractive to the Greeks looking to trade and for places to settle. They founded their earliest colony at Cumae and others soon followed with Naples and Paestum (Posidonia) among them. The prosperity enjoyed by the Greek colonies is best seen at Paestum where three of the most complete Doric temples anywhere still stand.

After falling under Roman dominion, Campania continued to prosper with wealth generated by agriculture and trade. Towns like Pompeii and Herculaneum thrived and wealthy Romans seeking to escape from the summer heat of Rome built villas along its coast. Campania became an imperial playground with the emperor among the most famous and notorious of all villa owners on the Bay of Naples.

However, life on the Bay if Naples was struck by tragedy when Mount Vesuvius erupted in ad 79 and buried Pompeii and Herculanum with volcanic ash.

Paradoxically, this sudden obliteration preserved the towns with a level of completeness which has no parallel with any other archaeological site in the world.

Excavation has revealed them almost in their entirety, providing a unique insight into everyday life in the Roman Empire. Even the smallest and most fragile objects of daily use have survived, along with wall paintings, floor mosaics, precious jewellery and household utensils. The immediacy and vividness with which the imagination is able to grasp a past civilization are startling and unique.

Itinerary

Multiple flight times are given here as it is difficult to secure group space on direct flights between London and Naples. The order of visits shifts according to which flights we are able to confirm.

Day 1. Fly at c. 7.15am or c. 3.00pm (British Airways) from London Gatwick to Naples. Drive to the hotel in the hamlet of Seiano, above the town of Vico Equense, where all five nights are spent.

Day 2: Paestum. Paestum was a major Greek settlement and is one of the most interesting archaeological sites in Italy. Three outstanding Greek Doric temples stand in a remarkable state of preservation. Visit also the excellent museum which contains a very rare ancient Greek painted tomb and fascinating sculptured panels (metopes) of the sixth century bc, among the earliest anywhere.

Day 3: Cumae, Baia, Pozzuoli. Spend the day around the Bay of Naples at some little-visited but exciting sites. Cumae was the first Greek settlement on mainland Italy, and material from here and other sites visited during the tour can

be seen in the archaeological museum of the Phlegraean fields in the spectacularly-situated castle at Baia. The port of Pozzuoli has a well-preserved amphitheatre and market.

Day 4: Pompeii. Since its first exploration during the 18th century, ancient Pompeii has been one of the world’s most famous archaeological excavations. The fascination of the site lies not only in the major public buildings such as the theatre, temples and the forum but also in the numerous domestic dwellings, from cramped apartments to luxurious houses with their mosaic pavements and gaudily frescoed walls.

Day 5: Herculaneum, Naples. At Herculaneum, engulfed by mud rather than ash, timber and other fragile artefacts that normally do not survive have been preserved by the unique conditions of burial. Less than a quarter of this town has been excavated, and in the part preserved the emphasis is on private dwellings and their decoration. The Archaeological Museum in Naples has one of the finest collections in the world, and is the principal repository for both the small finds and the best preserved mosaics and frescoes discovered at Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Day 6: Oplontis. Visit the lavish villa at Torre Annunziata (ancient Oplontis), which may have been the home of Poppaea, wife of Nero. It is one of the loveliest of ancient sites, with rich wall paintings, a replanted garden and a swimming pool. Fly from Naples to London Gatwick, arriving c. 2.45pm or c. 9.45pm, or from Rome to London Gatwick, arriving c. 8.30pm.

Practicalities

Price: £2,040 (deposit £200). Single room supplement £220. Price without flights £1,800.

Included meals: 1 picnic lunch and 3 dinners with wine.

Accommodation. Grand Hotel Angiolieri (grandhotelangiolieri.it): a smart, modern 5-star hotel on the hill-top above the town of Vico Equense. Rooms with a sea view are available on request and for a supplement.

How strenuous? Quite a lot of walking, some of it over rough ground on archaeological sites and there is quite a lot of standing in museums and on archaeological sites. Sure-footedness is essential. The day spent in Pompeii can be tiring. Average distance by coach per day: 65 miles


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Normans in the SouthCastles & cathedrals in Puglia, Basilicata & Campania

By the end of the century they had expelled the Byzantines from the mainland and the Saracens from Sicily, and by 1127 all Sicily and southern Italy was ruled by one Norman king.

This cosmopolitan kingdom was one of the best administered and most culturally sophisticated in Europe. As in England, in the wake of conquest there arose splendid new churches of unprecedented size and grandeur. A mixture of French, Lombard, Byzantine, Saracenic and ancient Roman elements, south Italian Romanesque is one of the most distinct and beautiful of the variants of this truly international style.

Prosperity and creativity continued after the extinction of the Norman dynasty in 1194 by the Hohenstaufen from Germany. In the first half of the thirteenth century the region was dominated by the extraordinary Emperor Frederick II, ‘Stupor Mundi’, ‘Wonder of the World’. He was as courageous and ambitious in artistic and intellectual spheres as he was in administration, diplomacy and war.

Much later there was another artistic outburst, appropriately international but characteristically idiosyncratic: a highly elaborate version of Baroque architecture and decoration.

The heel and spur of boot-shaped Italy, Puglia is remote from the better-known parts of the peninsula, and its raw limestone landscape wholly different from the silky richness of central and northern Italy. The last day of the tour is spent across the Apennines in Campania. This region presents another face of Italy, distinctly southern but with an equally cosmopolitan and pan-Mediterranean cultural history.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 10.30am (Alitalia) from London City to Brindisi, via Rome, and drive on to Lecce. First of three nights in Lecce.

Day 2: Squinzano, Gallipoli, Otranto. Explore the Salentine Peninsula, the southernmost tip of the heel of Italy. Visit the Abbey of Santa Maria di Cerrate, a 12th-century Romanesque complex. Gallipoli was the centre of Byzantine Italy until conquered by the Normans in 1071; the old town is on an off-shore island. Otranto, captured by Normans in 1068, has a cathedral with outstanding 12th-century floor mosaics.

Day 3: Lecce. Lecce is distinguished by an elaborate style of Baroque and Rococo decoration wrought in the soft, honey-coloured tufa of the region, the outstanding examples being the cathedral and the church of Santa Croce. See also the Norman church of SS. Niccolò e Cataldo, founded by Tancred. Some free time.

Day 4: Brindisi, Bitonto. Possessing the safest natural harbour on the Adriatic, the provincial capital of Brindisi has been of intermittent strategic importance for over 24 centuries. Visit San Benedetto, with its Romanesque bell tower. Bitonto has one of the finest of Romanesque cathedrals with good sculpture and an Early Christian lower church. Continue to Trani where the next four nights are spent.

Day 5: Bari, Trani. Bari, capital of Puglia, has an extensive and unspoilt mediaeval quarter beside the sea. The Basilica of San Nicola, begun in 1087, is not only the first but also the greatest of Puglian Romanesque churches; the episcopal throne here is remarkable. Also visit the cathedral (1170) and later mediaeval Angevin castle. Back in Trani, visit the magically beautiful Romanesque cathedral on the waterfront.

Day 6: Castel del Monte, Canosa. Castel del Monte, situated on an isolated peak, is Frederick

24 March–1 April 2015 (mb 268)9 days • £2,520Lecturer: John McNeill

An architectural tour of one of the most sophisticated kingdoms in mediaeval Europe.

Splendid Norman legacy of Romanesque, with churches of unprecedented size and grandeur.

Led by John McNeill, a mediaevalist who has become an expert on the region.

Later architecture of equal magnificence, in particular an elaborate flowering of Baroque.

Attractive, well-preserved town centres and a dramatic landscape of raw limestone.

The Norman conquest of southern Italy was one of the most remarkable episodes in mediaeval history. Whereas England was subjugated by a sizeable and highly organised Norman army, the ‘Kingdom in the Sun’ was won by small bands of soldiers of fortune. They trickled in during the eleventh century when the tangled political situation and incessant feuding made the area ripe for exploitation by ambitious knights in search of adventure and personal gain.

“The lecturer was excellent: very caring of everyone’s needs and at the same time brilliantly informative. Our mini-lectures and walkabouts were models of their kind.”

Trani Cathedral from The Shores of the Adriatic by F. Hamilton Jackson, 1906.

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Normans in the Southcontinued

II’s extraordinarily sophisticated hunting lodge and one of the most intriguing secular buildings of the Middle Ages. Canosa di Puglia has an 11th-century cathedral.

Day 7: Troia, Melfi, Venosa. Troia is a lovely town with a Pisan-style Romanesque cathedral. Drive to the hilltop town of Melfi in Basilicata, which was for a while the main centre of Norman power in Italy. The impressive but unfinished Abbazia della SS. Trinità at Venosa was built from the 12th century over an early Christian church. Return to Puglia for the final night in Trani.

Day 8: Benevento, Salerno. Cross the Apennines to Campania. Benevento was a strategic Roman colonia, Lombard Duchy and Norman from 1081. The Arch of Trajan is one of the finest surviving Roman triumphal arches. Santa Sofia has a magnificent 12th-century cloister. The seaport of Salerno has an 11th-century cathedral with a fine sculpted portal and a 12th-century ivory altarpiece. Overnight Vico Equense.

Day 9: Sant’Angelo in Formis. The Basilica of Sant’Angelo in Formis has outstanding 11th-century frescoes. Fly from Rome to London City, arriving at c. 6.45pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Patria Palace Hotel, Lecce (patriapalacelecce.com): a stylish 5-star hotel in an excellent location near the church of Santa Croce in the historic centre. Hotel San Paolo al Convento, Trani (hotelsanpaoloalconventotrani.it): a charming 4-star hotel converted from a 15th-century convent, although service and maintenance are not always quite up to North European standards. Grand Hotel Angiolieri, Vico Equense (grandhotelangiolieri.it): a smart, modern 5-star hotel in the village of Seiano, close to the town of Vico Equense.

How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of walking on uneven pavement in archeological sites as well as in the town centres where vehicular access is restricted. It should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Fitness is essential. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 102 miles


Essential PugliaArt & architecture in the heel of Italy

23–30 September 2015 (mc 446)8 days • £2,340Lecturer: Christopher Newall

Fascinating architecture, especially Norman and Baroque.

Exceptionally attractive streetscapes in hilltop towns and coastal cities.

Distinctive, dramatic limestone landscapes.

The heel and spur of boot-shaped Italy, Puglia is now returning to the limelight after being ignored or disparaged for centuries. While the sobriquet ‘the new Tuscany’ is a lazy cliché and dangerously misleading (with its raw limestone landscape Puglia looks and feels like a different country), it is the case that only in the last couple of decades have Italophiles and discerning travellers been taking the region seriously.

The region’s strategic position meant that it was repeatedly invaded and conquered, and each dynasty left its mark. Roman remains are frequent but tend to have been all but eradicated by later prosperity – or warfare. The many magnificent Romanesque cathedrals bear witness to the Norman conquest of southern Italy, one of the most notable episodes in mediaeval history. Churches and castles from the subsequent Hohenstaufen and Angevin eras abound and exhibit French, Lombard, Byzantine and Saracenic influences.

Much later there was another artistic outburst, appropriately international but characteristically idiosyncratic, a highly elaborate version of Baroque architecture and decoration. Lecce is a glorious example: churches and palaces with intricately embellished façades carved from the local stone line the streets and squares of this lively town, the regional capital of the Salento.

A journey from the north to the south of Puglia, this tour takes in the most important

mediaeval and Baroque sites and well as the noteworthy items from other eras. Particularly memorable are the unspoilt centres of ancient cities and villages built up around narrow twisting alleys, some tumbling down hillsides, most whitewashed, all full of picturesque incident. Waterfronts with ancient harbours are another feature.

There is scenic variety from rolling hills to open plains, in parts enlivened by trulli, conical stone houses which are a unique vernacular phenomenon. In the autumnal light and cooler temperatures Puglia’s charms can now be enjoyed with comfort and ease.

While including many of the major items visited on our nine-day Normans in the South tour (page 151), this itinerary differs by lessening the focus on that era and encompassing a wider range of architecture, art and history.

Itinerary

Day 1: Bitonto. Fly at c. 11.45am (British Airways) from London Gatwick to Bari and drive to Bitonto, which has one of the finest of Romanesque cathedrals in the region, with good sculpture and an Early Christian lower church. Continue to Trani, where the first three nights are spent.

Day 2: Trani, Castel del Monte. A walk along the harbour of the small city of Trani includes the 12th-century church of Ognissanti and the magically beautiful Romanesque cathedral perched on the waterfront. In the afternoon drive out to Castel del Monte. Situated on an isolated peak, Frederick II’s extraordinary octagonal hunting lodge of c. 1240 is one of the most intriguing secular buildings of the Middle Ages.

Day 3: Monte Sant’Angelo, Santa Maria di Siponto. High on the southern slopes of Monte Gargano sits Monte Sant’Angelo, where the apparition of the Archangel Michael in the 5th

Bari, S. Nicola, from

The Shores of the Adriatic 1906

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century has made the grotto sanctuary a popular destination for pilgrims. The massive castle was started by the Normans and extended by the Swabians, Aragonese and Bourbons. The Tomba di Rotari is a baptistery with 12th-century decorations and a domed roof. Seemingly of Tuscan Romanesque influence is the isolated church of Santa Maria di Siponto.

Day 4: Bari. Capital of Puglia, Bari has a wonderful walled mediaeval quarter beside the sea, extensive and unspoilt. The Basilica di San Nicola, begun in 1087, is not only the first but also the greatest of Puglian Romanesque churches; the episcopal throne here is remarkable. Also visit the cathedral (1170) and the later mediaeval Angevin castle. There is a good art gallery. Continue through the Itria Valley, an area peppered with conical stone trulli, to Martina Franca, a beautiful hill town of winding streets, sudden vistas and Baroque and Rococo houses and churches. Overnight near Martina Franca.

Day 5: Martina Franca, Brindisi. Before leaving Martina Franca, see the 17th-century Palazzo Ducale with its fine Baroque façade and the cathedral of San Martino. Possessing the safest natural harbour on the Adriatic, Brindisi has been of intermittent strategic importance for over twenty-four centuries. Visit the Romanesque church of Santa Maria del Casale, which has Byzantine frescoes and a polychrome façade, and San Giovanni al Sepolcro with a splendid portal decorated with reliefs. Drive to Lecce where the final three nights are spent.

Day 6: Lecce, Galatina. Lecce is distinguished by an elaborate style of Baroque and Rococo decoration wrought in the soft, honey-coloured

tufa of the region. The outstanding examples are the cathedral and the church of Santa Croce. See also the well preserved Roman theatre. Drive out in the afternoon to the pretty little town of Galatina to see the remarkable frescoes from the first half of the 15th century in the Franciscan church of St Catherine. There is some free time in Lecce.

Day 7: Casarano, Gallipoli, Otranto. Explore the Salentine Peninsula, the southernmost tip of the heel of Italy. Gallipoli was the centre of Byzantine Italy until conquered by the Normans in 1071. The highly picturesque old town is on an off-shore island protruding into the Ionian Sea. The ancient city of Otranto, the easternmost in Italy, has a Norman cathedral with outstanding 12th-century floor mosaics.

Day 8: Ostuni. Ostuni is another delightful white-washed hilltop town with bemusingly winding streets. At its centre is a late Gothic cathedral with three fine rose windows. Fly from Bari, arriving at London Gatwick at c. 5.45pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel San Paolo al Convento, Trani (hotelsanpaoloalconventotrani.it): a charming 4-star hotel converted from a 15th-century convent. Relais Villa San Martino, near Martina Franca (relaisvillasanmartino.it): a converted villa 3 km outside the town. Patria

Palace Hotel, Lecce (patriapalacelecce.com): a stylish 5-star hotel in an excellent location near the church of Santa Croce.

How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of walking, often uphill, in town centres where vehicular access is restricted, and should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 64 miles


Combine this tour with The Greeks in Sicily, 14–21 September (page 157), The Heart of Italy, 15–22 September (page 140), Siena & San Gimignano, 30 September–4 October (page 135), The Venetian Hills, 1–5 October (page 118) or Gardens & Villas of the Italian Lakes, 1–7 October (page 116).

Christopher NewallArt historian, lecturer and writer. A specialist in 19th-century British art he also has a deep interest in southern Italy, its architecture, politics and social history. He studied

at the Courtauld and has curated various exhibitions including John Ruskin: Artist & Observer at the National Gallery of Canada and Scottish National Portrait Gallery.Christopher Newall also leads Essential Rome (page 144) and Sicily (page 155).All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

Castel del Monte, lithograph by Edward Lear from Edward Lear in Southern Italy

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SardiniaArchaeology, architecture, art and landscapes

26 September–4 October 2015 (mc 468)9 days • £2,560Lecturer: Dr R. T. Cobianchi

Includes the best of the island’s material culture, from Neolithic and Bronze Age, through Punic and Roman to mediaeval and Renaissance.

The unique Bronze Age nuraghi are a striking feature, as are Tuscan-style Romanesque churches and 16th-century Catalan altarpieces.

See the recently reconstructed Giganti di Mont’e Prama, an extraordinary group of sculpted life-sized warriors dating to 8th century bc.

Wonderful mix of sites from the south to the north following the west coast of the island.

Despite being the second largest island in the Mediterranean, Sardinia’s cultural treasures remain largely undiscovered by travellers. Its extraordinary jagged coastline and clear blue seas have earned it a deserved reputation for beach tourism, with villas and resorts clinging to the cliffs along the Costa Smeralda. Yet the wealth of prehistoric sites, Punic and Roman remains and Pisan-Romanesque churches make it a fascinating destination for those prepared to forego the luxury of the coast and explore inland.

As with all the larger islands in the Mediterranean, Sardinia was plundered and settled by a succession of pirates and empire builders, though due in large part to its rugged and impenetrable landscape, Sardinian identity was never wholly extinguished. Her Bronze Age settlements truly set it apart. Deep gorges, craggy limestone and slate mountain ranges and swathes of verdant countryside hide over 7000 nuraghi, peculiar conical stone structures which were forts, palaces and simple domestic dwellings. Much is left to the imagination as little is known

about these edifices, though digs are leading to some fascinating insights.

Evidence of Phoenician power on the island can be seen at Tharros on the west coast, established in the eighth century bc in a strategic position jutting into the sea in the Gulf of Oristano. Later colonized by the Romans, the site is a remarkable example of a coastal city-state. Finds can be seen in Sardinia’s superlative collection of archeological museums, in Cagliari, Sassari and Oristano.

The decline of the Roman Empire left Sardinia open to Goths, Lombards, for a short spell the Byzantines, and to the new Muslim empires of North Africa and Spain. The Pisans and Genoese in the eleventh century left an indelible mark on the island with their superb Romanesque churches in the Logudoro region, indeed some of the finest in Europe.

Rule by the Kingdom of Aragón brought a Spanish dimension to the island’s culture, most evident today in the Catalan-Gothic architecture of the fishing port at Alghero and, concealed in mediaeval churches in tiny villages the length of the island, sumptuous sixteenth-century retables which rival coeval ones on the Italian mainland.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 10.45am (Alitalia) from London City Airport to Cagliari, via Rome. First of three nights in Cagliari.

Day 2: Cagliari. The morning is spent in the Cittadella dei Musei: the art gallery has works by the foremost Sardinian retable painter, Pietro Cavaro, and the excellent archaeological museum has important finds from the Nuragic, Phoenician and Roman periods. See the Giganti di Mont’e Prama, nuragic stone figures representing warriors, boxers and archers that have been recently reconstructed from over

5000 fragments excavated in the 1970s. In the afternoon walk up the Bastione St. Remy, an immense late nineteenth-century gateway to the Castello district. The cathedral has a remodelled Pisan-Romanesque façade and a sculpted pulpit from 1160. The Museo Diocesano has a 15th-century Flemish triptych.

Day 3: Barumini, Tuili. The Nuraghe Su’ Nuraxi is the largest of the Bronze Age nuraghi, with an impressive central tower constructed of basalt. At nearby Tuili, the unprepossessing Chiesa di San Pietro houses an exquisite retable by the Maestro di Castelsardo (c. 1500). Return to Cagliari for a little free time. Stroll around the mediaeval ramparts or visit the few Baroque churches.

Day 4: Paulilatino, Oristano. The Basilica di Santa Giusta, erected in 1135, is one of the earliest of the Tuscan Romanesque churches. The Nuraghe Santa Cristina is the most picturesque nuragic site, surrounded by olive groves and with an astounding underground shrine from the second century bc. At Oristano there is a fine collection at the archaeological museum, a 14th-century polychrome statue by Nino Pisano in the cathedral. First of two nights in Oristano.

Day 5: Tharros, San Salvatore. Tharros is a magnificently located Punic and Roman site, with fine views over the Gulf of Oristano. The nearby Byzantine Church of San Giovanni in Sinis is the oldest of Sardinia’s churches. Visit the Church of the Saviour, which has an underground hypogeum with fourth-century frescoes depicting animals and Roman mythology. Return through the marshes of the lagoon, stopping for lunch at a fish restaurant in the town of Cabras.

Day 6: Borruta, Bonorva, Torralba. San Pietro di Sorres is the most superbly situated Romanesque church in Sardinia, with typical Tuscan black and white stone banding. The church overlooks the Valle dei Nuraghi where there is a concentration of nuragic sites. Visit Nuraghe Santu Antine, the most complex nuragic site in Sardinia. The cliff necropolis of Sant’Andrea Priu was used for burial in the second and third centuries bc. In the main chamber are exquisite fragments of later Roman and Byzantine frescoes. Continue to Sassari for the first of three nights.

Day 7: Sassari, Porto Torres. The morning is spent in Sassari, which has a network of charming mediaeval streets culminating in stately 19th-century piazze. The cathedral of San Nicola has one of Italy’s most lavish Baroque façades. There is a large collection of pre-historic, Punic and Roman artefacts in the Museo Sanna, as well as excellent models of the nuraghi and tomb complexes. At Porto Torres, the Basilica di San Gavino is a monumental Romanesque structure, Sardinia’s earliest and finest, with almost thirty Roman columns flanking the nave. The Copper Age sanctuary of Monte D’Accoddi is entirely unique in the Mediterranean, reminiscent of the tombs of the Aztecs.

Day 8: Alghero, Churches of the Logudoro. Alghero is a picturesque seaside town, still functioning as a commercial fishing port. A Catalan colony for nearly 400 years, the Spanish influence can be seen in the Catalan-Gothic

Cagliari, late-19th-century engraving from Gazetteer of the World, Vol.II

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architecture of the old town. Visit the nearby domus de janus site Anghelu Ruju, a fine example of the pre-nuragic hypogea found all over the island. Drive to see two examples of Pisan-Romanesque churches, each in a very different setting in the rural landscape. Santissima Trinità di Saccargia is a splendid example, built in black basalt and white limestone in 1116. Santa Maria del Regno has a magnificent ornate retable from 1515.

Day 9. Fly from Alghero to London City Airport, via Rome, arriving c. 6.45pm.

Flights. The flights offered on this tour are indirect via Rome as at the time of going to press there are no airlines other than Easyjet and Ryanair that offer direct flights from London to Sardinia. Low-cost airlines sadly do not offer viable booking conditions for tour operators arranging group travel however we have planned the itinerary with the following flights in mind so that participants who prefer to arrange their travel independently and fly directly can do so:

Outbound: EZY3203 (Easyjet), fly at c. 4.15pm from London Stansted to Cagliari arriving at c. 8.00pm. Inbound: FR231 (Ryanair), fly at c. 6.15pm from Alghero to London Stansted arriving at c. 7.45pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Regina Margherita, Cagliari (hotelreginamargherita.com): a recently refurbished 4-star hotel, externally unattractive but internally clean and bright, with spacious rooms. Mariano IV Palace Hotel, Oristano (m4ph.eu): the only centrally-located 4-star hotel in the town, in need of refurbishment. Bedrooms are a good size if a little dated. Hotel Vittorio Emanuele, Sassari (hotelvesassari.it): a 3-star hotel close to the historic centre but rooms are simple, small and ill-lit. These hotels are the best in their localities, but are by no means luxurious or indeed memorable.

How strenuous? A lot of walking, some over rough ground at archaeological sites or over cobbled or uneven paving. Fitness and sure-footedness are essential, particularly for clambering up nuraghi. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average coach travel per day: 75 miles


Combine this tour with Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 5–10 October (page 119) or Sicily, 5–17 October (page 155).

SicilyCentre of Mediterranean civilizations

16–28 March 2015 (mb 258)13 days • £4,130Lecturer: Christopher Newall

13–25 April 2015 (mb 290)This tour is currently full

21 September–3 October 2015 (mc 465)13 days • £4,320Lecturer: Dr Luca Leoncini

5–17 October 2015 (mc 475)13 days • £4,320Lecturer: Dr Philippa Joseph

2–14 November 2015 (mc 518)13 days • £4,130Lecturer: Dr Ffiona Gilmore Eaves

Covers all the island, showcasing the main sights and many lesser-known ones.

The whole gamut – Ancient Greek, Roman, mediaeval (particularly Norman), Renaissance, Baroque and nineteenth-century.

A full tour but carefully paced. Hotel changes kept to a minimum – only three hotels during the entire tour.

Combine the September departure of this tour with Malta, 5–11 October 2015 (see page 166).

By virtue of both size and location, Sicily is the pre-eminent island in the Mediterranean. It is the largest, and it is also close to the sea’s centre, a stepping stone between Europe and Africa and a refuge between the Levant and the Atlantic.

The result is that throughout history Sicily

has been viewed as a fortuitous landfall by migrating peoples and a prized possession by ambitious adventurers and expansionist princes. And as the Mediterranean has been catalyst and disseminator of a greater variety of civilizations than any other of the world’s seas, the island has acquired an exceptionally rich encrustation of art, architecture and archaeological remains.

For the Phoenicians, Sicily was a nodal point in their far-reaching trading empire, but from the seventh century bc they were increasingly displaced by colonies established by the Greeks. Exploiting the enormous potential of the island, these rapidly outpaced their rugged home territories to become the most prosperous of all Hellenic colonies. At Segesta and Agrigento there survive some of the finest standing Doric temples to be seen anywhere.

Great wealth accrued under Roman rule when the island was clothed in fields of corn, and endless oak forests and abundant fauna provided sport for grandees and emperors. One of them has bequeathed to us on the floor of his luxurious villa the most splendid Roman mosaics to have survived. Overrun by Germanic barbarians in the fifth century, Sicily was wrested back for the twilight of classical civilization by the Byzantines, but at the cost of military campaigns which devastated the island.

Byzantine rule was in turn supplanted from the ninth century by Muslim Arabs, and a period of prosperity and advanced civilization ensued. Two hundred years later Arab rule was swept aside by conquering Normans, who, by succumbing to the luxuriant sophistication of their predecessors, distanced themselves as far as is imaginable from their rugged northern roots. The unique artistic blend of this golden age survives in the Romanesque churches with details of Norman, Saracenic, Levantine and

Segesta, watercolour by Alberto Pisa, publ. 1911

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classical origin. Byzantine mosaicists were much employed. The wealth and power of Sicily began to wane again from the later Middle Ages as a succession of German, French and Spanish dynasties exploited the island with colonial disregard for long-term interests, but pockets of wealth and creativity remained as Gothic and Renaissance masterpieces demonstrate. Artistically, however, a final flourish was reached in the Age of Baroque which saw the erection of churches and palaces as splendid and exuberant as anywhere in Europe.

The raw beauty of the landscape changes continually across the island. The Sicilians can be as welcoming as Italians anywhere, but the island continues to retain its enigmas, and differences with the mainland sometimes seem profound.

Itinerary

There may be itinerary changes due to closures for restoration work which happen fairly frequently in Sicily.

Day 1: Palermo. Fly at c. 7.30am from London Heathrow, via Milan, to Palermo (Alitalia: March and November), or at c. 2.30pm from London Gatwick to Catania (British Airways: April, September and October), and drive across the island to Palermo. The largest and by far the most interesting city on the island, Palermo has been capital of Sicily from the period of Saracenic occupation in the 9th century. It reached a peak under the Normans and again during the Age of Baroque. First of six nights in Palermo.

Day 2: Palermo. Morning walk through the old centre includes a visit to several oratories and outstanding Norman buildings including La Martorana with fine mosaics. Drinks at a private palace, usually closed to the public. In the afternoon see the collection of pictures in the 15th-century Palazzo Abatellis.

Day 3: Monreale, Cefalù. Monreale dominates a verdant valley southwest of Palermo, and its cathedral is one of the finest Norman churches with the largest scheme of mosaic decoration to survive from the Middle Ages. Cefalù, a charming coastal town, has a massive Norman cathedral with outstanding mosaics and an art gallery with a painting by Antonello da Messina.

Day 4: Segesta, Selinunte. With its magnificently sited temple and theatre, Segesta is one of the most evocative of Greek sites. Selinunte, founded c. 650 bc, is a vast archaeological site, renowned for its well-preserved temples on the eastern hill and the acropolis.

Day 5: Agrigento. A full day in Agrigento to see the ‘Valley of the Temples’, one of the finest of all ancient Greek sites with two virtually complete Doric temples, other ruins and a good museum.

Day 6: Palermo. Visit the 12th-century Palace of the Normans, containing the Hall of King Roger which has outstanding mosaics (sometimes subject to last-minute closure). S. Giovanni degli Eremiti is a Norman church with five cupolas and a charming garden. The cathedral, a building of many periods, has grand royal and imperial tombs. Free afternoon. Return to the Palace of the Normans for a private visit to the Palatine Chapel.

Day 7: Palermo, Piazza Armerina. In Palermo visit Castello della Zisa, an Arab-Norman Palace. Drive through the interior of Sicily. At Piazza Armerina are the remains of one of the most sumptuous villas of the late-Roman Empire, whose floor mosaics comprise the most vital and colourful manifestation of Roman figurative art in Europe. Continue across the island for the first of four nights in Taormina.

Day 8: Taormina. Visit the famed Roman theatre, with spectacular views over the sea to Calabria and inland to Mount Etna, an active volcano. The rest of the day free: one of the earliest and still one of the most attractive of Mediterranean resorts, Taormina has an area of secluded beaches joined by funicular to the delightful hilltop town.

Day 9: Messina, Reggio di Calabria. Drive north to Messina to see the art gallery with paintings by Caravaggio and Antonello da Messina. Cross by ferry to Reggio di Calabria on the mainland of Italy, and see the Riace Bronzes – over-life-size male nudes possibly by Phidias, and among the finest Greek sculpture to survive.

Day 10: Catania. Drive along the coast to Catania, with a fine Baroque centre. Here there are special visits to a private palazzo, and a Byzantine chapel, where there is a light lunch. See also the cathedral and the civic museum, which houses some stunning classical sculpture and Greek vases.

Day 11: Syracuse. Founded as a Greek colony in 733 bc, Syracuse became the most important city of Magna Græcia. Afternoon walk on the island of Ortygia, the picturesque and densely built original centre of Syracuse, and see the Caravaggio painting in the church of Santa Lucia alla Badia. First of two nights in Syracuse.

Day 12: Noto, Syracuse. Rebuilt after an earthquake in 1693, Noto is one of the loveliest and most homogenous Baroque towns in Italy. Visit the 5th-century bc Greek theatre in Syracuse, the largest of its type to survive, the stone quarries and the Roman amphitheatre. There is also time to visit the excellent museum of antiquities in Syracuse.

Day 13: Syracuse. Fly from Catania, via Rome, arriving London Heathrow at c. 7.15pm (in March and November), or arriving at London Gatwick at c. 9.30pm (in April, September and October).

Flights. We opt to travel to and from Sicily with Alitalia in March and November because the only direct flights to the island in this period are with low-cost airlines, with whom it is not currently viable for us to make a group booking. British Airways only flies directly from London Gatwick to Catania from April to October.

Practicalities

Price: £4,130 (March, April, November), £4,320 (September, October) (deposit £400). Single supplement £480 (March), £510 (all other departures) (double room for single occupancy). Price without flights £3,900 (March, April, November), £3,990 (September, October).


Cefalu, cathedral, engraving c. 1830

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Accommodation. Grand Hotel Piazza Borsa, Palermo (piazzaborsa.it): a centrally located 4-star hotel housed in an assortment of historical buildings. Hotel Villa Belvedere, Taormina (villabelvedere.it): a 4-star, charming, family-run hotel, in the old town, with its own garden (rooms vary in size and outlook). Des Ètrangers Hotel, Syracuse (all departures except November) (desetrangers.com): an elegant 5-star hotel on the island of Ortygia. Antico Hotel Roma 1880, Syracuse (November) (hotelromasiracusa.it): a somewhat basic but friendly 4-star hotel, excellently situated on the island of Ortygia.

How strenuous? This tour involves a lot of walking, sometimes over rough ground at archaeological sites and cobbled or uneven paving in town centres. Fitness and sure-footedness are essential. There are also some long coach journeys. Average coach travel per day: 73 miles


Combine the March departure with Venice & Florence, 7–14 March (page 123) or Courts of Northern Italy, 8–15 March (page 124).

Combine the September departure with Malta, 5–11 October (page 166), Friuli-Venezia Giulia, 5–10 October (page 119) or Courts of Northern Italy, 4–11 October (page 124).

Combine the October departure with Sardinia, 26 September–4 October (page 154), Pompeii & Herculaneum, 28 September–3 October (page 150) or Siena & San Gimignano, 30 September–4 October (page 135).

Combine the November departure with Venetian Palaces, 17–21 November (page 120).

Palermo, Palatine Chapel, by F. Fox, publ. 1913

The Greeks in SicilyGreek, Phoenician & Roman Antiquities in ‘Magna Graecia’

14–21 September 2015 (mc 441)8 days • £2,610Lecturer: Professor Tony Spawforth

Magna Graecia: a survey of the Ancient Greeks in Sicily, including some of the best-preserved Doric temples to be found anywhere.

Exceptional Greek sculpture including The Charioteer at Mozia and the Dancing Satyr of Mazara del Vallo.

Also Phoenician artefacts (a ship) and Roman remains (the finest surviving floor mosaics).

Some of the finest archaeological museums in Italy well document life in the Ancient World.

In the Aegean heartlands of ancient Greece there was an abundance of energy and enterprise but a superabundance of people and an acute shortage of cultivatable land. The solution was to send seaborne parties of young men across the Mediterranean in search of sites where they could settle and found colonies.

The colonies in Sicily were particularly successful – despite frequent strife with natives, Carthaginians, Romans and other Greeks – and rapidly outgrew their mother cities in prosperity and architectural magnificence. The Greeks themselves coined the phrase which is better known in its Latin form, Magna Graecia, ‘Greater Greece’.

The most evocative evidence for this phenomenon lies in the splendid crop of Doric temples, more numerous and on the whole larger and much better preserved than their counterparts in Greece proper. The peripteral, pedimented form of the Greek temple continued as a living tradition for nearly 500 years with no significant change, though no two temples are alike, and informed examination of the best examples provides an aesthetic feast of the highest order.

Outstanding Greek sculpture is another feature in Sicily, with three recent discoveries – the ‘Charioteer of Mozia’, the ‘Morgantina Venus’ and the bronze ‘Dancing Satyr of Mazara del Vallo’ – requiring a re-writing of the history books, and all now beautifully displayed.

Prominent among the Roman artefacts are floor mosaics, those of the sumptuous Villa Romana del Casale near Piazza Armerina being the finest in the western Empire, but there are also some little-visited ones such as those at Villa Romana del Tellaro. There are also some rare Phoenician remains such as the well-preserved warship in Marsala’s archaeological museum.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 2.45pm (Alitalia) directly from London Gatwick to Catania. Light dinner at the hotel. First of three nights in Syracuse.

Agrigento, Temple of Castor, wood engraving c. 1885 from Picturesque Europe

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Ruins at Selinunte, aquatint c. 1830

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Day 2: Syracuse. Founded by Corinthian colonists in 733 bc around a natural harbour, Syracuse grew into the wealthiest of all the cities in Magna Graecia. The heart of the ancient city is now an island, Ortygia. Here are the ruins of the oldest Doric temple in the Greek west while another owes its preservation to conversion into the present-day cathedral. On the mainland there is a well-conserved theatre, the largest of its type to survive, stone quarries, a Roman amphitheatre and an excellent museum. Overnight Syracuse.

Day 3: Castello Eurialo, Vendicari, Palazzolo Acreide. Castello Eurialo is part of the overall defences of Greek Syracuse, with evocative views. Drive south to the salt-lagoons and nature reserve at Vendicari to visit the Villa Romana del Tellaro, where a small but superb set of Roman mosaics depicting scenes of hunting has been beautifully restored at this former masseria. In the afternoon explore the ruins at Palazzolo Acreide, formerly the Greek town of Akrai, where there is a well-preserved theatre. Overnight Syracuse.

Day 4: Morgantina, Aidone, Piazza Armerina. Visit the archaeological park at Morgantina and the museum at neighbouring Aidone, which houses the controversial ‘Morgantina Venus’, returned to Italy by the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. At Piazza Armerina see the remains of one of the most sumptuous villas of the late-Roman Empire, whose floor mosaics comprise the most vital and colourful manifestation of Roman figurative art in Europe. Overnight Agrigento.

Day 5: Agrigento. As if making up for a relatively late foundation (580 bc), the colony of Akragas rose rapidly to riches and constructed eight peripteral temples – the largest group in the Greek world. That dedicated to Olympian Zeus was the largest of all Doric temples before being felled by earthquakes, while the Temple of

Concord is the best preserved in the west. With the colonnades of several others still standing to varying extents, the ‘Valley of the Temples’ is one of the great sights bequeathed by the ancient world (and is on the doorstep of our hotel). There is also an excellent museum here. Overnight Marsala.

Day 6: Selinunte, Segesta. Drive to the coastal site of Selinunte, founded c. 650 bc. This is a vast site, with eight Doric temples on the eastern hill and on the acropolis, some quite well preserved. They are considered by some to be architecturally the most outstanding in Magna Graecia. At Segesta, set in an unspoilt hilly landscape, the fascinatingly not-quite-finished 5th-century temple was built by the indigenous if thoroughly Hellenized people. On an adjacent, higher hill is a theatre with fine views to the sea. Altogether one of the most evocative of ancient sites. Overnight Marsala.

Day 7: Marsala, Mozia, Mazara del Vallo. Visit the archaeological museum in Marsala, where the star exhibit is an extremely well-preserved Phoenician warship. Drive to the salt flats north of Marsala to take a boat across the lagoon to the island of Mozia (sailings cancelled in rough weather). Here visit the small Whitaker Museum which houses the 5th-century bc Auriga (charioteer), one of the most exquisite of surviving Greek sculptures. In the afternoon, see the Dancing Satyr in Mazara del Vallo, a very rare Hellenistic bronze of extraordinary energy. Overnight Marsala.

Day 8. Fly from Palermo to London via Milan, arriving at London Heathrow at c. 6.00pm.

Flights. We opt to travel to and from Sicily with Alitalia because the only direct flights from Palermo to London are with low-cost airlines,

with whom it is not currently viable for us to make a group booking. It is possible to choose our ‘no flights’ option, or to choose to travel just one way with the group, and to book your own flights with Easyjet or Ryanair, both of whom fly directly between London and Palermo in this period. Please contact us for advice or further information about this.

Practicalities


Included meals: 2 lunches (1 is a picnic) and 5 dinners with wine.

Accommodation. Des Ètrangers Hotel, Syracuse (desetrangers.com): an elegant 5-star hotel on the island of Ortygia. Hotel Villa Athena, Agrigento (hotelvillaathena.it): a stunning 5-star hotel out of the town centre, walking distance from the Valley of the Temples. Hotel Carmine, Marsala (hotelcarmine.it): a small and charming 3-star hotel, with occasionally erratic service.

How strenuous? The nature of the places visited means that this tour involves a considerable amount of walking, some of it over rough ground at archaeological sites and cobbled or uneven paving in town centres. Fitness and sure-footedness are essential. There are some long coach journeys. Average distance by coach per day: 114 miles


Combine this tour with History of Medicine, 7–13 September (page 133), Essential Puglia, 23–30 September (page 152) or Sardinia, 26 September–4 October (page 154).

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Gastronomic SicilyFood & wine in the west

19–25 October 2015 (mc 499)7 days • £2,770Lecturer: Marc Millon

Colourful Palermo street markets, authentic salt flats near Trapani, historic cellars in Marsala.

Learn about making wine, olive oil and artisan foods from the craftsmen and women who carry on these age-old traditions.

Spectrum of culinary experiences from street food in Palermo to dinner in a palazzo. Emphasis on authentic tradition rather than haute cuisine.

Led by Marc Millon, wine, food and travel writer, author of The Food Lover’s Companion to Italy.

If Sicily’s history is a layer-cake of the different cultures that have colonised the island through the centuries, its food is no less complex. Citrus fruits and ices were brought there by the Arabs before the Middle Ages. Winemaking was introduced by the Phoenicians, and during the Roman era wheat turned the inland hillsides to gold. The magnificent landscape remains a key source of agricultural richness for the island: Trapani is today Europe’s most productive grape-growing province.

What Sicily offers more than any other Italian region is an unrivalled cornucopia of sun-ripened vegetables and fruits, many grown on volcanic soils for added intensity of flavour. The Sicilians cook these products in myriad, colourful ways: sweet and sour, hot and spicy, fresh and nutritious – Sicilian food is arguably more exciting than its northern counterparts. It is also a mix of old and new cultures. Pasta is handmade in unique shapes to accommodate vegetables, capers, herbs and the varied seafood that make up the healthy Sicilian diet. Dessert lovers will be rewarded with some of the most delicious sweetmeats Italy has to offer: from the hollow cannolo filled with fresh ewe’s milk ricotta to elaborately decorated cassata cakes.

As the tour travels across the Western part of the island we visit small producers of artisan foods, winemakers, home cooks and chefs alike, and do not ignore cultural sites that determine its key historical importance. Sample street food from market stalls in Palermo, the freshest seafood in the Mediterranean, and home-prepared dinners whose hospitable cooks will share their secrets with us. Walk in vineyards and olive groves, and around some of the finest archaeological sites on this ever-fascinating island. In Marsala, we’ll be the guests of one of Italy’s pioneer winemakers, who was responsible for relaunching the great wines of the south.

Itinerary

Day 1: Palermo. Fly at c. 9.00am from London City to Palermo, via Milan (Alitalia). Palermo is the largest and most interesting city on the island: capital of Sicily from the period of Saracenic occupation in the 9th century, it reached a peak under the Normans and again during the Age of Baroque. First of three nights in Palermo.

Day 2: Palermo. A morning walk to the city’s best market, sampling authentic street food. See also key cultural sites such as the cathedral, a building of many periods, and the church of San Cataldo. In the afternoon see outstanding mosaics at the 12th-century Palace of the Normans, including the Palatine Chapel, and visit the best pasticceria in Palermo. Dinner at a private palazzo.

Day 3: Monreale, Partinico. Monreale dominates a verdant valley southwest of Palermo, and its cathedral is one of the finest Norman churches with the largest scheme of mosaic decoration to survive from the Middle Ages. Travel on to visit Mary Taylor-Simeti’s organic farm in Partinico, one of the earliest of its kind in Sicily, to have a simple and abundant lunch with the freshest produce from the farm and local area.

Day 4: Segesta, Marsala. With its magnificently sited temple and theatre, Segesta is one of the most evocative of Greek sites. Stop for lunch and a wine-tasting at a superb winery, before continuing to see the saltpans that have been in use since Phoenician times. First of three nights in Marsala.

Day 5: Marsala, Mazara del Vallo, Samperi. There is a tour of the town in the morning, including a visit to the archaeological museum, most of which is taken up by an extremely well-preserved Punic warship. Visit Il Museo del Satiro Danzante in Mazara del Vallo after a couscous cooking demonstration and lunch. In the afternoon visit the De Bartoli wine estate, famous for the revival and revaluation of traditional Marsala wine made by age-old traditional methods.

Day 6: Menfi, Selinunte. The whole morning is spent at an award-winning olive oil estate, discovering their methods. There is a tasting

here, and lunch. In the afternoon visit the vast archaeological site of Selinunte, founded c. 650 bc, renowned for its well-preserved temples on the eastern hill and the acropolis.

Day 7. Fly from Palermo to London City, via Milan, arriving at c. 7.00pm.

Flights. We opt to travel to and from Sicily with Alitalia because the only direct flights to Palermo are with low-cost airlines, with whom it is not currently viable for us to make a group booking. It is possible to choose our ‘no flights’ option and to book your own flights with Easyjet or Ryanair, both of whom fly directly to Palermo in this period. Please contact us for advice or further information about this.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Grand Hotel Piazza Borsa, Palermo (piazzaborsa.it): a centrally located 4-star hotel housed in an assortment of historical buildings. Hotel Carmine, Marsala (hotelcarmine.it): a small and charming 3-star hotel, with occasionally erratic service.

How strenuous? There is a lot of walking, some of it over rough ground and cobbled or uneven paving. Fitness and sure-footedness are essential. Average distance by coach per day: 53 miles


Combine this tour with Pompeii & Herculaneum, 12–17 October (page 150) or Ravenna & Urbino, 14–18 October (page 128).

Palermo cathedral, steel engraving c.1850

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Art in JapanArt, craft, architecture & design

15–28 May 2015 (mb 323)14 days/12 nights • £5840Lecturer: Professor Timon Screech

Many of the finest collections of Japanese art, in museums and in situ in temples and shrines.

World Heritage Sites at Nikko, Kyoto, Nara and Horyu-ji, and the art island of Naoshima.

Outstanding museum buildings by Tadao Ando, I.M. Pei and other leading architects.

Also other aspects of Japanese culture, past and present, including gastronomy and gardens.

Led by Professor Timon Screech, Professor of History of Art at SOAS, London University.

Japan has one of the richest and most continuously active art traditions in Asia, perhaps anywhere. Some of the earliest known ceramics have been found here, as is the world’s oldest standing wooden building. But Japanese

contemporary art also ranks with the best in the world and is eagerly imitated and avidly collected.

Between those chronological poles is a wealth of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines from all periods, and some impressive military architecture. National, regional and private collections are to be found in great profusion throughout the country; Japan has a long and impressive lineage of art-historical scholarship and connoisseurship. To this in recent times have been added a network of conservation and restoration labs and the latest technology for archaeological investigation. In short, despite the large number of wars and natural disasters that have periodically overwhelmed the country, Japanese arts are to be enjoyed in extraordinary abundance. The great majority of important pieces remain in the country.

Throughout history, Japan has tended to make a less emphatic division between art and craft than is the case in Western countries. Of equal rank alongside the ‘fine arts’ of painting and sculpture there are outstanding examples

of ceramic, textile and metalwork, as well as uniquely beautiful gardens and a special aesthetic of food and eating.

This tour exposes participants to Japan across the ages, sampling excellent works from many periods, genres and styles. As a deeply hierarchical society until modern times, there is ‘high’ art and ‘low’ art, from royal and shogunal works to that of the urban populace (the fabled ‘art of the floating world’). Modern Tokyo is part of the experience as well as the ancient capital of Kyoto, as are the yet more ancient city of Nara and the celebrated art colony of Naoshima in the Inland Sea. World Heritage sites figure on the tour, but we also visit less well-known sites such as ceramic studios and mausolea.

Itinerary

Day 1: London to Tokyo. Fly at c. 1.30pm (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Tokyo (time in the air c. 11½ hours).

Day 2: Tokyo. Arrive at Tokyo Narita Airport at c. 9.00am and drive to the hotel. Rooms will be ready before lunch. There is an afternoon walk in the dynamic and design-conscious Tokyo Midtown. The celebrated Suntory Museum of Art is located here; exhibitions showcase key pieces from its collection of Japanese arts and crafts, beautiful objects from everyday life. First of four nights in Tokyo.

Day 3: Tokyo. The morning is dedicated to the Tokyo National Museum, which occupies several buildings in Ueno Park and houses some of the finest Japanese art in the world. The main gallery (Honkan) traces the development from prehistoric, sculptural earthenware to exquisite paintings and decorative objects of courtly patronage. A striking contemporary gallery houses the important 7th/8th-century treasures from the temple of Horyu-ji, Nara. In the afternoon visit the Edo-period Korakuen Garden, one of the oldest and best preserved in the city. Overnight Tokyo.

Day 4: Nikko. Full-day excursion to Nikko, an historically important Shinto and Buddhist pilgrimage site in a national park with breathtaking mountain vistas. The 17th-cent. Tosho-gu Shrine complex was established here by the powerful Tokugawa Shoguns (the first shogun of the Edo period, Tokugawa Ieyasu, is enshrined here); set amid towering Japanese cedars and pines, the architecturally extravagant buildings are decorated with elaborate wood-carvings and beautiful paintwork. Overnight Tokyo.

Day 5: Tokyo. Nezu Kaichiro’s extraordinary and diverse collection of Japanese and other Asian arts is perfectly presented in the eponymous museum, a purpose-built space with a delightful garden. Highlights include world-renowned Chinese bronzes and exquisite utensils related to the tea aesthetic. There is free time for lunch in the sophisticated Omotesando area before exploring the vibrant streets of the Harajuku district, home to the Ota Memorial Art Museum and its collection of ukiyo-e woodblock prints. These ‘pictures of the floating world’ colourfully Japanese woodblock160

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reveal something of the popular culture of the Edo period. Some free time. Overnight Tokyo.

Day 6: Tokyo to Kyoto. By high-speed train to Kyoto (luggage by road). Kyoto is considered the centre of Japanese culture and today’s city and the surrounding hills are dense with examples of art and architecture of the highest importance. At the foot of the forested Higashiyama mountains the zen temple complex Nanzen-ji is distinguished by its massive gate (Sanmon) and the quarters of the abbacy (Hojo) which contain very fine 17th-cent. painted screens (fusuma) by Kano Tan’yu. The Kodai-ji Temple is richly decorated with early 17th-century maki-e, gold and silver set in lacquer. First of five nights in Kyoto.

Day 7: Kyoto. Kyoto’s National Museum opened its Heisei Chishinkan wing in 2014, an impressive construction displaying a ceramics, painting, sculpture, sumptuous textiles and much else. The Sanjusangen-do is an unusually long hall containing 1001 subtly differentiated 12th/13th-century gilded statues of Kannon, divinity of Mercy, cumulatively a potent visual effect. The home of potter Kanjiro Kawaii (d. 1966), a key figure in the folk art revival of the 1930s, is an intimate space furnished with his work and an intact ‘climbing’ kiln.

Day 8: Nara and its environs. A full-day excursion to Nara, first capital of Japan (ad 710–794). Modelled on the Tang capital of Chang’an (Xian) in China, Nara was the birthplace of major cultural and religious development. Here Buddhism firmly established itself and prolific production of splendid temples and devotional art ensued, much of which is in situ. Here are some of the oldest wooden structures in the world. The temple of Todai-ji contains an arresting monumental bronze Buddha; the dry-lacquer and bronze statues of the Hokke-do and Kofuku Temple are sublime in their detail. Nearby Horyu-ji is Japan’s earliest Buddhist temple, founded ad 607.

Day 9: Kyoto environs. A morning excursion to the Miho Museum, designed by I.M Pei and harmoniously integrated into a forested nature reserve. The approach on foot via a tunnel and bridge leads to a glass structure on the crest of a hill and a sequence of luminous interiors incorporating traditional Japanese motifs. Collections include Greco-Roman and Islamic antiquities and important Japanese artworks. After a leisurely lunch in these gorgeous surroundings, return to Kyoto where the rest of the day is free.

Day 10: Kyoto. The large walled temple compound of Daitoku-ji, established in the 14th century, is an important foundation of Japanese Zen. Its many sub-temples contain dry landscape gardens; one of the finest (and smallest) is in the Daisen-in, a Chinese ink-painting rendered in stone. The Raku Museum holds exhibitions of its synonymous ware, most often in the form of understated tea bowls. Nijo Castle, shogunal residence, has a lavish interior containing brilliantly painted fusuma (screens) by the Kano school.

Day 11: Kyoto to Naoshima. Travel by coach from Kyoto to Uno and from there take the ferry across to Naoshima Island, located in the Inland Sea. Together with the islands of Teshima and Inujima, Naoshima forms part of the ‘Benesse Art Site’. A number of striking galleries by architect Tadao Ando and outdoor installations dot the landscape. Overnight Naoshima.

Day 12: Naoshima. Visit the Art House Project, a collection of traditional buildings in the old fishing village of Honmura that have been restored and transformed by artists to house creative contemporary installations. After lunch visit the Benesse House Museum, a vast structure of concrete, glass and natural light. In addition to works by contemporary Japanese artists, the collection includes works by Andy Warhol, David Hockney and Bruce Nauman.

Day 13: Naoshima, Osaka. Start the day at the Chichu Art Museum, which houses several Monet paintings as well as sculptures by Walter de Maria in underground spaces lit only by natural light. The eponymous Lee Ufan Museum houses works by this Korean-born artist and is the latest addition to the collection of Benesse museums. Ferry to Uno and drive to Osaka for the final night.

Day 14: Osaka to London. Fly at c. 10.45am from Osaka Kansai Airport to London, via Helsinki, arriving at Heathrow at c. 6.30pm (Finnair & British Airways, time in the air c. 13 hours).

Professor Timon ScreechProfessor of History of Art at SOAS, University of London. He is an expert on the art and culture of the Edo period, including its international dimension, and has published

widely on the subject including Sex & the Floating World and Obtaining Images.All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

Japanese warrior, from Le Tour du Monde 1866

practicalities

Price: £5,840 (deposit £500). Single supplement £810. Price without international flights £5,080.

Included meals: 9 lunches, 6 dinners with drinks.

Accommodation. Tokyo (4 nights): Royal Park Hotel, The Shiodome (rph-the.co.jp/shiodome): located in the redeveloped district of Shiodome close to Ginza, the hotel occupies several floors of one the many tower buildings. The location lacks charm but is convenient. The hotel was renovated in 2013 and rooms are functional and well-appointed, if small. Kyoto (5 nights): Hyatt Regency Hotel (kyoto.regency.hyatt.com) an elegant hotel within walking distance of the National Museum. Rooms are comfortable with unique design touches. The restaurants are very good. Naoshima (2 nights): Benesse House Hotel (www.benesse-artsite.jp): comfortable, modern hotel designed by Tadao Ando and a continuation of the concept of ‘coexistence among nature, architecture and art’, on which the Benesse Museum is based. Osaka (1 night): Osaka Miyako Marriott (marriot.com): opened in 2014 in one of the tallest buildings in Japan; the city views are spectacular. Rooms are spacious with all mod-cons and the restaurants are excellent, if pricey. Included dinners are in the hotels or good local restaurants.

How strenuous? A good level of fitness is essential. Unless you enjoy entirely unimpaired mobility, cope with everyday walking and stair-climbing without difficulty and are reliably sure-footed, this tour is not for you. A rough indication of the minimum level of fitness required is that you ought to be able to walk briskly at about three miles per hour for at least half an hour, and undertake a walk at a more leisurely pace for an hour or two unaided. Uneven ground and irregular paving are standard and the tour involves a lot of standing around in museums. Average distance by coach per day: c. 59 miles.


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Essential JordanThe major Nabatean, Roman, Christian & Islamic sites

21–29 March 2015 (mb 259)9 days • £3,360Lecturer: Jane Taylor

24 October–1 November 2015 (mc 506)9 days • £3,360Lecturers: Sue Rollin & Jane Streetly

Outstanding monuments of several civilizations – Nabatean, Roman, Early Christian, Umayyad, and Crusader.

The lecturers have travelled widely in the Middle East and are authorities on Jordan.

Petra is the most spectacular archaeological site in the Middle East; we spend three nights here.

Jordan possesses the most spectacular archaeological site in the Middle East – Petra,

‘rose-red city, half as old as time’, that easternly fascinating, westernly Baroque, altogether extraordinary city of the desert.

Hidden in the mountains at the confluence of several caravan routes, many of its finest monuments are hewn from the living rock, brilliantly coloured sandstone striated with pinks, ochres and blue-greys. Its creators, the Nabataeans, drew on a range of Mediterranean and oriental styles to create a novel synthesis – uniquely Nabataean but with architectural evocations of the Hellenistic world, Egypt, Assyria and Imperial Rome.

The Nabateans were an Arab people, first recorded in the fourth century bc, who grew rich by controlling the trade routes across an empire stretching from Saudi Arabia to Syria. With Petra their capital, these nomadic desert traders became administrators and city-dwellers, whose kingdom was eventually incorporated into the Roman Empire. But decline set in, and by the 8th century ad Petra had become virtually uninhabited.

In Roman times part of the wealthy provinces of Syria and Arabia, Jordan is also rich in traces of other civilizations. Jerash is one of the best preserved and most beautiful of Roman cities.

Remains of Byzantine churches, with very fine floor mosaics, lie scattered through the Jordanian hills and valleys – themselves the settings of many events recorded in the Old Testament. The varied arts of Islam are seen in the hunting lodges and desert retreats of the sophisticated and pleasure-loving Umayyad dynasty of the mid seventh to mid eighth centuries. And the castles of the Crusaders and their Arab opponents are among the most impressive examples of mediaeval military architecture anywhere.

A constant backdrop to all this are the awesomely beautiful mountains, gorges and deserts of today’s Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Created after the First World War and the downfall of the Ottoman Empire, Jordan’s borders are an almost arbitrary outcome of the Franco-British re-ordering of the Levant. Something of a backwater then, and constantly buffeted since by the disputatiousness of larger neighbours, Jordan has – against all odds –succeeded in steering a precarious course to survival, stability and modest prosperity.

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LATvIA & LITHUANIA: see page 64 for The Baltic States, 9–22 August 2015

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 2.00pm (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Amman (time in the air: c. 5 hours). Arrive at the hotel at c. 10.30pm. First of three nights in Amman.

Day 2: Amman, Jerash. The citadel in Amman was the religious and political centre of the ancient city. Here are the remains of the Temple of Hercules, the rebuilt Umayyad palace. Drive north through red earth hills with olive groves and Aleppo pine woods. Jerash, ancient Gerasa, a leading city of the Decapolis and very prosperous in the 2nd and 3rd centuries ad, is one of the best-preserved and most beautiful of ruined Roman cities and we spend the afternoon there. Among the more spectacular remains are a triumphal arch, an oval piazza, the Cardo with its flanking colonnades, a food market, hippodrome, theatres, magnificent temples of Zeus and Artemis and several early Christian churches.

Day 3: Umayyad desert residences. In the desert to the east of Amman are remarkable survivals from the Umayyad Caliphs, the first dynasty of Islam – early 8th century small pleasure palaces and hunting lodges. The fortress-like desert complex of Qasr Kharana; the fort of Azraq, originally Roman, rebuilt in the 13th century and used by T.E. Lawrence as his HQ for two months in 1917–18. Break for lunch at the Azraq Lodge, a former British military field Hospital, before continuing to the unesco world heritage site of Qasr Amra whose unique and exceptionally beautiful wall paintings are currently being restored in a project coordinated by the World Monuments Fund.

Day 4: Amman, Karak. The impressive new Jordan Museum presenting the history and cultural heritage of Jordan in a series of beautifully designed galleries. Leaving Amman, drive southwards along the Biblical King’s Highway. The 12th century Crusader castle of Karak, modified by the Mamluks in the 13th century, is an impressive example of mediaeval military architecture with many chambers surviving. First of three nights in Petra.

Day 5: Petra. The Siq, the narrow mile-long crevice with its Nabatean carvings and hydraulic system would itself merit a detour, but it is just the prelude to one of the most astonishing archaeological sites in the Middle East (also a unesco world heritage site). Emerging from the Siq, the visitor is confronted by the temple-like façade of the ‘Treasury’, vast in scale, both oriental and classical in vocabulary, Hellenistic in inspiration but uniquely Nabataean – supreme among Petra’s wealth of sculptured façades, mainly tombs, created in the living rock. There are also impressive remains of built monuments in the heart of the city, from grand temples, public buildings and churches to houses. Not the least striking feature is the multicoloured, striated but predominantly red sandstone. After lunch, return to the hotel or climb, via the Soldier Tomb complex, up to the High Place of Sacrifice (c. 800 steps) where the cultic installations are still clearly visible.

Day 6: Petra. For the second day in Petra walk again through the Siq, past the ‘Street of Façades’ and the theatre to study the more open area around the paved and colonnaded street. The remains of various structures include two mighty buildings, the ‘Great Temple’ and Qasr al Bint. Recent excavations have revealed what is almost certainly a cathedral with 5th and 6th century mosaic floors. Climb up (over 900 steps) to one of the finest rock-cut façades, ad-Deir (the Monastery), and some staggering views of hills and valleys of contorted rock.

Day 7: Little Petra, Dead Sea. ‘Little Petra’, a narrow gorge with three natural widenings, is seen as a commercial centre with carved façades and chambers and a fragment of naturalistic Nabatean painting. A spectacular descent through rugged and ragged sandstone leads to Wadi Araba, part of the Jordanian section of the Great Rift Valley. Stop at the Museum at the Lowest Place on Earth featuring important archaeological finds recovered from the region, including artefacts from the church and monastery of St Lot. Reach the hotel on the Dead Sea shore mid-afternoon to relax and swim. First of two nights in Sweimeh.

Day 8: Mount Nebo, Madaba. Drive up from the Dead Sea, flanked by dramatic mountain scenery. Visit the Byzantine church with remarkable mosaics on Mount Nebo, the reputed burial site of Moses. At Madaba visit the archaeological park, where many mosaics are preserved, and see the unique 6th century mosaic map of the Holy Land in the church of St George.

Day 9. Drive to Amman airport (1 hour). Arrive Heathrow c. 2.45pm.

There may be slight variations to this itinerary depending on the preferences of the lecturer.

practicalities


Included meals: 7 lunches (2 of which are picnics) and 5 dinners with wine where available.

Visas: required for most foreign nationals. A group visa is issued on arrival (the cost is included in the price of the tour as long as you are travelling in on our group flights).

Accommodation. The Intercontinental, Amman (intercontinental.com): a modern and excellently located hotel. Mövenpick Hotel, Petra (moevenpick-hotels.com): a modern and excellently located hotel close to the site. Mövenpick Dead Sea Hotel, Sweimeh (moevenpick-hotels.com): buildings scattered through lush tropical gardens; shady lounges, antique or traditional-style furnishings, spa and health centre.

How strenuous? This tour is quite demanding and you must be capable of walking all day over rough sites. A good level of fitness and sure-footedness is essential throughout, especially in order to manage the climbs in Petra to Ed-Deir and the High Place. Many sites are exposed with little or no shelter from the sun. Average distance by coach per day: 72 miles.


Combine the March departure with Indian Summer, 30 March–11 April (page 108).

Combine the October departure with Essential Rome, 3–9 November (page 144).

Illustration by Frank Brangwyn from Kinglake’s Eöthen c. 1910

“Thank you for another trip-of-a-lifetime: challenging but extraordinary. Very life-enhancing indeed.”

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Jordan RevisitedArchaeology, architecture & landscapes off the beaten track

12–21 April 2015 (mb 284)10 days • £3,640Lecturer: Jane Taylor

An alternative approach, largely away from the crowds. Devised for people who have visited Jordan before, but equally valid for first-timers.

Spectacular landscapes include Wadi Rum, one of the most dramatic in the Middle East.

Hellenistic, Roman, Ottoman architecture and artefacts, with visits by special arrangement.

Two walks through some of the country’s most striking landscapes.

Led by Jane Taylor, who lives in Amman.

Nowhere in Jordan, indeed in the Middle East, can compare with Petra, but its iconic status overshadows a remarkable array of other sites which, were it not for Petra, would receive far more visitors. This tour highlights the diversity of Jordan’s man-made heritage and also the country’s wealth of striking landscapes. (Petra is included, but approached not from the coach park and the crowded Siq but on foot through a beautiful valley in which you might not encounter another visitor.)

Starting in Amman, the scene is set by visiting the newly opened Jordan Museum, a multi-million pound project aimed at showcasing the country’s historical record. History is further explored through a visit to the quiet and picturesque city of Salt, the only town of any substance before the Emirate of Transjordan was established after World War I.

Umm Qays, ancient Gadara, was one of the splendid cities of the Decapolis and a flourishing cultural centre from the Hellenistic era onwards. Known to its inhabitants as ‘home of the Muses’, it produced some of the great names of the Graeco-Roman literary world. Later it became a place of pilgrimage as site of Christ’s miracle of the Gadarene swine. In any less richly endowed country, Umm Qays would be a major attraction, but here is overshadowed by Jerash. One of few survivors of the Hellenistic period is the beautiful 2nd-century bc palace at Iraq al-Amir (Qasr al-Abd), just outside Amman. Once surrounded by an artificial lake, its lush setting is in stark contrast to the scenery of arid hills of the Crusader castle of Shobak.

Jordan understands the value of its natural resources and leads the region in establishing projects and protected areas that promote the country’s biodiversity. Wadi Dana, an unspoiled valley in the heart of Jordan, allows for a full day’s walk and an opportunity to observe the rich flora and fauna in an area inhabited by Bedouin communities. The experience is heightened by a night in a candlelit lodge.

Landscapes feature a great deal on this tour and the bewitching backdrop of Wadi Rum, described by T. E. Lawrence as ‘vast and echoing and God-like’, is a geological wonder of blood red sand and dramatic rock formations. Immortalised through the epic Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Wadi Rum bears the imprints of far more ancient human activity, including a

Nabatean temple and simple rock drawings and inscriptions from various periods.

Overlooking the Dead Sea, Machaerus has been identified as the site of John the Baptist’s imprisonment and execution. Its location alone is worthy of a visit – but to be at the site where it is believed Salome danced for Herod Antipas in exchange for the head of John the Baptist is a poignant reminder that these lands have witnessed so much history.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 2.00pm (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Amman (time in the air: c. 5 hours). Arrive at the hotel at c. 10.30pm. First of three nights in Amman.

Day 2: Amman, Salt. The excellent new Jordan Museum reveals the country’s rich history. Drive to Salt, the Ottoman administrative centre which ceded its role to Amman when the Emirate of Transjordan was established after World War I. There are several fine examples of Ottoman architecture including impressive houses built by wealthy merchants, places of worship and the first hospital of Transjordan. Visit the small archaeological museum, and the Abujaber House, now an ethnographic museum, and wander the alleys and quiet squares where inhabitants gather to drink coffee and pass the time of day. Overnight Amman.

Day 3: Umm Qays, Amman. Early start to Umm Qays, ancient Gadara, set in the hills of north-west Jordan and commanding spectacular views over the Golan Heights and the Sea of Galilee. The site, which includes an impressive theatre, a colonnaded street and several Byzantine churches, is one of the most scenic in Jordan. After lunch return to Amman to attend a lecture and tour at the American Center of Oriental Research. Overnight Amman.

Day 4: Iraq Al Amir, Shobak, Petra. South-west of Amman lies a rare example of Hellenistic architecture, the palace of Qasr al-Abd at Iraq Al Amir. Described by Josephus, it was built of huge blocks of limestone and is still adorned with vividly carved lions and leopards.Continuing south, visit the Crusader castle of Shobak, built ad 1116 and one of the earliest such castles east of the Jordan rift. There are elements of Ayyubid and Mamluk architecture and decoration, and fabulous views of the surrounding hills. First of three nights in a village close to Petra.

Day 5: Petra. We begin at Little Petra, now identified as a Nabataean sanctuary, and walk for about three hours along Wadi Mu’aisra to the main site of Petra. Flanked by steep hillsides, the walk passes Nabataean carvings and dwellings which increase in frequency before arriving in the heart of Petra with magnificent views of the Qasr al-Bint temple and the Royal Tombs. The afternoon is free to explore independently. Overnight near Petra.

Day 6: Wadi Rum. The immense Wadi Rum is renowned as the location in which T. E. Lawrence roamed during World War I. It is a region of other-worldly beauty where huge geological

formations rise from the sands, some harbouring primitive stone carvings. We drive in 4x4s through canyons and open plains, and lunch in a desert camp. Overnight near Petra.

Day 7: Wadi Dana, Feynan. The village of Dana, perched high above the wadi from which it takes its name, is one of the few remaining traditional villages in Jordan. From here we begin a 14km walk through the Dana Nature Reserve, experiencing differing landscapes, birdlife and plenty of flora in bloom. Aided by Bedouin guides and mules, we arrive late afternoon at an eco-lodge. Overnight Feynan.

Day 8: Feynan, Ma’in Hot Springs. A freemorning in the lodge, with opportunities to visit ancient ruins and copper mines, and Bedouin tents. Drive to Wadi Zarqa Ma’in for the first of two nights in a hotel situated beside a series of natural hot springs and waterfalls.

Day 9: Machaerus. Set on a hilltop with views over the Dead Sea, Machaerus is the Herodian fortified palace where John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded. There is a chance to visit the Bani Hamida Cooperative, another example of Jordan’s desire to promote and preserve local handicrafts. Final night in Wadi Zarqa Ma’in.

Day 10. Drive to Amman airport for the flight to London. Arrive Heathrow c.3.30pm.

practicalities


Included meals: 9 lunches (including 1 picnic) and 9 dinners with wine where available.

Visas: required for most foreign nationals. A group visa is issued on arrival (the cost is included in the price of the tour as long as you are travelling in on our group flights).

Accommodation. The Intercontinental, Amman (intercontinental.com): a modern and excellently located hotel. Taybet Zaman, ten minutes from Petra (taybetzaman.jordantourismresorts.com): a converted Ottoman village, high in the hills, wonderful views. Feynan Lodge (feynan.com): award-winning eco-lodge run by the local Bedouin community. Evason Ma’In Hot Springs, Mai’in (sixsenses.com): beautiful spa hotel tucked in a valley behind the Dead Sea.

How strenuous? This tour is quite demanding and you must be capable of walking all day over rough sites. The walk from Dana to Feynan in particular requires a high level of fitness; sure-footedness is essential. Some sites have no shade and you will often be exposed to the elements. Average distance by coach per day: 50 miles.


Combine this tour with Persia, 23 April–7 May (page 111).

Right: Petra, the Siq, lithograph by Frederick Lewis c. 1850164

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MaltaWorld heritage Malta, from Neolithic to now

5–11 October 2015 (mc 490)7 days • £2,290Lecturer: Juliet Rix

A wonderful exploration of this fascinating, diverse island.

A visit to some of the world’s earliest stone temples, amongst a concentration of other astonishing major historic sites.

Led by award winning journalist Juliet Rix, author of the definitive guide to Malta (Bradt Guide: Malta & Gozo) and expert on the area.

Visit the rural and picturesque Gozo Island, with stunning natural features.

Malta has an extraordinary 7000-year history beginning with the arrival of a little-known people from Sicily who became the creators of Malta’s unique Neolithic temples. Older than the Great Pyramids and the famous standing stones at Stonehenge, Malta’s temples were built between 3600 and 2500 bc – they are megalithic architecture constructed a millennium before Mycenae.

All the temples are unesco World Heritage Sites, as is the unique Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, the extraordinary triple-layered tomb complex cut from solid rock where the ‘Temple People’ buried their dead.

And this is just the start of the story. Malta, with its perfect natural harbours, was desired by every trading or invading nation in the Mediterranean from the Phoenicians and Romans to both sides in the Second World War. Each occupier has left its mark from Roman-Byzantine catacombs to British red letter boxes.

The Knights of St John Hospitaller, commonly referred to as ‘The Knights of Malta’ have, of course, left the greatest impression. Ousted from Jerusalem and then Rhodes, this order of maritime warrior monks arrived in Malta in 1530 and ruled until 1798. After nearly losing the country to the Ottoman Turks in The Great Siege of 1565, the Knights built a near-impregnable new city on a rocky peninsula between two harbours: Malta’s delightful diminutive capital, Valletta.

Despite the ravages of the Second World War, Valletta remains fundamentally the Knights’ city although one area has just received a very twenty–first century makeover. Badly bombed and minimally restored, the City Gate area has been redesigned by the architect of the Pompidou Centre and the London Shard, Renzo Piano.

Itinerary

Day 1: Valletta. Fly at c. 11.00am from London Heathrow to Malta. Drive to Valletta, a peninsula flanked by fine natural harbours and once the most strongly fortified city in Christendom. Here, survey the massive fortifications protecting the landward approach and view the Grand Harbour from the ramparts.

Day 2: Hagar Qim, Mnajdra, Ghar Lapsi. Drive through attractive countryside to the prehistoric temples overlooking the sea, Hagar Qim and Mnajdra. In the afternoon, see the ancient trackworks, Clapham Junction cart ruts.

Day 3: Valletta. The morning is spent in two museums housed in important Knights’ – period buildings – The National Museum of Archaeology, home of the unique ‘Fat Ladies

of Malta’ and other original carvings from the Neolithic Temples; and the Museum of Fine Art. Visit the charming Manoel Theatre, a rare survival of the early 18th century and the Co-Cathedral of St John, one of the most interesting of Baroque buildings, which has lavish carved wall decoration, ceiling paintings by Mattia Preti, magnificently carved tombs and two paintings by Caravaggio. Finally, see the Grand Master’s Palace with state rooms, tapestry hall and armoury.

Day 4: Paola, Valletta. In Paola, the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum is a unesco World Heritage Site and the only prehistoric underground temple in the world. The Tarxien Temple site is the most complex in Malta and would have been the most decorative. The afternoon is free in Valletta.

Day 5: Gozo. A thirty-minute ferry crossing to the island of Gozo, which is more rural and less populated than Malta. See the temple of Ggantija, amongst the oldest of Malta’s prehistoric monuments. The chief town is Victoria, which has a citadel, cathedral, museum and Sicilo-Norman houses. Fungus Rock, Gharb and Ramla Bay are all of geological, historical and mythical interest respectively.

Day 6: Mdina, Rabat, Mosta. Mdina, Malta’s ancient capital, is an unspoilt citadel of great beauty, centre of the indigenous aristocracy, with mediaeval walls, grand palazzos and Baroque cathedral. Spreading below is the town of Rabat, with Early Christian catacombs. Afternoon drive to Mosta with the third largest dome in Europe.

Day 7: Vittoriosa. Cross the Grand Harbour by boat, to see churches, forts, and the World War II museum in Vittoriosa. Fly to London Heathrow arriving at 7.30pm.

practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Phoenicia, Valletta (phoeniciamalta.com): deluxe 5-star in Valletta, furnished with style and character, the best in Valletta and just outside the city gates.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking, some of it over the rough ground. Valletta is relatively hilly so you will need to be comfortable with everyday walking and stair climbing. Average distance by coach per day: 15 miles


Combine this tour with Sicily, 21 September–3 October (page 155) or Caravaggio, 12–19 October (page 149).

Juliet RixWriter and broadcaster with a particular interest in the history of Malta. She studied History of Art at Cambridge and is the author of the Bradt Guide: Malta and Gozo. Her

career in journalism has involved working for the BBC and writing for British national newspapers, magazines and online media.

“An excellent, well planned and enjoyable insight into the history and architecture of the island.”

Hagar Qim, steel engraving c. 1830

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Engraving of a lute in The Magazine of Art 1892

valletta Baroque FestivalMusic & art in the heart of the Mediterranean

13–20 January 2015 (mb 227)This tour is currently full

Baroque music in one of the most complete and compact of Baroque cities.

World-class musicians include Iestyn Davies, the King’s Consort and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Guided tours of Malta’s principal archaeological and architectural treasures.

Malta is a highly apposite setting for the performance of Baroque music. During the Baroque period the island was ruled by the Knights of Malta or Knights Hospitaller, Valletta was completely rebuilt and the knights themselves were vigorous patrons of the arts, including music and architecture.

One of Europe’s oldest working theatres is the Teatru Manoel, built in 1731 at the behest of the Grand Master of the order, Fra António Manoel de Vilhena. With only 600 seats, the theatre is a masterpiece of carpentry, with three tiers of wooden boxes, gilded and painted, and a trompe-l’oeil ceiling. Opera companies visited Malta regularly, performing works by Hasse, Piccini and Galuppi. Other buildings hosting concerts include the President’s (formerly Grandmaster’s) Palace; St John’s Co-Cathedral, begun in 1573 and gradually embellished to become a great ensemble of Baroque art; and the Church of St Catherine d’Italie (1713).

Valletta’s beautiful position on one of the world’s greatest natural harbours, and the fine buildings which still dominate the city, make it a splendid location in which to hear the music of Bach and Handel and their contemporaries.

Itinerary

Day 1: Valletta. Fly at c. 11.30am (Air Malta) from London Heathrow to Malta. Drive to Valletta, a peninsula flanked by fine natural harbours and once the most strongly fortified city in Christendom.

Day 2: Valletta. Survey the massive fortifications protecting the landward approach and view the Grand Harbour from the ramparts. Visit the National Museum of Archaeology, home of the unique ‘Fat Ladies of Malta’ and other carvings from the Neolithic Temples. Some free time followed by dinner. Evening concert at the Teatru Manoel with Robert King, the King’s Consort, Iestyn Davies (counter-tenor): Handel, arias.

Day 3: Mdina, Rabat. Mdina, Malta’s ancient capital and centre of the indigenous aristocracy, is an unspoilt citadel of great beauty, with mediaeval walls, grand palazzos and Baroque cathedral. Visit Palazzo Falson, a 13th-century private residence and the second oldest building in Mdina. Spreading below is the town of Rabat, with Early Christian catacombs. Some free time. Evening concert at the Sarria Church with the Passacaglia Ensemble: a programme commemorating the Tercentenary of the birth of Maltese composer Girolamo Abo.

Day 4: Gozo. A thirty-minute ferry crossing to the island of Gozo which is more rural and less populated than Malta. See the temple of Ggantija, amongst the oldest of Malta’s prehistoric monuments. The chief town is Victoria, which has a citadel, cathedral and Sicilo-Norman houses. Stop for lunch in the citadel to try homemade Gozitan food.

Day 5: Valletta, Ta’ Qali. Some free time in the morning. Midday concert at All Saints Church with Sigiswald Kuijken (cello): Bach, Cello Suites 1–3. Visit a Maltese wine estate and try a selection of local wines.

Day 6: Paola, Valletta. In Paola, the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum is a unesco World Heritage Site and the only prehistoric underground temple in the world. The Tarxien Temple site is the most complex in Malta and would have been the most decorative. Evening concert and lecture at the Teatru Manoel with Joanna Camilleri (piano, speaker): Bach, Goldberg Variations.

Day 7: Valletta. Guided tours of the Manoel Theatre and the Co-Cathedral of St John, which has lavish carved wall decoration, ceiling paintings, magnificent tombs and two paintings by Caravaggio. A private tour of the Casa Rocca Piccola, a 16th-century palazzo owned by the Marquis de Piro. Evening concert in St John’s Co-Cathedral with The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment: Bach, St John’s Passion.

Day 8: Vittoriosa. Cross the Grand Harbour by boat (weather permitting) to see churches, forts, and the World War II museum in Vittoriosa. Fly to London Heathrow, arriving c. 7.30pm.

practicalities


Included meals: 4 dinners, 5 lunches with wine.

Accommodation. Hotel Phoenicia, Valletta (phoeniciamalta.com): deluxe 5-star in Valletta, furnished with style and character, the best in Valletta and just outside the city gates.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking on this tour, some of it over rough ground at sites. Valletta is relatively hilly so you will need to be comfortable with everyday walking and stair climbing.


valletta, steel engraving in Taylor’s Geography Vol.1, 1853

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Lands of the MayaMaya civilization ancient & modern in Mexico & Guatemala

Altar of the Tem

ple of the Sun, engraving c. 1840

26 January–11 February 2015 (mb 233)17 days • £5,440Lecturer: Professor Norman Hammond

Magnificent Maya cities including Chichén Itzá, Palenque and Tikal, with time also for the little visited.

An insight into modern Maya life: customs, religion and colourful handicrafts.

Splendid colonial architecture.

Spectacular scenery: jungle, lakeside, coastal and volcanic.

Led by a leading authority on Maya civilization, Professor Norman Hammond.

Ever since explorers revealed the existence of their jungle-clad ruins in the 1840s, the ‘lost’ civilization of the Maya has been a cause of astonishment and speculation. For while Europe was struggling through the ‘Dark Ages’, Maya peoples were enjoying the apogée of their civilization in seemingly the most unlikely of places – the rainforests of Central America.

With organisational skills that can only be the product of a highly sophisticated society, the Maya created magnificent cities replete with elegant palaces, mighty temples and broad plazas studded with carved stelae and altars. They were

great mathematicians and astronomers who conceived one of the most complex and accurate calendars the world has known. They also devised an elaborate and beautiful system of hieroglyphic writing, the only fully-developed written language in the pre-Columbian Americas. Maya art was complex and loaded with arcane symbolism, yet to our sensibilities it appears remarkably naturalistic and accessible.

All this was achieved by a people still technically in the Stone Age and who, despite many colourful theories to the contrary, developed in complete isolation from the civilizations of the ‘Old World’, of Europe and Asia.

Until some forty years ago a powerful mystique had grown up about the Maya. They were thought to have been a peaceable society of independent cities governed by priest-kings who devoted their days to astronomy and divination on behalf of their people. Today, however, this image has been dramatically changed by the continuing discoveries of archaeologists and by one of the great investigative triumphs of the century, the decipherment of Maya writing.

Visitors to the great Maya cities can learn of their changing fortunes over almost a thousand years in extraordinary detail. We now know the history of the royal families and can also understand the essentials of Maya religious beliefs and how Maya rulers saw themselves, like

Egyptian pharaohs, as god-kings on earth whose elaborate rituals of blood-letting and sacrifice sustained the Maya world.

In the tenth century ad the heartland of Maya civilization in the tropical forests collapsed. Construction in the great cities ceased, temples and palaces were invaded by the jungle. It now seems that environmental disaster – land clearance under population pressure exacerbated by severe droughts – was a major factor.

But this was not quite the end, as new cities emerged in other areas, such as Uxmal and Chichén Itzá in the north of the Yucatán peninsula, which continued in much reduced form until extirpation by Conquistadores and missionaries in the sixteenth century.

Today there are some six million speakers of Maya languages, the largest group of native Americans north of Panama. They reveal a distinctive living culture, an intriguing mixture of both ancient beliefs and practices adopted since the Spanish conquest.

Itinerary

Day 1: Cancún. Fly at c. 10.45am from London Gatwick direct to Cancún with British Airways. Overnight Cancún.

Day 2: Chichén Itzá, Izamal. Situated in the Northern Lowlands, Chichén Itzá was the New

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Watercolour by Mortimer Menpes publ. 1903

Rome of the Maya world, where Maya culture was reborn in a different guise that was to last until the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadores in the 16th century. Prominent among the constructions here is El Castillo pyramid, simple in appearance but functioning as a complex Maya calendar. See also the great ball court, El Caracól observatory and the sacred well. Izamal is the location of the monastery of Diego de Landa, ardent extirpator of idolatries in the 1560s; the church is built symbolically on a partially razed pyramid. First of two nights in Mérida.

Day 3: Mérida. Morning walk through the colonial centre including the cathedral and main square. The 19th cent. Palacio del Gobierno houses impressive murals by local artist Fernando Castro Pacheco depicting the violent struggle of the Maya against the Spanish. The new Museum of the Maya World contains c. 500 artefacts including sculpture, jewellery and ceramics. Free afternoon.

Day 4: Uxmal, Campeche. Uxmal arose towards the end of lowland Maya civilization but was abandoned around ad 900. Here are to be found some of the most beautiful of Maya buildings, distinguished by their long and low proportions and characterised by elaborate stone mosaics on the façades. Continue to Kabah, with its eccentric Palace of the Masks. The night is spent in the charming colonial city of Campeche, with historic defences.

Day 5: Edzná, Palenque. Little visited Edzná is famous for its complex irrigation system and an impressive five-story pyramid. Drive south to Palenque (c. 8 hours including stops) for the first of three nights.

Day 6: Palenque. Enjoying a magnificent location in the jungle of the foothills of Chiapas, Palenque rose to a dominant position through war and marriage alliances in the Late Classic period, ad 600 to 800. The sculpture found here is particularly outstanding. The largest structure, the Temple of the Inscriptions, housed the spectacular tomb of the great ruler Pacal. Complex imagery and texts on the walls make it possible to trace the history of those who commissioned some of the most beautiful of Maya architecture.

Day 7: Bonampak. The small site of Bonampak has remarkably well-preserved murals with graphic scenes of royal rituals, a savage battle and sacrifice of the captives.

Day 8: San Cristóbal de las Casas. Drive during the morning to San Cristóbal de las Casas, a colonial town in a temperate, pine-clad mountain valley and a centre of modern Maya highland life. Spanish churches, colonial mansions, traditional market with gorgeous textiles. Overnight San Cristóbal.

Day 9: Panajachel. Most of the day is occupied with driving from Mexico into Guatemala, the destination being the small town of Panajachel, splendidly situated on the shores of Lake Atitlán. First of three nights in Panajachel.

Day 10: Santiago de Atitlán. Early morning boat trip across this spectacular lake (which is

surrounded by volcanoes) to the traditional Maya town of Santiago de Atitlán. Here the curious wooden effigy of Maximón is still worshipped and can be visited in his ‘house’.

Day 11: Chichicastenango. Optional morning excursion to Chichicastenango, with its centuries-old, colourful market. The wide range of wares reflect the local traditions of weaving and woodcarving. An interesting mix of Maya and Catholic worship takes place in the church of Santo Tomás.

Day 12: Iximché, Guatemala City, El Remate. Iximché is an excellent example of a Late Postclassic site, established c. 1470 with three plazas, temples, palaces and ball courts, and with defences which were stormed by the Spanish under Pedro de Alvarado in 1524. Drive to Guatemala City to visit the Archaeological Museum, a major collection of Maya art and artefacts. From here fly north to Flores and continue to El Remate, a small village of the shore of Lake Petén Itzá, for the first of three nights.

Day 13: Yaxhá. In the Petén jungle of the Guatemalan lowlands the huge city of Yaxhá is surrounded by lakes and teeming with wildlife. Its forty stelae and nine pyramids date from the Preclassic and Classic era.

Day 14: Tikal. Even bigger than Yaxhá, Tikal was a thriving metropolis of maybe 100,000 at its height. Its massive pyramid-temples still pierce the forest canopy making it architecturally the grandest of all Maya cities. One of the great powers of the Maya world, its changing fortunes over almost a thousand years can be followed in the hieroglyphs. Progressive clearance and excavation have revealed an intricate pattern of urban planning.

Day 15: Antigua Guatemala. Early morning flight back to Guatemala City, then drive to the splendid, colonial capital of Guatemala. Though shattered by earthquakes in 1773, much of its old fabric survives. See colonial architecture of great charm and impressive Baroque churches, some of which still remain in picturesque ruin. Overnight in Antigua Guatemala.

Day 16: Antigua Guatemala. Drive to Guatemala City for an early afternoon flight, via Miami.

Day 17: arrive at London Heathrow at c. 8.45am.

Please note this tour departs from London Gatwick and returns to Heathrow.

practicalities

Price: £5,440 (deposit £500). Single supplement £520. Price without international flights £4,720.

Included meals: 10 lunches (including 1 picnic) and 14 dinners with wine.

Accommodation. Cancún (1 night): the JW Marriott is a modern, comfortable, resort hotel. Mérida (2 nights): the Hotel Gran Real Yucatán is a converted 19th cent. house, centrally located. Campeche (1 night): the Hotel Plaza Campeche is functional and comfortable. Palenque (3 nights): the Hotel Villa Mercedes is a well-maintained hotel near the site. San Cristóbal (1 night): the Hotel Casa Mexicana is a Colonial style hotel. Panajachel (3 nights): the Hotel Atitlán is located on the shores of the lake with beautiful gardens and views. El Remate (3 nights): the Hotel Camino Real Tikal is situated on Lake Petén Itzá and surrounded by jungle, with modern, comfortable rooms. Antigua (1 night): the Hotel Casa Santo Domingo is a beautifully restored, colonial hotel. All of the hotels on this tour are locally rated as 4 or 5 star.

How strenuous? Though the itinerary has been planned to be less strenuous than most tours to the region, it must be stressed that the tour is nevertheless quite taxing, with some long drives, some early starts and frequent changes of hotel. Many of the archaeological sites are vast and on rough ground. The tour should not be undertaken by anyone who has the slightest problem with everyday walking and stair-climbing, or who is not sure-footed. Average distance by coach per day: 93 miles.


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MoroccoCities & empires

22 March–2 April 2015 (mb 271)11 nights • £3,930Lecturer: James Brown

13–24 September 2015 (mc 466)11 nights • £3,930Lecturer: James Brown

From Tangier to Marrakech, including the imperial cities of Fez and Meknes.

Led by historian James Brown.

Spectacular landscapes: the Atlas Mountains, valleys, palm groves, woodland, desert.

See the sun set over the sand dunes at Merzouga and visit the magnificent Roman ruins at Volubilis.

Quite a demanding tour with some long drives.

Morocco, just a cannon’s shot from Gibraltar and the ports of Spain, has always commanded the respect and fascinated the imagination of Europe. It was one of the last nations to fall under colonial occupation in 1912 and the first to win its independence from the French in 1956. The very same Grand Vizier who greeted the first French Governor had the satisfaction of ushering out the last colonial ruler before his death.

Even to fellow Muslims, it was the near legendary ‘al-Maghrib al-Aqsa’, the land of the setting sun, perched on the north-west corner of the African continent where the known world ended and the sea of darkness began. Its boundaries are defined by four mountain ranges which shelter the fertile Atlantic plains and by three seas: the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the sand sea of the Sahara.

Unlike some parts of the Middle East and North Africa, Morocco was not heavily settled by Arabs after the Islamic conquest in the late

seventh to early eighth century. Instead the indigenous Berber tribes of the area converted gradually to Islam and created cities and empires with a uniquely Moroccan flavour. One of the first of these cities was Sigilmassa in the Tafilalt oasis, a tribal watering hole which became a thriving Saharan port city from whence camel caravans set out for West Africa laden with salt from mines in the desert and other northern products which were exchanged in ancient Ghana and Mali for gold, slaves, ostrich feathers, ivory and gum. From Sigilmassa, caravans wended their way north and east to the great entrepots of North Africa, Egypt and the Middle East. Within a couple of decades, Fez was founded in North Morocco as a rival political centre and another stage in the great caravan trade across the Maghrib. In the late eleventh century Marrakech emerged in the same way. This rich trade could not help but attract Christian European attention and by the fifteenth century, the Portuguese had captured Ceuta hoping for a share of the profits. Spain, England, the Netherlands and even the Scandinavian countries were quick to follow, using the Mediterranean ports like Tangier to access the riches of Morocco. Sultanates rose and fell on the profits of this trade which finally dwindled in the nineteenth century.

The sites along the tour’s route tell of the mediaeval Islamic empires of Morocco, founded by Arab conquerors and the Berbers of the region, and of their European trading powers, lured to Africa by tales of gold and other exotic treasures. The long drives, often winding along the ancient trade routes, reveal the dramatic landscapes of Morocco from fertile olive groves to snow-capped mountains and long deep green palm oases which taper into the desert like ribbons trailing from mountain to desert.

Itinerary

Day 1. Leave from Tangier Airport following the arrival of the flight from London Gatwick (Air Arabia) currently 6.25pm (March) and 7.40pm (September) (flights are not included – see below). Dinner is served on arrival at the hotel. First of two nights in Tangier.

Day 2: Tangier. A morning walk investigates both the traditional walled Muslim city and the relics of the famous turn-of-the-century international city. Visit the Anglican Church, the Kasbah quarter, including the museum, the Petit Socco square and the Mendoubia garden.

Day 3: Tetouan, Chefchaouen. The heirs of Granada. Drive east over the Anjera hills to

Marrakech, the Koutoubia, woodcut from Agenda PLM 1926

“A beautifully organised, thoroughly enjoyable, culturally uplifting and educationally enriching tour: all we had hoped for and so much more.”

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the city of Tetouan, settled by refugees from Andalucía whose Moorish culture is clearly identifiable in the streets of the old city and the products of the artisan school. Drive south to Chefchaouen to visit the kasbah and then on to Fez for the first of three nights.

Day 4: Volubilis, Meknes. In impressive isolation on the edge of the olive-covered Zerhoun hills lie the ruins of Volubilis, the capital of Roman Morocco, with triumphal arch, basilica and mosaics. Though it boasts an old walled trading city, a Merenid Madrassa and an intimate palace museum to rival Fez, Meknes is yet overwhelmed by the vast ruins of the 17th-century imperial city established by the powerful Sultan Moulay Ismail to house his Negro slave army.

Day 5: Fez. A full day to explore the extraordinary walled mediaeval city of Fez that stands at the heart of Moroccan culture. Highlights include the Bou Inania Madrassa and the Karaouyine Mosque, as well as the pungent Tanneries. Afternoon tour of the city walls and some free time.

Day 6: the Middle Atlas. Pick up the old caravan trail south, stopping at Midelt before crossing the nomad-grazed high plateau of the Middle Atlas and descending along the Ziz valley to the Tafilalt oasis on the edge of the Sahara. First of two nights in Erfoud.

Day 7: the Tafilalt Oasis, Merzouga. Visit Tafilalt, including the exposed mounds and ruined mud walls that were once the glittering mediaeval city of Sigilmassa. Evening excursion to see the sunset over the sand dunes of the desert of Merzouga.

Day 8: Erfoud to Ouarzazate. Follow a chain of palm-filled valleys west, crossing through the old market town of Tinerhir and the Dades valley. See the extraordinary tapering towers of the kasbahs dotted along the route. Leave the main road for the Todra Gorge with its vividly contrasting colours of bright green vegetation set against red, brown and orange rock faces. Overnight Ouarzazate.

Day 9: the High Atlas. Cross the High Atlas mountains, stopping at Taourirt and the celebrated kasbah village of Aït Benhaddou before twisting through the high passes. Descend through woodland on the north face of the mountains down to the red city of Marrakech for the first of three nights.

Day 10: Marrakech. A morning devoted to the architectural achievements of the Saadian dynasty, paid for by the sale of sugar produced nearby. The dazzling decorative excess of the Saadian tombs and the gaunt simplicity of the ruins of the El Badi Palace are balanced by the calm munificence of the Ben Youssef Madrassa. There is an afternoon visit to the Marjorelle gardens, with its bamboo groves and date plantations.

Day 11: Marrakech. The Koutoubia minaret is the oldest of the three Almohad towers constructed in the 12th century in Marrakech, Rabat and Seville and it stands 70 metres high. The late-19th-century Bahia Palace of the chief minister Ba Ahmad shows the continuity of artistic styles

from Saadian era. In the afternoon visit the world famous markets and Djemaa el-Fna square.

Day 12: Marrakech. Drive to Marrakech Airport in time for the flight to London Gatwick via Casablanca (Royal Air Maroc, currently departing at 10.15am).

practicalities


Flights are not included in the cost of the tour as the most convenient outbound flights are with Air Arabia and we cannot make a booking without knowing the passenger name. We can book flights on your behalf, quoting the fare at the time of booking, or you can make the bookings yourself. We can book your return flight from Marrakech via Casablanca to London Gatwick with Royal Air Maroc for £180 (March) and £160 (September). Full details are provided with confirmation of booking.

Included meals: 7 lunches, 8 dinners with wine or soft drinks (not all restaurants serve alcohol).

Visas: not required for nationals of the UK, Australia or USA for tourist stays of up to 90 days. Nationals of other countries should check their requirements.

Accommodation. Hotel El-Minzah, Tangier (leroyal.com/morocco): a comfortable but dated 5-star hotel, centrally located; Sofitel Palace Jamaï, Fez (sofitel-legend.com/fes/en): an excellent 5-star hotel within the medina; Kenzi Bélère, Eroud: a friendly but comparatively basic hotel; Berbere Palace, Ouarzazate (leberberepalace.com): a functional

Tangier, steel engraving from The Chaplet 1845

James BrownHistorian specialising in Morocco with a wider interest in the history of the Muslim world. He studied at Oxford, Cambridge and SOAS and has worked as a

journalist and teacher. His current research is on the relations between Morocco and Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries.All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

MONTENEGRO: See page 30 for The Western Balkans, depar tures in May and October 2015.

4-star hotel; Les Borjs de La Kasbah, Marrakech (lesborjsdelakasbah.com): a characterful and tranquil riad-style hotel, within the kasbah quarter of the medina; rooms vary in size and outlook. All hotels have swimming pools.

How strenuous? This is a long tour with a lot of coach travel and five hotels. There is a lot of walking through narrow streets and busy markets, and on rough, steep and slippy ground on archaeological sites. Average distance by coach per day: 80 miles.


Combine this tour with Gastronomic Andalucía, 13–20 March (page 203) or Samarkand & Silk Road Cities, 1–11 September (page 218).

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Andalusian MoroccoLegacy of a remarkable cultural exchange

13–21 May 2015 (mb 330)8 nights • £3,210Lecturer: James Brown

A unique approach to northern Morocco’s heritage and relationship with southern Spain.

Led by an expert in Moroccan history.

3 nights in Rabat, Morocco’s often overlooked but charming capital.

Excellent hotels and restaurants throughout.

Morocco, tucked away in the northwest corner of Africa and girded by the Atlantic Ocean, the great Atlas mountain ranges, and the vast expanses of the Sahara, is a country of enduring mystery. Often considered exotic and forbidding by Europeans, one of its greatest secrets is its deep cultural connection with southern Spain and Portugal, long ruled by Muslims who called it al-Andalus. They created a sparkling Arab-Islamic culture celebrated in poetry, song and iconic buildings including the immense great mosque of Cordoba and the stunningly beautiful hilltop Alhambra palace.

From the outset this culture was shared with Morocco. Travellers constantly went back and forth and in the eleventh and twelfth centuries,

the Moroccan Berber Almoravid and Almohad dynasties made al-Andalus part of a vast North African empire. Under the Almoravids, West African gold paid Andalusi scholars and craftsmen and the architecture of Cordoba embellished the cities of Morocco, while under their Almohad successors, a new dramatic architectural style fused the Andalusi genius with Berber dynamism.

When disaster struck al-Andalus in the form of the Christian conquest (reconquista) in the thirteenth century, the trickle of Spanish Muslims and Jews to Morocco became a flood. These refugees invigorated the cultures of the cities where they settled bringing with them their skills and aesthetic sense, and their music and poetry which gained a new depth and poignancy in laments about the loss of al-Andalus. The last wave of migrants were the Moriscos, Muslims forcibly converted to Christianity in the sixteenth century and finally expelled from Spain in the early seventeenth century. Deeply bitter towards their erstwhile Christian Spanish compatriots, many became pirates preying on Spanish New World shipping. A handful, the infamous Sallee Rovers, founded the Republic of the Bou Regreg in a ruined fort outside Rabat where they were joined by Dutch and English pirates until their republic was destroyed by the ancestors of the current kings of Morocco.

This tour traces the story of the myriad connections between al-Andalus and Morocco, their cultural legacy, and their imprint on the mountains and fertile green plains of northern Morocco. We shall explore the twelfth century architectural fusion of Andalusi and Berber styles in the great Almohad monuments of Rabat, and witness the handiwork of Andalusi and Maghribi craftsmen in the beautiful jewel-like Marinid madrasas of Fez, Meknes and Salé, built at the same time as the Alhambra palace. We shall also visit coastal towns rebuilt all or in part by Andalusi migrants with characteristic Mediterranean whitewashed walls and blue or green paintwork, and see the strongholds from which Andalusis fought back in Rabat and the isolated mountain town of Chefchaouan.

Itinerary

Day 1. Leave from Tangier Airport following the arrival of the flight from London Gatwick (Air Arabia, currently 7.40pm) (flights are not included – see below). A light dinner will be served in the hotel restaurant on arrival. First of two nights in Tangier.

Day 2: Tangier, Asilah. Morning visit of the Kasbah and the museum situated within before an afternoon visit of the charming port of

The Atlas Mountains with Fez in the foreground, aquatint 1811172

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Asilah on the Atlantic coast. Founded by Arab conquerors in the 9th century ad, Asilah was an important trading post and established strong links with the West under the Merinid Dynasty before it was stormed by the Portuguese in ad 1471. Today the town is well preserved with high rampart walls, small alleyways and white-washed houses. Overnight Tangier.

Day 3: Tetouan, Chefchaouen. Drive east over the Anjera hills to the city of Tetouan, settled by refugees from Spain whose Moorish culture is clearly identifiable in the streets of the old city. Visit the Medina and attend a private performance of Andalusi music. Drive south to Chefchaouen to visit the kasbah and then on to Fez for the first of three nights.

Day 4: Fez. Fes al-Bali, the traditional capital of northern Morocco, has a long history of interaction with al-Andalus. When it was founded in the eighth century, it was populated by local Berbers and Arabs from Iberia and one of its quarters is still call the al-Andalus quarter today. Over the centuries, its connections with al-Andalus deepened. See the Qarawiyyin Mosque with its ‘Cordoban’ minaret and Andalusi-inspired renovations, Marinid madrasas built in the Andalusi style, and many other examples of how the Moroccan ‘Andalusi’ style evolved. We

shall also see craftsmen at work perpetuating artisanal traditions common to Morocco and medieval al-Andalus. Overnight Fez.

Day 5: Fez. Fes al-Jadid was founded in the fourteenth century as the royal city of the Marinid dynasty. The Marinids had close relations with the Nasrids of Granada who built the Alhambra and exchanged courtiers, craftsmen and soldiers with them. See the facade of the royal palace and gateways executed in the Andalusi style and also the Jewish quarter of Fes, the Mellah, populated in part by immigrants from Spain who preferred to live under Islamic rule as the Catholic kings became more hostile to Judaism. Final night in Fez.

Day 6: Meknes, Rabat. Our destination is Rabat but we stop at Meknes to visit the beautiful Bu Inaniya Madrasa and to have lunch. Continue to Morocco’s capital, arriving late afternoon. First of three nights in Rabat.

Day 7: Rabat. The capital of the Kingdom since 1912 has long since been an important cultural bridge between the two regions. The unfinished Tower of Hasan, a gigantic project started in the 12th century is testament to Rabat’s prestige and mirrors the Giralda of Seville and Kutubiya of Marrakesh. In the same complex is the Mohamed V Mausoleum commemorating the sovereign responsible for regaining Morocco’s independence and decorated in art of Andalusian origin. In the afternoon walk through the city’s bustling and authentic walled Medina ending up in the Kasbah of the Oudayas, a wonderfully located complex of turquoise and white-washed houses with high ramparts and elaborate gates with views across the Wadi Bu Regreg and the Atlantic Ocean. Overnight Rabat.

Day 8: Rabat, Salé. Situated outside the city walls, the vast necropolis of Chellah sits on a prosperous Roman city of Sala Colonia. Deserted in the 8th century, the site became a royal necroplis for the Marinid Sultans and is home to some fine mosaics and examples of Islamic architecture. Cross to the adjacent river bank and Rabat’s sister town, Salé, to visit the exquisite madrasa. The

afternoon is free to explore Rabat with its fine examples of early 20th century architecture. Final night in Rabat.

Day 9: Rabat, Casablanca. Drive to Casablanca, where King Hasan II decided to build his vast mosque which is both a symbol of monarchical power and religious legitimacy and also testament to the enduring appeal of the Andalusi architectural style in Morocco. Drive to Casablanca Aiprort in time for the flight to London Heathrow currently departing at 1.40pm.

practicalities


Flights are not included in the cost of the tour as the most convenient outbound flights are with Air Arabia and we cannot make a booking without knowing the passenger name. We can book flights on your behalf, quoting the fare at the time of booking, or you can make the bookings yourself. We can book your return flight from Casablanca to Heathrow with Royal Air Maroc for £190. Full details are provided with confirmation of booking.


Visas: not required for nationals of the UK, Australia or USA for tourist stays of up to 90 days. Nationals of other countries should check their requirements.

Accommodation. Hotel El-Minzah, Tangier (leroyal.com/morocco): a comfortable but dated 5-star hotel, centrally located. Hotel Sofitel Palais Jamaïs, Fez (sofitel-legend.com/fes/en/): excellent 5-star hotel within the medina. La Tour Hassan, Rabat (latourhassan.com): centrally located with a garden and an excellent Moroccan restaurant.

How strenuous? A fair amount of walking through narrow streets and busy markets. Average distance by coach per day: 59 miles.


A Moroccan courtyard, watercolour by Mortimer Menpes publ. 1903

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Art in the NetherlandsRembrandt, vermeer, van Gogh

24–30 May 2015 (mb 326)This tour is currently full

4–10 October 2015 (mc 488)7 days • £2,470Lecturer: Dr Guus Sluiter

A study of Dutch art, following the re-opening of the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art.

The seventeenth-century Golden Age (Hals, Rembrandt, Vermeer), Van Gogh and other major figures.

The lecturer is an art historian resident in the Netherlands.

Also architecture and design from mediaeval to modern, and several highly picturesque historic town centres.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, one of the world’s great museums, closed for major refurbishment for over ten years, reopened in 2013 finally allowing us to offer comprehensive art history tours to the Netherlands once again. The Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art have also recently re-opened, to great acclaim.

The seventeenth century was the Golden Age in the history and art history of the northern Netherlands. (Much of this activity was concentrated in Holland, though that was but one of seven provinces which constituted the United Provinces, now the Kingdom of the Netherlands.) This was the time of Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Vermeer and innumerable other great masters.

The Dutch School is of universal appeal, with its mix of realism, painterliness and potency, though it is best appreciated in the excellent art galleries of their native country – and against the background of the well preserved and

wonderfully picturesque towns and cities. With their canals, cobbled alleys and gabled mansions, many have changed little in three hundred years.

There is also focus on Vincent Van Gogh, the bulk of whose output is in the Netherlands. Painters of the Hague School of the nineteenth century have a presence, as do pioneers of modernism in painting and architecture, the architects Van der Velde and Gerrit Rietveld for example, and the abstract painter Piet Mondriaan. More recent art and architecture also features.

The base for the tour is a five-star hotel in Utrecht, whose central location means relatively short journeys to all places visited.

Itinerary

Day 1: Haarlem. Fly at c. 12.00 midday (British Airways) from London Heathrow Airport to Amsterdam Schipol. Haarlem was the chief artistic centre in the northern Netherlands in the sixteenth century and home of the first of the great masters of the Golden Age, Frans Hals, whose finest works are in the excellent small museum here. Drive to Utrecht, where all six nights are spent.

Day 2: Amsterdam. With its rings of canals lined with merchants’ mansions, Amsterdam is one of the loveliest capitals in the world. Our first visit to the brilliantly refurbished Rijksmuseum concentrates on the major works in its unrivalled collection of 17th-cent. paintings, Rembrandt’s Night Watch and five Vermeers among them. A boat trip leads to the house where Rembrandt lived and worked for twenty years, well restored and with a display of prints. Also newly extended, the Van Gogh Museum houses the biggest holding of the artist’s works, largely from brother Theo’s collection.

Day 3: The Hague, Delft. The Mauritshuis at Den Haag contains a superb collection of paintings including masterpieces by Rembrandt and Vermeer. Exhibited here also are 19th-cent. Hague School paintings, the realist milieu from which Van Gogh emerged, and works by the pioneer abstractionist Mondriaan. Visit also the illusionistic Mesdag panorama and the centre of city, seat of the court and parliament. Drop into Delft, the exceedingly attractive little town where Vermeer lived.

Day 4: Otterlo, Het Loo. Located in gardens and surrounded by an extensive heath, the beautiful Kröller-Müller Museum has the second great collection of works by Van Gogh as well as an eclectic holding of paintings, furniture and sculpture. A leisurely visit here is followed by time at the 17th-cent. gardens of Het Loo, the former royal country palace. Brilliantly restored, they constitute the finest surviving garden ensemble of their time.

Day 5: Gouda, Utrecht. Gouda is an exceptionally pretty town with an elaborate town hall of c. 1450 and a large Gothic church, Sintjanskerk, with 16th-cent. stained glass, the finest of its era. Utrecht is one of the best-preserved historic cities in the Netherlands, with canals flanked by unbroken stretches of Golden Age houses. The The Music Maker and his Pupil, wood engraving c. 1880 after vermeer174

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excellent art museum has a major collection of paintings of the 17th-cent. Utrecht School. See also the Rietveld House (1924), a landmark of 20th-cent. architecture.

Day 6: Amsterdam. Return to Amsterdam. The Museum Willet-Holthuysen is a canalside patrician’s house furnished as in the 18th cent., while the Museum of Amsterdam excellently presents the history of the city. There is free time in the afternoon for revisiting the Rijksmuseum (there is much to see other than the Golden Age paintings), the Van Gogh Museum, or the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art.

Day 7: Rotterdam. Rotterdam is a thriving city and a centre of contemporary architecture. The Boijmans van Beuningen Museum is the second largest art gallery in the Netherlands and has many important Dutch paintings and good decorative arts. Fly from Schipol and return to Heathrow at c. 4.30pm.

practicalities



Accommodation. The Grand Hotel Karel V, Utrecht (karelv.nl): 5-star hotel converted from a 19th-century hospital in a quiet location within the city walls.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking and standing around, and the tour would not be suitable for anyone with difficulties with everyday walking and stair-climbing. Average distance by coach per day: 75 miles.


Combine this tour with The Lukas Cranachs, 18–22 May (page 95) or Caravaggio, 12–19 October (page 149).

Dr Guus SluiterArt historian and Director of the Dutch Funeral Museum in Amsterdam. Prior to this he worked for the Mauritshuis in The Hague and the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. He

has published widely in the Netherlands and Italy and is a Research Fellow of the Dutch Institute for Art History in Florence.All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

The Renewed RijksmuseumArt in Amsterdam, Haarlem & The Hague

21–24 June 2015 (mb 373)4 days • £1,790Lecturer: Dr Sophie Oosterwijk

28 June–1 July 2015 (mb 385)This tour is currently full

Painting of the Dutch Golden Age – Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Vermeer and contemporaries – as well as art of other eras.

Plenty of time for the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam which re-opened in 2013 as Europe’s best-displayed national gallery.

The Mauritshuis in The Hague is also now open after complete refurbishment – ‘looks set to become northern Europe’s most alluring small museum’ (Financial Times).

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is one of the world’s great museums, but it was largely closed for ten years until 2013. Planned extension and refurbishment hit a number of unexpected snags, but the new Rijksmuseum has been greeted with universal praise. Much extra space has been quarried from within the footprint of the 1885 building, and while some of the original decoration has been revealed and restored, the latest museum technology has been adopted and the artworks are beautifully lit. Paintings, sculpture, drawings, tapestries, ceramics, gold and silver – the whole gamut of fine and decorative arts are on display, often in meaningful juxtaposition.

Though the gallery has the finest collection by far of the Dutch Golden Age (the seventeenth century, the age of Rembrandt and Vermeer), it has much else besides, and significant international collections as well. There are two visits to the museum, and Amsterdam’s other main galleries and historic buildings are included as well as city centre walks through the enchanting streetscape and beside the canals.

To enlarge upon the theme, two key galleries in other towns are visited. The Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, housed in the almshouse where the eponymous artist spent his last years, provides a perfect introduction to Golden Age art, while the paintings in the Mauritshuis, also benefitting from brilliant re-display, form one of the richest small collections anywhere.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 12.00 midday (British Airways) from London Heathrow Airport to Amsterdam. Haarlem was the chief artistic centre in the northern Netherlands in the 16th century and home of the first of the great masters of the Golden Age, Frans Hals, whose finest works are in the excellent small museum here. Drive to Amsterdam, where all three nights are spent.

Day 2. With its concentric rings of canals and 17th-cent. merchants’ mansions, Amsterdam is one of the loveliest capitals in the world. Our first visit to the brilliantly refurbished Rijksmuseum concentrates on Rembrandt, Vermeer and their contemporaries. In the afternoon walk to the

Museum Willet-Holthuysen, a patrician’s house and garden furnished as in the 18th century, and the house where Rembrandt lived and worked for twenty years. Walk back to the hotel through some of Amsterdam’s most attractive streets.

Day 3. The Amsterdam Museum presents the history of the city with many fine paintings. The Royal Palace, formerly the town hall, was decorated by the leading Dutch painters of the 17th century (subject to closure for royal functions). Return to the Rijksmuseum for a second visit. Nearby are two other major art museums which have also recently been refurbished and extended, the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum of modern and contemporary art.

Day 4. Opened in June 2014 after long closure for refurbishment, the Mauritshuis at The Hague ‘looks set to become northern Europe’s most alluring small museum’ (Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times). The superb collection of paintings includes masterpieces by Rembrandt and Vermeer. The Gemeente Museum has 19th-cent. Hague School paintings, the realist milieu from which Van Gogh emerged, and works by the pioneer abstractionist Mondriaan. Fly from Amsterdam and return to Heathrow at c. 4.30pm.

practicalities

Price (21–24 June): £1,790 (deposit £200). Single supplement £270 (double room for single occupancy). Price without flights £1,640.


Accommodation (21–24 June). Hotel Estheréa, Amsterdam (www.estherea.nl), a centrally located 4-star hotel in a historic building with colourful, comfortable rooms.

How strenuous? Quite a lot of walking and standing around. Average distance by coach per day: 25 miles.


Amsterdam, by Nico Jungman publ. 1904

The Rhine valley Music Festival, 20–27 June 2015. See page 89.Walking the Rhine valley, 19–26 June 2015. See page 88.

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OmanPeoples, customs & landscapes of Arabia

Etching 1927 by E. J. Detmold

10–20 January 2015 (mb 229)This tour is currently full

16–26 November 2015 (mc 526)11 days/10 nights • £4,670Lecturer: Professor Dawn Chatty

Remarkable landscape, hill forts, traditional souqs, archaeological sites.

The toehold of Arabia, with a diverse population reflecting its mercantile past.

Accompanied by a social anthropologist long involved in the Middle East.

All the hotels are comfortable, some are superb, plus a night in a desert camp.

Wilfred Thesiger was motivated to cross the Empty Quarter not only by his desire to gain further recognition as a traveller but by the hope that he would find peace and solitude in the remote desert landscapes. He also yearned to gain the friendship of the Bedu who journeyed with him and whom he encountered during his traverse. The possibility of travelling to little-visited locations, relaxing in inspiring surroundings and developing understanding with new peoples is no less possible in Oman in 2014 than it was in 1946.

The country provides a diverse range of extraordinary natural beauty: deserts, mountains, wadis, beaches. Visitors also experience the kindness and friendliness of the Omanis. With relatively few, although gradually increasing number of visitors a year, Oman is still not over-developed, unlike some of its neighbouring Gulf states.

Evidence of settlement dates back to the fourth millennium bc with early indications of dependence on trade. First copper and then frankincense (southern Oman is one of the few places in the world where the ‘sacred frankincense’ still grows) played a key role in the country’s history. Desire to control the supply of frankincense led to incorporation in the Achaemenid and Sassanian empires until the Persians were forced out in the seventh century.

Omanis readily embraced Islam and submitted to the Umayyad and the Abbasid Caliphate. Trade and naval power continued to expand. Occupied by the Portuguese from 1507 to 1650, Oman flourished again after their departure with an empire reaching into East Africa, particularly Zanzibar, and the Indian Ocean. Treaties agreed with the British to protect communications with India marked the beginning of a special relationship, which continued beyond the formal termination of the protectorate in 1971.

Meanwhile, the division of the Omani empire between the sultan of Zanzibar and the sultan of Muscat in 1856 resulted in economic decline for both and internal conflicts in the latter. Successive sultans failed to tackle the problems and Oman stagnated.

The coming to power of Sultan Qaboos bin Said in 1970 heralded a new era. Though its oil revenues are relatively small, they have been used wisely to the benefit of the Omani people, for infrastructure, employment and education. Development has been rapid but controlled, guided by a determination to preserve Omani traditions.

Our comprehensive itinerary includes the highlights of this vast country: from the inland forts of Nizwa and Jabrin to the little-visited

archaeological sites of Al-Balid and Khor Rori, from the mountain scenery in the Western Hajar to the remoteness of the Wahiba Sands, from the bustling capital Muscat to the contrasting landscapes of the southern region of Dhofar.

Other features of this tour are the opportunity to camp overnight in the Wahiba Sands, stay by the Indian Ocean and shop in souqs suffused with the scent of frankincense. Oman is opening up to a privileged few.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 9.05pm from London Heathrow (Oman Air) for the seven-hour flight to Muscat.

Day 2: Muscat. Land at c. 8.30am. Hotel rooms are at your disposal for the morning. Greater Muscat is spread out along the coast with a dramatic mountain backdrop. Visit the National Museum and the privately owned Bait al Zubair housing the family collection of Omani artefacts. First of two nights in Muscat.

Day 3: Barka, Nakhl. Drive by 4x4 to the traditionally furnished 17th-century fortified house Bait Na’aman. Continue onto the impressive Rustaq and Nakhl Forts, the latter perched grandly on the foothills of the Western Hajar Mountains. Overnight Muscat.

Day 4: Muscat, Jabrin. With seven minarets, the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque is impressively ornate. Leave Muscat by 4x4 for Nizwa. The most impressive fort in Oman is at Jabrin; sensitively restored, the plasterwork, wood carvings and painted ceilings are magnificent. First of two nights in Nizwa.

Day 5: Nizwa area. Visit to the 17th-century Nizwa Fort, palace, seat of government and

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prison. Some free time to explore the fascinating souqs and markets. Bahla is home to a range of craft workers, pottery being particularly noteworthy. Bahla Fort, dating from pre-Islamic times (World Heritage Site, interior closed for restoration). The rarely-visited archaeological site of Al Ayn is a collection of Bronze Age beehive tombs sitting atop a rugged ridge with the Jebel Misht as a backdrop. Overnight Nizwa.

Day 6: Nizwa, Wahiba. Drive to Ibra, the once opulent market town which stood on the trade route linking the interior to the coast. Arrive at Wahiba Sands, a sea of high rolling dunes. Watch the sunset and camp overnight in the desert.

Day 7: Wahiba, Sur. After a free morning travel by 4x4 through the spectacular desert scenery. Until the 20th century Sur was famous throughout Arabia as a major trading port with East Africa. See the charming fishing village of Al Aijah, the shipyards still in operation and the displays of traditional dhows at Fath al Khair Park. Overnight Sur.

Day 8: Sur, Salalah. Drive by 4x4 to Muscat, via the ancient port of Qalhat, to catch an afternoon flight to Salalah, which despite its size is considered Oman’s second city and capital of the Dhofar region. First of three nights in Salalah.

Day 9: Khor Rori. Spend the morning at the lush Wadi Darbat before visiting the ruins at Khor Rori. Formerly known as Sumhuraman, the settlement was an important frankincense trading port 2,000 years ago, forwarding this precious commodity to Damascus and Rome. Overnight Salalah.

Day 10: Al Balid. Ancient Zafar, flourished in the 11th and 12th centuries and was visited by Marco Polo. The museum exhibits finds from the ruins of Al Balid and other artefacts from the area. The afternoon is free to relax by the Indian Ocean. Overnight Salalah.

Day 11. A mid-morning flight to Muscat connects with the early afternoon flight to London, arriving Heathrow c. 6.00pm.

practicalities

Price in November: £4,670 (deposit £450). Single supplement £520. Price without flights £3,990.

Included meals: 9 lunches (including 2 picnics) and 9 dinners with wine (where available).

Visas: required for most foreign nationals. We will arrange for these to be issued on arrival if travelling with the group, the costs of which are included in the tour price.

Accommodation. Al Bustan, Muscat (ritzcarlton.com): a recently-renovated 5-star hotel within an exclusive resort. Nizwa Golden Hotel, Nizwa (goldentulipnizwa.com): a comfortable, but

slightly drab 4-star hotel, with a swimming pool. Desert Nights Camp, Wahiba Sands (desertnightscamp.com): a luxury camp in individual tents with private facilities. Hotel Plaza, Sur (omanhotels.com/surplaza ): a modern 4-star hotel. Hotel Crowne Plaza, Salalah (crowneplaza.com): a 5-star hotel, high standards of comfort and service.

How strenuous? This is a busy and active tour and participants need stamina and fitness. There are some long journeys by 4x4 vehicles or coach (average distance per day: 102 miles), two internal flights and 4 changes of accommodation. Walking is often on uneven terrain at archaeological sites, hill forts and in the desert.


This could be Oman (due to the water system and architecture) but is infact Algeria, engraving c. 1875

Professor Dawn ChattyProfessor of Anthropology and Forced Migration at the University of Oxford. She has long been involved with the Middle East as a university teacher, development

practitioner, and advocate for indigenous rights. She has carried out research among Bedouin sheep herders in Syria and Lebanon and camel nomads in Oman.All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

“Probably the most fascinating MRT holiday I’ve experienced.”

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“The visits to Nablus and Hebron were outstanding.”

“My whole attitude to the West Bank has changed.”

The Convent of Mar Saba, wood engraving c. 1880

PalestineArchaeology & architecture of the West Bank

12–20 October 2015 (mc 483)9 days • £3,460Lecturer: Dr Felicity Cobbing

A pioneering tour which includes the major archaeological sites and the most significant historic buildings on the West Bank.

Led by Felicity Cobbing, curator of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

There are two nights in East Jerusalem.

Provides an insight into a territory much in the news but little visited in recent years.

Palestine is a land of limestone hills with the humped contours of a children’s picture-book. The surface is generally a grey-green impasto of olives and scrub, sometimes beautified with the striations of ancient terraces, farmed intermittently in clefts and nooks, grazed where vegetation is harsh and coarse. Then there are the hills of the Judaean desert, crinkled, barren rock, khaki with a dusting of white.

Straggling along crests and down hillsides, Palestinian towns and villages are given visual unity by white limestone cladding – a

requirement introduced during the British mandate and still adhered to. They express individualism, enterprise and struggle. By contrast, the Israeli settlements crowning many a peak are fortress-like high-density clusters.

Recent history and current affairs cannot be ignored in this part of the world but the focus of the tour is archaeology, architecture and more distant history. Scattered across the West Bank are some very remarkable sites and buildings. There are unique remains from the very earliest periods, some fascinating remnants of the Canaanite and Israelite civilisations of the Bronze and Iron Ages, often with biblical associations. The creations of Herod the Great, among the most impressive structures of the ancient world, feature prominently, and there are significant remains from the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, Crusader and Ottoman eras. A particular feature are the desert monasteries, often in dramatic and inaccessible locations.

Tourism is hardly new to Palestine: pilgrimage tours follow well-worn routes, quickly bouncing back after intermittent periods of strife, but other sorts of specialist tours are relatively rare. There has been investment in hotels and infrastructure in recent years, and the people are very welcoming.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 8.30am (British Airways)from London Heathrow to Tel Aviv (Israel) and drive through the Separation Wall to Bethlehem (Palestine). Reach the hotel in time for dinner. Four nights are spent here.

Day 2: Herodion, Solomon’s Pools, Mar Saba. Herodion is an extraordinary fortified palace built by King Herod 24–15 bc on an artificial hill. There are extensive remains of defences, cisterns and baths and superb views. It was supplied with water from ‘Solomon’s Pools’, a series of reservoirs 9 km away, visited next. Return to Bethlehem for lunch and drive into the Judaean desert to visit the Orthodox monastery of Mar Saba, perched in a gorge and with a beautiful chapel (limited access for women). Overnight Bethlehem.

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See also Israel & Palestine, October and April 2015 (page 112).

Day 3: Hebron (Al-Khalil), Judaean Desert. The Herodian phase of the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron is one of the most impressive buildings of the ancient world. The interior is Crusader and Mamluk, and is now divided between Muslims and Jews. We visit the Muslim mosque which contains the cenotaphs of the Patriarchs. We also see a 19th-century Russian church here. Hebron is volatile and this visit may be cancelled at short notice. The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, not significantly changed since ad 339, is one of the greatest of Early Christian buildings; five aisles and monumental Corinthian colonnades. Overnight Bethlehem.

Day 4: Jerusalem. Spend the day in the Old City of Jerusalem (ruled de facto by Israel but claimed by Palestine). This is the most extraordinary city on Earth, a vibrant Middle-Eastern enclave split between rival communities and composed of mediaeval and ancient masonry. Walk along the city’s impressive ramparts, visit the Church of St Anne and Armenian Cathedral. Overnight Bethlehem.

Day 5: Bethlehem to Jericho. The journey down to the Dead Sea is broken at a modern museum of ancient mosaics. The palm-shaded oasis of Jericho is a place of superlatives, the world’s most low-lying town and arguably its oldest continuously inhabited one. The lowest strata of Tell as-Sultan, the site of ancient Jericho, are 10,000 years old and there is a unique tower of c. 7000 bc, as well as impressive Bronze Age remains from the third and second millenniums bc. Hisham’s Palace is a remarkably well-preserved 8th-century Umayyad palace. The Monastery of Temptation is inserted in the high cliff overlooking the site and can now be reached by cable car. First of two nights in Jericho.

Day 6: Desert monasteries. The theme of the day is monasticism in the Judaean hills, beginning with the community of Jewish zealots at Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, and continuing to functioning Christian monasteries in the wadis. According to Muslim tradition, Nabi Musa is the burial place of Moses and has Mamluk, Byzantine and Ottoman parts. There is an optional walk to the 19th-century Greek Orthodox monastery of St George in Wadi Kelt with free time in Jericho as an alternative. Overnight Jericho.

Day 7: Sebastia, Nablus, Jerusalem. Amid lovely countryside north-west of Nablus, Sebastia (Samaria) is a fascinating archaeological site with extensive remains spreading over a hill, principally Roman and Hellenistic but reaching back much earlier to the time of the Israelite kings, Omri and Ahab. In Nablus, Jacob’s Well is enshrined in a church which was begun by the Crusaders and completed last century. Overnight East Jerusalem.

Day 8: Jerusalem. Haram ash-Sharif, alias the Temple Mount, Herod’s great retaining wall

supporting a platform now adorned with some of the earliest and finest Islamic buildings, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Constantinian and Crusader. Free afternoon in the old city. Overnight East Jerusalem.

Day 9: Jerusalem. The Rockefeller Museum, formerly the Palestinian Archaeological Museum, has finds from some of the sites visited on this tour, including Hisham’s Palace, ancient Jericho, Samaria and Jerusalem. After lunch drive to Tel Aviv airport. The flight arrives at London Heathrow at c. 8.00pm.

practicalities



Visas: are obtained on arrival at no charge for most nationalities.

Accommodation. Intercontinental Jacir Palace, Bethlehem (intercontinental.com): a 4 star hotel in a flamboyant late 19th-century mansion. Hotel Intercontinental, Jericho (intercontinental.com): a 5 star hotel in a high-rise building outside the city centre. American Colony, Jerusalem (americancolony.com): a 5 star prestigious hotel in East Jerusalem.

How strenuous? This is an active, primarily outdoors tour involving quite a lot of walking, some of it over rough ground and uneven paving. Sure-footedness and being comfortable spending much of the day on one’s feet is essential. Average distance by coach per day: c. 41 miles.

Working in partnership with the Palestine Exploration Fund. By booking on this tour, clients will automatically become PEF members,

have access to the extensive PEF library and resources as well as benefit from expert advice on the ancient Levant from members of staff.

Dr Felicity CobbingExecutive and Curator of the Palestine Exploration Fund in London. She has excavated in Jordan with the British Museum, and worked throughout the Middle East.

Widely published on the archaeology in the Levant, she is co-author with Dr Raouf Sa’d Abujabber of Beyond the River – Ottoman Transjordan in Original Photographs.


Hebron, steel engraving c. 1860


Combine this tour with Malta, 5–11 October (page 166) or Essential Jordan, 25 October–2 November (page 162).

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PeruA journey through the Andean heartland

7–23 September 2015 (mc 463)17 days • £6,180Lecturer: Dr David Beresford-Jones

A thorough exploration of pre-Columbian civilisations in Peru: Moche, Chimú, Inca.

The lecturer, Dr David Beresford-Jones, is a fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge.

Stay on site at Machu Picchu, visit without the crowds.

Sites almost devoid of tourists around Trujillo are also included.

Spectacular Andean scenery, world famous cuisine.

Of all the world’s vanished civilisations, few evoke as much mystique as the Incas of Peru. Stumbled upon and shattered by a handful of Spanish adventurers in 1538, the Inca Empire was the last great pristine civilisation on earth – a current aside from the mainstream of human history. Tawantinsuyu (the ‘Four Realms Together’), as the Incas called their empire, had been conquered with neither pen nor sword. In many senses ‘Neolithic’, it was administered through the khipu, a record-keeping system of intricate knotted cords, born of the marvellous textile traditions intrinsic to Andean civilisation.

And yet its dominion was vast, stretching over a distance greater than London to Moscow, along the spines of the world’s highest cordilleras outside the Himalayas and home to scores of different ethnic groups.

This tour seeks to understand and re-imagine the Inca Empire on a journey through its Andean heartland of Cuzco, following the sacred

Vilcanota river. We take in classic Inca sites where their cyclopean stonework melds into the grandeurs of the Andean landscape to attain a Zen-like architectural aesthetic. The culmination is the most spectacular site of all, Machu Picchu, perched on the very fringes of Amazonia.

Yet the Incas were but the final flourish of an Andean cultural trajectory with roots many millennia deeper, a roll-call of cultures perhaps more magnificent still. So our exploration begins by the Pacific, from the excellent public and private museum collections in Lima to the vestiges of Moche and Chimor on Peru’s northern coast. And we will end at Lake Titicaca, high on the vast Altiplano tablelands, and whence the Incas themselves claimed their mythical origins.

En route we will have ample chance to indulge in Peru’s extraordinary cuisine, acclaimed by chefs such as Ferran Adrià as ‘key to the future of gastronomy’. As with the ancient Andean civilizations, that cuisine is founded upon native food crops originating in one of humanity’s precious few ancient hearths of agriculture.It is set amid the world’s richest and densest concentration of ecotones, from desert coast to eternal snows to tropical rainforest, and adjoining one of its richest marine resources. Indeed, it is this that connotes the real importance of the Andes to our wider human story.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 8.45am from London Heathrow to Lima, via Amsterdam (KLM, c. 15 hours total), arriving in time for a light dinner at the hotel. First of two nights in Lima.

Day 2: Lima. After an introductory lecture in the hotel, visit the Larco Herrera Museum with its famous collection of Moche and other pre-Inca ceramics. Continue in the afternoon to the heart

of Colonial Lima (once the ‘City of the Kings’) to see the Cathedral containing the tomb of Peru’s conquistador, Francisco Pizarro; the Casa Aliaga, an elaborate colonial mansion occupied by the same family since 1535; and the San Francisco Monastery with its Mudéjar church and important Spanish and Colonial art.

Day 3: Lima, Trujillo. Morning visit to the Huaca Pucllana, a vast adobe administrative and ceremonial centre of the Lima culture which flourished here at around ad 400. Continue to the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History with its collections of artefacts from Chavín, Nasca, Moche and Chimú cultures. In the afternoon fly north to Trujillo (LAN Airlines). First of three nights in Trujillo.

Day 4: Trujillo. Drive north to El Brujo, a ceremonial centre of the Moche culture (1–700 ad) and the mausoleum of the Lady of Cao, an important priestess of that period . Her tomb is surrounded by painted relief murals, while her mummy still records the vestiges of the tattoos on her hands and legs. Return to Trujillo, a handsome colonial city with a colourful main square. Visit the Casa Urquiaga, a colonial mansion in which the ‘Liberator’ Simón Bolívar stayed after proclaiming Peru’s independence in 1824.

Day 5: Trujillo. The Huaca de la Luna and Huaca del Sol the core of the ancient capital of the Moche empire. The former is adorned with superb polychrome reliefs indicative of its importance as a ritual and sacrificial centre. After lunch by the Pacific visit Chan Chan, the ‘world’s largest adobe city’ and citadel of the Kingdom of Chimor for 500 years before its was destroyed by the Incas in 1470 ad. Its rich marine iconography reflects the importance of the sea to this civilisation.

Remains of the Inca fort at Cuzco, lithograph 1854

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Day 6: the Sacred Valley. Fly to Cuzco, via Lima and on to the Sacred Valley. Here, en route to the Amazon, the Urubamba (or Vilcanota) River twists through stunning mountain scenery and terraced farmland cultivated by the Incas. First of three nights in Urubamba.

Day 7: Maras, Moray. Urubamba sits at 2870m above sea level and so the morning is free to rest and adjust to the altitude. In the afternoon drive to the impressive Maras salt mines, exploited since before Inca times, and on to the marvellous concentric circular agricultural terraces of Moray.

Day 8: Pisac, Ollantaytambo. Today the town of Pisac has a vibrant craft and food market, overlooked by terraces and buildings of an Inca royal estate above. Lunch is at an hacienda of one of the valley’s oldest families, with its interesting private collection of art and antiques. Drive to the Inca citadel of Ollantaytambo, one of last lines of resistance to the Spanish conquest, and site of elaborate water gardens amidst extraordinary cyclopean Inca stonework.

Day 9: Machu Picchu. Take the morning train to Machu Picchu, a scenic journey down the valley enjoyed through panoramic windows. Have lunch and settle in to the hotel before entering the site as the crowds disperse and the light fades. Forgotten during the Spanish conquest, the temples and buildings of Machu Picchu are consequently uniquely well-preserved, which, together with its setting high above the river amidst spectacular mountain landscapes, makes the site the most extraordinary archaeological site in South America. Overnight Machu Picchu.

Day 10: Machu Picchu, Cuzco. Return to Machu Picchu at first light before catching an afternoon train to Cuzco (c. 4 hours). First of three nights in Cuzco.

Day 11: Cuzco. The Korikancha, the most sacred precinct and centre of the Inca Empire today beneath the Dominican Monastery, still preserves the finest examples of mortar-less Inca stonework with its trapezoidal doors and windows. See also the Inca Museum, containing some 10,000 artefacts and the Cuzco Cathedral, with its wonderful ‘Cusqueña School’ paintings of the Colonial Period. Visit the massive Inca fortress of Sacsayhuaman high above the city with its monumental walls built using stones up to 400 tons in weight and the Inca ceremonial site of Qenko.

Day 12: Cuzco. The day is free for independent exploration. Suggestions include the Pre-columbian art museum, or an optional walk through the city with the lecturer to view the many vestiges of its Inca palaces, fine Colonial churches and bustling markets.

Day 13: Cuzco, Puno. Take the train from Cuzco to Puno (c. 10 hours) through spectacular Andean landscapes. Carriages are comfortable and lunch and afternoon tea are served on board. First of two nights in Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca (altitude: 3830m above sea level).

Day 14: Lake Titicaca. The 88,000 acres of reeds growing along the lake’s margins have been used by the Uros people for centuries to

build floating islands on which they make their homes, originally to escape conquest from more powerful forces. Visit these as well as the island of Taquile, whose inhabitants still wear colourful traditional costume.

Day 15: Silustani, Lima. The spectacular chullpas, or towering stone mausoleums in their beautiful location on the shores of Lake Umayo at Silustani were likely built by the Colla people, contemporaries and erstwhile opponents of the Inca. Fly in the early afternoon from Juliaca to Lima for the final night of the tour.

Day 16: Lima. The day is free, with the option to return to the Larco Museum or visit the Amano Museum, with its special, private collection of pre-Columbian textiles. Fly at c. 8.00pm from Lima to London Heathrow, via Amsterdam.

Day 17. Return to London Heathrow at c. 5.15pm.

practicalities

Price: £6,180 (deposit £600). Single supplement £960 (double room for single occupancy). Supplement for deluxe mountain-view room at Machu Picchu £150 (double) or £125 (single). Price without international flights £5,460.

Dr David Beresford-JonesDavid Beresford-Jones is a fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge University. His research

interests include the ancient south coast of Peru, the origins of agriculture, Pre-Colombian textiles and the synthesis of archaeology and historical linguistics, particularly in the Andes. All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

Included meals: 12 dinners, 9 lunches with wine.

Accommodation. Hilton Lima Miraflores (hiltonhotels.com): a comfortable and modern 5-star hotel. Hotel Libertador Trujillo (libertador.com.pe): 4-star colonial-style hotel in the main square. Hotel Tambo del Inka, Urubamba (starwoodhotels.com): a 5-star hotel with an excellent restaurant. Sanctuary Lodge, Machu Picchu (belmond.com): 4-star, the only hotel at the entrance to the site. JW Marriott, Cusco (marriott.com): a 5-star hotel in a converted convent, located a few minutes walk from the main square. Hotel Libertador, Puno (libertador.com.pe): a 5-star hotel with superb views of Lake Titicaca.

How strenuous? This is a long tour involving a substantial amount of walking on the rough ground of archaeological sites, uphill and down. A good level of fitness is essential. Much of the tour is spent at high altitude (max. 3830m above sea level) which can exacerbate fatigue. Additional insurance is required and anyone with heart or respiratory problems should seek advice from their doctor. Average distance by coach per day: 30 miles.


Illustration left and above: from a set of ethnographic studies of Peru, engraving 1874

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Lisbon NeighbourhoodsArt, architecture & gardens in & around the capital

20–25 April 2015 (mb 296)6 days • £1,970Lecturer: Adam Hopkins

Superb and varied collections of decorative and fine arts as well as some of the best examples of Portuguese ceramic tiles.

Palaces and gardens are well represented including the National Palace at Sintra and the Royal Palace at Queluz.

Led by Adam Hopkins, journalist and author, specialist in Spanish and Portuguese history and culture.

Rejuvenation in the last decade has transformed Lisbon into a vibrant and attractive city.

Each of Lisbon’s neighbourhoods has its own atmosphere and its own treasures – and the same is emphatically true of the nearby hill – or mountain – of Sintra, with palaces and gardens, and a tendency for mist to hang romantically about its peak. Despite the nation’s money troubles (now easing somewhat) and the city’s pockets of poverty, Lisbon itself remains one of the most romantic capitals of Europe. The Alfama neighbourhood rises high to east of centre, its castle synonymous with the fortunes of early Lisbon and with fine views of the bellying Tagus below. The centre itself – the ‘Baixa’, at river level – was built on a grid plan by the dictator Pombal in the eighteenth century, one of the great successes of early town planning. Above to the west rises the ever more lively – and stylish – Bairro Alto or High District and far beyond, where the Tagus reaches out towards the Atlantic, comes Belém. King Manuel the Fortunate, his coffers heaving with the riches of India, envisaged

a new Bethlehem for a new Christian mission to the East. The result: two of Portugal’s great buildings: the Belém tower, feet washed by the river, and the gorgeous Jerónimos Monastery, itself once standing on the foreshore. Add to these museums and galleries with fine and applied arts of the highest level, swelling hills and the constant presence of the river, glimpsed when least expected, not to mention the world’s finest grilled sardines.

Itinerary

Day 1: Lisbon. Fly at c. 1.30pm (TAP Portugal) from London Heathrow to Lisbon. Drive to the hotel. Introductory talk before dinner.

Day 2: Belém, Alfama. Drive out to the Jerónimos Monastery at Belém, an outstanding example of the exuberant Manueline style with fine carving and vaulting. On the banks of the Tagus are the monument to the ‘Explorers’ and the Torre de Belém (a stylish fortress) – also Manueline with Moorish decoration. Continue to the Castelo de São Jorge – Arab castle conquered by the Christians in 1147, embellished over centuries by Portugal’s kings, destroyed and now restored. Descend with views of the labyrinthine Alfama to the Romanesque cathedral. Once fortified, later on much remodelled, it has a fascinating and important archeological site in its cloister. End the day at the Museu Nacional do Azulejo (ceramic tiles), a superb collection of one of Portugal’s great art forms with pieces from the 15th century to the present day.

Day 3: Lapa, Bairro Alto. Drive to Lapa to the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga with 15th- and 16th-century Portuguese works of art – displayed in a handsome palace. Back in the centre of

Lisbon, walk around the Bairro Alto, a now fashionable hub of theatres, boutiques, cafés and restaurants. Visit the highly ornate church of São Roque and the ruined Convento do Carmo and its archaeological museum.

Day 4: Queluz, Sintra. Drive to the royal palace and gardens at Queluz, built for the Infante Dom Pedro, a version of Versailles tempered by a Rococo elegance and a more intimate scale. Continue to the beautifully situated town of Sintra, the favoured summer residence of the kings of Portugal for six centuries, and much praised in poetry and prose. Visit the Palácio Nacional with its curious oast-house-like conical towers and remarkable 16th- and 17th-century azulejos. Lunch in the elegant 18th-century Palácio de Seteais, now a hotel. Visit the gardens of Quinta da Monserrate, laid out in 1856 for Sir Francis Cook, first Visconde de Monserrate, and his curious Mughal style mansion with restoration nearing completion.

Day 5: Benfica. Free morning for independent exploration. In the afternoon drive to Benfica and visit by arrangement the Palácio dos Marqueses de Fronteira. The tile work is excellent, particularly the Battle Room depicting the War of Independence against Spain 1640–1668. Drive back to the centre to visit the Medeiros e Almeida Foundation, an excellent and varied collection of decorative and fine arts, assembled by the Medeiros family in the 20th century and housed in the family home. Highlights include the French and Chinese collections, and an impressive British thunder box.

Day 6: Lisbon. The morning is spent at the Gulbenkian Museum, an outstanding private art collection given to the city of Lisbon and beautifully displayed in a modern building. Continue to the airport for the flight to Heathrow, arriving c. 6.45pm.

practicalities

Price: £1,970 (deposit £200). Superior room supplement £140 (two people sharing). Single supplement £280 (double room for single occupancy). Price without flights £1,800.


Accommodation. Hotel Avenida Palace, Lisbon (hotelavenidapalace.pt) a comfortable hotel of generous proportions with an air of faded grandeur and old-world charm. Adjacent to Rossio Square. Comparable to 4-star.

How strenuous? This is a short but busy itinerary with a lot of walking and standing around. Terrain is often uneven and steep and cobbled tiles can be slippery when wet.


Combine this tour with Gardens of Northern Portugal, 13–18 April (opposite) or Gastronomic Catalonia 13–18 April (page 195).

Lisbon, watercolour by Donald Maxwell, publ. 1932

Wellington in the Peninsula, 15–27 September 2015. See page 204.182

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Gardens of Northern PortugalPorto & the Minho valley

13–18 April 2015 (mb 288)6 days • £1,580Lecturer: Gerald Luckhurst

Historic gardens in the beautiful setting of the Minho and Douro Valleys.

Includes visits to gardens not normally open to the public.

The lecturer is Gerald Luckhurst, landscape architect and garden historian based in Lisbon.

Four nights in the delightful mediaeval town of Guimarães, one night in Porto.

The northern provinces of Portugal are lush and green with an intensely cultivated landscape of exceptional beauty. The mild Atlantic climate provides exceptional growing conditions for camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas which reach enormous proportions and afford impressive displays amidst the oak and chestnut woods that fill the valleys of the Minho and Douro. The countryside is made up of small farms and vegetable gardens with vines everywhere. Two of Portugal’s most famous wines are produced here: the light and spritely vinho verde is grown from vines trained on tall trellises, whilst the port wine is grown on mountain terraces.

This is an ancient landscape, inhabited since before the Bronze Age, and in the eleventh century the birthplace of Portugal. The cities of Braga, Guimarães and Ponte de Lima all have castles, city walls and elaborate churches. Their mediaeval centres are filled with narrow streets and immaculately cared for public gardens that are a joy to explore. There is a great civic pride in these towns and the people are exceptionally welcoming. The food is renowned throughout Portugal.

The country houses of the region had their origin as small fortified manors, known as solares, but as Portugal grew rich from overseas discoveries they were transformed into Baroque paços and quintas, their gardens filled with plants from Africa and Asia. At first the style of gardening was strongly influenced by Italy, but in the nineteenth century, with the exuberant growth of exotic vegetation brought back by adventurers from Brazil, a romantic atmosphere prevailed and the gardens were filled with naturalistic pools with winding paths, archaeological follies and model farms. In the twentieth century the elite of Porto looked to Paris for their inspiration and the Art Deco was taken as the model. The gardens of Serralves are a rare example of an intact Modernist layout impeccably conserved.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 11.50pm (TAP Portugal) from London Gatwick to Porto. Drive to Guimarães for the first of four nights.

Day 2: Vila Real, Celorico de Basto. The Palácio de Mateus at Vila Real, designed by the painter-architect Nicolau Nasoni and made familiar by the rosé wine label, is a fine 18th-century manor

house, well furnished and with gardens including a box tree avenue and impressive broderie parterre. Continue in the afternoon to Casa do Campo, not open to the general public, with impressive 19th-century camellia topiary.

Day 3: Guimarães, Ponte de Lima. Morning visits in Guimarães. The imposing castle was originally constructed in the 10th century to defend the town from the Moors and Vikings, while the Burgundian ducal palace houses an extensive collection of portraits, tapestries and porcelain. In the afternoon drive north to the 17th-cent. Paço de Calheiros, whose 19th-cent. garden has spectacular views of the Lima valley.

Day 4: Braga. Drive north to Braga, Portugal’s religious centre with a magisterial archbishop’s palace. Climb the lavishly Baroque penitential staircase of Bom Jesus do Monte (c. 600 steps), adorned with religious figures and surrounded by camellia and box topiary. The 18th-cent. gardens of the Casa dos Biscainhos are decorated with granite, rococo-style statues and fountains and elaborate parterres inspired by Arabic design. There is time also to see the principally Romanesque cathedral with two splendid Baroque organs.

Day 5: Penafiel, Porto. Drive to the Quinta da Aveleda, home to the largest producer of vinho verde in Portugal, whose woodland gardens are famous for their follies, camellias and azaleas. Lunch here overlooking the vineyards. Continue to Porto where the 19th-cent. romantic gardens of the Quinta de Vilar d’Allen are home to a rare collection of plants and trees imported from all continents. Overnight in Porto.

Day 6: Porto. Morning walk in Porto’s old town, dense with historic architecture. The cathedral is

basically 13th-century with later embellishments, many by Nasoni. The Clerigos Church with its wonderful Baroque tower is also by Nasoni, the church of the Misericordia has good Flemish paintings and São Francisco has an amazingly rich carved and gilded interior. In great contrast, Jacques Gréber’s modernist garden at the Fundação de Serralves compliments the clean lines of the pink Art Deco house, built in 1935, and features a water staircase. Elsewhere are an iris garden, a wisteria pergola and remains of the pre-existing 19th-cent. garden. Fly from Porto, returning to Gatwick at c. 9.30pm.

practicalities

Price: £1,580 (deposit £150). Single supplement £180 (double room for single occupancy). Price without flights: £1,420.


Accommodation. Hotel da Oliveira, Guimarães (hoteldaoliveira.com): boutique hotel in the historic centre of Guimarães. Contemporary décor and has a good restaurant. Pousada do Porto Palacio do Freixo (pousadas.pt): 4-star hotel. Public areas are located in the 18th-cent. palace, while rooms are in a modern extension.

How strenuous? A lot of walking and standing. Paths in gardens are often uneven. Coach access to gardens and small towns is difficult. The ascent of Bom Jesus do Monte has c. 600 steps; we walk up and take a funicular back down. There is daily coach travel; average distance per day 55 miles.


Combine this tour with Lisbon Neighbourhoods, 20–25 April (page 182) or Gardens & Villas of Campagna Romana 20–25 (page 146).

Porto, aquatint c. 1830

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The DouroFrom Porto to Pinhão

The Douro, lithograph 1813

6–13 May 2015 (mb 311)8 days • £2,240Lecturer: Adam Hopkins

One of the most remote and picturesque corners of Europe.

Variety of visits including major museums, mediaeval and Baroque architecture, gardens, Paleolithic art and wine tastings at private estates.

Journeys of immense beauty by rail and boat.

At the river mouth, the vigorous, grandly-sited city of Porto.

Led by Adam Hopkins, journalist and author, specialist in Spanish and Portuguese history and culture.

One of our more leisurely tours.

The upper reaches of the Douro in Portugal present a landscape of extraordinary beauty and tranquillity. The banks rise steeply into the surrounding hills which are clothed with terraced vineyards, patches of woodland, little villages and quintas. Until recently one of the remotest clefts in western Europe, the region remains remarkably unspoilt and difficult of access. It is best approached by train; a journey into mountains that begins at the mouth of the river in Porto (Oporto).

The capital of northern Portugal, Porto is synonymous with the port wine trade, which since time immemorial has been dominated by the British. Hence an architectural peculiarity of Porto: the serene Neo-Palladianism of buildings by John Carr of York and his imitators cheek-by-jowl with the highly wrought, startlingly pigmented and lavishly gilded Baroque style

of churches and public buildings. Baroque was virtually introduced by another foreigner, the Tuscan painter-architect Nicolau Nasoni who had a hand in the design of many churches and houses in the city and along the Douro.

Porto is also relatively unspoilt, retaining a jumble of historic architecture on its undulating even precipitous site, but it is also a city of parks and gardens and the occasional flash of ultra-modern architecture.

This is not a tour in pursuit of masterpieces, rather an exploration of delicious scenery and ancient townscapes in a most beautiful but often overlooked corner of Europe. The port wine industry is a subsidiary theme, along with the excellent red wines now produced here. The pace on this tour is slower than on many.

Itinerary

Day 1: Porto. Fly at c. 1.00pm (TAP Portugal)from London Gatwick to Porto. Introductory talk and time for a stroll along the river front before dinner. First of three nights in Porto.

Day 2: Porto. Porto is dense with historic architecture and falls steeply down to the River Douro. The principal monuments are set amidst the rise and fall of the upper part of the town, reached by steep alleys and steps. The cathedral is basically 13th-century with later embellishments, many by the painter-architect Nicolau Nasoni. The Clerigos Church with its wonderful Baroque tower is also by Nasoni, the church of the Misericordia has good Flemish paintings and São Francisco has an amazingly rich carved and gilded interior. Also see the magnificent decorative tiles, azulejos, in the railway station and visit the Factory House (by special arrangement), a club of British port wine traders founded in the 18th century. Overnight Porto.

Day 3: Porto. See the façade of the Hospital de São António designed by John Carr of York (1770). The Soares dos Reis was Portugal’s first national museum and has collections of Portuguese fine and decorative arts, and the nearby Museu Romântico in the Quinta da Macieirinha has 19th-cent. furnishings. Álvaro Siza’s elegantly minimalist Fundação de Serralves, set in an attractive park, houses contemporary art. Cross the Douro for a tasting at a port lodge and the scene of Wellington’s impulsive and brilliant 1809 river crossing which enabled him to finish Marshal Soult’s still-warm lunch.

Day 4: Porto, Douro Valley, Pinhão. Free morning in Porto. Early afternoon train journey up the Douro Valley which becomes increasingly rural, unspoilt and beautiful, with vineyards, patches of woodland and quintas clinging to the hills. Pinhão is a tiny town with a hotel in a former port lodge overlooking the Douro. First of four nights in Pinhão.

Day 5: São João de Tarouca, Lamego. At the village of São João de Tarouca, there are paintings by Grão Vasco (1506–42) and Gaspar Vaz (1490–1569) in the fine church beside which are the ruins of the first Cistercian abbey in Portugal (1169). Continue to the busy little town of Lamego, replete with Baroque mansions

and dominated by the pilgrimage church of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios atop a ceremonial stairway. The town museum in the former episcopal palace contains splendid tapestires and a series of panels by Grão Vasco. See also the cathedral, largely Renaissance behind a Romanesque belfry and with a Gothic west front.

Day 6: Vale do Côa. Up the Douro is the small almond-producing town of Vila Nova Foz Côa whose church has a Manueline doorway. Close to the border with Spain the River Côa valley holds one of the greatest archaeological finds of recent years, an extensive array of outdoor Paleolithic art, the largest in Europe. There are well-preserved engravings of auroch, horse, deer and goat along a long stretch of steeply slate-banked river. Visit one of the key sites by 4WD, then continue on foot. Return to Pinhão on the train beside the Douro.

Day 7: the Douro by train and boat. A leisurely day in the heart of the wine-making area. Travel by rail downstream to the Quinta do Vallado; visit and lunch here. Sail back to Pinhão on a private rabelo boat.

Day 8: Vila Real. The Palácio de Mateus at Vila Real, a Nasoni design made familiar by the rosé wine label, is a fine 18th-century manor house, well furnished and with gardens including a box tree avenue. Continue to Porto airport for the flight to London Gatwick, arriving c. 7.45pm.

practicalities

Price: £2,240 (deposit £250). Suite supplement £270 (room rate for 2 people sharing, suite available in Évora only). Single supplement £320. Price without flights £2,090.


Accommodation. Hotel Carrís Porto Ribeira (hotelcarrisportoribeira.com): an excellently situated 4-star hotel in the historic centre, on the right bank of the river Douro. Hotel Vintage House, Pinhão (cshotelsandresorts.com): a delightful hotel surrounded by vineyards and with gardens and terrace overlooking the river.

How strenuous? Visits in Porto are on foot and uphill (via some flights of steps). The archaeological park requires sure-footedness. Travel is by coach, train and boat. Average distance by coach per day: 37 miles.


Combine this tour with Central Macedonia, 17–24 May (page 101).

“I liked the central position of the hotel in Porto, with views of the river, and even more the garden setting of the Vintage House Hotel in Pinhão.”

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St PetersburgPictures & palaces

7–13 May 2015 (mb 307)7 days • £3,340Lecturer: Dr Alexey Makhrov

10–16 September 2015 (mc 438)7 days • £3,340Lecturer: Dr Alexey Makhrov

St Petersburg is perhaps the grandest city in Europe, and one of the most beautiful.

Magnificent architecture of the 18th and 19th centuries, especially the palaces of the Romanovs, nobility and merchants.

Outstanding art collections, the Hermitage being the largest art museum in the world.

Led by Dr Alexey Makhrov, a Russian Art Historian and graduate of the St Petersburg Academy of Arts.

Founded by Peter the Great in 1703, the city of St Petersburg was intended to demonstrate to the world not only that Russia was a European rather than an Asian nation, but also that it was an immensely powerful one. This ‘window on the West’ became the capital of the Russian Empire until the government moved back to Moscow in 1918.

Peter’s wish was amply fulfilled: with the assistance of Dutch, Italian and French architects – Russians were to take over later in the century once they had mastered the mysteries of Western art and architecture – St Petersburg was laid out as the grandest city in Europe, with buildings on a monumental scale. The palaces of the imperial family and of the fabulously wealthy magnates vied with each other, and with the military establishments and government institutions, to dominate the river front, the broad avenues and the vast squares.

Although one of the newest of Europe’s great cities, St Petersburg is the one least affected by 20th-century building. Despite the well-publicised economic and political troubles Russia has undergone in recent years, there has been a surge of cleaning and restoration which has accentuated the beauty of the city.

As impressive as the architecture of St Petersburg are the contents of the museums and art galleries. The Hermitage is one of the world’s greatest art museums, with an immensely rich collection of paintings, sculpture, antiquities and decorative arts filling the enormous Winter Palace of the Romanovs. The Russian Museum comes as a revelation to most visitors, for apart from icons (and there is a wonderful collection) the great achievements of Russian painters, particularly during the 19th century, are scarcely known outside the country.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 9.30am from London Heathrow to St Petersburg (British Airways; time in the air: c. 3 hours 15 minutes). There is time to settle into the hotel before dinner.

Day 2. Explore the north bank of the Neva and Vasilevskiy Island which, as the original intended

site of the city, has some of St Petersburg’s earliest buildings including the Twelve Colleges and the Peter-Paul Fortress. Visit the Menshikov Palace, an early 18th-century residence with impressive Petrine decoration. Drive via the Kazan Cathedral with colonnaded forecourt to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, an extensive Baroque layout and cemetery with graves of many famous Russians.

Day 3. Walk to the remarkable Neo-Classical buildings of the Synod, Senate and Admiralty. The first visit to the Hermitage, one of the world’s greatest art collections, housed in Rastrelli’s Winter Palace and contiguous buildings; walk around to understand the layout and to see the magnificent interiors. An afternoon by coach taking in the sumptuous Marble Palace (exterior), designed by Rinaldi in Baroque and Neo-Classical style and the wonderful group of Smolny Convent and Cathedral, also by Rastrelli.

Day 4. A full-day excursion to two of the summer palaces about 20 miles from St Petersburg, both set in extensive landscaped parks with lakes and pavilions. At Tsarskoye Selo, formerly Pushkin, the main building is the outsized Rococo Catherine Palace by Rastrelli, its richly ornamented interiors painstakingly restored after war damage. At Pavlovsk, also well restored, the graceful Neo-Classical Great Palace with encircling wings was in part built by Scotsman Charles Cameron.

Day 5. The Russian Museum, in the imposing Mikhailovsky Palace, has Russian painting from mediaeval icons to the vast canvases of the Romantics and Realists of the 19th century. An afternoon excursion to Peterhof (by hydrofoil, weather permitting), the magnificent palace on the Gulf of Finland with cascades and fountains.

Day 6. Drive through the city. The Baroque Cathedral of St Nicholas, with its gilded domes, is a memorial to Russian navy sailors who perished at sea. Visit the late 19th-century Yusupov Palace, one of the finest in the city and scene of Rasputin’s murder. A second visit to the Hermitage to concentrate on specific aspects of the collections and to pursue individual passions.

Day 7. Some free time for independent exploration: perhaps the Hermitage again, or places not yet visited such as the Dostoyevsky Museum, Academy of Arts, or Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood. Fly to Heathrow, arriving c. 6.30pm.

practicalities



Music: details of opera and ballet performances will be sent to participants about one month before the tour and tickets can be requested.

Visas: British citizens and most foreign nationals require a visa (included in the price of the tour). We will advise on the procedure.

Accommodation. Hotel Angleterre (angleterrehotel.com): an excellently located 5-star hotel in the city centre, within easy walking distance of the Hermitage.

How strenuous? A fair amount of standing in galleries and walking. Congested traffic means coach journeys can be long and frustrating. Average coach travel per day: 13 miles.


Entrance to The Hermitage, wood engraving c. 1880

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ArdgowanA country house weekend in the west of Scotland

18–23 June 2015 (mb 365)6 days • £2,740Lecturer: Caroline Knight

Stay as guests at Ardgowan, a grand 18th-century country house which remains a private home, not a hotel nor a museum.

Visit other country houses in the vicinity, some not generally open to the public, all by special arrangement or with privileged access.

Pass through the wonderful coastal and Lowland landscapes of western Scotland.

A country house party as much as a study tour, there is time for leisure around the house and garden of Ardgowan.


Led by architectural historian Caroline Knight.

The key feature of this tour is that the participants are not accommodated in a hotel. They are guests in a private home. A biggish home admittedly, an architecturally distinguished eighteenth-century country house with excellent pictures, exceptional furniture, and gardens which spread out to the coast overlooking the Firth of Clyde.

Some negatives. You will find no minibar in your room, no laundry service, no television, let alone air-conditioning. Rugs may reveal generations of use, the bathroom may be a few yards down the corridor, the shower may be Edwardian and there is no Reception desk (although staff are on hand).

If you are not put off so far, the compensations include bedrooms the size of an average sitting room laden with antiques and books, and the opportunity to roam at leisure through the hall, conservatory, drawing room, library and dining room, investigating the rich archive material. You are also free to wander in the adjoining gardens, woods and shoreline.

Ardgowan is a superb mansion of the 1790s designed by a follower of Robert Adam. For this very special tour it is the base for excursions to other country houses in the vicinity, at nearly all of which special arrangements will have been made exclusively for this group. In journeying between them, you pass through some heart-stoppingly lovely landscapes – lochs and sea,

lowland heath and mountains, rolling farmland and forests.

As much country house party as study tour, there is plenty of time at leisure at Ardgowan. The house is a textbook case of the challenges facing current owners of historic properties of the first rank. Our hosts are Sir Ludovic Shaw Stewart and the Hon. Mrs Christopher Chetwode. The latter is an art historian and a prominent figure in the field of historic buildings in Scotland. The lecturer, Caroline Knight, is her sister. She is an architectural historian and has a speciality in the country houses of Britain.

Itinerary

Day 1: Ardgowan. The coach leaves Glasgow Railway Station at 2.15pm and leaves Glasgow Airport at 3.00pm. Continue west to the coast of the Firth of Clyde and reach Ardgowan in time for afternoon tea. After settling in to your rooms, there is a tour of the house and gardens followed by some free time, drinks and dinner.

Day 2: Mount Stuart. Cross by ferry to the Isle of Bute. Magnificent in scale and in the lavishness of decoration and furnishing, Mount Stuart was built in the last two decades of the 19th century by one of the richest men in the world, the third Marquess of Bute. The picture collection is superb. Beautifully maintained by the current Marquess, the house is surrounded by extensive gardens and noble woods.

Day 3: Culzean, Dumfries House. A leisurely start allows time for independent exploration of Ardgowan. Drive to the clifftop Culzean Castle, Robert Adam’s boldest creation, with oval stair hall and round drawing room with views out to sea. Also by Adam, Dumfries House, famously saved for the nation with the help of the Prince of Wales in 2007, is a perfect Palladian composition which retains unspoilt interiors and a unique set of Chippendale furniture. We have an after-hours tour followed by dinner in the house.

Day 4: Ardgowan, Kelburn. A morning at Ardgowan, entirely free or with the option of an in-depth tour to study some aspects of the house. In the afternoon visit Kelburn Castle, property of the Earl of Glasgow and in the same family for 800 years. Part remains a defensible tower house, and there is a lovely set of rooms of c. 1700.

Day 5: Strachur, Inveraray. Take a ferry across the Firth of Clyde to the Cowal Peninsula and drive to Strachur House. The property of Sir Charles and Lady Maclean is a fascinating 18th-century mansion of middling size; its 20th-century history is entwined with the western Balkans. Inveraray Castle is the ancestral home of the Dukes of Argyll. Despite its four corner towers and Gothic windows, it is entirely 18th-century, and inside are some extraordinarily fine rooms and a very good art collection.

Day 6: Glasgow. Holmwood House was designed by Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson and was built in 1857–8 for James Couper, a local businessman. From here the coach takes you to Glasgow Railway Station by 12.30pm and to Glasgow Airport by 1.10 or 4.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £2,740 (deposit £250). There is no single supplement. Single rooms have single beds. Closer to departure, double rooms may be offered for single occupancy at a supplement of £150.


Accommodation. Ardgowan (ardgowan.co.uk ): it cannot be emphasised enough that Ardgowan is a private house, not a hotel – keys to bedrooms are not provided. Please read again the first two paragraphs of this tour description. Bedrooms vary in size, furnishings and facilities. While each room has its own bathroom, in some cases this is a few yards along a corridor. All have baths, some have showers over the bath as well. Towels, bathrobes and toiletries are provided. There is a lift to the first floor.

How strenuous? A fair amount of walking is unavoidable. Coaches can rarely park near the entrance to houses and grounds are often extensive. Most of the houses visited do not have lifts. However, the pace is relatively leisurely with more free time than is usual for a short tour. Average distance by coach per day: 56 miles.

Group size: 10 to 18 participants.

Combine this tour with Great Houses of the South West, 9–16 June (page 50).

Ardgowan, drawn and engraved by William Daniell, 1817

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Edinburgh FestivalAugust 2015Details available in March 2015Contact us to register your interest

SErbiA: see page 30 for The Western balkans, with depar tures in May and October 2015.

Walking to SantiagoOn foot for selected sections of the Pilgrims’ Way

2–13 June 2015 (mb 348)This tour is currently full



The last great pilgrimage route in Christendom which still attracts walkers; scenically wonderful with much fine architecture.

Selected sections from the Pyrenees through northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela.

Walking in comfort: good hotels; luggage transferred separately.

The lecturer is Adam Hopkins, journalist and author, specialist in Spanish history and culture.See pages 188–189 for the alternative, non-walking version of this tour.

Itinerary

Day 1: Biarritz to Roncesvalles. Leave from Biarritz Airport following the arrival of the flight from London Stansted (Ryanair, currently 2.45pm) (flights are not included). Drive to Roncesvalles for the night.

Day 2: Roncesvalles to Lintzoáin/Erro, total walk 14.7 km. Weather permitting, we start at the summit of the pass and drop down on foot to Roncesvalles, traditional starting point of the pilgrimage in Spain. It has a fine collegiate church preserving memories of Sancho the Strong of Navarre. From here, walk downward through rustic, gentle sub-Pyrenean landscape and stately stone-built villages. After a picnic lunch, drive to Haro. Overnight Haro.

Day 3: Nájera to Santo Domingo de la Calzada, total walk 21 km. Drive to Nájera, another burial place of the royal house of Navarre. Climb through red sandstone with vines in rocky corners, through varied irrigated crops and out into rolling wheat country with mountains lying north and south. Lunch is in a village café. Afternoon walkers continue to Santo Domingo de la Calzada where there is time to visit the cathedral. Overnight Sto Domingo.

Day 4: Villafranca Montes de Oca to Agés, total walk 15.8 km. Begin with an hour’s walk uphill

into mildly mountainous country, passing a disturbing monument to victims of Civil War assassination. Cross a plateau and continue through pine and oak forest to a beautiful valley enclosing the monastery of San Juan de Ortega (fine Gothic church). Picnic in the woods. Afternoon walkers continue to the village of Agés. Drive to Burgos for the first of two nights.

Day 5: Burgos, rest day. Rest, nurse feet and loiter in this Castilian city rich in memories of El Cid and mediaeval pilgrimage, Wellington and Franco. There is time to see the magnificent cathedral, the charterhouse of Miraflores (superb sculpture by Gil de Siloé), and the monastery of Las Huelgas (fine architecture and images relevant to the camino). Overnight Burgos.

Day 6: Castrojeriz to Boadilla del Camino, total walk 18.9 km. After an uphill start continuing over high ground, the walk then descends to a river and lush irrigated land. It then climbs again more gently and drops to the dovecote country of Boadilla where the plains of León begin. Picnic lunch here before driving to León with its fine Gothic cathedral and Spain’s finest stained glass. The Parador of S. Marcos, our hotel, is one of the major historic buildings of the pilgrim route. Overnight León.

Day 7: Puente de Orbigo to Astorga, total walk 16.4 km. About one hour into the walk, we make a modest ascent and suddenly the plains are over. Two or three small climbs through remote-feeling countryside and wheat fields ending in shady corners under small oaks. We picnic with views down to the cathedral of Astorga. Stalwarts continue the walk into town. Here, the bishop’s palace was designed by Gaudí and there is a charming town hall. Overnight Astorga.

Day 8: Astorga to Rabanal del Camino, total walk 20.6 km. Walk out through Astorga’s old town. An hour and a half brings us to well-preserved Castrillo de Polvazares, former centre of the interesting Maragatos tribe, obscure in its origins but throughout history Northern Spain’s muleteers. A mix of path and lane leads slowly upwards with views opening into the Mountains of León. After a picnic lunch continue walking to Rabanal del Camino. Drive from here to Villafranca del Bierzo for the night.

Day 9: Triacastela to Sarriá, total walk 18.5 km. Drive to Triacastela via O Cebreiro, first port of call in Galicia for pilgrims, with Celtic buildings and ancient church. The walk starts low and climbs through Galician-green valley and into country of tiny hamlets where cows chew the cud in dark mediaeval sheds. Sunken tracks, ferns and ivy abound and there is later a fine upland feel. After a picnic lunch we begin a slow descent to Sarriá. Overnight Sarriá.

Day 10. Phase 1: Sarriá to Ferreiros. Phase 2: Monte del Gozo to Santiago de Compostela. Total walk 18.2 km. Walk 13.2 km from Sarriá to Ferreiros and take a picnic lunch before driving on to Monte del Gozo. Here pilgrims once fell to their knees at the first view of the cathedral spires of Santiago (harder to see now through eucalyptus). Walk a further 5 km through suburbs into increasingly ancient city centre and

right into the Parador, another important and beautiful historic building. First of two nights in Santiago de Compostela.

Day 11: Santiago. The cathedral is a Romanesque masterpiece with a magnificent carved portal. Guided tour of the cathedral roof and those who wish may attend Pilgrim’s mass at midday. The rest of the day is free.

Day 12. Drive to Santiago Airport in time for the flight to London Gatwick (Easyjet, currently departing at 11.40am).


Price: £3,370 (deposit £300). Single supplement £340 (double room for single occupancy). Flights are not included in the tour price.

Accommodation. Hotel Roncesvalles (hotelroncesvalles.com). Hotel Los Agustinos, Haro (hotellosagustinos.com). Parador de Sto Domingo la Calzada (parador.es). NH Palacio de la Merced, Burgos (nh-hotels.com). Parador de León (parador.es). Hotel Spa Ciudad de Astorga (hotelciudaddeastorga.com). Parador de Villafranca del Bierzo (parador.es). Hotel Carrís Alfonso IX, Sarriá (carrishoteles.com). Parador de Santiago de Compostela (parador.es).

How strenuous? We cover up to 82 miles of the full 500-mile route with an average of 10–12 miles of walking per day. Fitness is essential.


Santiago Cathedral, after a drawing by Muirhead bone 1938

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The road to SantiagoThe pilgrimage route through Northern Spain

28 August–9 September 2015 (mb 424)13 days • £3,510Lecturer: John McNeill

One of the great historic journeys of the world.

Includes all the major sites and deviates to many lesser-known ones.

An architectural pilgrimage by coach – not a spiritual one on foot – for lovers of Romanesque and Gothic.

Led by architectural historian John McNeill.

‘By land it is the greatest journey an Englishman may go.’ So wrote Andrew Boorde, physician and former bishop of Chichester in his 1542 First Book of the Introduction of Knowledge. The road to Santiago has rarely been without plaudits, from Godescalc, bishop of Le Puy in 950, to Paula Gerson, scholar and sceptic in 1993.

What was claimed to be the tomb of St James was discovered in 813 in the wilds of Galicia and soon began to attract pilgrims. Roads and bridges were built along the approaches which soon coalesced into a standard route. Hospices and monasteries were founded and secondary shrines became established. Variously described as the Camino Francés, the Milky Way and the Road Beneath the Stars, the route exerted a pull which was pre-Christian, but the discovery of an Apostolic tomb and the renewal of the infrastructure conspired to make Santiago the most celebrated of all mediaeval journeys – a byword for Chaucer’s pilgrims, a destination to vie with Jerusalem and Rome.

The funds poured into such an enterprise were immense, resulting in an incomparable range of mediaeval – particularly Romanesque – and Renaissance monuments. With cathedrals such as Burgos, León and Santiago, monasteries of the calibre of San Millán de la Cogolla, Silos and Leyre, the paintings of Jaca and Miraflores, the metalwork of San Isidoro, the textiles of Las Huelgas, the road to Santiago does not want for masterpieces.

But equally impressive is the landscape, a memorial backdrop through which all must pass – the limestone cliffs and tumbling watercourses of Aragón and Navarra, the forests of chestnut, oak and acacia of the Rioja, the vast wheat fields of Castile and the green, slate-divided fields of Galicia.

We have two itineraries in 2015: The Road to Santiago – travelling by coach – and Walking to

Santiago. They are markedly different in focus; the former is very much an architectural tour, and the latter a walking tour. But both are journeys in which you are conscious always of participating in a thousand-year-old flow of humankind which constitutes one of the most powerfully felt shared experiences in the spiritual and aesthetic history of Europe.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 5.30pm (Vueling) from London Heathrow to Bilbao. Drive to Argómaniz (80 km), arriving at c.10.00pm. Overnight Argómaniz.

Day 2: Pamplona, Roncesvalles. The day is spent in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Reflecting its proximity to France, Pamplona cathedral has a cloister which constitutes perhaps the finest achievement of High Gothic

in Spain. Roncesvalles Pass was scene of the famed rearguard action of Charlemagne’s paladin Roland, and has a renowned pilgrims’ church and hospice. Drive through the spectacular gorge of the Urrobi river. First of two nights in Sos del Rey Católico.

Day 3: Sos del Rey Católico, Sangüesa, Leyre, Jaca. At Sos, the church of San Esteban has a frescoed apse. Sta María la Real in the little town of Sangüesa has superb architectural sculpture, including some by a craftsman from Burgundy. The monastery of San Salvador de Leyre maintains Gregorian offices in a fascinating church with a good crypt and western portal. Jaca, below the Somport pass, has a Romanesque cathedral with a magnificent collection of mediaeval wall paintings. Overnight Sos del Rey Católico.

Santiago Cathedral, Porta de la Gloria, wood engraving c. 1890

“We could not have done this journey independently as we were taken to many small interesting sites off the beaten track.”

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Day 4: Eunate, Puente la Reina. At Eunate a mysterious round chapel with encircling arcade, rising from the midst of a cornfield. Puente la Reina is the point where pilgrim roads from France converged, and is equipped with hospices, churches and an amazing bridge. Overnight Sto Domingo de la Calzada.

Day 5: Nájera, Sto Domingo de la Calzada, Burgos. See the Royal tombs at Santa María la Real in Nájera. Sto Domingo cathedral has Renaissance and Baroque accretions, and a cockerel still crows over the shrine of the saint. Arrive at Burgos, which grew up at the foot of the fortress of the Kings of Castile. The magnificent cathedral is crowned by a multitude of pinnacles and open-work spires and combines French and German styles; remarkable vaults, 16th-cent. choir stalls and a wealth of sculpture. Two nights in Burgos.

Day 6: Burgos, Quintanilla de las Viñas, Sto Domingo de Silos. Free morning in Burgos. In the afternoon drive to the Visigothic chapel at Quintanilla de las Viñas. Sto Domingo de Silos is the largest and finest Romanesque monastery in Spain, and has an epoch-making 12th-cent. cloister with magnificent sculpture. Overnight Burgos.

Day 7: Burgos, San Miguel de la Escalada. The Carthusian monastery and royal mausoleum of Miraflores has superb 15th-cent. sculpture by Gil de Siloé. Just outside Burgos is the Early Gothic convent of Las Huelgas Reales, a place of royal burial. Pressing westwards, we stop at San Miguel de la Escalada, an elegant Mozarabic gem. First of two nights in León.

Day 8: León. Former capital of the ancient kingdom of León, the city has many outstanding mediaeval buildings. The royal pantheon of San Isidoro is one of the first, and finest, Romanesque buildings in Spain, with important sculptures. The cathedral is truly superb: Rayonnant Gothic, with impressive stained glass. The monastery of San Marcos (our hotel) has a splendidly exuberant Plateresque façade. Overnight León.

Day 9: Lena, Orbigo, Villafranca del Bierzo. Drive through the Puerto de Pájares (mountain pass) to Sta Cristina de Lena, an exquisite 9th-cent. church. Return to the camino via the valley of the Luna. Puente de Orbigo is a 13th-cent. bridge which carried pilgrims over the River Orbigo. Villafranca del Bierzo was an ancient haunt of hermits and anchorites and subsequently studded with churches and hospices. Overnight Villafranca del Bierzo.

Day 10: Villafranca to Santiago. Three churches punctuate the final stretch of the journey: O Cebreiro, site of a great Eucharistic miracle, Portomarín, a Templar foundation guarding the bridge over the Miño and Vilar de Donas, decayed and evocative knights’ church. Finally: Santiago de Compostela, goal of the pilgrimage. Three nights in Santiago.

Day 11: Santiago de Compostela. The morning is dedicated to the great pilgrimage church, the shrine of St James, one of the most impressive of all Romanesque churches; also outstanding

John McNeillArchitectural historian and a specialist in the Middle Ages and renaissance. He lectures at Oxford University’s Department of Continuing Education and is Honorary

Secretary of the british Archaeological Association. Publications include the Blue Guide: Normandy, Blue Guide: Loire Valley and Romanesque & the Past.

John McNeill also leads West Country Churches (page 52), Mediaeval Burgundy (page 76), The Po Valley (page 129), Normans in the South (page 151) and Sicily (page 155).All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

treasuries. Explore the university quarter and the narrow picturesque streets and visit Sta María del Sar, where walls splayed and buttressed support a charming Romanesque church against its cloister. Overnight Santiago.

Day 12: Santiago de Compostela. Free day.

Day 13: Santiago de Compostela. Drive around midday to La Coruña. The flight arrives in London Heathrow at c. 4.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Parador de Argómaniz (parador.es): 4-star with simple rooms. Parador de Sos del Rey Católico (parador.es): 4-star parador with views of surrounding countryside. Parador de Sto Domingo de la Calzada (parador.es): 4-star parador in the heart of town. NH Palacio de la Merced, Burgos (nh-hoteles.com): 4-star hotel in the centre of town. Parador de León (parador.es): 5-star parador in grandiose Plateresque pilgrim hostel. Parador de Villafranca del Bierzo (parador.es): 4-star parador in a contemporary building. Parador de Santiago de Compostela (parador.es): 5-star parador, for centuries the abode of the grander pilgrims.

How strenuous? We stress that this is a long tour with a lot of coach travel, seven hotels and a lot of walking, often on uneven ground. The tour would not be suitable for anyone who has difficulties with everyday walking and stairclimbing. Average distance by coach per day: 85 miles.


Combine this tour with St Petersburg, 10–16 September (page 185) or In Churchill’s Footsteps, 10–14 September (page 61).

burgos, engraving c. 1880 by rev’d Samuel M

anning in Spanish Pictures

Cloister of Santiago Cathedral, engraving 1894

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bilbao to bayonneFood, art & architecture in the basque lands

7–14 September 2015 (mc 427)8 days • £3,110Lecturer: Gijs van Hensbergen

Long, lazy lunches including two in restaurants with three Michelin stars.

Excellent wines of La Rioja-Alavesa.

Architecture by Gehry, Calatrava, Moneo, and varied landscapes of coast, plain and mountain.

Led by Gijs van Hensbergen, art historian and author of books on Spanish art and food.

Three bases: Bilbao, Laguardia and Vera de Bidasoa in the Spanish Pyrenees.

Straddling the Pyrenees and divided between France and Spain, the Basque Country has wonderful and varied scenery, a magnificent range of art and architecture and a culinary tradition which ranks with the best in the world. It is a land of abundance in many things, though there is one striking exception: tourists are in short supply.

The landscape reaches from the Atlantic coast, indented with natural harbours and the fishing communities from which the wealth of the region has derived since ancient times, to the hills and mountains majestically clothed with broadleaf forests. Both the highlands and the fertile rolling lowlands provide the raw ingredients which supplement the seafood and inspire gastronomic greatness.

The best of Basque cooking mixes a strong sense of tradition with startling innovation. From the all-male dining clubs, where friends cook for each other, to the indoor markets spilling over

with smoked idiazabal cheeses and gleaming fresh fish, from the rustic cider clubs to the chic new bars vying for the ‘tapas of the year’ prize, Basques remain obsessed with the quality and provenance of their food.

Juan-Marie Arzak is the most famous restaurateur in Spain. As godfather to New Basque Cuisine, he has inspired an entire generation of chefs including Martín Berasategui, Pedro Subijana and Hilario Arbelaitz. Together they share no fewer than ten Michelin stars. Today Juan-Marie cooks alongside his daughter, Elena, voted best Female Chef in the World in 2012, and their restaurant ranks in the world’s top ten.

From Bilbao we drive a loop through the Rioja Alavesa, the northern rim of the most prestigious wine-making area in Spain and up to the Pyrenees. Between visits to restaurants, wineries and specialist food shops, we linger in mediaeval villages, Gothic churches and Baroque interiors. There is here some fine contemporary architecture by Gehry, Calatrava and Moneo. San Sebastian has a swathe of flamboyant turn-of-the-century buildings while nestling in the upland valleys and clamped to hillsides is a doughty vernacular of remarkable distinctiveness and beauty.

Itinerary

Day 1: Bilbao. Fly at c. 6.50pm (Vueling Airlines) from London Heathrow to Bilbao, Calatrava’s spectacular airport. Overnight Bilbao.

Day 2: Bilbao, Laguardia. The morning is spent studying Gehry’s extraordinary titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum. Lunch is at the

restaurant here run by innovative chef Josean Alija who learned his trade at El Bulli. Leave city and industry behind and drive south through increasingly attractive countryside to the undulating plains of the wine-growing region of La Rioja-Alavesa and the mediaeval village of Laguardia. Introductory tasting in the hotel cellar. First of two nights in Laguardia.

Day 3: Marqués de Riscal, Granja de Remelluri, Laguardia. The bodegas of Marqués de Riscal are among the most venerable in the region. The visit includes tasting and the cellars of their Gehry-designed hotel (subject to confirmation). Lunch and vineyard walk at the bodegas of Nuestra Señora de Remelluri, installed in 14th-century monastic buildings in countryside. Laguardia is the most picturesque of Riojan villages, perched on a hillock within a circuit of fortified walls. Walk the ramparts and see the outstanding 14th-century portal of Sta Maria de los Reyes.

Day 4: Laguardia, Ordizia, Lasarte, Vera de Bidasoa. The Ysios winery below Laguardia is a magnificent building by Calatrava. Tasting of idiazabal in Ordizia, a mediaeval town and the cheese capital of the Basque Country. Lunch at Martín Berasategui’s 3 Michelin-star restaurant in Lasarte-Oria. Vera de Bidasoa nestles in the Pyrenean foothills close to the French border. First of four nights in Vera.

Day 5: France: Ainhoa, Espelette, Bayonne. Cross into the French Pyrenees to the spick and span villages of Ainhoa and Espelette with their red and white timbered houses sporting clusters of red peppers, a local speciality. Sample ewe’s milk cheese with cherry compote. Encircled by formidable Vauban ramparts and straddling the River Nive, Bayonne is a colourful town with Gothic cathedral, arcaded streets, riverside markets and famed for fish, ham and chocolate.

Day 6: San Sebastian. This is the gastronomic capital of Spain, sweeping elegantly around one of the finest beaches on the northern coast. Behind the ancient fisherman’s quarter is the compact grid of the old town with a wonderfully harmonious arcaded square at the centre and traffic-free streets lined with bars. A tapas trawl is followed by lunch in a private dining club, a rare privilege (and subject to confirmation). Some free time to see the elaborate historicist architecture of the 19th-century extension and Moneo’s arts centre.

Day 7: Hondarribia, San Sebastian. Hondarribia is a superbly preserved fortified town on an outcrop overlooking the sea with narrow streets, balconied palaces, a 14th-century castle and a

“Our lecturer was absolutely outstanding – such a wide range of knowledge – a joy to be with! Of my many MR trips – this was one of the very best.”

San Sebastian, wood engraving c. 1860

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Gothic church. Return to San Sebastian for lunch at the most famous restaurant in Spain, Arzak. Despite its 3 Michelin stars and status as the 8th best restaurant in the world, it remains very much a family business.

Day 8. Drive to Bilbao for the flight to London, arriving Heathrow at c. 6.15pm.

Practicalities

Price: £3,110 (deposit £300). Single supplement £230 (double room for single occupancy). Suite supplement in Vera £100 (for two people sharing). Price without flights £2,940.

Included meals: 6 lunches and 4 dinners (3 are light) with wine.

Accommodation. Silken Gran Domine, Bilbao (hoteles-silken.com): 5-star hotel opposite the Guggenheim; contemporary in style. Hotel Villa de Laguardia (hotelvilladelaguardia.com): 4-star hotel on the outskirts of the town with comfortable rooms and attractive public areas. Hotel Churrut, Vera de Bidasoa (hotelchurrut.com): 3-star hotel in an 18th-century military building; family owned with 17 spacious and well decorated rooms and comfortable sitting areas.

How strenuous? Evening meals tend to begin at 9.00pm and some late nights are inevitable. There is a fair amount of walking on this tour, some of it uphill or on roughly paved streets. Although distances travelled are not vast, there is the need to use a coach every day of the tour. Average distance by coach per day: 60 miles.


Combine this tour with Art in Madrid, 16–20 September (page 193).

Gijs van HensbergenArt historian and author specialising in Spain and the USA. His books include Gaudí, In the Kitchens of Castile and Guernica. He studied Art History at the Courtauld and

is a Fellow of the Cañada blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies at the LSE. Gijs van Hensbergen also leads Gastronomic Catalonia (page 195), Barcelona 1900, (page 197), Gastonomic Andalucía (page 203), East Coast Galleries (page 213) and Art in Texas (page 216).All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

Segovia, La Granja de San ildefonso, watercolour by Mima Nixon, publ. 1916

Castile & LeónAncient kingdoms in the heart of Spain

19–28 October 2015 (mc 500)10 days • £2,630Lecturer: Gijs van Hensbergen

Led by Gijs van Hensbergen, art historian and author specialising in Spain.

Spain’s most beautiful cities: Salamanca, Segovia and Ávila.

Architectural magnificence throughout including the cathedrals of Burgos and León. Much fine sculpture as well.

Walled villages, grand monasteries, hilltop castles and a backdrop of vast, undulating landscape.

Includes the 16th-century Palace of El Escorial.

Good food: suckling pig, slow-roast lamb and kid; good wine of the Ribera de Duero.

Since their fusion under one crown in the eleventh century, the ancient kingdoms of Castile and León have been responsible for some of the most emblematic periods of Spanish history. These former rival territories established themselves as the heart of Spain and exerted great influence over language, religion and culture far across the mediaeval map. Innumerable castles were built here (hence ‘Castile’) for this was the principal battleground of the Reconquista, the five-hundred-year war of attrition against the Moors which reclaimed Spain for Christendom.

The region occupies much of the Meseta, the vast and austere plateau in the centre of the Iberian peninsula. Here are many of Spain’s finest cities, buildings and works of art. Lovers of Romanesque will feel particularly satisfied for there are many excellent examples of the style. Great Gothic churches are another magnificent feature, the cathedrals at León, Burgos, Segovia

and Salamanca among them. French, German and English influences are to be found, though the end result is always unmistakably Spanish.

Another striking aspect of the tour is the wealth of brilliant sculpture, especially of the late-mediaeval and Renaissance periods. Castles, of course, abound, and some of the defensive curtain of frontier cities such as Ávila are remarkably well preserved.

As well as the prominent cities, we include a number of lesser-known places, all strikingly attractive, many with outstanding buildings or works of art, all barely visited by tourists.

Itinerary

Day 1: Ávila, Salamanca. Fly at c. 09.10am from London Heathrow to Madrid. Drive to Ávila: a fortress town built during the Reconquista, it retains its entire circuit of 11th-century walls complete with battlements and 88 turrets. The 12th-century Basilica of San Vicente has fine sculpture. First of two nights in Salamanca.

Day 2: Salamanca. Distinguished by the honey-coloured hue of its stone, Salamanca is one of the most attractive cities in Spain and home to its most prestigious university. See the magnificent 16th-century Gothic ‘New Cathedral’ and austere Romanesque ‘Old Cathedral’, the 18th-century Plaza Mayor and superb, elaborate Plateresque sculpture on the façades of the university and church of San Esteban. The University has 15th- and 16th-century quadrangles, arcaded courtyards and original lecture halls. The Convento de las Dueñas has a Plateresque portal and an irregular, two-tiered cloister.

Day 3: Zamora, León. On the Roman road that connected Astorga to Mérida, Zamora rose to importance during the Reconquista as a bastion on the Duero front. Much of its Romanesque

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architecture survives, including the cathedral of Byzantine influence. Drive to León, former capital of the ancient kingdom and visit the monastery of San Marcos (our hotel) with an exuberant Plateresque façade, magnificent late-Gothic church, Renaissance chapels and fine choir-stalls. First of two nights in León.

Day 4: León. A morning walk to some of the outstanding mediaeval buildings of the city. The royal pantheon of San Isidoro is one of the first, and finest, Romanesque buildings in Spain, with important sculptures. The cathedral is truly superb Rayonnant Gothic with impressive stained glass. The afternoon is free to visit the archaeological or contemporary art museums.

Day 5: San Miguel de Escalada, Lerma, Santo Domingo de Silos. The beautiful, remote church at San Miguel de Escalada displays a fusion of Visigothic and Islamic building traditions. The village of Lerma has a wealth of buildings from the early 17th century including an arcaded main square with ducal palace and the Collegiate church of San Pedro. Drive in the late afternoon to Santo Domingo de Silos, which has the finest Romanesque monastery in Spain, outstanding for the sculpture of the 12th-century cloister. First of two nights in Lerma.

Day 6: Burgos, Quintanilla de las Viñas, Covarrubias. Drive to Burgos, the early capital of Castile, whose cathedral combines French and German Gothic styles and has remarkable vaults and 16th-century choir stalls. On the outskirts is the convent of Las Huelgas Reales with its important early Gothic church. Visit the Visigothic chapel at Quintanilla de las Viñas.

Covarrubias is an attractive walled village with a mediaeval Colegiata containing fine tombs.

Day 7: El Burgo de Osma, San Esteban de Gormaz, Segovia. El Burgo de Osma is a walled town with arcaded streets and one of the finest Gothic cathedrals in Spain. At San Esteban de Gormaz see the 12th-century churches of San Miguel and Del Rivero with exterior galleries. Built on a steep-sided hill, Segovia is one of the loveliest cities in Spain and architecturally one of the most richly endowed. First of three nights in Segovia.

Day 8: Segovia. Straddling the town, the remarkable Roman aqueduct is one of the biggest in Europe. See the outstanding Romanesque exteriors of San Martín, San Millán and San Esteban and the circular Templar church of La Vera Cruz. An afternoon walk includes the cathedral, a soaring Gothic structure, and the restored Alcázar (castle), dramatically perched at the prow of the hill.

Day 9: Segovia, La Granja. Free morning; suggestions include the contemporary art museum of Esteban Vicente and the Museum of Segovia. Drive to La Granja de San Ildefonso, the palace constructed for Philip V in the early 18th century, with magnificent formal gardens.

Day 10: El Escorial. This vast retreat-cum-palace-cum-monastery-cum-pantheon was built from 1563 to 1584 for Philip II, successfully embodying his instructions for ‘nobility without arrogance, majesty without ostentation, severity in the whole’. Fly from Madrid, arriving at London Heathrow at c. 5.20pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. NH Palacio de Castellanos, Salamanca (nh-hotels.com): an attractive 4-star hotel in a converted palace, close to the Cathedrals and other key sites. Parador de León (parador.es): 5-star Parador in grandiose Plateresque building; public areas are impressive. Parador de Lerma (parador.es): 4-star Parador in the Ducal Palace. Palacio San Facundo, Segovia (hotelpalaciosanfacundo.com): a centrally located 4-star hotel in a converted 16th cent. casa-palacio. Rooms vary in size but all are well-equipped.

How strenuous? This is a long tour with a lot of walking in town centres, some of it on cobbled streets and uphill. It should not be undertaken by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stairclimbing. Average distance by coach per day: 73 miles. Dinners tend to be at 8.30 or 9.00pm in Spain, so you might get to bed later than you would usually.


Combine this tour with Pompeii & Herculaneum, 12–17 October (page 150) or The Western Balkans, 5–18 October (page 30).

Castile & Leóncontinued

Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos, lithograph c. 1840

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Art in MadridThe Great Galleries

27–31 May 2015 (mb 343)5 days • £1,720Lecturer: Dr Xavier Bray

16–20 September 2015 (mc 449)5 days • £1,720Lecturer: Gail Turner

Two visits to the Prado plus the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection and the Reina Sofía, home to Picasso’s Guernica.

Lesser-known places include the Sorolla Museum, Archaeological Museum and Goya frescoes at San Antonio de la Florida.

The lecturers Gail Turner and Dr Xavier Bray are art historians specialising in Spain.

While the Museo del Prado alone might justify a visit to Madrid – and this tour has two sessions there – the city has other excellent collections which reinforce its reputation as one of the great art centres of Europe.

This city of Velázquez and Goya has been enormously enhanced over the years by the installation of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection and the Reina Sofía Museum. Both these and the Prado have undergone major extension work under architects Jean Nouvel (Reina Sofía), Manuel Baquero and Francesc Plá (Thyssen) and Rafael Moneo (Prado). New exhibiting spaces, restaurants and lecture theatres lend even greater lustre to these world-class galleries. Our stints at the ‘big three’ are interspersed with less-visited collections, many of them recently restored.

The great Spanish painters – including El Greco, Murillo, Velázquez, Goya and Picasso – are of course magnificently represented on the tour, but the collecting mania of the Habsburgs and Bourbons and their subjects has resulted in a wide range of artistic riches which will surprise and delight. There is a large number of outstanding paintings by Titian and Rubens, for example, and the Prado has by far the largest holding of the bizarre creations of Hieronymus Bosch.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 9.15am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Madrid. Start with a first visit to the Prado Museum, which is among the world’s greatest art galleries; concentrating on the Spanish school.

Day 2. Morning visits include the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, home to works by Goya, Zurbarán, Ribera and Murillo, and the Museum of Decorative Arts, with an 18th-century tiled Valencian kitchen. The afternoon is spent at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, housed in the 18th-century Palacio de Villahermosa until its purchase by the Spanish state in 1993 one of the world’s largest private art collections.

Day 3. Begin at the recently renovated Archaeological Museum, good on ancient Iberian civilization and Roman Spain. Continue to the Lázaro Galdiano Museum with works by

El Greco, Goya and Murillo. The afternoon is free to allow for temporary exhibitions (details nearer the time) or a visit to the 18th-century Royal Palace.

Day 4. Travel by coach to the Sorolla Museum, in the charming house of the eponymous Impressionist painter. Continue to the arcaded, balconied Plaza Mayor, centrepiece of Habsburg town planning. In the afternoon return to the Prado, this time primarily to see the Italian and Netherlandish schools.

Day 5. Walk via Herzog & de Meuron’s Caixaforum (visit dependent on the exhibition at the time) to the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, one of the greatest modern art museums and home to Picasso’s Guernica plus works by Miró, Dalí and Tàpies. Fly to London Heathrow, arriving c. 6.00pm (Iberia).

Practicalities



Accommodation. NH Palacio de Tepa, Madrid (nh-hoteles.com): a small and excellently located 5-star hotel. Rooms are comfortable and décor is contemporary.


How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of walking and standing around in museums (which can be more tiring than moving around). Participants need to be able to cope with everyday walking and stair-climbing without difficulty.

Combine this tour with Bilbao to Bayonne, 7–14 September (page 190) or Granada & Córdoba, 21–28 September (page 202).

Madrid, San Francisco El Grande, 20th-century watercolour

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AragónHidden Spain: Teruel, Zaragoza, Jaca

29 September–7 October 2015 (mc 469)9 days • £2,470Lecturer: Adam Hopkins

One of the least-visited regions of Spain, and yet one of the richest in history, architecture and landscapes.

Adam Hopkins is a journalist and author, specialist in Spanish history and culture.

Stretches from Teruel to Jaca – in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

As diverse a tour as we offer with Paleolithic and Neolithic cave painting, Roman remains, Moorish palaces, Spain’s finest examples of Mudéjar architecture, Romanesque castles and churches.

Themes of military history: El Cid, Peninsular War, Civil War.

Visit Goya’s birthplace and see his Horrors of War.

You cannot know Spain unless you know Aragón, that former kingdom rich in fine landscape, history and architecture, including Arab works and the Arab-Christian style known as Mudéjar, here at its most extravagant and surprising.

It is the swiftly-flowing River Aragón, running down from the High Pyrenees, which gave its name to one of the most dynamic mini-kingdoms of early mediaeval Europe. Soon Aragón advanced to meet the Moorish occupiers of the Ebro basin and wrested Zaragoza (Roman Caesar Augusta) from them.

From there, it was on to smaller Teruel and the rugged sierras which flank it, to establish,

in the end, a shield-shaped territory. With Catalunya, Aragón came to rule Sicily, southern Italy and most of Greece, truly a power in the Mediterranean. Later, in the fifteenth century, it became a partner for Castile in forging the identity for what we know today as Spain. But since then it has been side-lined in the political structure, enabling it, through misfortune, to retain and still convey a sense of its early origins.

The landscape is as dramatic as the history. The peaks and summer pastures of the highest Pyrenees fall almost entirely within Aragón. Dropping south, the Ebro valley is like a winding oasis between deeply eroded, dry clay banks. South again lies steppe country, sometimes desert-like, turning finally to a territory of cliff and gorge. Here Neolithic man left paintings in rock shelters.

The architectural legacy is outstanding. The early stonemasons and architects of Aragón, in tandem with French craftsmen on the Pilgrims’ Way to Santiago, produced some of the most charming Romanesque buildings in Spain, marked by particularly engaging stone carving. The castle of Loarre is arguably Spain’s finest Romanesque military construction. This is matched in beauty and surprise-value by the Arabesques and interlocking arches of the (Arab) Aljaferia Palace in Zaragoza. The intermingling and development of the two styles gives us Mudéjar, built by Moorish artisans and architects for Christian masters, full of fantasy, in brick and multiple ceramic decoration. The four Mudéjar towers of Teruel are among the wonders of Spain.

Military history gives us El Cid Campeador. Though touted as a Christian hero, he worked for years as a mercenary general for the Moorish

rulers of Zaragoza. During the Peninsular War – known in Spain as the War of Independence – Zaragoza endured two exceptionally bitter sieges. During the civil war of 1936–39, Belchite, close to Zaragoza, was furiously contested – and left in ruins as a warning for the future. The three-month battle for Teruel, fought in sub-zero temperatures from December 1937, was one of the most cruel of defeats for the Spanish Republic.

Add to all of this four different wine regions, each with its own denominación de origen; pottery still made in the Arabic tradition; intriguing country towns; and robust, big-city Zaragoza, studded with major monuments.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 9.15am (Iberia) from London Heathrow to Madrid. Drive to Teruel with a stop en route (c. 190 miles) arriving at the hotel at about 6.30pm. First of two nights in Teruel.

Day 2: Teruel, Albarracín. Albarracín is a gorge-ringed hill town founded by Arabs and long ruled by its Christian reconquerors as an independent enclave. The defensive wall high on the ‘landward’ side, mediaeval streets and narrow site make it one of the most remarkable spots in Aragón. Close by lies a tract of well-wooded country above red sandstone cliffs. Here Palaeolithic and Neolithic communities painted animals and humans in rock shelters. Here we walk to see some of the most revealing paintings, mostly in woods, but also visiting a magnificent cliff top with wide views. Back in Teruel, see the little city’s famous Mudéjar towers. The cathedral has a painted ceiling which gives an extraordinary insight into mediaeval life.

Day 3: Teruel, Daroca, Zaragoza. Spend the morning in Teruel and visit the mausoleum of the famous Lovers of Teruel who perished for love of one another, and the fine Provincial Museum housed in an Aragonese mansion. Drive north to Daroca, a well-preserved mediaeval town of great beauty and curiosity. Continue to Zaragoza, capital of Aragón, for the first of three nights.

Day 4: Zaragoza. Visit the mediaeval/Renaissance cathedral with Mudéjar work and the Lonja, fine Gothic/Renaissance Exchange. In the newer part of town, see the Fine Arts Museum and adjacent monument to the Napoleonic sieges of the city. The Aljaferia is an Arab palace incorporating brilliant additions by Ferdinand and Isabella. The Basilica of El Pilar is the 18th-cent. site of modern pilgrimage built around the pillar on which the Virgin Mary appeared to St James. Ceiling paintings include works by Goya.

Day 5: Belchite, Fuendetodos, Zaragoza. Belchite was the site of fierce fighting in 1937 which left the town completely ruined. In open and semi-desert country, the visit is an eerie experience. At Fuendetodos, in equally bleak country, Goya’s birthplace has been well-restored. The Museum of Etching contains the Caprichos, Disparates, and Horrors of War. Free afternoon in Zaragoza.

Day 6: Huesca, Loarre, Jaca. Huesca, second ‘capital’ of infant Aragón, has a cathedral, with a dramatic altarpiece. Follow the river Gállego as Zaragoza, wood engraving c. 1880194

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it flows past the extraordinary rock formations of Riglos de los Mallos. Emerge from the sierras to encounter the Castle of Loarre, arguably the finest Romanesque military building in Spain. Drive to Jaca in the western Pyrenees for three nights.

Day 7: Sos del Rey Católico, Leyre, Jaca. In remote hill country, Sos del Rey Católico is one of the chief sites of the mediaeval kingdom: Ferdinand of Aragón was born here in 1452 and the town retains much of its mediaeval atmosphere. The monastery of San Salvador de Leyre maintains Gregorian offices in a fascinating church with a good crypt and western portal. Visit the Jaca cathedral with fine stone carvings.

Day 8: San Juan de la Peña, Jaca. The monastery of San Juan de la Peña, dramatically sited under a bulging rock face, is the burial place of the kings and queens of early Aragón. See the magnificently carved mini-cloister. This site is key to understanding Aragón’s religious sentiment and history. Some free time in Jaca. Overnight Jaca.

Day 9. Drive east out of Aragón into Catalonia; a journey of some two-hundred miles, broken by a stop for lunch. Fly from Barcelona Airport (British Airways), arriving Heathrow c. 5.30pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Parador de Teruel (parador.es): 4-star parador on the outskirts of town, with plain but comfortable rooms. Hotel Catalonia el Pilar, Zaragoza (hoteles-catalonia.com): modern 4-star hotel in an attractive c. 1900s building in the historic centre; comfortable, well-equipped. Hotel Conde Aznar, Jaca (condeaznar.com): a friendly family-run 3-star hotel.

How strenuous? Quite a lot of walking in town centres and some long coach journeys, particularly on the first and last days. Not suitable for anyone who has difficulties with everyday walking and stair-climbing. The optional walk on day 2 requires you to be a practised country walker, used to some up and down. Average distance by coach per day: 98 miles.


Combine this tour with Bilbao to Bayonne, 21–28 September (page 190).

Gastronomic CataloniaFine food & wine, art & architecture

13–19 April 2015 (mb 285)7 days • £2,740Lecturer: Gijs van Hensbergen

Eat well, drink well: Michelin-starred meals, award-winning chefs and quality wine producers.

Sightseeing ranges from mediaeval to Modernist art and architecture.

Led by Gijs van Hensbergen, author of books on Spanish art and food.

Also includes the lesser-visited city of Girona, and a day in the northernmost reaches of the region, crossing into France.

Food is at the very core of Catalan existence, and the glorious variety of Catalan gastronomy reflects both the universal passion for food and the diverse cultural history of Catalonia. Food culture, husbandry and interest in medical and dietary matters reach back to the period when the Greeks first settled at Empúries to worship the healing image of Asklepios. The Carthaginians followed, bringing lentils, chickpeas and fava beans; the Romans introduced the vine and olive.

Four centuries of Moorish domination brought a passion for sweetmeats, spices and aubergine. The Catalan larder expanded further in the late Middle Ages when control over Mediterranean trade routes brought pasta from Naples and the discovery of the Americas introduced the key ingredients for the Provençal and Catalan table: tomato, potato and paprika.

The Barcelona food markets are among the most beautiful and enticing in the world. Set out in cartwheels under ceilings of Art Nouveau stained glass, the stalls fan out from their fresh

fish hub. Marble sinks soak the milky salt cod; cornucopia of fruit and vegetables are displayed with the subtlety of a still-life; butchers offer specialities and recipes upon request; the mushroom man has thirty varieties, fresh and dried. At the outer edges are the dealers in frutos secos and artisan cheeses that never find their way out of Catalonia.

In the city of the exuberance and riotous colour of Antoni Gaudí’s architectural confections, it is but a little way to the tour de force of a zarzuela fish stew, shot through with a firework display of saffron, bright red peppers and the creamy smooth burnt allioli sauce. The mar i muntanya dishes – the original surf and turf – marry together a remarkable blend of game, fowl or rabbit with langouste, enriched with a subtle chocolate sauce. The pioneering Nouvelle Catalan cuisine offers new tastes and complex techniques which find their echo deep into France, even to the Lycée Palace. The chefs that create them are some of the most talked about in and outside Barcelona. Sergi Arola is the former assistant of Ferrán Adriá and a proponent of authentic Catalan cuisine. Jordi Cruz mixes tradition and creativity at his 2-Michelin-starred restaurant

barcelona, La rambla, engraving c. 1890

“A really good mix of gastronomy, art and architecture. We loved it and learnt a lot.”

“Gastronomic ‘wonderland’ – what more can one say.”

Adam HopkinsAdam Hopkins. Journalist and author, now living in a mountain village in Spain. He studied at King’s College, Cambridge, and has contributed extensively

to national newspapers in britain on Spanish culture and travel. Among his books: Spanish Journeys: a Portrait of Spain.


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i Montaner. Dinner takes the form of a tapas walk. Overnight Barcelona.

Day 3: Barcelona. On the slopes of Montjuïc are the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, which houses the greatest collection of Romanesque frescoes in the world, plus fine Gothic and modern collections, and the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion. Lunch is in the rooftop restaurant of the stylish 5-star Hotel Arts where Sergi Arola has added yet another twist to contemporary Catalan cooking. In the afternoon visit Gaudí’s La Pedrera building of 1906–10.

Engraving 1864 after Gustave Doré

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ABAC in Barcelona, voted the best in Catalonia in 2011. Michelin-starred chef Nandu Jubany grows his own fruit and vegetables to serve in his restaurant, a converted farmhouse near Vic. Two-starred Fina Puigdevall, one of the finest female chefs in Spain, uses the stunning produce of the mountainous region surrounding Olot in her sophisticated restaurant, Les Cols.

However, there is far more to Catalonia than Barcelona, and historically the region extends into France. There are the fishing ports and the countryside, the Pyrenees and the Vallées Orientales, and the wines: Priorato, rich and tannin-steeped; Cavas which demonstrate brilliance and clarity; sweet Moscatel, peasant foil for the great Gewürztraminer experiments of the last decade; Penedès reds, as good with meat as slightly chilled with fish. Catalan wine is enjoying an extraordinary renaissance.

Itinerary

Day 1: Barcelona. Fly at c. 11.15am from London Heathrow to Barcelona (British Airways), capital of Catalonia and cosmopolitan market place. Take an afternoon walk and visit a chocolate emporium. Dinner has a 1900s theme with recipes from the gent de bé – Barcelona’s legendary good families – at the neo-Baroque Casa Calvet designed by Gaudí. First of three nights in Barcelona.

Day 2: Barcelona. Spend the morning in the Art Nouveau Boquería with its extraordinary displays of fresh produce. The Barri Gòtic is the most complete surviving Gothic quarter in Europe is still the location of some of the finest eating establishments and food suppliers in Catalonia . A wine tasting includes rarities from the Priorato and Penedès. In the afternoon visit the Palau de la Música, the highly ornate concert hall designed by Gaudí contemporary Domenech

chapterhouse. Lunch is at Michelin-starred Can Jubany. A light dinner takes the form of cheese and olive oil tasting in Figueres at the restaurant of Artur Sagues, who designed and constructed El Bulli’s cheese trolley for more than a decade.

Day 6: Collioure (France), La Selva de Mar, Olot. Drive into France to the pretty port of Collioure, a favoured retreat for Matisse and the Fauves. Light lunch of anchovies, a key local industry. Return to Spain, and the coastal town of La Selva de Mar to visit the vineyard of one of the Empordà’s finer producers. Dinner in the two-Michelin-starred restaurant at Les Cols in Olot, home to Fina Puigdevall, whose modernist restaurant is attached to a 16th-cent. masía farm.

Day 7: Figueres. Free time in Figueres to visit the Dalí museum. Drive south to Barcelona for the flight to Heathrow, arriving c. 5.30pm.

Practicalities


Included meals: 4 lunches and 5 dinners.

Accommodation. Hotel Condes de Barcelona (condesdebarcelona.com): 4-star hotel very well placed for buildings by Gaudí. Hotel Empordà, Figueres (hotelemporda.com): modern hotel on the outskirts of Figueres, with an excellent restaurant.


How strenuous? The tour involves a lot of walking in Barcelona - some of it over uneven paving - where vehicular access is restricted, and should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair–climbing. Meals can be long and large and so expect some late nights. Average distance by coach per day: 52 miles.

Combine this tour with Lisbon Neighbourhoods, 20–25 April (page 182).

Day 4: Barcelona, Sant Celoni, Figueres. Take a morning walk in Gaudí’s Parc Güell before sampling Jordi Cruz’s 2-Michelin-starred, avant garde cuisine at ABAC. Leave Barcelona and drive up the coast to the outskirts of Figueres. First of three nights in Figueres.

Day 5: Girona, Vic. Girona has a compact mediaeval Jewish quarter and Gothic cathedral towering over the river. Important illuminated manuscripts and tapestries are displayed in the

Girona, cloister of San Pedro, engraving c. 1860

Gijs van HensbergenArt historian and author specialising in Spain and the USA. His books include Gaudí, In the Kitchens of Castile and Guernica. He studied Art History at the Courtauld and

is a Fellow of the Cañada blanch Centre for Contemporary Spanish Studies at the LSE. Gijs van Hensbergen also leads Bilbao to Bayonne (page 190), Barcelona 1900, (opposite), Gastonomic Andalucía (page 203), East Coast Galleries (page 213) and Art in Texas (page 216).All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

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barcelona 1900Modernism in barcelona & beyond

24 September–1 October 2015 (mc 447)8 days • £2,730Lecturer: Gijs van Hensbergen

Modernist art and architecture by Gaudí, Picasso, Domènech i Muntaner, Puig i Cadafalch, Tapíes, Miró and more.

Exceptional Spanish cuisine in architecturally spectacular surroundings.

Led by Gaudí biographer, Gijs van Hensbergen.

Based in Barcelona throughout, with some day trips outside of the city.

From formal palace to factory floor, no design detail was too insignificant for the architect-designers of the Modernista age. Architects such as Antoni Gaudí, Domènech i Muntaner and Puig i Cadafalch vied for the patronage of the new urban élite as they transformed the teachings of Ruskin and Morris into a seductive reality of stained glass, marble, tortoise-shell, elaborately carved stone and daring use of iron and brick.

Turn-of-the-century Barcelona provided a haven for social and artistic experimentation. Style wars raged over the pre-eminence of Gaudí’s religious vision or of that of the Bohemian world of Picasso and the legendary Quatre Gats café. Outside the city, industrial colonies sat side by side with Utopian garden design and other experiments in social engineering.

The many Modernista showcases of the latest thinking in architectural theory and design include Muntaner’s outrageously flamboyant Palau opera house, private mansions, cast-iron markets, pharmacies, patisseries and hospitals. We dine in houses designed by Gaudí and Rubió i Bellver as well as Domènech’s Hotel España, submerged in a marine world of frescoed mermaids, angel fish and slippery squid.

Outside the city we visit the mountain-top shrine of Montserrat, Catalonia’s spiritual home, and Gaudí’s first edifice in Mataró, built for a textile workers union and his only building not to be funded by the bourgeoisie or the Catholic church. No single building can better explain the apparent paradoxes of the Quatre Gats and Modernista style than Rusinyol’s rock-ledge haven, the Cau Ferrat, with its views across the Mediterranean. Side by side, sketches by Picasso, tiles, cartoons by the great draughtsman Ramon Casas, all fight for space against their shared heritage of mediaeval ironwork, Gothic carving and two masterpieces by El Greco.

Itinerary

Day 1: Barcelona. Fly at 11.15am (British Airways) from London Heathrow to Barcelona. The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya houses the world’s finest collection of Romanesque murals, a constant source of inspiration for the generation of 1900.

Day 2: Barcelona. A morning walk includes Domènech’s exuberant Palau de la Música and the Cathedral. Continue in the afternoon to Gaudí’s sumptuous Palau Güell, Boqueria market, finishing with a drink at the bohemian Quatre

Gats (café). Dinner in Gaudí’s award-winning Casa Calvet.

Day 3: Barcelona. A morning walk through the Ciutadella park, with sculpture by Tapíes, to Santa María del Mar, the finest Gothic church in Catalonia. End at the Picasso museum, spread through five adjacent palaces in the Gothic Quarter, it is the world’s most comprehensive display of the artist’s artistic development. Lunch in Domènech’s Hotel España. Afternoon walk via Sert’s Tuberculosis Clinic, the Secessionist Casa Heribert Pons and Domènech’s landmark Editorial Muntanyer i Simon (now the Fundaciò Antoni Tàpies) to the Manzana de la Discordia, the square of discord, where Gaudí’s Casa Batlló fights it out with Puig’s Casa Amatller.

Day 4: Mataró, Barcelona. Enter the city’s council building, the Ajuntament, to see the paintings by Josep Maria Sert. Drive north of Barcelona to Mataró, home to Gaudí’s first building, now a contemporary art museum. Return to the city to visit Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia, the vast, still unfinished church which is one of the best-known buildings in the world, and Montaner’s Hospital de Sant Pau.

Day 5: Barcelona, Montserrat. Drive to Gaudí’s neo-gothic house, Bellesguard with fine gardens and Parc Güell, the incomplete ‘garden suburb’ with sinuous ceramic-clad structures. Lunch in Rubió i Bellver’s Asador de Aranda, one of Barcelona’s great restaurants. Back in the city centre, walk through the district of Gràcia, passing Gaudí’s Casa Vicens, to his La Pedrera building of 1906–10.

Day 6: Montserrat, Sitges. The Benedictine abbey at Montserrat contains the shrine of the Black Virgin as well as a gallery with works by Dalí and Picasso. Continue to Sitges, one of the most fashionable of costa towns and home to Rusinyol’s collection at the Cau Ferrat. See also the adjoining Museu Maricel with its frescoes by Sert.

Day 7: Barcelona. Free morning. In the afternoon journey by Metro to Montjuic hill and the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion (1929), a small masterpiece of International Modernism. The Miró Foundation (Miró was born in Barcelona) has a large and important collection donated by the artist.

Day 8: Barcelona. Drive out of Barcelona to Gaudí’s crypt at the Colonia Güell, arguably his greatest work, set amongst the pine trees in an industrial paradise. The flight from Barcelona arrives at Heathrow at c. 6.15pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Condes de Barcelona (condesdebarcelona.com): a 4-star hotel very well placed for buildings by Gaudí; rooms are modern and comfortable.

How strenuous? This tour involves a lot of walking in Barcelona, some of it over uneven paving and where vehicular access is restricted. It should not be attempted by anyone who has difficulty with everyday walking and stair–climbing. Average coach travel per day: 25 miles.


Combine this tour with The Heart of Italy, 15–22 September (page 140).

Antoni Gaudí

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Valenciaart & architecture, Mediaeval to modern

10–14 November 2015 (mc 522)5 days • £1,370Lecturer: Adam Hopkins

A handsome, vibrant city on the Mediterranean seaboard, excellent for its variety of art and architecture, good food and wine.

The lecturer is Adam Hopkins, journalist and author, specialist in Spanish history and culture.

Gothic highlights include the Silk Exchange and Royal Chapel at Santo Domingo.

Possibility of attending an opera or concert at Calatrava’s striking Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia.

One of Spain’s greatest fine arts museums, and its first modern art gallery, Impressionist collections and Arabic ceramics.

Valencia, Spain’s third city, is elegant and open-spirited, filled with Mediterranean light – though you only glimpse the sea when you go down to the beach to sample a paella, Valencia’s great contribution to gastronomic pleasure. From Arab times until today, Valencia has meant and still means rice – and oranges. Valencia’s architecture reflects the city’s exuberant success in Gothic days and the newly-thrusting, ultra-modern regionalism which has brought the America’s Cup here twice in recent years. Santiago Calatrava’s vast, fantastical and gleaming showpiece, the City of Arts and Sciences, set in the bed of a diverted river as the culmination of fourteen kilometres of park, is undoubtedly its supreme expression.

Calatrava, Valencian-born engineer-architect supreme, has always had his critics: today voices are raised about operating cost and maintenance now rising to crisis level, and the general sense of grandeur. But few could deny the beauty of the cascading glass, the gleaming steel and dazzling concrete, the acrobatic forms of his assemblage of

outsize buildings – opera house, science museum, sports stadium, arboretum-walkway along with an oceanarium by the older but also interesting architect Felix Candela. The complex and indeed the whole city should not be missed by anyone who wants an overview of modern Spain.

Evidence of the vigour of the city’s culture over the centuries is everywhere. The Fine Arts Museum is one of the most important in Spain, excellent in particular for Gothic and Renaissance painting – Valencia was Spain’s first port of call for many Renaissance ideas. The city’s luminous nineteenth-century painting, increasingly appreciated today, is also much in evidence. The IVAM was Spain’s first major gallery of modern art with an impressive permanent collection and important temporary exhibitions. The presence of the National Ceramics Museum, in a lush rococo palace, reflects continuous production of top-class ceramics from the thirteenth century onwards – Moorish in technique and design, its best elements perpetuated in what came after.

The Moors made mediaeval Valencia. Christians from Aragón reconquered it in 1238. The new masters built on Arab civilisation to achieve Mediterranean prominence and their own Gothic splendours. In an exuberant nineteenth-century city-centre, Art Nouveau (Modernista) and Art Deco flourished, as Santiago Calatrava does today in the Turia riverbed.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 10.45am from London Heathrow to Madrid (Iberia) and connect on a flight to Valencia (Air Nostrum). Arrive in time for an introductory talk.

Day 2. The cathedral, a curious mix of Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque, has a splendid chapter house and paintings by Goya. Fine Modernista market – and produce.

Great examples of secular 15th-century Gothic include the Silk Exchange with its magnificent hall of pillars and the Generalitat with a sequence of richly decorated rooms (subject to confirmation). Housed in its exuberantly Churrigueresque palace, the collections of the National Ceramics Museum range from Moorish lustre ware to Picasso.

Day 3. The complex of the Colegio del Patriarca has a Renaissance courtyard and a museum with Flemish and Spanish paintings. The church of Corpus Cristi has 16th-cent. frescoes and a Last Supper by Ribalta. Santo Domingo, a Gothic friary, has a Royal Chapel with ribless vault and an outstanding 14th-cent. chapter house (visit by special arrangement). Cross the 16th-cent. Royal Bridge to the Fine Arts Museum, one of the best in Spain, with works by Valencian, Spanish and Flemish masters.

Day 4. Drive via the Quart Towers, a massive 14th-cent. city gateway, to IVAM (Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno): a collection of international painting, sculpture and photography with good temporary exhibitions. The home and studio of the Benlliure family of Impressionist painters has a large art collection and a romantic garden. Drive to the seafront for a paella lunch overlooking the Mediterranean. Take an optional excursion to Manises, centre of ceramic production since Arab times, with an excellently presented ceramics museum.

Day 5. Spanning the dry bed of the diverted River Turia is a Calatrava trademark, the ‘Peineta’ bridge, and, below it, a metro station he designed. Further along is his Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias consisting inter alia of an arboretum, a soaring edifice that houses the science museum and the nearby opera house (exteriors only). Catch the early afternoon flight to Madrid, and then a connection to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 5.15pm.

Practicalities



Optional music: we hope to be able to offer tickets to an opera or concert at the Palau de les Arts. Programmes are released in summer 2015.

Accommodation. SH Hotel Inglés (inglesboutique.com): a 4-star hotel installed in an 18th-cent. palace in a very central location next to the National Ceramics Museum.

How strenuous? Coach access is restricted in the historic centre and there is a lot of walking and standing around in museums. Dinners tend to be at 8.30 or 9.00pm in Spain, so you might get to bed later than you usually would.


Combine this tour with Essential Rome, 3–9 November (page 144) or Connoisseur’s Rome, 3–8 November (page 145).

Valencia, Quart Towers, wood engraving 1875 after a drawing by Samuel read

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ExtremaduraLandscape, architecture, rural life

7–15 April 2015 (mb 275)9 days • £2,310Lecturer: Adam Hopkins

Remote and unspoilt: one of the most consistently beautiful regions in Europe.

Monumental cities of the Conquistadors: Trujillo, Cáceres, Plasencia, packed with palaces and churches. Mérida has excellent Roman remains.

Monasteries of Guadalupe and Yuste, both in splendid isolation in the hills.

Other visits include a livestock farm with tractor ride, opportunity to walk in the hills.


Extremadura means ‘beyond the Duero’, a designation coined by the conquering Christians as they bludgeoned their way southwards against the Moors. The Moors were finally defeated; but much of the countryside of Extremadura remains unsubjugated. Together with the adjoining Alentejo in Portugal, this, though tawny as a lion’s pelt in sweltering midsummer, is the largest ‘green’ region in western Europe.

Monfragüe in the Tagus gorge has a colony of griffon vultures, the Iberian lynx is still a resident in these parts, hawks and other birds of prey abound. The Sierra de Gata in the north, the Sierra de Guadalupe in the centre and the wild country of the south-west around Jerez de los Caballeros all remain rough and uncultivated.

Equally, Extremadura is cattle country, with fighting bulls and the local Retinta breed making the most of some of the gentler lands. In the autumn, when there are acorns to be eaten, the black-foot pig, source of the finest of mountain hams, comes on the scene. The landscape has a mixed array of well-spaced trees, mainly holm oak and cork oak, which together with the wild grasses constitute the habitat known as dehesa. The river valleys, notably the Tiétar and Guadiana, are now well-irrigated and grow fruit and vegetables: apricots, cherries and peppers. From the south comes wine, much improved of late. There is virtually no industry which is not based on agriculture.

This tour offers a walk in the Guadalupe mountains, hoping to come close to the spirit of a countryside where many ancient ways survive. However, the history and architecture are as rewarding as the landscape. Before the Visigoths and Moors, this was a major Roman centre, with Mérida – Augusta Emerita – the capital of the western province of Lusitania. It remains the major Roman site in Spain.

Above all, this is conquistador country. An astonishing proportion of the leaders of the rough bands which savaged South and Central America, in the names of king and queen and Christianity, came from Extremadura. Trujillo and Cáceres are well-known for the rich monumentality of palaces assembled by conquistadors returning with their ill-gotten gains.

The spiritual centre was and remains the shrine of Guadalupe. Here a rich and beautiful Hieronymite monastery grew up, with swirling

Moorish-Gothic tracery and a suite of paintings by Zurbarán. The little mountain town which formed beneath the monastery is balconied and full of geraniums, one element of a varied vernacular architecture which is a particular Extremeñan pleasure.

Zafra, in the south, is a white town, intermediate between Andalucía and the stony sobriety of Old Castile. Most curious is Plasencia in the north, where seven roads lead out of the arcaded plaza and two cathedrals stand back to back. The most moving is Yuste, the monastery to which the Emperor Charles V retired, gout-ridden and exhausted. He chose it, he said, because of its climate of continual springtime.

In its deep rurality and concentration of human monuments, Extremadura is a far cry from ‘ordinary’ Europe.

Itinerary

Day 1: Zafra. Fly at c. 1.30pm (TAP Portugal) from London Heathrow to Lisbon. Drive to the small town of Zafra (c. 4 hours, stops are made en route). The towered castle where Hernán Cortés was received by the Count of Feria en route for the conquest of Mexico is now the parador. First of two nights in Zafra.

Day 2: Zafra, Jerez de Los Caballeros. In Zafra begin with the two adjacent squares, the Plaza Grande and the (smaller) Plaza Chica and the Collegiate Church (with an altarpiece by Zurbarán). Lunch is in a rural restaurant. The afternoon is spent in Jerez de los Caballeros, once a Templar town, with famously ornate Baroque church towers.

Day 3: Mérida, Guadalupe. The Roman legacy of Mérida includes architecture both grand and domestic: theatre, villas, temples, fortresses. See also Moneo’s outstanding National Museum of Roman Art. The tiny town of Guadalupe is hidden in hills. Columbus prayed here and gave its name to a Caribbean island. First of two nights in Guadalupe.

Day 4: Guadalupe. There is the choice of a walk in the Guadalupe mountains, or time to stroll at leisure through the village. In the afternoon see the monastery, with splendid church, Mudéjar cloister and sacristy with Zurbarán’s paintings. The museum contains exceptional vestments.

Day 5: Trujillo. Drive down the mountains to Trujillo, a hilltop conquistador town (birthplace of Pizarro). The magnificent, irregular main square is surrounded by conquistador mansions and the grand church of S. Martín. Climb up to

Mérida, ruined temple, lithograph c. 1830

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Extremaduracontinued

the Gothic church of Sta María and the castle with fine views of the surrounding countryside. Continue to Cáceres for the first of three nights.

Day 6: Cáceres. The historic town centre is enclosed within almost perfectly preserved Moorish walls and is a myriad of narrow streets and squares lined with Renaissance mansions. Visit the Provincial Museum housed in the 17th-century Casa de las Valetas, built over an 11th-century Arabic cistern. Free afternoon.

Day 7: Arroyo de la Luz, Alcántara, El Vaqueril. The 16th-century church at Arroyo de la Luz has a remarkable altarpiece by Luís de Morales. At Alcántara, the Roman bridge spanning the Tagus dates to 106 ad. Finca el Vaqueril is an Extremaduran ranch with Retinta cattle and pata negra pigs. Our visit includes lunch, a tour of the ranch on a tractor-trailer and an optional walk.

Day 8: Monfragüe, Plasencia, Yuste, Jarandilla de la Vera. Pause in Monfragüe National Park to see colony of griffon vultures at Salto de Gitano on the Tagus. At Plasencia, start in the arcaded Plaza Mayor and then visit the two cathedrals, Renaissance and Gothic backing into one another, also a fine ethnographic museum of traditional rural life and handicraft. Drive into the hills to the monastery of Yuste to which the Emperor Charles V retired in 1556, building a gent’s des. res. right up against the fabric of the Gothic monastery. Get a moving insight into the last days of the man who once ruled most of Europe and Latin America. Spend the final night in the Parador at nearby Jarandilla de la Vera.

Day 9: leaving Extremadura. Drive to Madrid Airport for the lunchtime flight (Iberia) which arrives at London Heathrow c. 4.15pm.

Practicalities

Price: £ 2,310 (deposit £250). Single supplement £220 (double room for single occupancy). Price without flights £2,080.


Accommodation. Parador de Zafra (parador.es): 4-star parador in the 15th-century castle. Parador de Guadalupe (parador.es): 4-star Parador in the converted 15th-century pilgrims’ hospital of St John the Baptist. Gran Hotel Don Manuel, Cáceres (donmanuelatiramhotels.com): a modern 4-star hotel in the historic centre of town. Parador de Jarandilla (parador.es): 4-star Parador with historic connections to Charles V.


How strenuous? There is a lot of walking in town centres, sometimes on uneven ground, and sure-footedness is essential. The optional walk in the Sierra de Guadalupe requires a greater level of fitness. There is also a large amount of coach travel. Dinners tend to be at 8.30 or 9.00pm in Spain, so you might get to bed later than you would usually. Some days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 78 miles.

Combine this tour with Easter at The Castle, 3–6 April (page 57) or History of Impressionism, 19–24 April (page 71).

Essential AndalucíaSpain’s southern province

19–29 October 2015 (mc 501)11 days • £3,180Lecturer: Adam Hopkins

Three nights in each of the major cities: Granada, Córdoba and Seville.


The tour begins in Málaga with the Picasso Museum and Carmen Thyssen collection, and also visits the lesser-known towns of Baeza and Úbeda.

Varied itinerary covering the great Moorish sites, mediaeval, Renaissance and Baroque architecture, fine art collections and gardens.

Andalucía is Spain’s most fascinating and varied region. Varied geographically: stretching southwards from the Sierra Morena to the Mediterranean, it encompasses the permanent snow of the Sierra Nevada as well as the sun-scorched interior.

And varied culturally: here it is possible to see great art and architecture of both Islamic and Christian traditions side by side – even, at Córdoba, one within the other. For Spain is unique in Western Europe in having been conquered by an Islamic power. The Moors first crossed from Africa in ad 711, and in the south of the country they stayed for nearly eight centuries. The Moorish civilization of the cities of Andalucía was one of the most sophisticated of the Middle Ages.

There are also tantalising glimpses of the preceding Visigothic kingdom, and remains of the still earlier Roman occupation – the province of Baetica was one of the most highly favoured in the Roman Empire. Later, both Jews and gypsies made their influence felt, but overwhelmingly the dominant contribution to man-made Andalucian heritage has been created by and for unwavering adherents to Catholicism. The Christian religion does not get much more intense than in southern

Spain, and its artistic manifestations rarely more spiritually charged.

The unification of Spain which was ensured by the marriage in 1469 of the ‘Catholic Kings’, Ferdinand and Isabella, ushered in the period when Spain became the dominant power in Europe. This also coincided with the discovery of the Americas. The cities of the south, particularly Seville, were the immediate beneficiaries of the subsequent colonisation and inflow of huge quantities of bullion and of boundless opportunities for trade and wealth creation.

The result was a boom in building and a cultural renaissance, a Golden Age which lasted into the eighteenth century, long after the economy had cooled and real Spanish power had waned. The poverty and torpor of subsequent centuries allowed much of the beauty of the glory days to survive to the present time, when a revival of prosperity has enabled extensive restoration and proper care of the immense artistic patrimony.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 9.45am (British Airways) from London Gatwick to Málaga. Visit the Carmen Thyssen museum with its fine collection of old masters and 19th-century Spanish painting on Andalusian themes. Overnight Málaga.

Day 2: Málaga. Begin at Picasso’s birthplace, which houses a small collection of his belongings. The Picasso Museum is magnificent, both the 16th-century building and the collection which places emphasis on his earlier works. There is time also to see the Alcazaba, a predominantly 11th-century Moorish construction with fine views from its terraces. In the afternoon drive north to Granada. First of three nights here.

Day 3: Granada. On a hilltop site is the Palace of the Alhambra, the greatest expression of Moorish art in Spain, with exquisite decoration and a succession of intimate courtyards. Adjacent are the 16th-century Palace of Charles V and the Generalife, summer palace of the sultans, with gardens and fountains.

Day 4: Granada. Morning walk through the Albayzín, the oldest quarter in town, including El Bañuelo (Arab baths) and a climb up to San Nicolás with its fine views of the Alhambra. In the late afternoon visit the Cathedral and Royal Chapel which has a fine collection of Flemish, Spanish and Italian paintings.

Day 5: Baeza, Úbeda. Drive to Baeza, once a prosperous and important town and now a provincial backwater of quiet charm set among olive groves stretching to the horizon with a 16th-century cathedral and many grand houses of an alluring light-coloured stone. In Úbeda walk to the handsome Plaza Vázquez de Molina, flanked by elegant palaces including Casa de las Cadenas and the present day parador. The church of El Salvador was designed by Diego de Siloé in 1536. Continue to Córdoba for the first of three nights.

Day 6: Córdoba. From the middle of the 8th century Córdoba was the capital of Islamic Spain and became the richest city in Europe until its

Granada, Alhambra, engraving c. 1860

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Seville, Cathedral and Giralda, mid-18th-century hand-coloured engraving

capitulation to the Reconquistadors in 1236. Visit the Alcázar, mediaeval with earlier architectural remains and the narrow streets of the old Jewish quarter including the 14th-century synagogue. The Fine Arts Museum, with Plateresque façade, houses paintings by the best Spanish masters. La Mezquita (mosque) is one of the most magnificent of Muslim shrines, and contains within it the 16th-century Christian cathedral.

Day 7: Córdoba. Visit the Archaeological Museum, housed in a Renaissance mansion, with a fine collection of Roman and Arab pieces. Drive out to the excavations of Medina Azahara, a 10th-century palace complex of considerable luxury. Free afternoon in Córdoba.

Day 8: Ecija, Seville. The many church towers of Ecija are visible from afar across the surrounding plain. Of the numerous Baroque mansions see the Palacio de Peñaflor and Palacio del Marqués de Benameji, and visit the Gothic-Mudéjar church of Santiago. Drive to Seville for the first of three nights.

Day 9: Seville. Walk to the church and hospital of the Caridad, Seville’s most striking 17th-century building, with paintings by Murillo and Valdés Leal. The cathedral is one of the largest Gothic churches anywhere (‘Let us build a cathedral so immense that everyone...

will take us for madmen’). The Capilla Mayor, treasury and sanctuary are of particular interest. Free afternoon.

Day 10: Seville. The Alcázar, the fortified royal palace, is one of Spain’s greatest buildings; built by Moorish architects for Castilian kings, it consists of a sequence of apartments and magnificent reception rooms around courtyards and gardens. Walk through the Barrio de Santa Cruz, a maze of whitewashed alleys and flower-filled patios, to the Casa de Pilatos, the best of the Mudéjar style palaces, with patios and azulejos. Afternoon at the Fine Arts Museum, the best in Spain after the Prado.

Day 11. Drive back to Málaga for the afternoon flight to London Gatwick arriving c. 3.15pm.

Practicalities

Price: £3,180 (deposit £300). Single supplement £460 (double room for single occupancy). Price without flights £3000.


Accommodation. Hotel Molina Lario, Málaga (hotelmolinalario.com): functional 4-star hotel in the centre. AC Palacio de Santa Paula (marriott.com): comfortable and contemporary hotel in

“I am awash in sensation. So much colour, light, darkness, history, geography, and the snapping and whirring of the Spanish language. I feel truly enriched by this trip.”

the centre, comparable to a 4-star. NH Amistad, Córdoba (nh-hotels.com): 4-star hotel in an 18th-century mansion, a short walk from the mosque. Hotel Las Casas de la Judería, Seville (casasypalacios.com): a charming 4-star in the Barrio Sta Cruz created from several contiguous buildings connected by open-air patios.

How strenuous? This is a lengthy tour with four hotels, a lot of walking and a fair amount of coach travel. You need to be fit. Walking is often on uneven streets and uphill. Average distance by coach per day: 33 miles.


Combine this tour with Ravenna & Urbino, 14–18 October (page 128).

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Córdoba, La Mezquita, engraving from Arabian Antiquities of Spain 1816

Granada & CórdobaWith Úbeda & baeza

9–16 March 2015 (mb 253)8 days • £2,380Lecturer: Dr Philippa Joseph

21–28 September 2015 (mc 442)8 days • £2,380Lecturer: Dr David McGrath

Ample time at the key sites of Moorish Spain: the Alhambra in Granada and the Mosque in Córdoba, with time also for the lesser-known.

Visits the Picasso Museum and recently opened Carmen Thyssen collection in Málaga and the small Renaissance towns of Úbeda and Baeza.

The lecturers are both experts on Spanish history and culture.

Southern Spain – savage peaks soar over passes that are snow-bound in winter, while plains below are well-watered by spring rivers, hot, harsh and arid in the summer, mellow in late autumn and winter.

The cities reveal the magnitude of past achievements through the greatness of the architecture and the brilliant elaboration of decoration. Andalucía was a bountiful Roman province, in Arab times the scene of highly sophisticated Umayyad and Nasrid princedoms and a major province of the most powerful kingdom in (Christian) Europe’s sixteenth century. The artistic riches are immensely varied, though the unique distinguishing mark is the heritage from eight hundred years of rule by Muslims from North Africa and Arabia.

Arab Córdoba became the capital of al-Andalus and the largest city in Europe, market for all the luxuries of East and West and scene of Europe’s most splendid court until its fall to the Reconquistadors in 1236. The mosque, La Mezquita, was one of the largest anywhere, and arguably the most beautiful; Christian possession in the sixteenth century created within it a totally contrasting cathedral.

Granada was the last Islamic princedom in Spain, only falling to the Christians in 1492. The concatenation of palaces and gardens of the Alhambra, with its cascading domes and gilded

decoration like frozen fireworks, is one of Spain’s most enthralling sights.

Although millions of tourists pour through Málaga Airport every year en route to the Costa del Sol, comparatively few set foot in the old town. The narrow streets, palm-lined squares and seafront promenades conserve Phoenician, Roman, Moorish, Gothic, Baroque and late-ninteenth-century monuments. Birthplace and childhood home of Pablo Picasso, the city boasts a major collection of his works, while the new, eponymous museum of Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza includes some excellent nineteenth-century Spanish art with Andalusian themes.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 9.45am from London City Airport to Málaga. Arrive in time for an introductory walk and lecture in the hotel. Overnight Málaga.

Day 2: Málaga. Begin at Picasso’s birthplace, which houses a small collection of his belongings. The Picasso Museum is magnificent, both the 16th-century building and the collection, which places emphasis on his earlier works. The recently-opened Carmen Thyssen museum has a fine collection of old masters and 19th-century Spanish painting. In the afternoon drive north to Granada. First of three nights in Granada.

Day 3: Granada. The 13th-century Arab palaces of the Alhambra ride high above the city. They are often reckoned to be the greatest expression of Moorish art in Spain, with exquisite decoration and a succession of intimate courtyards. Adjacent are the 16th-century Palace of Charles V and the Generalife, summer palace of the sultans, with gardens and fountains.

Day 4: Granada. Morning walk through the Albaycín, the oldest quarter in town, including El Bañuelo (Arab baths). Climb up to San Nicolás from where there are fine views of the Alhambra. In the late afternoon visit the Cathedral and Royal Chapel which retains Isabel of Castile’s personal collection of Flemish, Spanish and Italian paintings.

Day 5: Baeza, Úbeda. Drive to Baeza, once a prosperous and important town and now a

provincial backwater of quiet charm set among olive groves stretching to the horizon. It has a 16th-century cathedral by outstanding regional architect Andrés de Vandelvira and many grand houses of an alluring light-coloured stone. In Úbeda walk to the handsome Plaza Vázquez de Molina, flanked by elegant palaces including Vandelvira’s Casa de las Cadenas and the present day parador. The church of El Salvador was designed by Diego de Siloé in 1536. Continue to Córdoba for the first of three nights.

Day 6: Córdoba. From the middle of the 8th century Córdoba was the capital of Islamic Spain and became the richest city in Europe until its capitulation to the Reconquistadors in 1236. La Mezquita (mosque) is one of the most magnificent of Muslim sites, for some the greatest building of mediaeval Europe. It contains within it the 16th-century cathedral. In the afternoon drive out to the excavations of Medina Azahara, with remains of a huge and luxurious 10th-century palace complex.

Day 7: Córdoba. Morning visit to the Archaeological Museum, housed in brand new galleries and a Renaissance mansion, with a fine collection of Roman and Arab pieces. Visit the Alcázar, mediaeval with earlier architectural remains (and good Roman mosaics), and the narrow streets of the old Jewish quarter, including the 14th-century synagogue. The Fine Arts Museum (optional visit), with Plateresque façade and one delightful ceiling, houses some good Spanish paintings, and the Museo Julio Romero de Torres (optional visit), the former residence of the Cordoban painter, contains a collection of his works. Free afternoon in Córdoba.

Day 8. Drive to Málaga for the early afternoon flight arriving London City Airport at c. 4.00pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Hotel Molina Lario, Málaga (hotelmolinalario.com): a functional 4-star in the centre. AC Palacio de Santa Paula (marriott.com): comfortable and contemporary hotel in the centre, comparable to a 4-star. NH Amistad, Córdoba (nh-hotels.com): a 4-star in an 18th-century mansion, a short walk from the mosque.

How strenuous? There is a lot of walking, some of it uphill and some over uneven ground. Average distance by coach per day: 52 miles.


Combine the March departure with Modern Art on the Côte d’Azur, 17–24 March (page 82).

Combine the September departure with Aragón, 29 September–7 October (page 194) or Sardinia, 29 September–7 October (page 154).

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Gastronomic AndalucíaFood, wine, art & architecture

13–20 March 2015 (mb 255)8 days • £2,980Lecturer: Gijs van Hensbergen

Journey south from Las Pedroñeras in La Mancha in a sweeping curve through Andalucía: Úbeda, Baeza, Córdoba, Seville, Jerez, Cádiz, Aracena.

Surveys the history of the region with its cuisine: Roman, Jewish, Moorish, Christian; from the simplest cooking to the elaborate and contemporary.

Some of Spain’s greatest monuments are here including the mosque at Córdoba and Seville Cathedral, but also good museums, small towns and spectacular countryside.

Led by Gijs van Hensbergen, art historian and author of books on Spanish art and food.

‘Al-Andalus’ (the Andalucía of the Moors) are words which immediately evoke fantasies of displays of sweetmeats, saffron stained rice and jewels of livid red pomegranate. Exotic flavour combinations are countered by the simplicity of perfectly prepared fish; flaking, moist and ivory white. Sophisticated techniques are often tempered by the deeply felt philosophy that, yes, less can be more.

Gastronomic Andalucía is a true feast of the senses: earthy smells are countered by elusive and piquant tastes; sherries, montillas and punchy red caldos of La Mancha wine stand up perfectly to the pickled escabeches of game, the deep-flavoured fish soups, and the marriage of almonds, lemon-steeped olives and air-dried tenderloin of albacore tuna. The backdrop of Gastronomic Andalucía is no less exotic: Úbeda and Baeza, the twin cities of Spain’s Renaissance, are surrounded by stands of olive trees that lead the eye out to the horizon and the sierras beyond. The mosque in Córdoba, at the very heart of the Caliphate, makes a complete nonsense of the received wisdom about the so-called Dark Ages. Seville’s barrio of the Santa Cruz still offers up phantom vistas of an extraordinary cosmopolitan past.

Andalucía, it must be remembered, has a large variety of climates. In the mountains above Seville the hams of the wild Iberian pig dry perfectly into a product that is second to none. Sea breezes around Sanlucar signal the flavour of salt on the tongue. South to Baeza, off the tourist track, we enter the land of olives, and a tasting at the family run Castillo de Canena, where Spain’s former Business Woman of the Year, Rosa Vañó, inducts us into the arcane wonders of olive oil tasting. Close by, is the unpretentious Casa

Juanito, the Spanish gourmet’s choice of ‘true’ authenticity has for decades put it in the Top Ten of restaurants in Spain. Córdoba, of course, needs no advertising but a fourteenth-century convent restaurant on the edge of the gypsy quarter is just one way of retiring from the Caliphate’s wealthy past and the powerful midday sun. Perfectly fried aubergines are a foil for the oxtail, fillets of fish with herbs and oil are trapped in a flash, in a film of the lightest batter and laid out on a bed of the speciality, fried lettuce. Oaky Montilla wine is taken standing.

Seville, Jerez, Cádiz are worlds on their own. Sherry houses are famous for producing unique tastes. Less known are the almacenistas, passionate amateurs, whose houses, basements, shops and even living rooms are turned over to storing and nursing their barrels. Cádiz’s legendary restaurant El Faro takes fish frying to a new level with wafer thin pancakes of miniature shrimp and is the best place in Spain to eat line caught bass baked in a salt crust. The tour ends in Seville with Michelin-starred Julio Fernández Quinteiro’s take on Andalusian cuisine at Restaurante Abantal.

Itinerary

Day 1: London to La Mancha. Fly at c. 9.15am (Iberia Airlines) from London Heathrow to Madrid. Drive south into La Mancha to the small

walled town of Belmonte. In the surrounding countryside visit the vineyards of Pesquera, of Ribera de Duero fame, for a tasting and dinner. Overnight in Belmonte.

Day 2: La Mancha to Andalucía. In Belmonte visit the Gothic church of San Bartolomé and the superbly sited 15th-century castle before leaving for lunch in nearby Las Pedroñeras. Here Michelin-starred chef Manuel de la Osa marries bohemian bonhomie with a passion for garlic. Drive through the magnificent pass of Desfiladero de Despeñaperros and enter Andalucía. The handsome town of Úbeda has streets and squares lined with palaces, one of which is our hotel. First of two nights in Úbeda.

Day 3: Úbeda, Baeza. The twin towns of Úbeda and Baeza thrived in the 16th century and are richly endowed with Renaissance monuments. Spend time in both with lunch in Baeza at Casa Juanito. The Arab Castle of Canena is deep in olive-grove country of the Guadalquivir valley and home to the Vañó family, famed producers; tasting and visit here.

Day 4: Córdoba, Seville. Drive west to Córdoba and focus on La Mezquita, one of the largest and most beautiful mosques in the world, and within it the 16th-century cathedral. Walk through the old Jewish quarter, with 14th-century synagogue, to a chilled aperitif and a Moorish lunch.

“The itinerary was well researched and of great interest. I learned a lot; about the history, architecture, religion and gastronomy of Spain.” Seville, watercolour by Mortimer Menpes, publ. 1903

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Gastronomic Andalucíacontinued

Continue to Seville for an evening tapas walk through the flower-filled Barrio de Santa Cruz. First of four nights in Seville.

Day 5: Seville. Begin at the Alcázar, one of Spain’s greatest buildings, built by Moorish architects for Spanish kings, with its courtyards, gardens and magnificent tapestries. The 15th-century cathedral is one of the largest Gothic churches anywhere, with a Late Gothic retable and paintings by Murillo, Zurbarán and Goya. In the afternoon visit the Fine Arts Museum, the finest collection in Spain after the Prado. Dinner is at a renowned Sevillian restaurant.

Day 6: Jerez de la Frontera, Cádiz. Drive south to Jerez, at the heart of sherry production. Special arrangements include a tasting at the Lustau bodega and Bodegas Tradición with its own art collection. Continue to the historic port of Cádiz; laid-back and unspoilt, and with a renowned fish restaurant. There is time after lunch to visit the city museum with a significant archaeological collection.

Day 7: Sierra de Aracena, Jabugo. Drive north to the Sierra de Aracena, the low mountains which form the border with Extremadura. Here we taste the exquisite jamón ibérico. There is an optional walk in the foothills along farm tracks lined with oak, chestnut and olive trees and livestock. Alternatively remain in the town of Aracena. The evening is spent at Restaurante Abantal, whose chef was the first in Seville to win a Michelin star.

Day 8: Seville. Drive to Seville for the flight to Heathrow, via Madrid, arriving c. 3.00pm.

Practicalities


Included meals: 5 lunches, 5 dinners (including 1 light dinner and a tapas walk), with wine.

Accommodation. Palacio Buenavista Hospedería, Belmonte (palaciobuenavista.es): a simple hotel in a 16th-century house in the old town. Parador de Úbeda (parador.es): a 4-star Parador in a Renaissance palace on the most handsome square in town; comfortable rooms, traditionally furnished. Hotel Las Casas de la Judería, Seville (casasypalacios.com): a charming 4-star hotel in the Barrio Sta Cruz created from several contiguous buildings connected by open-air patios.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking over uneven ground and up and down hill (as well as an optional countryside walk) and some days involve a lot of driving. Average distance by coach per day: 101 miles. Dinners tend to be at 8.30 or 9.00pm in Spain, so you might get to bed later than you would usually.


Combine this tour with Morocco, 22 March–2 April (page 170).

Wellington in the PeninsulaFrom Portugal to the Pyrenees

15–27 September 2015 (mc 496)13 days • £3,340Lecturer: Patrick Mercer obe

Survey of Wellington’s Iberian campaign, through Portugal, Spain and into the French Pyrenees.

Key battles studied in depth, also the life of the soldier and background matters.

Led by military historian Patrick Mercer.

A long but well-paced tour with a lot of driving. Some quite demanding walking on sites. Conventional sight-seeing is left to independent time.

Ascribing the eventual downfall of Napoleon to a single event is a dubious historical exercise, but here goes: his own decision in 1807, when he was at the height of his power, to plug the gap in the blockade which excluded British shipping from continental Europe.

The gap was Portugal, Great Britain’s long-time ally and trading partner. Marching French troops to Portugal through a hitherto submissive Spain provoked the Spanish people into bitter revolt, and Britain, seeing a relatively low-risk way of causing discomfort to France, committed troops to the Iberian Peninsula.

That the British would hang on in there for six years until they swept the French over the Pyrenees and defeated them in France itself was anticipated by no one – not Napoleon, because he was used to quick and decisive victories, nor the British, because there was fierce opposition to the war in Parliament and sustained criticism of the campaign in the country.

Nevertheless, the British under Wellington never lost a major battle, and, aided by Spanish guerillas, succeeded in tying down huge numbers of French troops and infecting Napoleon with his ‘Spanish ulcer’. Wellington developed a range of tactics which amounted to the elixir of success which had eluded Napoleon’s other opponents, and emerged as the only general of the Napoleonic Wars to rival Bonaparte himself for military genius. A master both of battlefield tactics and long-term strategy, he had an extraordinary capacity for logistical and administrative detail and for cool-headedness. And by chipping away for so long without significant reverse, he gave heart to the conquered and cowering capitals elsewhere in Europe.

The War also has a significance for British history beyond its immediate achievements. The prestige of her armies had been at a low ebb after a century with few moments of glory and quite a lot of embarrassments. Indeed, England had not been considered internationally as a significant military power since the loss of French territories in the fifteenth century. The Peninsular War changed all that. Here at last was a saga of sustained success, albeit with some setbacks, and of great deeds of valour, albeit with episodes of barbarity and indiscipline. And, ultimately, there was victory, as has tended to be the case, by and large, ever since.

As a group, the battlefields of the Peninsula constitute the most dramatic and illuminating of the redcoat era. They are spread across an

extraordinary variety of terrain and climate, from sun-baked plains to misty mountain passes. This tour will provide vistas of breath-taking beauty, and cities and villages which have scarcely changed in two hundred years.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 11.45am from London Gatwick to Porto. Drive to the hotel in the forest of Buçaco, a former summer retreat for the Portuguese royal family. First of two nights in Buçaco.

Day 2: Buçaco. In the forest visit the museum commemorating the Battle of Buçaco, scene of Wellington’s great delaying action during his retreat to Torres Vedras. See also Craufurd’s Mill and the French view from Massena’s hill. There is an optional visit to Wellington’s command post or some free time to explore the grounds of the hotel.

Day 3: Obidos, Roliça, Badajoz (Spain). The long drive today heads south to Obidos, the site of Wellington’s HQ before the battle of Roliça, the British Army’s first battle in the Peninsula. From the battlements of the town we can see the field of Roliça exactly as the Duke did before going to the memorial to the battle in the village through which the British Army advanced. Cross the border into Spain to the frontier town of Badajoz for the first of two nights.

Day 4: Badajoz, La Albuera. The ramparts of Badajoz which provided formidable protection for the French are still intact. The siege ended at tremendous cost with their storming by the British on the night of 6th April 1812, and the army went berserk for 72 hours afterwards. On 16th May 1811 at La Albuera, 15 miles away, was the bloodiest of the major battles; it remains one of the great unspoilt battlefields in the Peninsula.

Day 5: Alcántara, Ciudad Rodrigo. Head north via the Roman bridge in the village of Alcántara. Cross the Sierra de Gata, dividing line between Extremadura and Castilla-León, to Ciudad Rodrigo. Tour the defences, stormed on the night of 19th January 1812. Overnight Ciudad Rodrigo.

Day 6: Ciudad Rodrigo, Fuentes de Oñoro, Nave de Haver, Poço Velho (Portugal). At Ciudad Rodrigo visit the major breach through which the Light Division attacked, the memorial to Black Bob Crawford who died leading them and then the site of the storming by the 3rd Division. Moving through the still battle-scarred town, study the diversionary attack on the opposite walls before the site of the surrender of the French commander. On the border with Portugal lies Fuentes de Oñoro, site of a hard-fought battle in early May 1811 and Nave de Haver and Poço Velho, two of the crucial parts of the initial stages of the battle. Back in Spain, cross the meseta to the city of Salamanca for the first of three nights.

Day 7: Salamanca. The Battle of Salamanca, 22 July 1812, was one of Wellington’s greatest victories. Tour the battlefield in depth, beginning at Miranda de Azán before climbing the Greater Arapil for a grandstand view of the site. In the afternoon visit Garcihernández, scene of the great cavalry charge of the King’s German Legion.

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Day 8: Salamanca. Morning visit of the walls and remains of the three convents that were hastily converted to fortresses around San Vincente in order to protect the main bridge into the town and which had to be taken by storm. Free afternoon in Salamanca, a city architecturally endowed beyond all proportion to its size with two cathedrals, Spain’s oldest university, the most beautiful and animated main square on the Peninsula and countless convents, monasteries and palaces.

Day 9: Burgos, Vitoria. Drive to Burgos, early capital of Castile, with one of Spain’s finest Gothic cathedrals. Visit the remains of the hill-top castle, scene of Wellington’s only major setback in the Peninsula and then the outlying Hornwork which had to be taken before the main defences could be attacked. Overnight Vitoria.

Day 10: Vitoria. Tactically perhaps Wellington’s most brilliant battle, the Battle of Vitoria on 21 June 1813 effectively decided the outcome of the war. It also brought about for the first time Napoleon’s acknowledgement that the Allies had a general who was as good as any he could muster, and news of the victory precipitated the end of the truce in Central Europe and hence to the defeat of the French at Leipzig in October. Drive across the Basque Country and into the foothills of the Pyrenees. Stop at Cadoux’s bridge, scene of the desperate battle on 31st August 1813. First of three nights in Bera (Vera) de Bidasoa.

Day 11: Battle of the Nivelle and Pyrenees. A day dedicated to two battles. Travel by cogwheel railway to the top of the Rhune mountain and from here study the Battle of the Nivelle of 10th November 1813. At Bidart see the grave of the remarkable Lt Col Lloyd, Commanding Officer of 2/84th Regiment and the

church at Arcangues which still bears the marks of its defence by the Light Division.

Day 12: Battle of the Nive. Drive to the site of Wellington’s crossing of the River Bidasoa on 7 October 1813 and the invasion of France. In the afternoon, study the last stages of the Battle of the Nive, 10-13 Dec 1813, from the memorial at Mouguerre. See also the crucial bridge held so gallantly by the 3rd Buffs.

Day 13: San Sebastián. San Sebastián was another triumphant siege for Wellington’s men, but it’s aftermath was almost as disgraceful as that at Badajoz. The castle ramparts give an unparalleled view of the assaults with an excellent museum that shows much of the technical site of siege work. Drive to Bilbao for the flight to London Heathrow, arriving c. 6.15pm.

Practicalities

Price: £3,340 (deposit £300). Single supplement £310 (double room for single occupancy). Single supplement £330 (double for single occupancy). Suite supplement in Bera £60 (based on two sharing only). Price without flights £3,200.

Included meals: 2 lunches (including one picnic) and 9 dinners with wine.

Accommodation. Buçaco Palace (bussacopalace.com): comparable to a 4-star, one of the great hotels of Portugal in a turn-of-the-century palace. Hotel Zurbarán, Badajoz (granhotelzurbaranbadajoz.com): a functional 4-star in the centre of town with adequately comfortable rooms. Parador Ciudad Rodrigo (parador.es): 4-star parador installed in a 14th-century castle with splendid public areas. NH Puerta de la Catedral (nh-hotels.com): an

attractive 4-star hotel in a converted presbytery, a few metres from the Cathedral. Hotel Ciudad de Vitoria (hotelciudaddevitoria.com): a stylish 4-star hotel, a short walk from the centre of town. Hotel Churrut, Bera de Bidasoa (hotelchurrut.com): a 3-star hotel installed in an 18th-century military building; family owned and managed with 17 spacious rooms; well-furnished and comfortable sitting areas. The majority of included dinners are in the hotels.

How strenuous? This is a long tour involving six hotels and a lot of walking, some of it across uneven, countryside terrain and uphill. Fitness and sure-footedness are essential. There is also a fair amount of standing around on site. Transfer days involve lengthy coach journeys. Average distance by coach per day: about 100 miles.


Combine this tour with Aragón, 29 September–7 October (page 194).

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France

Porto

Buçaco

Badajoz

Ciudad RodrigoSalamanca

VitoriaBera de Bidasoa

MoroccoAlger i a

Por tuga l

c. 50 miles

The battle of the Pyrenees, wood engraving c. 1860

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The Lucerne FestivalMusic in Switzerland

15–20 August 2015 (mb 415)6 days • £3,290(including tickets for 6 concerts)Lecturer: Professor Stephen Walsh

A summer music festival of the first rank in the loveliest of Swiss cities.

Conductors include Daniel Barenboim, Bernard Haitink and Andris Nelsons, and among the soloists are Isabelle Faust, Kristian Bezuidenhout and Matthias Goerne.

Led by musicologist Professor Stephen Walsh, who gives daily talks on the concerts.

Ever since its inauguration over seventy years ago, with a concert conducted by Arturo Toscanini in the grounds of the lakeside house where Wagner had stayed, the Lucerne Festival has been regarded as one of the most prestigious music festivals in Europe.

The event has been further enhanced by a brilliant venue. The KKL (Kultur- und Kongresszentrum) is a giant glass-and-steel arts complex located right on the lake just a few hundred yards from the old town of Lucerne. Designed by Frenchman Jean Nouvel and completed in 2000, this is modern European architecture at its finest. Its colossal cantilevered roof projects over the water’s edge, bringing the changing moods of the lake right into the building, and water channels separate the various wings. The most advanced acoustical science has been lavished on the beautiful Konzertsaal.

And could there be a lovelier city in which to attend a summer music festival? Lucerne occupies one of the most picturesque settings

in Switzerland, divided into two parts by its river, bordering on the dramatic shores of the Vierwaldstätter Lake and overlooked by craggy mountains. Its mediaeval prosperity is still visible in the squares, guildhalls and churches that line its riverbanks. The nineteenth century was a heyday for Lucerne as it led the way in attracting tourism to Switzerland.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 9.45am from London Heathrow to Zurich. Drive to Lucerne, a lively, historic city amidst lake and mountain. Early evening dinner followed by a concert with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and Bernard Haitink (conductor): Haydn, Symphony No.45 (Farewell Symphony); Mahler, Symphony No.4.

Day 2. The first of two walking tours of Lucerne, starting at the oldest road bridge in Europe, the richly decorated Chapel Bridge, and continuing to the Spreuerbrücke, another historic covered bridge notable for its ‘Dance of Death’ roof panels. See the Rococo interior of the huge Jesuit Church and the 13th-century Franciscan Church. After lunch a concert at the Lukaskirche with Isabelle Faust (violin), Kristian Bezuidenhout (piano): Bach, Sonatas for violin and harpsichord BWV 1014, 1016 and 1019; Johann Jakob Froberger, Partita for harpsichord in C; Biber, Sonata for violin and harpsichord, Passacaglia for violin. This is shortly followed by an evening concert with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim (conductor): Debussy, ‘Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune’; Boulez, ‘Dérive II’; Tchaikovsky, Symphony No.4, Op.36.

Day 3. The village of Beromünster has an 11th-century church containing fine carved

choir stalls, altar frontals and a rare collection of mediaeval church treasures, some dating from the 7th–century. Return to Lucerne for a free afternoon, a chance to visit the Sammlung Rosengart, an extraordinary collection devoted to 20th-century art including many works by Picasso. Evening concert with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim (conductor): Wagner, Overture to ‘Tannhäuser’; Beethoven, Triple Concerto in C, Op.56; Schoenberg, ‘Pelleas et Melisande’, Op.5.

Day 4. Second installment of the walking tour of Lucerne. Starting at the Hofkirche, a 17th-century church with a lovely Italianate cloister and two Romanesque towers, visit the city’s chief 19th–century monuments including the famous Löwendenkmal, a great lion-statue hewn from a cliff-face in 1821 in honour of Swiss mercenaries killed in the French Revolution, and the Bourbaki Panorama, a giant circular mural depicting events of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Optional afternoon visit to Richard Wagner’s home on a headland by the lake where the composer spent some of his happiest years. Evening concert with Festival Strings Lucerne, Yaara Tal and Andreas Groethuysen (piano): Britten, Simple Symphony Op.4; Mozart, Concerto in E flat for two pianos K.365; Milhaud, ‘The Ox on the Roof ’ Op.58; Saint-Saëns, ‘The Carnival of the Animals.’

Day 5. All-day excursion to Mount Rigi, traversing lake Lucerne by boat and taking the funicular to the summit, a majestic 360° panorama with views of the Swiss plateau. Lunch on the mountainside before returning to Lucerne. Evening concert with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Andris Nelsons (conductor), Matthias Goerne (baritone): Mahler, Lieder from ‘The Youth’s Magic Horn’ & Symphony No.5.

Day 6. Drive to Zurich Airport for the return flight to London Heathrow, arriving c. 2.15pm.

Practicalities

Price: £3,290 (deposit £300). Single supplement £90 (room with single bed) or £270 (double for single occupancy). Price without flights £3,070.

Included meals: 3 lunches and 2 dinners with wine, and interval snacks at 1 performance.

Music: tickets (first category) for 6 concerts are included, costing c. £860. To be confirmed in March 2015.

Accommodation. The Romantik Hotel Wilden Mann is a 4-star hotel dating back to the 13th century located in the heart of the historic town centre. All double rooms in the hotel have two single mattresses on one bed frame, as is the usual style in Switzerland. Single rooms have a single mattress. Double rooms for single occupancy can be requested, subject to availability and for a supplement.

How strenuous? Some walking is essential. The concert hall is located half a mile from the hotel. Average distance by coach per day: c. 16 miles.


Lucerne, wood engraving c. 1890

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IstanbulByzantine & Ottoman metropolis

13–19 September 2015 (mc 436)7 days • £2,570Lecturer: Jane Taylor

An extraordinarily diverse city: Roman remains; outstanding Byzantine buildings; glorious mosaics and frescoes; Ottoman mosques and palaces.

Stay in the heart of the Sultanahmet area.

The radical transformations this city underwent are vividly expressed by its changes of name: Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul. The capital successively of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, it is one of the most beautiful and fascinating cities in the world.

Initially a modest Greek city, it was chosen by Constantine as the site of the new capital of the Roman Empire and inaugurated in ad 330. The Byzantine Empire continued in direct succession to the Roman, and its capital became one of the largest cities in mediaeval Europe, the guardian of classical culture and a bastion of Orthodox Christianity.

The city walls were the most powerful in the western world, and while the Byzantine empire gradually shrank before the onslaughts of Persians, Arabs and Latin Crusaders, it was not finally extinguished until 1453 when Ottoman Turks captured the city.

In the century and a half after the Ottoman conquest the city steadily acquired some of the finest Islamic architecture in the world, aided by the example of Haghia Sophia, the architect Sinan and the brilliant tile factories at Iznik.

Minarets and mosques now dominate the skyline, but churches, temples, palaces and other pre-Ottoman buildings, whole or fragmentary, and the arts which decorated them, are to be found in abundance.

Istanbul has evolved into a melting-pot of cultures, with a lively streetlife and colourful bazaars. The city’s international outlook is epitomised by its division between Europe and Asia, now linked by modern bridges crossing the mighty Bosphorus, and a new underwater railway tunnel.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at 11.30am (Turkish Airlines) from London Heathrow to Istanbul. Arrive early evening and drive to the historic quarter of Sultanahmet for the first of six nights.

Day 2. A short stroll around the Hippodrome, originally constructed c. ad 200 by Septimius Severus, it was completely rebuilt on a larger scale by Constantine and inaugurated in ad 330. The day is then spent concentrating on the Byzantine monuments. Begin with Haghia Sophia, the 6th-century church which is the chief monument of Christian Constantinople. Part of the ornamental pavement of the Byzantine Great Palace is displayed in the small Mosaic Museum. Fethiye Camii, former church of the Pammakaristos, now part functioning mosque, part mosaic museum. The Kariye Museum (church of St Saviour in Chora) possesses the

finest assemblage of Byzantine mosaics and frescoes to survive anywhere.

Day 3. Yerebatan Saray is a remarkable colonnaded cistern. The Archaeological Museum has an outstanding collection of ancient art and artefacts, Hellenistic and Roman sculpture, and sarcophagi. Visit the mosque complex of Sultan Beyazit II, with fine portals, minarets and courtyards. Optional walk through the Grand Bazaar and free time.

Day 4. Sultan Ahmet Camii (Blue Mosque) is the last of Istanbul’s imperial mosques. Contrast the large and imposing Süleymaniye complex (the tombs are currently undergoing restoration), masterpiece of the great architect Sinan, with his beautiful small Rüstem Pasha Camii. Brief walk through the Spice Bazaar. The excellent Islamic Museum in the Ibrahim Pasha Palace has textiles and various artefacts. Finish with another small Sinan mosque, the Sokollu Mehmet Pasha Camii.

Day 5. Topkapı Palace was the Sultan’s residence and the political centre of the Ottoman Empire. Now used to display the Imperial Treasury, it contains the finest surviving collection of Islamic precious objects and an outstanding collection of Chinese porcelain. Free afternoon.

Day 6. Travel by private boat along the Bosphorus, the historic and beautiful strait which divides Europe from Asia, for superb views of Istanbul and the villas and castles of its suburbs. See Beylerbeyi Palace, an imperial summer residence during the late Ottoman Empire. The Sadberk Hanim Museum is a mansion with

fine collections spanning the whole period of Anatolian civilizations .

Day 7. Drive beside the Golden Horn to the suburb of Eyüp where there is an important Islamic shrine. Continue along the massive Byzantine land walls to the Yediküle Fortress. Fly from Istanbul, arriving Heathrow c. 3.15pm.

Practicalities



Visas: entry visas for Turkey can no longer be obtained on arrival and must be secured prior to arrival (this can be done online).

Accommodation. Hotel Eresin Crown, Istanbul (eresincrown.com.tr): an elegant 5-star hotel in the heart of the Sultanahmet, close to the Blue Mosque. Rooms are stylishly furnished and well equipped. It also has a roof terrace with views of the Sea of Marmara.

How strenuous? You will be on your feet a lot, walking and standing around, and Istanbul is quite hilly. This tour is not suitable for anyone who has difficulties with walking or negotiating stairs. Average distance by coach per day: 9 miles.


Combine this tour with Art in Madrid, 16–20 September (page 193) or Siena & San Gimignano, 30 September–4 October (page 135).

Istanbul, watercolour by Robert Hichens, publ. 1911

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Classical TurkeyGreeks & Romans in Anatolia

11–20 May 2015 (mb 319)10 days • £3,430Lecturer: Henry Hurst

The most prosperous region of the ancient Mediterranean world.

The finest collection of Hellenistic and Roman city ruins to be found anywhere.

All the major sites and many which are off the beaten track or difficult to get to.

Scenically varied and spectacular: coast, mountain and plain.

The Turks were latecomers to Turkey. Greeks had settled on the western fringes over two thousand years before and, as recounted in The Iliad, had been meddling in Anatolian affairs a few centuries earlier still.

After the demise of the Mycenaean civilization of Homer’s heroes, large numbers of Hellenes migrated from Greece to Aegean Anatolia and its offshore islands. First, around 1100 bc, Aeolians came to settle in the northern part of this coastal area, then Ionians moved into terrain further down the coast, to be followed at the end of the tenth-century by Dorians who established themselves yet further south.

They founded cities all along the Aegean coast and in due course along the river valleys into the heart of Anatolia and along the Mediterranean coast to the south. Most of the peoples the Greeks encountered eventually became Hellenised.

No less than the Greeks of Greece proper, Asian Greeks contributed to the ‘Greek miracle’ by supplying philosophers, mathematicians, sculptors, architects and other civilization-

builders of genius. The canon of classical architecture owes much to the Asian cities – not least the Ionic order, which appears in the gigantic temples of the Ionic coast, prodigies of architecture produced by the confluence of civilisations in the region.

The Asian Greek cities succumbed willingly to Alexander. Freed from the Persian threat, they piled up the riches – material and architectural – of the Hellenistic period and became more numerous, more prosperous and more progressive than the western Greeks. They slipped with equal ease into membership of the Roman Empire.

Imperial Rome was besotted by the Greek achievement. Greek culture proved more enduring than Roman, and after the fifth-century collapse of the western empire the use of Latin soon languished. Despite the subsequent collapse of trade, the destruction of the Aegean cities by the Sassanids and the invasions of Anatolia by Selçuk and Ottoman Turks, the Greek language and other aspects of Greek culture and Christianity, the new religion of the Greeks, were never entirely extinguished in Asia Minor.

The abandoned ancient cities now comprise the most magnificent set of Archaic, Classical and, particularly, Hellenistic and Roman remains. While the proximity of some of the sites to holiday resorts and cruise ports means

that they are also among the most visited, others are still relatively difficult of access and far from the beaten track. And the settings are usually ravishing: whether coastal, mountain or plateau, the landscapes provide a backdrop for this tour of extraordinary beauty.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 11.25am (Turkish Airlines) from London Heathrow to Izmir (via Istanbul). Dinner in the hotel. First of three nights in Izmir.

Day 2: Pergamon. Under the Hellenistic Attalid dynasty, Pergamon became the most powerful city-state in Asia Minor, rivalling Athens and Alexandria as a centre of culture. On a steep-sided hill are remains of Attalid palaces, Temple of Dionysus and Altar of Zeus (most of which is now in Berlin), the Greek theatre and remains of the library, Temple of Athena and Attalid palaces. The Asclepieon and ‘Temple of Serapis’ (Red Fort) lie on flat ground below. Overnight Izmir.

Day 3: Sardis, Izmir. Drive inland to Sardis, capital of the Kingdom of Lydia, whose last independent ruler was the fabulously wealthy Croesus (560–546 bc), it later became an important Roman city. See the impressive remains of the Temple of Artemis, the reconstructed ‘Marble Court’, gymnasium and the 3rd-century synagogue, the largest in the ancient world. Free time in Izmir, Greek Smyrna.

Day 4: Ephesus. Drive south to Ephesus, the principal port and commercial centre on the Aegean coast under the Roman Empire and capital of the province of Asia, with a population of 400,000 in the 2nd-century ad. The most popular pagan pilgrimage destination in the Graeco-Roman world, the city was also key to the development of Christianity. Ruined by the sedimentation of its estuary and finally sacked in the 7th-century, Ephesus has become the most extensively excavated site of the ancient world. Begin with the remains of the Temple of Artemis, before the first visit to the main site which has an abundance of paved streets, public buildings, temples, gymnasia and courtyard houses. Among the more striking buildings are the Library of Celsus and the theatre, originally seating 24,000 and scene of the protest against St Paul described in the Acts of the Apostles. First of three nights in Kusadasi.

Day 5: Priene, Didyma, Miletus. A small city of the Dodecapolis in southern Ionia, Priene is magnificently sited above the Maeander plain. Its hillside site ill-suiting it for Roman commerce, the remains date largely from the late Classical and early Hellenistic periods, and it exhibits one of the earliest of grid street layouts. The Temple of Athena Polias at the summit was designed by the architect Pythius. Didyma was a sanctuary with an oracle which, for a time, rivalled that at Delphi. Impressive remains of the colossal Hellenistic Temple of Apollo. Miletus, massive, well-preserved Roman theatre, baths of Faustina, wife of Marcus Aurelius. Overnight Kusadasi.

Day 6: Selçuk, Ephesus. Morning visit of the Temple of Apollo at Claros befire returning to Ephesus, steel engraving c. 1840

“The choice of itinerary was first class and the reason we booked this tour. Every day was used to full advantage.”

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Selçuk to see the restored Basilica of St John at the top of Ayasuluk hill, and the Isla Bey mosque at the bottom. A second visit to the vast site of Ephesus, or a free afternoon in the coastal town of Kusadasi.

Day 7: Aphrodisias. Leave the coast and drive into the interior of Anatolia. One of the most beautiful classical sites in Turkey, Aphrodisias was the centre of a Roman cult of Aphrodite. An important school for the production of high quality and widely exported sculpture, there are many fine examples in the museum. Among the architectural remains are the Temple of Aphrodite and the largest and most complete stadium to have survived from the ancient world. Drive to Antalya for the first of three nights there.

Day 8: Antalya. Founded by (and named after) Attalus II of Pergamum, Antalya was the principal port in Pamphylia in ancient and Byzantine times. The morning is spent exploring the old town with its restored Ottoman period houses, this is followed by a free afternoon.

Day 9: Perge, Aspendos, Termessos, Antalya. Colonised by the Greeks after the Trojan War, Perge has substantial Hellenistic and Roman gates and colonnaded streets. While the Roman aqueduct at Aspendos is the best-preserved in Asia Minor, the marvellously complete theatre is the best-preserved in the whole of the Roman world. Afternoon visit to the one of the country’s finest archaeological museums with exhibits from prehistory to Ottoman. Final night in Antalya.

Day 10. Fly from Antalya (via Istanbul) arriving London Heathrow c. 3.15pm.

Practicalities

Price: £3,430 (deposit £350). Single supplement £380 (double room for single occupancy). Price without all flights £3,080.

Included meals: 8 lunches (some are picnics) and 8 dinners with wine.


Accommodation. Hilton, Izmir (hilton.co.uk/izmir): a large, modern 5-star hotel overlooking the Citadel and old port. Double Tree by Hilton, Kusadasi (doubletree3.hilton.com): a modern 4-star hotel. Tuavana Hotel, Antalya (tuvanahotel.com): a beautiful converted traditional house now a boutique hotel within the old city walls.

How strenuous? The tour covers long distances by coach, and on some days there are several hours of driving. There are two hotel changes. There is a lot of walking over the very rough terrain of partially excavated archaeological sites. Some visits require an uphill walk to reach the site. Agility and stamina are essential. Average distance by coach per day: 80 miles.

Group size: 10 to 22 participants.

Combine this tour with Classical Greece, 2–11 May (page 99) or Ravenna & Urbino, 6–10 May (page 128).

Central AnatoliaCappadocia & the civilizations at the heart of Turkey

9–21 April 2015 (mb 282)13 days • £4,080Lecturer: Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones

Endlessly fascinating journey through an extraordinary variety of landscapes and civilizations in Central Anatolia.

From the ancient capital of the Hittites to Turkey’s modern capital, Ankara.

Some of the finest examples of Seljuk architecture including the unesco listed complex at Divriği.

Turkey is changing rapidly, but many aspects of traditional life continue.

At the centre of Anatolia lies a limestone plateau, crumpled and eroded, with mountainous barriers at the rim. A land-bridge between Asia and Europe, this unpromising terrain has perhaps been traversed by a greater variety of peoples and cultures than any comparable part of the world.

Diversity is the hallmark of Central Anatolia. There is land blessed with exceptional fertility, emblazoned with a patchwork of greens and golds; and there are vast vistas of inhospitable rolling hills, parched and bereft of topsoil. Forests sprout around turbulent valley streams; elsewhere desolate, dead-flat, arid plains stretch to distant horizons. In Cappadocia the volcanic tufa has been whipped by wind and rain into clusters of billowing cones, cascades of frolicking rock and other bizarre geomorphic contortions.

Equally diverse are the civilizations which have made their mark. Here can be found the site

of what is generally held to be the world’s oldest town, Çatal Höyük. Vast towns were built by the Hittites–a people strangely little-known in the English-speaking world but, for periods during the second millennium bc, second only to the Egyptians as a power in the lands around the eastern Mediterranean. They were succeeded by Phrygians, the people of King Midas. Greeks and Persians followed, and fought; the brief rule of Alexander and his Macedonians was continued under the Seleucids.

Invaded variously by migrants, conquerors, adventurers and traders, Anatolia was progressively part orientalised and part Hellenised, but indigenous characteristics remained. The Pontic kingdom was a native kingdom, which under Mithridates valiantly if cruelly resisted Roman might, but by 50 bc Central Anatolia was under Roman rule as the province of Asia Minor. When five centuries later Europe ceased to be Roman and the eastern half of the empire was ruled from Constantinople (formerly Byzantium), Anatolia found itself to be the home counties of the Roman world, a world which was now Christian. Monks and hermits cut dwellings and churches in the pliable rock of Cappadocia, and Christian communities continued there into the last century.

Islam encroached when the Seljuk Turks from the Central Asian steppes rapidly extended their empire and wrested part of Anatolia from the Byzantines after their victory of 1071. Among their legacy is the mosque and hospital in Divriği, a masterpiece of Islamic architecture. The Turkish advance continued under the Ottomans until Byzantium finally fell in 1453.

Boghazköy, lithograph c. 1840

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Central Anatoliacontinued

Traditional ways of life continue in central Turkey, seemingly oblivious to the encroachments of the modern world and the thoroughly westernised sectors of society–another instance of diversity.

The best finds from sites visited are now in the excellent Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara. More than mere witnesses to lost civilizations, many of the objects are endowed with compelling sculptural force and decorative beauty; the museum is as much a collection of great art as of archaeology. An important feature of this tour is that there are two visits to the museum, one at the beginning and one at the end of the tour, thus enabling much more sense to be made of both the objects and the sites they came from.

Few journeys in the Old World are as stimulating or as varied as this survey of the Turkish heartlands.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 11.35am (Turkish Airlines) from London Heathrow to Ankara (via Istanbul). First of three nights in Ankara.

Day 2: Ankara. Installed in a 15th-century market hall and recently renovated, the Museum of Anatolian Civilization has a wonderful collection of art and artefacts from many of the sites on the tour. After lunch visit the Atatürk Mausoleum, a revered shrine to the creator of modern Turkey.

Day 3: Gordion, Ankara. Morning drive to Gordion, site of the Phrygian capital where Alexander cut the knot and where Midas is reputedly buried. The afternoon is free to walk up to the massive Byzantine and Seljuk walls of the citadel; here survives a traditional village apparently oblivious to the seething modern city spread over the surrounding hills.

Day 4: Boghazköy (Hattusas, Yazilikaya), Alaca Höyük. In remote hill country to the east of Ankara, commanding an immense landscape, lies the site of Hattusas, the Hittite capital of the 2nd millennium bc. Of staggering size (the perimeter wall is 7km), it retains the main gateways and figurative carvings in a temple of Yazilikaya across a gorge just outside the city. The Bronze Age site (c. 2300 bc) of Alaca Höyük has an imposing Sphinx gateway and has yielded a collection of precious objects of highly accomplished workmanship. Overnight in Çorum.

Day 5: Amasya, Sivas. Nestling in a deep valley and with old Ottoman houses overhanging the River Yesilirmak, Amasya is one of the loveliest towns in Anatolia. Capital of the Pontic kingdom, there are remains of the hilltop palace and rock-cut royal tombs in the cliffs overlooking the town. Continue to Sivas with traditional architecture, Seljuk and Ottoman monuments. First of two nights in Sivas.

Day 6: Divriği. A beautiful drive through the Anatolian plains with snow capped mountains to the Great Mosque and Hospital at Divriği. Built in the early 13th cent. the building is famed for

its three unique decorated doorways carved with vegetal, geometrical, star and knotted motifs, the quality of which are unrivalled in the region. Largely unknown to visitors to Turkey it is one of unesco’s least visited world heritage sites but one of Turkey’s most splendid.

Day 7: Sivas, Kayseri. Sivas, which preceded Konya as the regional Seljuk capital, has some of the finest remaining architecture of the 13th century including a complex of colleges and minarets and an attractive old quarter and Ottoman structures. Drive through mountainous terrain to Kayseri. Overnight Kayseri.

Day 8: Kayseri, Cappadocia. Kayseri (formerly Caesarea), was the capital of Roman Cappadocia and includes a Byzantine fortress, Islamic buildings including the Great Mosque with re-used Corinthian columns, and an intriguing ethnographic museum. The archaeological site of Kültepe was a settlement of 1800 bc with a colony of Assyrians. Continue to Cappadocia for the first of three nights in Uçhisar.

Day 9: Soganli, Eski Gümüs. Drive through a gorge which in addition to geological oddities has tumble-down villages, orchards and small holdings. The Soganli valley has many dwellings and churches cut into the rock, the finest of

all remnants of Byzantine Cappadocia is the monastery at Eski Gümüs.

Day 10: Goreme. Morning visit of the spectacular Goreme open-air museum. The rest of the afternoon is free to explore the landscape on foot (there are several walking trails).

Day 11: Ihlara Valley, Sultanhani. Whole morning walking through the deep Ihlara Gorge with abundant flora, fauna and rock-cut Byzantine churches including Güzelyurt, birthplace of St Gregory. Drive westwards across a plain to Sultanhani, a splendid 13th-cent. caravanserai, with a cathedral-like five-aisled main hall. Continue to Konya, where two nights are spent.

Day 12: Konya, Çatal Höyük. The capital of the 13th-cent. Seljuk empire and home of Sufism, Konya remains the religious centre of Turkey. Visit the Mevlana Tekke, monastery of the Whirling Dervishes, with its turquoise dome and collection of Islamic art. The Karatay Madrasa with its marvellous Seljuk tiles is now a museum of ceramics. Afternoon excursion to Çatal Höyük, the most important Neolithic site in Turkey and probably the earliest town in the world (c. 6000 bc).

Day 13. Free morning in Konya before flying from Konya to Istanbul, and on to London Heathrow, arriving at c. 9.15pm.

Practicalities


Included meals: 12 lunches, 12 dinners with wine (where available).


Accommodation. Divan Çukurhan, Ankara (divan.com.tr): a restored 17th cent. caravanserai located opposite to the main entrance of the Ankara Citadel. Anitta, Çorum (anittahotel.com): small 4-star hotel, in a central location and with all facilities. Büyük Hotel, Sivas (sivasbuyukotel.com): a large good standard hotel close the main square. Hilton, Kayseri (hilton.com.tr). Museum Hotel, Uçhisar (museum-hotel.com): a beautiful boutique hotel with views of Cappadocia, one of the finest in the region. Hich Hotel, Konya (hichhotel.com): a restored Konak building with views of the Mevlana.

How strenuous? A long and demanding tour with some early starts and days with a lot of coach travel (but roads are good and the coach carries refreshments). Participants should be able to manage everyday walking and stairclimbing without difficulty. Archaeological sites involve scrambling over rough terrain and sure-footedness is essential. Average distance by coach per day: 103 miles.


Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-JonesSenior Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Edinburgh and a specialist in the history and culture of ancient Iran, the Near East

and Greece. His books include Ctesias’ History of Persia, Creating a Hellenistic World and King & Court in Ancient Persia.

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones also leads Persia (page 111).All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

Höyük, wood engraving 1896210

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Eastern TurkeyArchaeology, architecture, history & landscapes

9–24 May 2015 (mb 309)16 days • £4,460Lecturer: Rowena Loverance

3–18 October 2015 (mc 472)16 days • £4,460Lecturer: Rowena Loverance

A journey through lesser-known Turkey from Gaziantep to Lake Van, to Mount Ararat and the Black Sea.

Wide-ranging themes, spectacular landscapes and varied architecture.

Mountains, valleys, plains and coast; Byzantine and Georgian churches, Seljuk mosques and Armenian monasteries.

Tells a story as much about the neighbouring countries it doesn’t visit as the country it does.

The majestic scenery of eastern Anatolia is the setting for this ambitious tour, which, while remaining firmly within the borders of modern-day Turkey, encompasses an extraordinary range of historic and contemporary cultures. From the broad river valleys of the south to the vertiginous Alpine passes in the north, this part of Anatolia has always been a crossroads, whether for Abraham, patriarch of the three Near Eastern faiths, as he followed the Fertile Crescent from Ur to Canaan, or for the Greek mercenaries hired to fight for the Persian king Cyrus, who had to make their way back to their homeland across the Anatolian plateau and the Pontic Mountains.

The tour journeys through the cradle of civilization between the Euphrates and the Tigris, where human settlement in the towns of Urfa and Harran goes back to the fifth millennium bc. It includes a Neolithic religious sanctuary, Urartian citadels and Roman frontier towns, Byzantine churches and Seljuk mosques and madrassas. It reveals cultures and civilizations which have almost disappeared from the historical record – early Christian monasteries of the Tur Abdin, Georgian churches of Tao-Klarjeti and the lost Armenian city of Ani. It even takes in the sites of two mediaeval coronations – of the Armenian king Gagik Artzruni on the island of Aktamar in 908 and the Byzantine emperor of Trebizond, Alexius III Comnenos, at the monastery of Sümela in 1349.

Far from being backward-looking, though, this tour offers a remarkable opportunity to meet people trying to forge their present-day identities: the Kurds of Diyarbakir, the Syrian Orthodox monks and nuns of the Tur Abdin and of course, the Muslim population of Turkey itself, whose efforts to work out what it means to live in a secular Islamic country are and will continue to be of huge significance for us all.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at 12 midday (Turkish Airlines) from London Heathrow to Istanbul and then to Gaziantep, reaching the hotel c. 11.30pm (total time in the air: c. 4 hours 30 mins). Overnight in Gaziantep.

Day 2: Gaziantep to Şanliurfa. After a leisurely start, visit the Gaziantep Museum, home to one of Turkey’s most extraordinary collections of mosaics, relocated from the nearby site of Zeugma before the area was flooded by the construction of the Birecik Dam. The mosaics, dating from the 2nd and 3rd centuries bc, are testament to the wealth of the region and are amongst the finest examples anywhere to be found. Drive to the banks of the Euphrates for a boat excursion before continuing to Şanliurfa. First of two nights in Şanliurfa.

Day 3: Şanliurfa, Harran. Şanliurfa, or Ancient Edessa as named by Alexander the Great, an early Christian centre of learning and now a pilgrimage town for Muslims. See the complex of 12th-century mosques purported to mark Abraham’s birthplace and the citadel which dominates the skyline. In the afternoon visit Harran, settled since the 5th millennium bc and crossroads of trade routes linking Assyria to Anatolia. See the beehive houses scattered throughout the plain and the archaeological remains of the 8th-century Ulu Camii and Crusader Citadel. Overnight Şanliurfa.

Day 4: Şanliurfa to Mardin. With views of the Taurus mountain range drive through groves of olive trees into the surrounding hills to see the extraordinary excavations at Göbekli Tepe. Dated to c. 10,000 bc, it is perhaps the earliest known man-made place of worship and challenges

current ideas about the Neolithic. Continue East, driving parallel to the Syrian border, to Mardin, with Artukid monuments and tiers of stone-built houses. Spend the first of two nights in Mardin.

Day 5: Tur Abdin, Mardin. All day excursion to visit the Syrian orthodox limestone monasteries in the remote Tur Abdin. Deyrul Zafaran, built in 495 and once the seat of the Syrian Orthodox patriarch has some beautiful stone work in the chapel which holds the patriarchal throne. Mor Gabriel, surrounded by pistachio trees, now largely restored dates from 397 and is still a working monastery. The Church of the Mother of God at Anitli is little visited but with its colonnaded tower and intricate stone-carving is one of the most beautiful in the Tur Abdin. Overnight Mardin.

Day 6: Dara, Diyarbakir. Visit Dara, the remains of a Roman city built in the 6th century to protect the Roman border with Sassanian Persia (we are currently unable to drive from Diyarbakir to Van due to FCO advice). See the necropolis, church and water cistern, so vast in size it exceeds even the Basilica cistern in Istanbul. Continue to Diyarbakir renowned for its basalt architecture and as a symbol of Kurdish identity. See the Byzantine walls and the Ulu Camii with its adjoining madrassa; built in 1091, the first of the Seljuk mosques of Anatolia, but retaining Byzantine elements. Overnight Diyarbakir.

Kars, steel engraving c. 1840 from The Age We Live In: A History of the 19th century

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Eastern Turkeycontinued

Day 7: Diyarbakir to Van. Take a late morning flight from Diyarbakir to Ankara, connecting with the early afternoon flight to Van (we are currently unable to drive from Diyarbakir to Van due to FCO advice). Arrive at the hotel at c. 5.00pm. First of three nights at Lake Van.

Day 8: Akdamar Island. Take a boat to the 10th-century Church of the Holy Cross, seat of Armenian king Gagik Artzruni, who was crowned here in 908. Built in 921, the church is made of local sandstone with a pyramidal roof and 13th-century bell tower. Faded frescoes adorn the interior, while the exterior has relief carvings of Biblical stories, mythological animals and Gagik himself. A verdant enclave surrounded by pea-green waters and snow capped mountains, the setting is idyllic. Lunch on the lake, the rest of the afternoon is free. Overnight Lake Van.

Day 9: Van, Çavuştepe. Capital of the kingdom of Urartu in the 9th century bc, Van (ancient Tushpa) was rival to Assyria. Explore the massive steep-sided Van Castle, first investigated by Austen Henry Layard in the 1840s, and the trilingual inscription from the time of Xerxes which contributed to the decipherment of cuneiform. At Çavuştepe, from the same era, see the basalt foundations of the fortress-palace of Sarduri-Hinili, the sacrifice area, open-air temple, cemetery and cisterns. Continue to the magnificent Hosap Castle, the finest example of a Kurdish castle to be found anywhere in Turkey. Overnight at Lake Van.

Day 10: Mount Ararat, Kars. Drive through the Artüs Mountain range toward the Iranian border, to the İshak Paşa Palace positioned at the base of Mount Ararat. A magnificent example of 18th-century Ottoman architecture, it is a fascinating mixture of architectural styles:

Seljuk, Iranian, Georgian and Armenian. Drive up through pasture land and fields of poppies following the Armenian border north to plateaus with spectacular mountain vistas. First of two nights in Kars.

Day 11: Ani, Kars. Once the capital of mediaeval Armenia, Ani is now a deserted city standing sentinel above the Arpaçay river, the border between Turkey and Armenia. Its walls, towers and minarets retain many of their foundation inscriptions, and its ruined churches and cathedral display the variety and quality of Armenian architecture. Unlike Ani, Kars bears the marks of subsequent Ottoman and Russian occupation. Visit the Armenian Church of the Holy Apostles and the Seljuk castle and Ulu Camii. In the evening there is a performance at the Kars Cultural Centre. Overnight Kars.

Day 12: Kars to Erzurum. Follow the Aras river west through the Aladaglar mountains; magical scenery of fields of gorse and fern, pristine river beds and deep ravines. Pass the beautiful six-arched Çobandede bridge over the Aras. In Erzurum, the principal city of eastern Anatolia, visit the magnificent Seljuk Ulu Camii, with its wooden dome, and also the twin-minareted Çifte Minare Medrese, its entrance adorned with stalactite porches. First of two nights in Erzurum.

Day 13: Ösk Vank, Khakhuli, Erzurum. All day excursion to visit the 10th century Georgian monasteries of Ösk Vank and Khakhuli north of Erzurum. Known as Tao-Klarjeti, this area was an important part of medieval Georgia, ruled by the Bagratid kings. Both monasteries were founded by David the Great: Khakhuli, an important literary centre, retains its cross-dome triple-apsed church, with fine relief carvings and frescoes still surviving. Ösk Vank is even more impressive, with scallop-shell arches, high relief mouldings and sculpted column capitals. Overnight Erzurum.

Day 14: From Erzurum to Trabzon. Drive north through the Pontic Alps, in the steps of Xenophon’s Ten Thousand with spectacular views. Along the Karasu, the northernmost branch of the Euphrates, to Aşkale, with its ruined Byzantine fortress. Over the 2390m Kopdagi Pass, the Black Sea watershed, into the Çoruh valley, passing the huge fortress of Bayburt. Over the Zigana Pass, where the Ten Thousand caught their first glimpse of the sea. Descend through temperate forests to Trabzon, the historic port town on the Black Sea. Visit the Pavilion where Atatürk stayed in 1924. First of two nights in Trabzon.

Day 15: Sümela Monastery, Trabzon. To Sümela Monastery, founded in the 4th century, it clings to sheer rock facing the Al tindere Valley. Though in a ruinous state, many of the monastic buildings survive, with 18th- and some 14th-century frescoes. In Trabzon, visit the beautiful late-Byzantine church of Aya Sophia, with 13th-century frescoes and frieze. Overnight Trabzon.

Day 16. Fly from Trabzon (via Istanbul) arriving Heathrow at c. 3.15pm.

Practicalities


Included meals: 13 lunches (including one picnic), 14 dinners with wine where available.


Accommodation. Tugcan Hotel, Gazinatep (tugcanhotel.com.tr): comfortable 5 star hotel. El Ruha Hotel, Şanliurfa (hotelruha.com): a centrally located 5 star hotel which features traditional architecture and palace like exteriors. Zinciriye Hotel, Mardin (zinciriye.com.tr): a 4-star hotel in the centre of town with well-equipped and comfortable rooms. Hotel Büyük Kurvansaray, Diyarbakir (kervansarayotel.com.tr): a converted Caravanserai with magnificent basalt-stone courtyard. Rescate Hotel, Van (rescatehotel.com): five star hotel set back from the shores of Lake Van; bedrooms are spacious with views of the lake. Hotel Cheltikov, Kars (hotelcheltikov.com): 4-star hotel within a restored historical building, orignally built in 1874. Hotel Polat Renaissance, Erzurum (polatrenaissance.com): 5-star hotel with all expected amenities in the mountains above Erzurum. Zorlu Grand Hotel, Trabzone (zorlugrand.com): 4-star hotel with roof-top restaurant and views of the Black Sea.

How strenuous? A long and demanding tour with some early starts and days with a lot of coach travel (but roads are good and the coach carries refreshments). Participants should be able to manage everyday walking and stairclimbing without difficulty. Archaeological sites involve scrambling over rough terrain and sure-footedness is essential. The average distance by coach per day is c. 71 miles.


“I thought this trip was outstanding, in conception, input and execution.”

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Şanliurfa Mardin, Tur Abdin

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East Coast GalleriesFrom Boston to Washington dc

29 April–12 May 2015 (mb 303)This tour is currently full


Every major art gallery from New England to Washington DC, providing an astonishingly rich artistic experience.

The whole range of western art is covered, classical antiquity to contemporary, and some eastern art; Impressionism and Post-Impressionism are very well represented.

Includes the Barnes Foundation in its new home in central Philadelphia and the Mellon Center for British Art in New Haven.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 11.15am from London Heathrow to Boston (direct, British Airways), arriving at 1.30pm (time in the air: c. 7 hours). Visit Trinity Church for an introductory lecture. First of three nights in Boston.

Day 2: Boston. Founded in 1630, Boston is an historic city with a long-standing reputation for culture and learning. Now a centre of the high-tech revolution, sleek glass towers co-habit with districts of narrow cobbled streets and brick houses and an important set of monuments from the colonial and revolutionary era. The Museum of Fine Arts has a fabulous collection, particular strengths being the Barbizon School, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. An afternoon walking tour of historic Boston.

Day 3: Cambridge, Boston. Separated from Boston by the Charles River, Cambridge is the home of Harvard University. Visit the University Art Museums which include the long-established Fogg Museum, outstanding particularly for early Italian paintings and Impressionists, and the Busch-Reisinger Museum of German and Nordic painting. Back in Boston, visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Collection, a sumptuous Renaissance-style mansion crammed with magnificent works of art and furnishings.

Day 4: North Adams, Williamstown. Drive through attractive New England countryside to the Berkshires in the west of Massachusetts. Housed on a vast 19th-century factory campus in North Adams, MASS MoCA is the largest centre for contemporary art in the USA. Williamstown is a small university town with the Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, a wonderfully rich and varied collection outstanding for Post-Impressionist paintings, beautifully displayed in a mansion and a brand new building designed by Tadao Ando. Overnight Williamstown.

Day 5: Hartford, Newhaven. En route to New York visit the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, America’s oldest public art museum, founded in 1842. In Newhaven, the Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art, the largest and most comprehensive display of British art outside the United Kingdom. Continue to

New York city arriving early evening. First of four nights in New York.

Day 6: New York. Visit the Guggenheim Collection in the famous spiral building (Frank Lloyd Wright) with primarily modern paintings. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) houses some of the greatest paintings of the 20th century in its beautifully enlarged Manhattan home.

Day 7: New York. Walk through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum, undoubtedly the number one art museum in America, embracing the whole gamut of artistic production from around the world. Magnificent benefactions and inspired curatorship have provided many great works of art and a superb standard of display, particularly the galleries devoted to the Impressionists, Tiepolo, and to English Decorative Arts. See also the Frick Collection, the salubrious Fifth Avenue mansion with a small but brilliant collection of great paintings.

Day 8: New York. A morning architectural walk with a local lecturer looking at the Art Deco monuments of midtown Manhattan. In the afternoon drive to The Cloisters set in a delightfully tranquil part of north Manhattan overlooking the Hudson river. A branch of the Met, devoted to art of the Middle Ages and incorporating arcades from five cloisters and other salvaged architecture, it is a marvellous home for sculpture, metalwork, tapestries, stained glass, manuscripts and panel paintings.

Day 9: Philadelphia. Drive to Philadelphia. As historically the nation’s most important art school, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts has accumulated the finest collection of American art. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the third largest museum in the country, has a wide ranging collection, including a 12th-century cloister, a Robert Adam interior from Berkeley Square and excellent Impressionists. First of two nights in Philadelphia.

Day 10: Philadelphia. The Barnes Foundation, one of the world’s largest private collections of Impressionists and Post-Impressionists housed

in a new, state of the art gallery in the heart of Philadelphia’s arts district. Some free time: explore the Independence National Historical Park or visit the Rodin Museum which has the largest collection of his sculpture outside Paris.

Day 11: Baltimore, Washington. Drive south to the seaport of Baltimore. The Walters Art Gallery is an extraordinary and eclectic collection ranging from ancient Egypt to Art Nouveau, with a Raphael, mediaeval stained glass and historic jewellery among the items. The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland’s largest art museum, houses the Cone Collection, a group of 500 works by Matisse, and an impressive sculpture garden. Drive to Washington for the first of two nights.

Day 12: Washington. A capital conceived and built on a truly grand scale. At its heart lies the Mall, a two-mile-long park with many monuments and museums. Foremost among them is the National Gallery of Art, with a major collection representing the whole spectrum of western painting; the East Wing (architect: I.M. Pei) contains modern works. Other visits include the Phillips Collection, America’s first museum of modern art, and the Freer Gallery, part of the Smithsonian Institution, with a fine Asian collection and Whistler’s Peacock Room.

Day 13: Washington. A free day for independent visits. Suggestions include the White House, the US Capitol or another of Washington’s many museums: the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (art from southeast Asia) or the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (20th-century painting and sculpture), all branches of the Smithsonian Institution. Drive to Washington Dulles Airport for the flight to London departing at c. 22.30pm.

Day 14. Arrive Heathrow at c. 11.00am.




New York, watercolour by Donald Maxwell, publ. c. 1928

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New England ModernBuilding new worlds, 1750–2015

8–17 October 2015 (mc 478)This tour is currently full


The making of modern America set against the colour of the New England Fall.

Pioneering architecture from the early settlers to the present day with a focus on the extraordinary achievements of the mid- 20th century.

Among the architects: H.H. Richardson, Walter Gropius, Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto, Philip Johnson, Louis Kahn, Josep Lluís Sert, Le Corbusier, Norman Foster, Renzo Piano.

See some of the country’s greatest art collections and public buildings, private houses and neighbourhoods, with a number of visits by special arrangement.

We stay in Boston, Stockbridge and New Haven, and travel through landscapes varying from the Atlantic coast and Long Island Sound to the great river valleys and the rolling Berkshire Hills.

Led by Professor Harry Charrington, an expert on Modernism and Head of Architecture at the University of Westminster.

New England has seen the making of Modern America not once, twice but three times. Firstly, there were the early pioneers and their chaste farmsteads, churches and small towns. Then in post-revolutionary times came the confident urbanity of the new Republic, and contrastingly, the rural asceticism of the Transcendentalists and other idealists. Finally, before, during and after World War II, a new wave of ambition established the expression of mid-twentieth-century America.

What unifies all three is an overriding architectural restraint and a setting within the extraordinary light and colour of the New England landscape. The earliest buildings possess a spare timber elegance that reaches down through the

Shaker villages to Walter Gropius’s invention of a local Bauhaus. This austere simplicity is matched by the refined brickwork of Federal Boston and the arcadia of American academia, and the sophisticated use of concrete as a ‘cast stone’.

Threaded through New England’s river valleys, hills and along its coast are some of the finest twentieth-century private houses by architects including Frank Lloyd Wright, Josep Lluís Sert, Philip Johnson and the Harvard Five. Their seclusion is balanced by some of America’s most beautiful neighbourhoods and greatest public buildings and art collections in Boston, Harvard and Yale – as well as the delightful Frelinghuysen studio in the russet hills of Lenox.

Itinerary

Day 1: London to Boston (MA). Fly at c.11.15am from London Heathrow to Boston (British Airways) (time in the air: c. 6 hours 45 minutes). Drive to the hotel. The first visits are to two of America’s defining public buildings: H.H. Richardson’s Trinity Church (1877) and McKim Mead & White’s Boston Public Library (1895). First of four nights in Boston.

Day 2: Concord, Lincoln, Boston (MA). Drive to Walden Pond, heart of the Transcendentalist movement, where Henry Thoreau lived in a cabin on the water’s edge in simple seclusion. Nearby, the pretty town of Concord saw the start of the American War of Independence. Visit the museum, with Thoreau memorabilia. Walter Gropius built his family home (1938) in a meadow outside Lincoln; modest, light, with the original furniture and artwork.

Day 3: Manchester, Exeter (NH). In the leafy suburbs of Manchester the Zimmermans commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build their Usonian home (1950). See also the Currier Museum of Art, a small but good collection including some American Modern. On the campus of Phillips Exeter Academy is Louis Kahn’s monumental library (1971). The detailing is superb inside and out.

Boston, Trinity Church, wood engraving 1891 after a drawing by Richard Lovett

Day 4: Cambridge (MA). Cross the Charles River to the MIT campus, a powerhouse of science and research, at its heart the sinuous brick form of Aalto’s Baker House dormitory (1947). A walk through Harvard includes Le Corbusier’s Carpenter Center (1963) and the University Art Museums, extensively re-worked by Piano and re-opening in late 2014. Private visit to Josep Lluis Sert’s home (1958); perfectly proportioned, arranged around three courtyards.

Day 5: Boston, Stockbridge (MA). Spend the morning at Boston’s Fine Arts Museum, a collection of staggering wealth, with its new extension by Foster. An increasingly beautiful drive west into the Berkshires leads to Stockbridge, a small town of verandah-clad villas with our historic hotel at the centre. First of two nights in Stockbridge.

Day 6: the Berkshires (MA). The Hancock Shaker Village provides exquisite examples of Shaker architecture and design. In the woods outside Lenox, a private visit to the former home and studio of abstract artists George Morris and Suzy Frelinghuysen. The house is pure modernism and the art the couple amassed superb.

Day 7: Litchfield, New Haven (CT). Drive south stopping in the classic New England town of Litchfield. The afternoon walk in New Haven begins at Kahn’s Center for British Art (1977), the white oak and concrete an apposite backdrop to the magnificent collection. Cross the Yale campus to see Michael Hopkins’ Kroon Hall (2009) and the luminous Beinecke Rare Book Library by SOM (1963). First of two nights in New Haven.

Day 8: New Canaan (CT). The day is spent in the woodland town of New Canaan where some of the great US architects, ‘the Harvard Five’, experimented in the mid-20th century. Private tour of Philip Johnson’s pristene Glass House (1949) as well as his painting and sculpture galleries. Among the other visits, the home of Eliot Noyes (1954; subject to confirmation) and Landis Gores’ pool pavilion (1960).

Day 9: New Haven. The final morning is dedicated to the Yale University Art Gallery (1953), one of the best in the US, the art enhanced by Kahn’s use of concrete. Drive to New York’s JFK Airport for the flight departing 7.30pm.

Day 10. Arrive London Heathrow at 7.30am.



Included meals: 1 light lunch, 6 dinners with wine, plus meals on flights.

How strenuous? There is a lot of walking and standing around and getting on and off coaches. With transatlantic flights and three hotels, the tour is tiring. Average distance by coach per day: 68 miles.

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Frank Lloyd Wright& the Chicago School

Fallingwater, photograph courtesy of Western Pensylvania Conservancy

“For me this was a life-enhancing tour which has left me with so many vivid memories that will forever hold me in their thrall. It was perfect in every detail.”

30 May–10 June 2015 (mb 345)This tour is currently full


Includes Fallingwater, Jacobs, Robie and Taliesin houses, Johnson Wax Building and numerous other works by Frank Lloyd Wright – many of them visited by special arrangement.

Four nights in Chicago, with visits to the masterworks of the Chicago School and Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House.

Magnificent art collections: Chicago Institute of Art, Carnegie Collection in Pittsburgh and Milwaukee Art Museum.

Drive through the countryside of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Illinois.

Led by architectural historian Tom Abbott.

Itinerary

Day 1: Pittsburgh. Fly at c. 10.00am (British Airways) from London Heathrow via New York J.F.K. to Pittsburgh, arriving c. 4.30pm (total flying time c. 8 hours 30 minutes). Set between the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers, Pittsburgh is modern, dynamic, sleek, the smoke and steel of the past having been replaced by glass and aluminium. Carnegie, Frick and Mellon, great patrons of the arts, all made their money here before moving to the East Coast. First of three nights in Pittsburgh.

Day 2: Fallingwater, Kentuck Knob. Drive out to Fallingwater (Frank Lloyd Wright 1936). In a spectacular setting amongst the woodland of Bear Run nature reserve, the house seems to grow from, and float above, the water and rocks. You will see not only the waterfall but experience it from inside the house; ‘the most sublime integration of man and nature’ (New York Times). Kentuck Knob (Wright 1953), hexagonal building with panoramic views of the Pennsylvanian countryside, now owned by Lord Palumbo.

Day 3: Pittsburgh. Today’s programme includes visits to suburban Pittsburgh to see Richard Meier’s Giovannitti House and Venturi, Scott Brown’s Abrams House (these are likely to be exterior visits). The Carnegie Museum of Art has an extensive and varied collection including the Heinz Architectural department, European and contemporary art. End with a cable car ride up the Duquesne Incline.

Day 4: Pittsburgh to Madison. Begin with a walk around Pittsburgh passing H.H. Richardson’s Allegheny Courthouse, the Mellon bank building and Philip Johnson’s PPG Place. Drive to the airport for the flight to Madison (via Chicago) arriving late afternoon. Two nights in Madison.

Day 5: Spring Green, Madison. Set in the beautiful Wisconsin countryside just outside Spring Green lies Wright’s former home and studio, Taliesin. Here he established the Taliesin Foundation to train architects; Hillside School

(1932) exemplifies Wright’s break away from the ‘Victorian box’. The Romeo and Juliet Windmill and several homes and farms designed for members of Wright’s family are also seen from the exterior. In the suburbs visit the recently restored Jacobs House (1936), the purest and most famous example of Wright’s Usonian concept.

Day 6: Madison, Milwaukee. Walk to the Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center, a monumental civic building set on the shores of Lake Monona (based on Wright’s 1938 design, it was completed in 1997). Visit the Unitarian Meeting House (1946), distinguished by its soaring copper roof and glass-prowed sanctuary. Drive to the excellent Milwaukee Art Museum to see the Prairie School Archives, with free time for the collection of European and 20th-cent. American art. End the day with a visit to one of Wright’s American System-Built homes (1916). Overnight Milwaukee.

Day 7: Wind Point, Racine, Chicago. At Wind Point visit Wingspread: the expansive low-lying building designed for the head of the Johnson Wax Corporation. Continue south to Racine on the shores of Lake Michigan and the Johnson Wax Building built in 1936 with its half acre Great Workroom, unique mushroom columns and innovative use of glass. Drive further south still to Chicago; our hotel is in Burnham & Root’s restored Reliance Building, the first ‘skyscraper’ built in the 1890s. First of four nights in Chicago.

Day 8: Chicago. The morning walk looks at the outstanding monuments of ‘The Loop’ to which Wright, Mies van der Rohe, Louis Sullivan and Frank Gehry have all contributed. Afternoon at the Chicago Art Institute, extended by Renzo Piano; the architectural courtyard contains several interesting pieces of sculpture and art glass from former Wright and Sullivan buildings. See also a reconstruction of Sullivan’s stock exchange trading room. Free time to enjoy one of the world’s great art galleries.

Day 9: Oak Park. In Oak Park visit Wright’s Chicago home and studio (1889) for 20 years and birthplace of the Prairie School of architecture: ‘I loved the prairie by instinct as a great simplicity… I had an idea that the horizontal planes in buildings, those planes parallel to earth, identify themselves with the ground, make the building belong to the ground’. The surrounding residential streets are home to a number of Wright designs and his Unity Temple (1905).

Day 10: Chicago. Drive to the South Side to the Mies van der Rohe-designed Illinois Institute of Technology (1940–56), with additions by Rem Koolhaas. Continue to the Robie House (FLW 1910); epitome of the Prairie Style. The afternoon is free; we suggest an architectural cruise along the Chicago River, or a walk along the Magnificent Mile.

Day 11: Chicago, Plano. Drive at midday into the Illinois countryside to Plano. Here, built beside the Fox River is one of Mies van der Rohe’s most significant works, the Farnsworth House (1951). Drive to Chicago O’Hare airport, arriving by 5.30pm (in time for the direct flight to London, departing c. 8.30pm).


Price: £5,110 (deposit £500). Single supplement £620 (double room for single occupancy) Price without international flights £4,400.

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Art in TexasOutstanding collections in city & desert

4–15 November 2015 (mc 520)This tour is currently full


World class collections of art and sculpture, public and private, housed in exceptional buildings.

Big names include the Kimbell in Fort Worth, Menil in Houston, Blanton in Austin, McNay in San Antonio, Fine Arts in Dallas and Houston, and Donald Judd’s Chinati Foundation.

The range is considerable from Renaissance to contemporary, European and American, with emphasis on the modern.

The variety continues in city and landscape: big brother Houston, leafy and lush; to tiny Marfa, way out west in the desert; alongside the Rio Grande to prettified San Antonio; to end in Dallas, the home of hospitality and a terrific arts scene.

Led by art historian, Gijs van Hensbergen, an expert on American collections and collectors.

The cultural resonance of ‘Texas’ may not be overwhelming, yet the oil and livestock barons of this southern state were philanthropists to rival any on the eastern or western seaboards. The

result: art collections of staggering richness in buildings developed by the leading architects of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Among the highlights are some of the very personal collections these patrons of the arts acquired. The Meadows Museum in Dallas, for example, the gift of oilman Algur Meadows, houses the finest display of Spanish art outside the Prado. While John and Dominique de Menil’s dazzling Menil Collection in Houston – built up with money from the Schlumberger oil-drilling fortune – contains over 15,000 works by the greatest names of twentieth-century European and American art. Painter and heiress Marion Koogler McNay, too, used an oil fortune to establish The McNay – the first modern art museum in the Lone Star State – in her colonial revival mansion in San Antonio.

But private wealth in Texas has always been matched by public investment and the entire history of art is abundantly represented in the major city galleries. The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, one of the largest in the US, has an extraordinary 62,000 works spanning six thousand years, while the Dallas Museum of Art is as renowned for its Impressionists and Post Impressionists as Austin’s The Blanton is for its Renaissance masterpieces.

The searing Texan landscape, with its expanses of sand and scrub and distant sierras, is a work of art in its own right, and a visit to Marfa provides the moment where art, architecture

and nature meet. The Chinati Foundation was established by minimalist sculptor Donald Judd to display large installations of his own work and other leading contemporary sculptors and, in its wake, this tiny desert town has become one of the liveliest contemporary art scenes in the US.

As rich as the art is the architecture. The Dallas Arts District includes buildings by four Pritzker Prize winners (Norman Foster, Rem Koolhaas, I.M. Pei and Renzo Piano); while in Houston, admirers of Mies van der Rohe can view one of his very rare museum buildings at the Fine Arts Museum, followed by Piano’s simple and striking cypress-clad Menil. However, it is without doubt Louis Kahn’s Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth that shows off these big hitters at their memorable best.


Price: £5,080 (deposit £500). Single supplement £610 (double room for single occupancy). Price without the international flights £4,450.


How strenuous? This is a long tour with a lot of travelling and a significant time difference to contend with. There is a fair amount of walking and standing around in museums. Fitness and stamina are essential. Average distance by coach per day: 62 miles.


Houston, from Esquire Magazine, mid-20th-century216

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Cliff Dwellings & CanyonsArchaeology & anthropology in the American Southwest

Itinerary

Day 1. Salt Lake City. Fly at c. 12.00 noon (British Airways) from London Heathrow via Dallas Fort Worth to Salt Lake City, arriving c. 8.00pm (total flying time c. 11 hours 45 minutes). The capital of the thriving state of Utah spreads out below the mountains of the Wasatch Front. Overnight Salt Lake City.

Day 2. Salt Lake City, Moab. In the morning visit the state-of-the-art Natural History Museum of Utah for an introduction to the geology, archaeology and living cultures of the Colorado Plateau. An afternoon drive to Moab, and the Red Cliffs Lodge, set near the Colorado River amid sandstone cliffs. First of two nights in Moab.

Day 3. Moab. Experience the power of water, ice and wind to transform the landscape. At Dead Horse Point State Park, 2,000 feet above a gooseneck in the Colorado River, and at Canyonlands National Park, plants, animals and humans adapted to the colourful arches, mesas and pinnacles eroded from the sandstone over millions of years. Overnight Moab.

Day 4. Moab, Crow Canyon, Durango. Morning drive via the site of one of the largest assemblages of petroglyphs at Newspaper Rock State Historic Monument. Crowded figures depict humans, animals and abstract symbols. Continue to Crow Canyon Archaeological Center, unique for archaeological research, education and preservation of the history of the Anasazi. First of three nights in Durango.

Day 5. Mesa Verde, Durango. Spend the day in Mesa Verde National Park. Occupied for more than 700 years from c. 600 ad, this is the largest archaeological preserve in the United States. The surface of the elevated plateau and the deep valleys cut into it hold thousands of sites. Visit remains of surface structures as well as the incredible cliff dwellings. Overnight Durango.

Day 6. Chaco, Aztec, Durango. Visit two of the most important ceremonial sites of the Southwest. Chaco Canyon is interpreted as the focus of religious celebrations involving much of the Colorado Plateau. Visit ‘Great Houses’ which were occupied only intermittently, and semi-subterranean Great Kivas where sacred societies invoked the spirits of nature. One of the largest ‘Chaco outliers’, Aztec preserves the remains of a large residential community and a reconstructed Great Kiva. Overnight Durango. In the event of inclement weather, an alternative visit to Chaco Canyon will be arranged.

Day 7. Canyon de Chelly, Bluff. Drive to the historic Teec Nos Pos Trading Post where Navajos buy supplies and sell their crafts. Continue to Canyon de Chelly National Monument. High cliffs frame narrow valleys in which live Navajo families. In the valley observe ancient cliff dwellings and simple present day farmsteads. First of two nights in Bluff.

Day 8. San Juan River. An all-day boat trip (private charter) through meandering canyons cut into colourful sandstone layers allows an appreciation of geology, archaeology and wildlife inaccessible by road. See the Butler Wash Panel with one of the most extensive sets of prehistoric petroglyphs. Overnight Bluff.

Day 9. Monument Valley. Spend the day in Monument Valley, the vividly coloured mesas and buttes which have inspired and defined the American Western. Guides from the Navajo Nation conduct us through its Tribal Park. Overnight Monument Valley.

Day 10. Flagstaff, Scottsdale. A dramatic drive across the Colorado Plateau through Apache country to the lowlands of southern Arizona. On the way visit the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, a town on the southern flanks of the extinct volcanoes that constitute the San Francisco Peaks. Continue south to Scottsdale for

10–21 October 2015 (mc 480) 11 nights • £4,670Lecturer: John Fritz

Track a civilization spanning hundreds of miles & over a thousand years in the Four Corners where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet.

A vast and incredible landscape: gaping canyons, immense cliffs, buttes and mesas formed by ice, water and wind over millions of years.

Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse Point State Park provide spectacular lookouts.

Visits include the spectacular National Parks and Historic Monuments, museums, archaeology centres, as well as a day on the San Juan River to see petroglyphs only accessible by boat.

Led by John Fritz, archaeologist and anthropologist, specialising in the American Southwest.

Cliff Dwellings & Canyons introduces the dramatic and colourful landscapes of the US Southwest and the prehistoric cultures who dwelt in this challenging environment. Much of this tour is spent on the Colorado Plateau, where deep beds of sedimentary rock have been exposed and shaped by erosion. Experience the rivers and canyons, the mesas and buttes, where Native Americans and Western settlers adapted to often marginal environments.

During its earlier geological history the Plateau was a relatively shallow sea where deposits eventually formed variegated layers of limestone, sandstone, siltstone and shale. When the region was subsequently uplifted these layers remained relatively intact. At the same time the Colorado River and its tributaries cut deeply into the horizontal sediments creating deep canyons and the characteristic terraced landforms.

Humans occupied the Plateau as early as 14,000 years ago. Large mammals such as mastodons (before they became extinct) and horses were hunted with sophisticated technology; thereafter small bands adapted to the increasingly arid environment by gathering and hunting a wide variety of plants and animals. About 2,000 years ago the emergence of the ancestral cultures of the present Puebloan peoples is marked by the adoption of agriculture and pottery manufacture.

The archaeological culture of the Plateau is known as the Anasazi; their dwellings and religious structures can be seen in cliff-side shelters and on the surface. While the tour visits the remains of humble settlements, it also sees large, apartment-like towns and ceremonial centres.

We also experience the vital, hybrid culture produced by later immigrants – the Navajo and Apache tribes who arrived in the sixteenth century, the Mexican descendants of Spanish conquistadors who came in the seventeenth century, and the cattlemen, sheep herders and miners from the United States who took control of the region in the mid-nineteenth century.

Cliff dwellings in Colorado, typical of those seen on the tour, wood engraving c. 1880

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a night in the historic Arizona Biltmore, inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright. Overnight Scottsdale.

Day 11. Scottsdale, Phoenix. After a morning at leisure in the hotel, visit the Pueblo Grande Museum Archaeological Park in Phoenix. Here remains of houses, temple mounds and ball courts display the ancient Hohokam culture. Drive to Phoenix Sky Harbor airport for the direct flight to London, departing c. 8.00pm.

Day 12. The flight arrives at London Heathrow at c. 12.45pm.

Practicalities


Included meals: 6 lunches (including 4 boxed lunches) and 7 dinners with wine.

Visas: British citizens can apply for a visa waiver. We will advise on this.

Additional arrangements. We can request flight upgrades, extra nights in the hotel and delay your return flight. Please let us know if you would like us to make these additional arrangements and we will obtain a quote. There is an amendment fee for making these changes.

Accommodation. The Grand America, Salt Lake City (grandamerica.com): is a large, comfortable hotel with opulent public areas and large bedrooms. Red Cliffs Lodge, Moab (redcliffslodge.com): an informal hotel set on the banks of the Colorado river. Strater Hotel, Durango (strater.com): in the centre of the town, reminiscent of a 19th-century Southwest American hotel and saloon. Desert Rose Inn, Bluff (desertroseinn.com): situated at one end of the small town of Bluff, the is rustic but comfortable. Goulding’s Lodge, Monument Valley (gouldings.com): is on the site of the original trading post set up by Harry Goulding in the 1920s. The lodge is now spread over several 1980s buildings and bedrooms overlook the valley. No alcohol is served in Monument Valley. The Arizona Biltmore, Scottsdale (arizonabiltmore.com): an attractive hotel complex in extensive grounds built in 1929 under the supervision of Frank Lloyd Wright.

How strenuous? This tour has five hotel changes and a significant time difference to contend with. There is a lot of driving to access sites and a lot of walking, often over rough ground. Fitness and stamina are essential. At some sites it is helpful to be able to go up and down a ladder to make the most of the visit. Average distance by coach per day: 123 miles.


Samarkand & Silk Road Citieswith Khiva, Bukhara, Tashkent & Shakhrisabz

19–29 May 2015 (mb 315)11 days/10 nights • £3,290Lecturer: Sue Rollin

1–11 September 2015 (mc 444)11 days/10 nights • £3,290Lecturer: Professor James Allan

22 September–2 October 2015 (mc 457)11 days/10 nights • £3,290Lecturer: Dr Peter Webb

The best of Uzbekistan, and some of the most glorious sights in the Islamic world.

Led by experts in Central Asian archaeology and history.

Magnificent mosques and madrassas, acres of wonderful wall tiles, intact streetscape, memorable landscapes.

Remote, difficult to access and remarkably unspoilt.

Oxiana, Tartary, Turkestan, Khiva, Bukhara, Samarkand: names to produce a frisson. They evoke alluring images of shimmering turquoise domes and exquisite glazed wall tiles, of lost libraries and renowned scholars, of the delicious decadence of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, of gardens, poetry and wine, of the fabulous riches of the Silk Road between China and Christendom.

Less agreeable images are also induced: of Ghengis Khan and Timur (Tamerlane), the most far-reaching conquerors in history; of the tyranny and cruelty of the khans, perpetuating the last redoubts of mediaeval

misrule; of the Great Game, the nineteenth-century Cold War between Britain and Russia; of terrain as hostile as the tribesmen and petty tyrants who inhabited its desert and mountain fastnesses; and of a post-Soviet penumbra of Stans of suspect politics and allegiances.

The four cities of the subtitle lie now in Uzbekistan, independent since 1991 but an entity which has its origins in late nineteenth-century Russian imperialism, which agglomerated a number of independent khanates, and whose borders were settled in the 1920s. It lies at the very centre of Central Asia. One of only two double land-locked nations in the world, it has a capital which is a thousand miles north of the Indian Ocean (Afghanistan and Pakistan intervene), 1,400 miles east of the Black Sea and 400 miles from Xinjiang, China’s largely Islamic western province. This is as the crow flies; extremes of topography and climate as well as banditry slowed or terminated the progress of many travellers.

A slave-trading oasis khanate, Khiva was, and remains, the smallest of the three cities. It is perhaps the most intact and homogenous urban ensemble in the Islamic world, with biscuit-coloured brick and blue and turquoise maiolica. In Bukhara, gorgeously adorned architecture spanning a thousand years still rises above a streetscape of indeterminate age. Samarkand has the largest and most resplendently caparisoned historic buildings of all. There are also visits to Shakhrisabz, which has breathtaking remains of Timur’s palace, and to Tashkent, the spacious modern capital with good museums and galleries.

Space is not at a premium in this part of the world. Broad tree-lined boulevards encircle the historic town centres and no expanding girdle of high-rise apartments disfigures the

Khiva, the Grand Minaret, wood engraving c. 1880

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approach. Modernity has made relatively unobtrusive inroads: in one of the few nations on earth which has escaped the countryside scourge of ferroconcrete and breeze block, the whitewashed villages and farmsteads with their awnings of vines would hold few surprises for Tolstoy. Nearly all the women are to some extent in traditional dress, brightly coloured ankle-length dresses, and so are some of the older men. In the wake of economic liberalisation since independence, streets and courtyards are draped with the dazzling hues of carpets and textiles; the glories of the Silk Road in its heyday are not hard to imagine.

Itinerary

Day 1. Fly at c. 9.15pm (Uzbekistan Airways) from London Heathrow for the seven-hour flight to Tashkent (currently the only direct flight).

Days 2 & 3: Tashkent. Touch-down c. 9.15am. Hotel rooms in the centre of Tashkent are at your disposal for the morning. The History Museum of the People of Uzbekistan is within walking distance if you want to venture out before lunch. Afternoon drive around the city centre, a modern city with wide avenues, spacious parks, glistening new government buildings. Among the places seen during the two days are the Hazret Imam complex, a group of mosques and madrassas (seminaries) from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries; the Timur Museum and park, a homage to the newly elevated national hero with 13th to 16th-century artefacts and models of some of the buildings seen on the tour; the Fine Arts Museum with collections from pre-Islamic sculpture to twentieth-century painting; free time for the Museum of Applied Arts or the Chorsu Bazaar. Fly c. 6.00pm on day 3 to Urgench and drive the 30 miles to Khiva. First of two nights in Khiva.

Day 4: Khiva. No modern intrusions spoil the timeless fabric within a rectangle of crenellated and turreted ramparts. Most of the buildings are 19th-century, but such was Khiva’s isolation and conservatism that to the inexpert eye they could date to any time from the 16th-century. The Friday Mosque, a forest of carved wooden columns some dating to the 10th-century, the Tash Hauli Palace, whose harem quarters constitute the loveliest secular spaces in Central Asia, and the Paklavan Mahmoud Mausoleum where tiled interiors reach a peak of opulence.

Day 5: from Khiva to Bukhara. The 280 mile journey starts and finishes in an unspoilt landscape of green fields, plentiful trees and adobe farmsteads while the central section is undulating desert, specked with tufty shrubs which are briefly green in the spring. There are periodic sightings of the meandering Oxus, the mighty river crossed by Alexander the Great in 329 bc. Reach Bukhara in time for a walk before dinner. First of three nights in Bukhara.

Day 6: Bukhara. Genghis Khan ensured in 1220 that with notable exceptions (including the Kalon Minaret, at 48 metres then the tallest in the world) little of Bukhara’s first golden age remains, but of the second, the 15th and 16th centuries,

there survives much magnificent architecture, lavishly embellished. Today’s walks take in the vast Kalon Mosque (finished 1514) with a capacity of 10,000, several grand madrassas, the formidable citadel of the Khans and the Zindan, their infamous prison. Take tea in the shade of mulberry trees around a 15th-century pool.

Day 7: Bukhara. The perfectly preserved 10th-century Samani Mausoleum and the remains of the 12th-century Namaz Goh Mosque display fine terracotta decoration. The Emir’s summer palace, 1911, is a riotous mix of Russian and traditional Bukharan decoration with rose garden, aviary and swimming pool. Free afternoon with the option to visit Chor Bakr, a memorial complex built over the burial place of Abu-Bakr a descendant of the prophet Mohammed.

Day 8: Shakhrisabz. A 4-hour drive across a fertile plain where wheat and cotton flourish. Shakhrisabz was transformed by Timur (1336–1405) whose home town it was. An astounding survival is the most imposing palace portal in the history of architecture, an arch 22 metres wide with a wondrous range of tiled decoration. Further Timurid remnants include a mosque complex with three turquoise domes. Cross a mountain range (broadleaf woods, fissured granite, pasturage) and drop down to the plain of the Zarifsan river, and to Samarkand. First of three nights in Samarkand.

Day 9: Samarkand. The Registan, ‘the noblest public square in the world’ (Lord Curzon, 1889), bounded on three sides by magnificent madrassas of the 15th and 17th centuries. The Museum of History, Culture and Art has collections from pre-Islamic as well as Islamic periods. Other places seen are the Gur Emir Mausoleum, burial place of Tamerlane, the adjacent Ak Serai Mausoleum and the Shah-i-Zinda, an ensemble of mausolea gorgeously apparelled in many types of glazed tiles.

Day 10: Samarkand. Commissioned by Timur, the Bibi Khanum Mosque is an exercise in gigantism and impresses despite partial destruction and over-zealous restoration. The adjacent Bazaar is a traditional produce market. Optional visits to the Afrasiab History Museum which documents pre-Islamic Samarkand and to the remains of the extraordinary observatory built by Ulug Bek in the 15th-century. Some free time.

Day 11: Tashkent. Drive to Tashkent. The flight arrives at Heathrow at c. 8.00pm.

Practicalities

Price: £3,290 (deposit £350). Single supplement £140 (double room for single occupancy). Price without all flights £2,710.

Included meals: all meals included, with wine.

Internal flight: please let us know if you require the internal flight only.

Visas: Required for British citizens and most other foreign nationals, and not included in the price of the tour because you have to obtain it yourself. We will advise on the procedure.

Accommodation. Ramada Tashkent, Tashkent (ramadatashkent.com): a centrally located smart and modern 5 star hotel. Madrassa Mukhammad Hotel, Khiva: a converted madrassa, impressively restored, each room a former student’s cell opening onto the courtyard. Omar Khayam Hotel, Bukhara: a modern 4-star hotel in the centre of the old city, adequately comfortable and excellently located. Malika Prime, Samarkand: a comfortable 4-star hotel well located.

How strenuous? A long and demanding tour, beginning with an overnight flight. You will be on your feet a lot, walking and standing. The tour would not be suitable for anyone with difficulties with everyday walking and stair climbing. There are very long coach journeys on three of the days but seven days with minimal driving. The average distance by coach per day is 78 miles.


Combine with this tour with Walking Hadrian’s Wall, 11–17 May (page 56), The Greeks in Sicily, 14–22 September (page 155) or Art in Madrid, 16–20 September (page 193).

Tomb of Timur, engraving c. 1880“I have always wanted

to visit Samarkand and Bukhara and I am pleased to have done so. The buildings are absolutely fantastic. This trip will be long remembered.”

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Conwy Castle, lithograph c. 1840

Snowdonia & AngleseyCastles & country houses

6–11 July 2015 (mb 391)6 days • £2,080Lecturer: Neil Johnstone

The finest group of mediaeval castles to be found anywhere, and a choice variety of country houses and historic walled towns.

Some of Britain’s most beautiful landscapes, highland and lowland.

Stay at a country house hotel, the Historic Hotels’ Bodysgallen Hall and in the charmingly quirky seaside village of Portmeirion.

Led by Neil Johnstone, an expert in Welsh archaeology.

At a meagre 1,085 metres, the highest peak in Wales puts the country towards the bottom of the international league of physical elevation, not far above the Maldives or the Netherlands (or England). So not the least surprising aspect of North Wales is that Snowdon and surrounding ranges look impressively mountainous – magnificently and austerely so. And then there’s another surprising feature: only twenty

minutes from roads cowering beneath crags and precipitous moorland are others cossetted in lyrical lowland landscapes of green fields, abundant broadleafs and plump livestock.

Castles provide a further surprise. Not that Conwy, Caernarfon and Harlech are not well known, but first-time visitors are likely to be astonished by their vast magnificence, their immaculate state of preservation and the splendour of their setting. In the 1280s King Edward I of England planted here the finest group of mediaeval castles to be found anywhere, technologically the most developed military architecture of the pre-gunpowder era. Temples to temporal power, they are every bit as fascinating and awe-inspiring as contemporary cathedrals.

Topography, economy and politics were not favourable for the development of country houses of the first rank but there are some treasures in this department – the Rex Whistler mural at Plas Newydd, the Neo-Norman staircase at Penrhyn Castle, the restituted 1640s panelling at Gwydir, the servants’ portraits at Erddig.

Neither was topography favourable for travel and transport. All Edward I’s castles were built with fortified harbours so they could be sustained

by the navy. But in the nineteenth century, politics (the imperative of better communications with Ireland) and the economy (exploitation and export of mineral riches) forced the conquest of rivers, straits and passes. Both Thomas Telford and George Stephenson excelled here with world-beating bridges and viaducts.

The tour is based at two outstanding hotels which in their different ways are among the most agreeable in Britain.

Itinerary

Day 1: Conwy. The coach leaves Llandudno Junction Railway Station at 2.30pm (having picked up at the Bodysgallen Hall hotel if required). Conwy castle is one of the great achievements of mediaeval military architecture, and its curtain walls and vast cylindrical towers survive intact – as does the wall around the contiguous town, founded for English settlers at the same time (1283). First of four nights at Bodysgallen Hall.

Day 2: Plas Newydd, Beaumaris, Penmon. Cross the Menai Strait to Anglesey on Telford’s suspension bridge (1819–26), an engineering

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Opera in CardiffOctober 2015Details available in May 2015Contact us to register your interest

Excursions and talks with Simon Rees, writer, lecturer and Dramaturg of Welsh National Opera from 1989–2012.

Operas in the acoustically excellent Wales Millennium Centre, a massive structure of slate, glass and steel embodying the natural resources and industries of Wales.

Stay in a 5-star hotel in the Cardiff Bay development, within walking distance of the Wales Millennium Centre.

Neil JohnstoneArchaeologist and lecturer. He works in North Wales on Lottery-funded heritage projects and his work on the royal courts of the Welsh princes and related

excavations have shed new light on the archaeology of mediaeval Gwynedd. He is vice chairman of Segontium Roman museum and a Member of the Institute of Field Archaeologists.All lecturers’ biographies can be found on pages 8–15.

marvel. Plas Newydd, late Georgian home of Marquesses of Anglesey, has Waterloo mementos and a wonderful 1930s Rex Whistler panorama – and, looking across the Strait to Snowdonia, as fine a view as from any house in Britain. In the afternoon visit Beaumaris Castle, the most technically perfect of Edward I’s castles, and the Norman church of Penmon Priory. Overnight Bodysgallen Hall.

Day 3: Plas Mawr, Penrhyn, Snowdon. See more of the little historic town of Conwy including Plas Mawr, a well preserved Elizabethan town house. Continue along the coast to enormous Penrhyn Castle, built 1820–35 in neo-Norman style, and one of the most sumptuous houses of its time. Take the cogwheel railway train to the summit of Snowdon, a round trip of 2½ hours. Overnight Bodysgallen Hall.

Day 4: Erddig, Pontcysyllte, Gwydir. The journeys today traverse a variety of delightful lowland and valley landscapes. Erddig is one of the most fascinating and evocative country houses in Britain. Mainly of the early 18th century, it has fine furnishings and artworks, and the servants’ quarters are particularly well preserved. Telford’s Pontcysyllte Aqueduct carries a canal high above the River Dee. Return to the Conwy Valley in the evening for a private tour and dinner in Gwydir Castle, an enchanting accumulation of 15th, 16th and 17th-century parts which, together with its gardens, is steadily being restored by its current owners. First of two nights in Portmeirion.

Day 5: Criccieth, Portmeirion, Harlech. Criccieth Castle sits atop a promontory jutting into Tremadog Bay. The village of Portmeirion, created by Clough Williams Ellis from the 1920s to the 1960s, is a wholly delectable if eccentric architectural confection. Clinging to a crag between the sea and the mountains, Harlech is the most dramatically sited of Edwardian castles. It endured an eight-year siege during the Wars of the Roses. Overnight Portmeirion.

Day 6: Caernarfon. Rising above the River Seiont and the Menai Strait, Caernarfon is the greatest of the Edwardian castles. It was built as a seat of government and exhibits features intended to evoke ancient Rome and imperial status. The coach returns to Llandudno Junction Railway Station by 2.30pm.

Practicalities



Accommodation. Bodysgallen Hall (bodysgallen.com) is a 17th-century mansion in 220 acres of grounds and gardens expertly restored in the last thirty years and now belonging to the National Trust. It feels more like a home than a hotel, while providing every modern comfort in impeccable historic surroundings. Rooms vary in size and furnishings, and some are reached through the garden. At Portmeirion (portmeirion-village.com), rooms are scattered through the idyllic village built by Clough Williams Ellis in the 20th century in a variety of historic, vernacular and original styles. The hillside site enjoys wonderful views over the estuary. Breakfasts and dinners are in the main hotel building by the waterfront. Both hotels have excellent restaurants.

How strenuous? There is quite a lot of walking, some of it uphill, some on rough terrain, some up long flights of steps. To get the best out of the castle visits, it is necessary to be able to climb the spiral stairways to the top of the towers. Average distance by coach per day: 63 miles.


Combine this tour with Constable & Gainsborough, 13–16 July (page 54).

Wales Millenium Centre

Caernarfon Castle, watercolour by Robert Fowler in Beautiful Wales publ. 1905

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Booking details

Making a booking1. Provisional booking We recommend that you contact us first to make a provisional booking which we will hold for one week. To confirm it please send the booking form and deposit within this period.

Alternatively, you can make a definite booking straight away at www.martinrandall.com

2. Definite booking Fill in the booking form and send it to us with the deposit (specified in the tour description). It is important that you read the Booking Conditions at this stage, and that you sign the booking form. Full payment is required if you are booking within ten weeks of departure.

3. Our confirmation Upon receipt of the booking form and deposit we shall send you confirmation of your booking. After this your deposit is non-returnable except in the special circumstances mentioned in the Booking Conditions. Further details of the tour will also be sent at this stage.

Booking ConditionsPlease read theseYou need to sign your assent to these booking conditions on the booking form.

Our promises to youWe aim to be fair, reasonable and sympathetic in all our dealings with clients, and to act always with integrity.

We will meet all our legal and regulatory responsibilities, often going beyond the minimum obligations.

We aim to provide full and accurate information about our holidays. If there are changes, we will tell you promptly.

If something does go wrong, we will try to put it right. Our overriding aim is to ensure that every client is satisfied with our services.

All we ask of youThat you read the information we send to you.

Specific termsOur contract with you. From the time we receive your signed booking form and initial payment, a contract exists between you and Martin Randall Travel Ltd.

Eligibility. We reserve the right to refuse to accept a booking without necessarily giving a reason. You need to have a level of fitness which would not spoil other participants’ enjoyment of the holiday by slowing them down – see ‘Fitness’ on page 5. To this end we ask you to take the tests described on page 227. By signing the booking form you are stating that you have met these fitness requirements. If during the tour it transpires you are not able to cope adequately, you may be asked to opt out of certain visits, or be invited to leave the tour altogether. This would be at your own expense.

Insurance. It is a requirement of booking that you have adequate holiday insurance. Cover for medical treatment, repatriation, loss of property and cancellation charges must be included. Insurance can be obtained from most insurance companies, banks, travel agencies and (in the UK) many retail outlets including post offices.

Passports and visas. British citizens must have valid passports for all tours outside the United Kingdom. For most countries the passport needs to be valid for six months beyond the date of the tour. If visas are required we will advise UK

citizens about obtaining them. Nationals of other countries should ascertain whether visas are required in their case, and obtain them if they are.

If you cancel. If you have to cancel your participation on a tour, there would be a charge which varies according to the period of notice you give. Up to 57 days before the tour the deposit only is forfeited. Thereafter a percentage of the total cost of the tour will be due:

between 56 and 29 days: 40% between 28 and 15 days: 60% between 14 days and 3 days: 80% within 48 hours: 100%

If you cancel your booking in a double or twin room or cabin but are travelling with a companion who chooses to continue to participate on the tour, the companion will be liable to pay the stipulated single supplement.

We take as the day of cancellation that on which we receive written confirmation of cancellation.

If we cancel the tour. We might decide to cancel a tour if at any time up to eight weeks before there were insufficient bookings for it to be viable. We would refund everything you had paid to us. We may also cancel a tour if hostilities, civil unrest, natural disaster or other circumstances amounting to force majeure affect the region to which the tour was due to go.

Safety and security. If the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises against travel to places visited on a tour, we would cancel the tour or adjust the itinerary to avoid the risky area. In the event of cancellation before the tour commenced we would give you a full refund. We would also treat sympathetically a wish to withdraw from a tour to a troubled region even if the FCO does not advise against travel there.

Seatbelts. Our tours and festivals subscribe to the health and safety legislation of the destination. In some parts of the world the law concerning seatbelts differs to the UK.

Financial protection.

We provide full financial protection for our package holidays, by way of our Air Travel Organiser’s Licence number 3622. When you buy an ATOL protected flight inclusive holiday from us you receive an ATOL Certificate. This lists what is financially protected, where you can get information on what this means for you and who to contact if things go wrong. We will provide you with the services listed on the ATOL Certificate

(or a suitable alternative). In some cases, where we aren’t able do so for reasons of insolvency, an alternative ATOL holder may provide you with the services you have bought or a suitable alternative (at no extra cost to you). You agree to accept that in those circumstances the alternative ATOL holder will perform those obligations and you agree to pay any money outstanding to be paid by you under your contract to that alternative ATOL holder. However, you also agree that in some cases it will not be possible to appoint an alternative ATOL holder, in which case you will be entitled to make a claim under the ATOL scheme (or your credit card issuer where applicable). If we, or the suppliers identified on your ATOL certificate, are unable to provide the services listed (or a suitable alternative, through an alternative ATOL holder or otherwise) for reasons of insolvency, the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust may make a payment to (or confer a benefit on) you under the ATOL scheme. You agree that in return for such a payment or benefit you assign absolutely to those Trustees any claims which you have or may have arising out of or relating to the non-provision of the services, including any claim against us (or your credit card issuer where applicable). You also agree that any such claims maybe re-assigned to another body, if that other body has paid sums you have claimed under the ATOL scheme.

We provide full financial protection for our package holidays that do not include a flight, by way of a bond held by ABTA The Travel Association.

The limits of our liabilities. As principal, we accept responsibility for all ingredients of a tour, except those in which the principle of force majeure prevails. Our obligations and responsibilities are also limited where international conventions apply in respect of air, sea or rail carriers, including the Warsaw Convention and its various updates.

If we make changes. Circumstances might arise which prevent us from operating a tour exactly as advertised. We would try to devise a satisfactory alternative, but if the change represents a significant loss to the tour we would offer compensation. If you decide to cancel because the alternative we offer is not acceptable we would give a full refund.

English Law. These conditions form part of your contract with Martin Randall Travel Ltd and are governed by English law. All proceedings shall be within the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.222

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PASSPORT DETAILS. Essential for airlines and in case of emergency on tour (not applicable for tours in the UK if you are a UK resident).

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For a list of tours by country, see pages 6–7.

January 201510–20 Oman (mb 229) Professor Dawn Chatty .......................... 17613–20 Valletta Baroque Festival (mb 227) Juliet Rix ................................................... 16724–29 Mozart in Salzburg (mb 230) Richard Wigmore ...................................... 2426– 8 Temples of Tamil Nadu (mb 232) Asoka Pugal ............................................. 11026–11 Lands of the Maya (mb 233) Professor Norman Hammond ............... 16830– 1 CHAMBER MUSIC WEEKEND: I Fagiolini (mb 235) ................................. 57

February 201511–26 Ethiopia (mb 240) Jacopo Gnisci ............................................. 6516–22 Florence (mb 242) Dr Antonia Whitley ............................... 13020–22 CHAMBER MUSIC WEEKEND: The Leonore Piano Trio (mb 244) Richard Wigmore ...................................... 5720– 6 Essential India (mb 245) Dr Giles Tillotson .................................... 10424– 1 Connoisseur’s Rome (mb 246) Dr Michael Douglas-Scott ..................... 14524– 2 Essential Rome (mb 247) Dr Thomas-Leo True .............................. 144

March 2015 2–15 Sacred India (mb 250) Charles Allen ........................................... 106 7–14 Venice & Florence (mb 252) Dr Kevin Childs ...................................... 123 8–15 Courts of Northern Italy (mb 262) Dr Michael Douglas-Scott ..................... 124 9–16 Granada & Córdoba (mb 253) Dr Philippa Joseph .................................. 20210–14 Ballet in Paris (mb 251) Jane Pritchard mbe ................................... 7213–15 CHAMBER MUSIC WEEKEND: A Weekend of Mozart (mb 254) Richard Wigmore ...................................... 5713–19 Piero della Francesca (mb 264) Dr Antonia Whitley ............................... 13913–20 Gastronomic Andalucía (mb 255) Gijs van Hensbergen ............................... 20316–28 Sicily (mb 258) Christopher Newall................................. 15517–21 Opera in Marseille & Lyon (mb 257) Dr Michael Downes .................................. 8117–24 Modern Art on the Côte d’Azur (mb 256) Mary Lynn Riley ....................... 8218–24 Gardens of the Riviera (mb 270) Caroline Holmes ....................................... 8021–29 Essential Jordan (mb 259) Jane Taylor ............................................... 16222– 2 Morocco (mb 271) James Brown ............................................ 17023–28 Naples: Art, Antiquities, Opera ......... 15024–28 Venetian Palaces (mb 260) Dr Michael Douglas-Scott ..................... 12024– 1 Normans in the South (mb 268) John McNeill ............................................ 151

24– 2 Israel & Palestine (mb 261) Dr Garth Gilmour ................................... 11230–11 Indian Summer (mb 272) Raaja Bhasin ........................................... 108

April 2015 3– 6 CHAMBER MUSIC WEEKEND: Easter at The Castle (mb 274) ................ 57 7–12 Palladian Villas (mb 277) Dr Michael Douglas-Scott ..................... 122 7–15 Extremadura (mb 275) Adam Hopkins ........................................ 199 8–13 Opera in Vienna (mb 276) Professor Jan Smaczny ............................. 18 9–15 Gardens & Villas of the Italian Lakes (mb 278) Steven Desmond ......................116 9–21 Central Anatolia (mb 282) Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones ...................... 20911–17 Gastronomic Emilia-Romagna (mb 280) Marc Millon & Dr R. T. Cobianchi ...... 12612–21 Jordan Revisited (mb 284) Jane Taylor ............................................... 16413–18 Gardens of Northern Portugal (mb 288) Gerald Luckhurst ................... 18313–19 Antiquities of Upper Egypt (mb 283) Dr Robert Morkot ..................................... 4613–19 Genoa & Turin (mb 286) Dr Luca Leoncini .................................... 11513–19 Lucca (mb 289) Dr Antonia Whitley ............................... 13613–19 Gastronomic Catalonia (mb 285) Gijs van Hensbergen ............................... 19513–25 Sicily (mb 290) John McNeill ............................................ 15514–21 The Heart of Italy (mb 297) Professor Ian Campbell-Ross................. 14018–28 Chinese Ceramics (mb 292) Dr Lars Tharp ............................................ 3419–24 History of Impressionism (mb 294) Dr Frances Fowle ...................................... 7120–25 Gardens & Villas of Campagna Romana (mb 295) Helena Attlee .......... 14620–25 Pompeii & Herculaneum (mb 293) Dr Mark Grahame .................................. 15020–25 Lisbon Neighbourhoods (mb 296) Adam Hopkins ........................................ 18222–26 Leonardo da Vinci (mb 298) Dr Charles Nicholl .................................. 13222–30 The Cathedrals of England (mb 300) Jon Cannon ................................................ 5923– 7 Persia (mb 384) Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones ........................11129–12 East Coast Galleries (mb 303) Gijs van Hensbergen ............................... 213

May 2015 2–11 Classical Greece (mb 310) Dr Oswyn Murray .................................... 99 4–13 Minoan Crete (mb 321) Dr Alan Peatfield .................................... 102 4–17 The Western Balkans (mb 312) David Gowan............................................. 30 5–17 Ming & Qing Civilization (mb 316) Dr Rose Kerr .............................................. 32 6–10 Ravenna & Urbino (mb 314) Dr Luca Leoncini .................................... 128

6–13 The Douro (mb 311) Adam Hopkins ........................................ 184 7–13 St Petersburg (mb 307) Dr Alexey Makhrov ................................ 185 8–14 Brittany (mb 313) Caroline Holmes ....................................... 73 9–24 Eastern Turkey (mb 309) Rowena Loverance .................................. 21111–15 The Lukas Cranachs (mb 317) ............... 9511–17 Walking Hadrian’s Wall (mb 308) Graeme Stobbs ........................................... 5611–20 Classical Turkey (mb 319) Henry Hurst ............................................. 20813–18 At Home in Weston Park (mb 320) Anthony Lambert ..................................... 5113–21 Andalusian Morocco (mb 330) James Brown ............................................ 17214–20 The Dresden Festspiele (mb 327) Dr Jarl Kremeier........................................ 8515–28 Art in Japan (mb 323) Professor Timon Screech ........................ 16017–24 Central Macedonia (mb 325) Dr Oswyn Murray ................................. 10119–24 Palaces of Piedmont (mb 332) Dr Luca Leoncini .....................................11419–25 Prague Spring (mb 333) Professor Jan Smaczny ............................. 3819–29 Samarkand & Silk Road Cities (mb 315) Sue Rollin ................................. 21822–29 Walking in the Footsteps of Leonardo & Michelangelo (mb 335) Dr Antonia Whitley ............................... 13823–30 Mediaeval Burgundy (mb 338) John McNeill .............................................. 7624–30 Art in the Netherlands (mb 326) Dr Guus Sluiter ........................................17424–31 Courts of Northern Italy (mb 341) Dr Michael Douglas-Scott ..................... 12427–31 Art in Madrid (mb 343) Dr Xavier Bray ........................................ 19329– 8 The Ring in Vienna (mb 344) Barry Millington ....................................... 1930–10 Frank Lloyd Wright (mb 345) Tom Abbott .............................................. 215

Tours by date

Menton, by A. H. Hallam Murray publ. 1904

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June 2015 1– 8 Art in Le Marche (mb 347) Polly Buston ............................................. 143 2– 9 Moravia (mb 350) Dr Jarl Kremeier........................................ 42 2–13 Walking to Santiago (mb 348) Adam Hopkins & Gaby Macphedran .. 187 3– 9 Handel in Halle (mb 356) Dr David Vickers ...................................... 90 4– 7 Flanders Fields (mb 352) Andrew Spooner ........................................ 29 6–13 The Po Valley (mb 353) John McNeill ............................................ 129 8–14 French Gothic (mb 354) Dr Matthew Woodworth ......................... 70 8–15 Cave Art of France (mb 355) Dr Paul Bahn ............................................. 79 9–16 Great Houses of the South West (mb 359) Anthony Lambert ..................... 5015–21 Connoisseur’s Vienna (mb 361) Dr Jarl Kremeier........................................ 2115–23 Mediaeval Saxony (mb 362) Dr Alexandra Gajewski ........................... 9116–23 Vikings & Bog People (mb 368) Dr David Griffiths ..................................... 4318–23 Ardgowan (mb 365) Caroline Knight ....................................... 18619–26 Walking the Rhine Valley (mb 382) Richard Wigmore ...................................... 8820–25 The Schubertiade (mb 367) Dr Michael Downes .................................. 2620–27 THE RHINE VALLEY MUSIC FESTIVAL (mb 383) ................................ 8921–24 The Renewed Rijksmuseum (mb 373) Dr Sophie Oosterwijk ............................. 17521–26 Walking to Derbyshire Houses (mb 360) Dr Paul Atterbury .................... 4825–29 The Western Front (mb 375) Major Gordon Corrigan .......................... 7525– 3 Finland: Aalto & Others (mb 377) Professor Harry Charrington .................. 6826– 4 Mitteldeutschland (mb 378) Jeffrey Miller .............................................. 92

28– 1 The Renewed Rijksmuseum (mb 385) Dr Sophie Oosterwijk ............................. 17529– 2 Literature & Walking in the Lake District (mb 380) Dr Charles Nicholl .... 58

July 2015 1– 5 Dresden & Meissen (mb 399) Dr Jarl Kremeier........................................ 93 1–5 Organs of Bach’s Time (mb 398) James Johnstone & Dr Matthew Woodworth ......................... 94 3–11 Trasimeno Music Festival .................... 139 4–7 The Age of Bede (mb 388) Imogen Corrigan ....................................... 53 5–11 THE JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH JOURNEY (mb 400) .................. 93 6–10 West Country Churches (mb 392) John McNeill .............................................. 52 6–10 Agincourt, Crécy & Waterloo (mb 390) Major Gordon Corrigan .......... 28 6–11 Snowdonia & Anglesey (mb 391) Neil Johnstone ......................................... 220 7–12 King Ludwig II (mb 393) Tom Abbott ................................................ 9613–16 Constable & Gainsborough (mb 395) Hugh Belsey ............................................... 5416–20 Verona Opera (mb 396) Dr Michael Douglas-Scott ......................11720–24 Savonlinna Opera (mb 402) Simon Rees ................................................. 6721–25 The Western Front (mb 403) Major Gordon Corrigan .......................... 7521–27 Opera in Munich & Bregenz (mb 404) Dr David Vickers & Tom Abbott ............ 97

August 2015 5–13 Baroque & Rococo (mb 410) Tom Abbott ................................................ 98 9–22 The Baltic States (mb 411) Neil Taylor ................................................. 6411–15 Connoisseur’s London (mb 412) Various lecturers & guides ...................... 6215–20 The Lucerne Festival (mb 415) Professor Stephen Walsh ........................ 20616–20 Vienna’s Masterpieces (mb 416) Professor David Ekserdjian ..................... 2020–26 Walking the Danube (mb 421) Richard Wigmore ...................................... 2320–27 THE DANUBE MUSIC FESTIVAL (mb 420) ............................... 2227–31 Verona Opera (mb 422) Dr R. T. Cobianchi ...................................11728– 9 The Road to Santiago (mb 424) John McNeill ........................................... 18831– 6 The Sibelius Festival, Lahti.................... 69 Innsbruck Early Music Festival............ 22 Torre del Lago ........................................ 137 Opera in Macerata & Pesaro ............... 139 Edinburgh Festival................................ 187

September 2015 1–11 Samarkand & Silk Road Cities (mc 444) Professor James Allan ............ 218 2– 5 Flemish Painting (mc 462) Dr Sophie Oosterwijk ............................... 27

2– 6 Agincourt, Crécy & Waterloo (mc 459) Major Gordon Corrigan .......... 28 4– 6 Mediaeval Art in Paris (mc 454) Dr Matthew Woodworth ......................... 69 4– 7 Poets & The Somme (mc 451) Andrew Spooner .........................................74 4– 9 Vienna & Budapest 1900 (mc 461) Dr Diane Silverthorne ............................ 103 4–18 Persia (mc 455) Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones ........................111 6–10 Connoisseur’s London (mc 445) Various lecturers & guides ...................... 62 6–12 Walking Hadrian’s Wall (mc 429) Graeme Stobbs ........................................... 56 7–23 Peru (mc 463) Dr David Beresford-Jones ...................... 180 7–13 French Gothic (mc 430) Dr Alexandra Gajewski ........................... 70 7–13 History of Medicine (mc 431) Professor Helen King & Dr Luca Leoncini ................................ 133 7–13 Haydn in Eisenstadt (mc 464) Richard Wigmore ...................................... 25 7–14 Bohemia (mc 426) Michael Ivory ............................................. 39 7–14 Bilbao to Bayonne (mc 427) Gijs van Hensbergen ............................... 190 7–15 Berlin, Potsdam, Dresden (mc 458) Dr Jarl Kremeier........................................ 84 7–21 The Iron Curtain (mc 432) Neil Taylor ................................................. 86 8–19 Walking to Santiago (mc 428) Adam Hopkins & Gaby Macphedran .. 187 8–21 Essential China (mc 452) Dr Jamie Greenbaum ............................... 3510–13 In Churchill’s Footsteps (mc 453) Terry Charman ......................................... 6110–15 Palladian Villas (mc 433) Professor Fabrizio Nevola ...................... 12210–16 St Petersburg (mc 438) Dr Alexey Makhrov ................................ 18513–19 Istanbul (mc 436) Jane Taylor ............................................... 20713–24 Morocco (mc 466) James Brown ............................................ 17014–21 The Greeks in Sicily (mc 441) Professor Tony Spawforth ...................... 15714–23 Great Houses of the North (mc 437) Gail Bent .................................................... 4715–21 Connoisseur’s Prague (mc 439) Michael Ivory ............................................. 4015–22 The Heart of Italy (mc 448) Dr Michael Douglas-Scott ..................... 14015–27 Wellington in the Peninsula (mc 496) Patrick Mercer ........................20416–20 Art in Madrid (mc 449) Gail Turner .............................................. 19317–23 Gardens & Villas of the Italian Lakes (mc 440) Steven Desmond ......................11619–28 Classical Greece (mc 435) Dr Andrew Farrington ............................. 9920–27 Dark Age Brilliance (mc 443) Dr Ffiona Gilmore Eaves ....................... 12521–27 Walking a Royal River (mc 450) Dr Paul Atterbury ..................................... 55

Tours by datecontinued

Japanese Buddhist shrine, by Ella du Cane c.1910

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Directors: Martin Randall (Chief Executive); Fiona Urquhart (Chief Operating Officer); Sir Vernon Ellis (Chairman), Ian Hutchinson; Neil Taylor, William Burton • Registered office: Voysey House, Barley Mow Passage, London W4 4GF. Registered Company no. 2314294 England. VAT no. 527758803

Self-assessment fitness testsA certain level of fitness is a requirement for participation on our tours; see page 5. We ask that all participants take these quick and simple tests to ascertain whether they are fit enough.

1. Chair stands. Sit in a dining chair, with arms folded and hands on opposite shoulders. Stand up and sit down at least 8 times in 30 seconds.

2. Step test. Mark a wall at a height that is halfway between your knee and your hip bone. Raise each knee in turn to the mark at least 60 times in 2 minutes.

3. Agility test. Place an object 3 yards from the edge of a chair, sit, and record the time it takes to stand up, walk to the object and sit back down. You should be able to do this in under 7 seconds.

An additional indication of the fitness required, though we are not asking you to measure this, is that you should be able to walk unaided at a pace of three miles per hour for at least half an hour at a time, and to stand unsupported for at least fifteen minutes.

21–28 Granada & Córdoba (mc 442) Dr David McGrath ................................. 20221– 3 Sicily (mc 465) Dr Luca Leoncini .................................... 15522–29 Modern Art on the Côte d’Azur (mc 434) Lydia Bauman .......................... 8222– 2 Samarkand & Silk Road Cities (mc 457) Dr Peter Webb ........................ 21823–30 Essential Puglia (mc 446) Christopher Newall................................. 15224– 1 Barcelona 1900 (mc 447) Gijs van Hensbergen ............................... 19726– 4 Sardinia (mc 468) Dr R. T. Cobianchi .................................. 15428– 2 ThE DivinE OffiCE: ChORAL MuSiC in OxfORD (mc 460) ............ 5728– 3 Pompeii & herculaneum (mc 467) Dr Mark Grahame .................................. 15029– 7 Aragón (mc 469) Adam Hopkins ........................................ 19430– 4 Siena & San Gimignano (mc 470) Dr Antonia Whitley ............................... 135

October 2015 1– 5 The venetian hills (mc 479) Dr Joachim Strupp ...................................118 1– 7 Gardens & villas of the italian Lakes (mc 471) Steven Desmond ......................116 1–10 Provence & Languedoc (mc 486) Dr Alexandra Gajewski ........................... 77 3–10 Athens & Rome (mc 487) Professor Roger Wilson .......................... 147 3–18 Eastern Turkey (mc 472) Rowena Loverance .................................. 211 4–10 Art in the netherlands (mc 488) Dr Guus Sluiter ........................................174 4–11 Courts of northern italy (mc 476) Dr Michael Douglas-Scott ..................... 124 5–10 friuli-venezia Giulia (mc 481) Dr Joachim Strupp .................................. 119 5–11 Malta (mc 490) Juliet Rix ................................................... 166 5–13 Roman Algeria (mc 477) Anthony Sattin .......................................... 16 5–16 Ancient Egypt (mc 489) Professor John Ray .................................... 44 5–17 Sicily (mc 475) Dr Philippa Joseph .................................. 155 5–18 The Western Balkans (mc 474) David Gowan............................................. 30 7–22 Ethiopia (mc 485) Jacopo Gnisci ............................................. 65 8–17 new England Modern (mc 478) Professor Harry Charrington .................21410–21 Cliff Dwellings & Canyons (mc 480) John M. Fritz............................................ 21712–17 Pompeii & herculaneum (mc 484) Professor Roger Wilson ........................ 15012–19 Caravaggio (mc 482) Dr Helen Langdon .................................. 14912–20 Palestine (mc 483) Dr Felicity Cobbing ................................. 17813–22 israel & Palestine (mc 492) Dr Garth Gilmour ................................... 11214–18 Ravenna & urbino (mc 491) Dr Luca Leoncini .................................... 128

19–25 Gastronomic Sicily (mc 499) Marc Millon ............................................. 15919–28 Castile & León (mc 500) Gijs van Hensbergen ............................... 19119–29 Essential Andalucía (mc 501) Adam Hopkins ........................................20020– 2 Essential China (mc 493) Jon Cannon ................................................ 3524– 6 Mughals & Rajputs (mc 505) Dr Giles Tillotson .................................... 11025– 2 Essential Jordan (mc 506) Sue Rollin & Jane Streetly ...................... 16226– 2 footpaths of umbria (mc 507) Dr Antonia Whitley ............................... 142 Parma verdi festival ............................ 130 Opera in Cardiff .................................... 221

November 2015 2– 7 MOnTEvERDi in vEniCE: ThE fOuR OPERAS ........................... 121 2–10 Roman Algeria (mc 517) Barnaby Rogerson ..................................... 16 2–14 Sicily (mc 518) Dr Ffiona Gilmore Eaves ....................... 155 3– 8 Connoisseur’s Rome (mc 519) Dr Kevin Childs ...................................... 145 3– 9 Essential Rome (mc 521) Christopher Newall................................. 144 4–15 Art in Texas (mc 520) Gijs van Hensbergen ............................... 216 7–17 Gastronomic Kerala (mc 525) Dr Elizabeth Collingham ....................... 11010–14 valencia (mc 522) Adam Hopkins ........................................ 19811–15 florentine Palaces (mc 523) Dr Joachim Strupp .................................. 13416–26 Oman (mc 526) Professor Dawn Chatty .......................... 17617–21 venetian Palaces (mc 530) Dr Michael Douglas-Scott ..................... 120

From The Foreign Tour of Brown, Jones & Robinson 1904

December 2015We will run about seven or eight tours over Christmas and New Year. Details will be available in the spring of 2015. Please contact us to register your interest.

Rome, Theatre of Marcellus, watercolour by C.I.G. Formelli publ. 1927

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Martin Randall Travel Ltd Voysey House Barley Mow Passage London United Kingdom W4 4GF

Australia: Martin Randall Australasia PO Box 1024 Indooroopilly Australia QLD 4068 Telephone 1300 55 95 95 Fax 07 3371 8288 [email protected] Zealand: Telephone 0800 877 622

Canada: Telephone 647 382 1644 Fax 416 925 2670 [email protected]

USA: Telephone 1 800 988 6168

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Telephone 020 8742 3355 Fax 020 8742 7766 [email protected]


Front cover: birds-eye view of Arras by Braun & Hogenberg, hand-coloured copper engraving 1581

Back cover: engraving c. 1850

2015Second edition


martin randall travel - Rhinegold Publishing

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