Rebecca Ford's Blog
Posted by Rebecca Ford
I’m off to Italy again to continue research for the new guidebook, so once again I’ve got to tackle the packing. It’s an art I’ve never fully mastered. I went through a ‘capsule wardrobe’ phase a few years: you know the sort of thing you see in magazines in which you have about one skirt, a pair of jeans, a couple of tops and a huge scarf - which you’re meant to tie in a hundred different ways to create everything from beachwear to a ballgown. It never worked and I always looked crumpled within a couple of days and never could do anything interesting with the scarf.
I’d really prefer to travel in ‘everything but the kitchen sink style’ like the celebrities do, with about 6 massive suitcases and, of course, someone to lug them about for me. I’d be prepared for every eventuality and type of weather. But as that’s not going to happen, and since I’m travelling around Tuscany on buses and trains, I need to find some sort of compromise between the capsule and the kitchen sink. The real problem is the amount of paper that I accumulate on trips – I grab every map, leaflet and brochure I can. Last time I had to buy a new bag to fit them all in, and they weigh a ton. On top of that there’s my camera and my notebooks and pens – no laptop, too heavy. And I always take at least 2 paperbacks with me – I hate the thought of being stuck without something to read. I’d better get going now.
Posted by Rebecca Ford
Summer in the city – and the temperature’s rising. In Florence the other week it was well over 30 degrees C for days on end. Even the locals were complaining. Too hot to be on holiday – let alone working. But I’m currently writing a new guidebook to Tuscany, so I had no choice but to get out and about. Mad dogs and English guidebook writers go out in the midday sun.
Florence is a small city, nice and compact and easy to explore on foot. But it was so hot it felt as if it had expanded to the size of London. Getting up early is essential to beating the heat. Luckily the main museums open very early – about 8.15 am, so you can enjoy some of the main attractions before the mercury rises.
However, I had one nice surprise. The euro is currently so high, against both the pound and the dollar, that visitor numbers are down. And this meant that, whereas it’s usually difficult to enjoy sights such as the Uffizi gallery because of the huge crowds, everywhere was much less frenetic than usual. I even had the convent of San Marco, with its wonderful frescoes by Fra Angelico, to myself. Well worth the discomfort of the searing heat.
Posted by Rebecca Ford
To the Globe Theatre on London’s South Bank on Sunday to see their production of King Lear. Probably not the cheeriest choice for a summer Sunday afternoon – the stage was littered with bodies by the end. However, the magnificent production more than compensated – David Calder was a believable, often fragile, very human Lear. And the Fool, played by Danny Lee Wynter was both witty and compelling.
The couple behind me seemed to enjoy it too, though rather more intrusively than I would have liked. They whispered noisily to one another at key moments, chomped apples and nuts, and fidgeted the whole time. They’d also left their mobile phone on, which proceeded to trill chirpily at an intense part of the performance. Infuriating.
The Globe and its players, however, rise above all such annoyances. It’s part of the open to the skies experience. The actors cope brilliantly with helicopters hovering overhead, winds gusting off the Thames, audience distractions (an unfortunate lady in the standing area fainted on Sunday) – even curious pigeons landing on the stage. In fact they’re so skilled that they can sometimes build these things into their performance (at one production I saw, an actor cleverly directed some of his lines at a pigeon that kept waddling across the stage). It’s what makes the Globe alive – and the very best place to see, and understand, Shakespeare.
Posted by Rebecca Ford
Just back from a week in Quebec City. The city is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year – that’s 400 years since it was founded by Samuel de Champlain. It was the first settlement in New France and today the French language is still dominant – I met a couple of people who said they didn’t speak English at all. A few others said they didn’t know much English – though they then proceeded to speak it pretty competently. What was interesting was how different the French of Quebec sounded to that spoken in France. I found it really hard to catch anything – far more so than in say, Paris or Lille. In the end I didn't even attempt my usual efforts at Franglais.
“Some French people laugh when they come here,” one local told me. “They certainly notice a difference and say that we speak very quickly. They also think it’s funny that we don’t allow any Anglicisms in Quebec French.” “So, you don’t say ‘le weekend’ or ‘le camping’?” I ask. “Oh no,” she looks rather appalled at the thought.
The city also has a more European feel than others in Canada or North America. There are little squares, some winding streets and – perhaps most welcome of all – you can walk everywhere. In fact you get great exercise, since Quebec City is divided into a lower town by the old port, and a higher town on top of the escarpment. Walking up and down the steps between them tones the thighs beautifully. Good thing too, if – like me - you’ve given in to temptation in the local patisseries .
Posted by Rebecca Ford
Over the past few weeks, newspapers here have been devoting more column inches to the rising price of food. Basics, such as wheat and rice, have shot up in price – due it seems to a rather complex mix of factors: climate change, affecting harvests; increased meat consumption in countries such as China (meaning that land formerly given over to growing crops is now used to raise cattle); and the production of bio-fuels. This last is perhaps of most concern, as in many cases fertile land is being taken out of food production in favour of more lucrative bio-fuels. This means that many essential foods are not only rising in price, but are also becoming scarcer.
It has certainly been noticeable on my local supermarket shelves, as some days they’ve been denuded of that essential of Italian cuisine – pasta. Perhaps people are stock-piling it?
It would be hard to imagine cooking Italian dishes without pasta – or to a lesser extent rice. You could use gnocchi, of course, as they’re mainly made from potatoes. The other alternative would be that staple of the north – polenta. This golden cornmeal is certainly versatile – you can eat it hot or cold, or even fried. And it’s very filling. The only trouble is making it in small enough portions. It seems to grow in the saucepan and I always seem to cook enough for ten.
