This was our first big sea cruise. We arrived in Barcelona in early December and got off a week later near Rome. With the exception of Barcelona, it was all new to us. It’s not the way I like to travel, moving to the beat of someone else’s drum, surrounded by other travellers, but I have to say if you are going to do it, the Viking Vesta is a damn good way of doing it. Lovely brand new ship, great staff, excellent excursion guides, beautiful food (but terrible coffee - note to myself to email the captain, or whoever arranges these things).
We did the one-week cruise. You can stay on, or join, at Rome, and then carry on eastwards, as many (mostly American) travellers seem to do. One week was enough for me, it gave me the flavour of places and identified some that I need to come back to - Firenze definitely, Marseille possibly not. Here are the details on the sketches from the cruise, in the order of travel:
Teatre Principal, la Rambla, Barcelona
This is Barcelona’s oldest theatre, on the city’s most famous street. Built on the site of an older theatre, it dates from 1848 and was designed by architect Daniel Molina.
The building has had a chequered history. It was a recruitment centre for fighters in the Spanish Civil War, and during the war a cinema was created in the building. In 1979 it became two cinemas; the first two offerings starred Roger Moore as James Bond in the not-so-classic ‘Moonraker’, and William Shatner in ‘Tarantula’, no wonder the cinema idea only lasted a few years. Now the building is back as a theatre, though on my visit it was closed and boarded up. She needs saving, too good to lose.
Eglesia Parroquial, Santa Maria Del Mar, Palamos
The Church of St Mary of the Sea, built between the 15th and 16th centuries in a late Gothic style, and rebuilt after the Spanish Civil War.
Mairie de Marseille
This is the City Hall, the home of the city’s Mayor, well sited directly on the harbour quayside. Vaguely Louise XIV, from 1653. I have not been inside, but a unique feature is that there is no staircase from the ground floor to the first floor - you need to go via the building at the rear. Apparently this is because the ground floor was used by merchants and the first floor was used by the aldermen, and the two groups did not want to meet.
Villefranche-sur-Mer
This is the stop-off port of Monaco, presumably as the locals don’t want the big cruise ships cluttering up their view. Monaco didn’t vastly impress me, no matter how much money gets wasted there - however Nice is closer and I think I would rather have gone there. That’s the problem of being on someone else’s tour.
Anyway, Villefranche is a perfectly nice little town, with a small fort and a couple of churches. This sketch is of the Chapelle Sainte Elizabeth. No longer a church but now an art gallery. It dates from around 1595 and was the seat of the Brotherhood of the Holy Spirit.
Next door is the Russian Consulate. Not quite sure why it should be in this sleepy village, but I suppose it’s handy for those Russian oligarchs who happen to have moored their yachts in Monaco.
I made a slight error by doing this drawing, I ignored the little Saint-Pierre Chapel down by the harbour, which was decorated inside and out by the designer, poet and artist Jean Cocteau around 1957.
Chiesa di Santa Felicita, Firenze
On to Italy, and the big beast of the architectural and artistic world, it gets two sketches from me. The UNESCO World Heritage Convention Site simply says:
“The Historic Centre of Florence can be perceived as a unique social and urban achievement, the result of persistent and long-lasting creativity, which includes museums, churches, buildings and artworks of immeasurable worth.”
This church is in the city centre just down from the Ponte Vecchio. It is the oldest church in Firenze, built on the site of churches dating back to the 4th century. This current church dates from around 1736 from a design by Ferdinando Ruggieri. An odd feature of the design is that the Vasari Corridor that runs from the Palazzo Vecchio to the Pitti Palace passes directly through the façade of the church, with a window (protected by a grid); this allowed the Medici family to listen to Mass without being seen or disturbed by the people down at ground level.
In front of the church is the Column of Santa Felicita, erected in about 1484 to celebrate 13th-century crusades led by Peter of Verona. Unfortunately rather the worse for wear after the Germans shattered the column whilst mining the approaches to the bridges of the Arno River.
Chiesa di San Salvatore in Ognassanti, Firenze
Some churches in Firenze are big and some are small, but they are all beautiful and full of treasures. This church is just outside of the tourist centre, and therefore rather more peaceful. It was built on the site of a church dating from around 1250, and then rebuilt in 1627 by Bartolomeo Pettirossi, in the Baroque style. When I say ‘full of treasures’ Botticelli is buried in the church, and his fresco of St Augustine faces across the nave to a Ghirandaio. One highlight is a Giotto from 1310, but even greater is a huge crucifix in paint and gold by the same artist.
Accessed through a separate entrance in the refectory is a version of the Last Supper, also painted by Ghirandaio, and the model from which Leonardo da Vinci gained the idea for his version.