Italia ancora

Not speaking Italian and attending a conference in Mantua was a slightly surreal experience, made more so by the fabulous surroundings of the Teatro Bibiena, where Mozart performed his first concert in Italy. A tiny, exquisite baroque jewel set behind a facade that was sheathed in scaffolding, it was less than five minutes walk from the apartment where I was staying.
After four days, we stopped in Bologna for an afternoon's wander around the monumental civic architecture there. It was the feast day of St Petronius (entirely by chance we had arrived on the biggest festival of the year) and the crowds were boggling and the sheer size of everything rather daunting after the minute charms of Mantua (excepting the Palazzo Ducale complex).
Now home again, I must buckle down to work after five weeks laziness. Back to the libraries and archives.