Had a fabulous time: travelled via Rotterdam and Günzburg, based in Riccione. Magical trips to Ravenna, San Leo, San Marino, Bologna and Urbino, and we could just hop on the local bus to Rimini. Lots of Byzantine mosaics, the Tempio Malatestiano, with the tomb of Giorgios Gemistos Plethon, the Old University in Bologna... Utterly wonderful. Just ( Read more... )

Will be offline for a couple of weeks, mostly.
Am off to Dad's tomorrow, then on Monday we set off for Rimini (National Holidays coach trip). We intend to visit Giorgios Gemistos Plethon (though am not impressed with his homophobia - not very Hellenic!) and Sigismondo Pandolfo di Malatesta there, and (in Ravenna) Dante Alighieri and Theodoric's ( Read more... )

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The tower on the left in the 15C painting is the north tower of Notre Dame de Paris.

( If you know the Victor Hugo novel... (click to read on) )

A sensible story on the religious news front:
"We see the stories as poetic metaphors and a manifestation of the forces of nature and human psychology."
Unlike some, which insist on making implausible real-world historical truth-claims…

Recently got into an altercation with a god-botherer in a review column on ff.net over the subject of whether dead characters should be shown enjoying an 'afterlife' in film or fiction to reassure viewers/readers. I disagree vehemently, even in a fantasy context. It is a form of sentimentality that I despise: it trivialises sacrifices made by ( Read more... )

Flavius Claudius Julianus:
We ought to share our goods with all men, but most of all with the respectable, the helpless, and the poor, so that they have at least the essentials of life. I claim, even though it may seem paradoxical, that it is a holy deed to share our clothes and food with the wicked: we give, not to their moral character but to ( Read more... )

And this is for the feast day on Saturday (as I shall be travelling on it, so not posting):

Click to view

( Some end-of-year musings… )

I re-read John Gaskin's excellent and endearing Traveller's Guide to Classical Philosophy last Sunday, when torrential rain and thunderstorms confined us to the hotel.

The trick is to live as if they didn't win. If you don't allow them power over you, they haven't won.