Towering experiences and the greatest loss of the last two centuries.

Returned yesterday evening from a two day trip with Pat to Orvieto and Assisi. Like the rest of humankind we were attempting to lift ourselves out of the slough of despond into which the world was cast on the 26th June - or 6 26 as it will henceforth, no doubt, be called. Matters were made worse for me by the fact that I’d failed to appreciate Michael Jackson’s towering genius whilst the great man was alive. I’d naively dismissed him as a pitifully confused individual with an unfortunate penchant for small children, skin toner and prancing around the stage dressed in garish clothes whilst clutching his crutch and warbling unappealingly in a ridiculous falsetto. Little had I realised that Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, the Beatles, the Stones, and Bob Dylan were musical pygmies in comparison. However, over the ensuing week Sky News’s blanket coverage put me right. I was therefore delighted to read the following letter in today’s Guardian which expressed my feelings so succinctly:

    “I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the wonderful coverage of the tragic death of Michael Jackson. He was a genius who could both sing and dance, often at the same time. The fact I could read all about this giant of a human in an adult newspaper like the Guardian, instead of having to buy a trashy red-top, made the painful experience of coming to terms with the loss that much easier. Professor Barry Fantoni”

The trip was also to celebrate our thirty-second wedding anniversary so I appropriately spent much of it climbing towers: the Torre del Moro in Orvieto and numerous towers in the Rocca Maggiore at Assisi. Pat declined to accompany me on my ascents: she’s probably had her fill of towering erections. We had a wonderful lunch in Orvieto at I Sette Consoli, a restaurant recommended by Irish Paul. Click here for its web-site. Unlike the English cathedrals of the Protestant Reformed Religion as Established by Law, entry to the basilica of Saint Francis was free. Admittedly there were various little booths where you could make an offering to have various popish rites performed on your behalf. It is saddening, though, that the Church of England once famously described by Charles II as ‘the only religion for a gentleman’ - the second half of his statement ‘but no religion for a christian’ is unaccountably less well-publicised - has now gone into trade.  The other building in Assisi which took my fancy was the Temple of Minerva, dating from the reign of Augustus, with a baroque church built in its cella. Click here for a film of the trip.