A walk along the Thames to Ham House

On a beautiful, early spring day in late March, a group of us from the American Women's Club spent a day at Ham House.  Our day began with a delightful walk along the Thames from the town of Richmond. We walked about two miles along the river with scenic views in all directions.    

Along the way we passed homes that were perfectly situated and must have had histories 

of their own to explore.

We also saw an early morning crew team.  They were rowing, but they also were frantically bailing water soon after I snapped this picture. I'm not sure this boat would have won in the Oxford/Cambridge race held on April 7. 

As we walked up from the river, it was not hard to see the grandeur of this house.  The brochure for Ham House says that it is one of London's best kept secrets. 

 An atmospheric Stuart mansion nestling on a bend in the river in leafy Richmond upon Thames; imagine a sleeping beauty, virtually unchanged for 400 years.

Ham House from the front 

Ham House was built in 1610 and in 1626 William Murray moved into the house. William was a whipping boy which is a young boy assigned to a prince.  The whipping boy was was punished when the prince misbehaved.  He was a whipping boy for Charles I.  He then went on to earn his living at court and remained close friends with the King.  He and Charles I shared similar tastes for art and interior decoration and William made Ham House a luxurious residence.

  original kitchen table

 Ham House and Garden has been featured in many film and television productions.  For all of the Downton Abbey fans, this is a picture of the soup kitchen from the Downton Abbey series. 

These are pictures of the beautifully carved staircases which were featured in the film, Young Victoria.
The staircases were built to impress the visitors and led to luxurious rooms on the upper floors. The carved trophies of arms are very unusual and the posts are capped with baskets of fruit.  

We walked through room after room of lavishly decorated tapestries, paintings and furniture.  This room is the Queen's bedchamber and was prepared in expectation of a visit from Charles II's consort, Queen Catherine of Braganza.  It was converted to a drawing room in 1744.  

 The marble fireplace dates from the 1630's but the twisted columns were originally in the Great Dining Room.

                                      North Drawing Room

The Green Closet was designed to display both cabinet pictures and miniatures on an intimate scale.  It was a small room and this is a picture of the door and a painting above the door.  In 1655 the room was hung with "greene stuffe" and the present silk damask are copies of the green damask. 

    Green Closet

 

back of Ham House

If you compare this picture with the picture of the front of the house, you will see that this picture is less busy and cluttered than the front of the house. 

view of the front from inside the house

After we toured Ham House, we visited the gardens.   Cherry Garden at Ham House is a Parterre Garden.  Parterre Gardens are formal gardens that are planted in a pattern and the pattern itself is an ornament.  You can see these patterns in these pictures.  Tightly clipped hedges are mixed with pathways and lavender.  Parterre gardening was developed in France but was overtaken by the naturalistic English landscaping garden in the 1720's.  It was revived in the 19th century.

This is a view from the back of the house to the Wilderness which is behind the tall hedges on either side  of the grassed paths.  The hedges are completely enclosed and are planted with various flowers or shrubs that gives it a less formal look than the Cherry Garden.  

This picture of a painting is thought to show William Murray's daughter Elizabeth with her second husband walking in the Wilderness.  

Visiting houses such as Ham House always brings alive small glimpses of what life must have been like in the storied days of England's past.  It amazed me to think that this house was not a king's castle but only a house for a friend of the king.

 Our day concluded with a walk back to the Richmond tube station and a quick ride back to London.

Italian Interlude, Part III

Osimo and Bologna

On Sunday, February 19, we were treated to a tour of another hill town, Osimo.  The town was founded by Greek colonists and later conquered by the Romans.  It eventually became part of the Papal States until the reunification of Italy in 1861.  Cristina's good friend Gianluca lives in Osimo and he invited us to his home where we had a delicious lunch of lasagna, pastries and, of course, wine.  

Adam, Cristina, Gianluca and I in Osimo town sqaure

fountain in the town square

street in Osimo

day after concert unwinding

After lunch and a quick tour of Osimo, we left for Bologna from Ancona,  a seaport town north of Civitanova Marche and Osimo.   We had tickets for a 4:30 train to Bologna.  I was very pleased that I had easily booked the tickets online and got us assigned seats.    What I didn't remember is that there were two trains to Bologna leaving within minutes of each other.  We were booked on the second train, but when I saw a train coming that said Bologna (it was on the same track), I told everyone that was our train.   We had to run to the other end of the train because our seats were located in car 7.  We jumped on the train at car 6 since the train was about to leave, knowing we could get to car 7 through car 6.  However, when we got to the end of car 6, we realized there was no car 7. Thankfully, Cristina used her command of the Italian language and found that we were on the wrong train.  So we all jumped off quickly, dragging our luggage through the train with the conductor giving us nasty looks and some choice Italian phrases.  It was definitely a scene out of the Chevy Chase movie European Vacation!   Once we were back on the platform and had caught our breath, we had a good laugh.

Cristina and Adam relaxing finally on the right train

Even though I had visited other cities in Italy,  I didn't know much about Bologna and I was looking forward to learning more. These few pictures and descriptions can only give a snapshot of everything the city of Bologna has to offer. Besides being a large university city, it has spectacular history, art, music, culture and cuisine.  We stayed in the heart of the medieval part of Bologna and we could walk all over the city without having to take a cab. Bologna had just experienced a snowstorm and you can see the remains of the snow in the Piazza Maggiore, Bologna's main square.

Piazza Maggiore

an example of Bologna's archways

Bologna is famous for it's porticos.  It has over 25 miles of porticos around the city.  They were originally built to create more living space.  Bologna's university was world famous and had attracted thousands of immigrants.  In order to have more living space, the people began to build extensions to their buildings. They were built out over the sidewalks. The first portico dates to 1211.  It soon became a requirement to build a portico if you built a new building.  These archways protect from the sun in the summer and from rain and snow in the winter.  The first day we were in Bologna was cold and rainy.  The archways were a wonderful way to walk around the city on a rainy day.

Piazza del Nettuno with Neptune fountain in the background

The Neptune fountain is a well known sculpture in Bologna dating back to 1563.  The fountain was considered a profane, pagan symbol by the papal authorities. 

After Tom flew back to London on Monday, Adam, Cristina and I had some time to explore Bologna.  We found a wonderful store filled with all kinds of music so we had to stop and peruse the shelves for awhile.   It's hard to find this quality of music store in the U.S.

perusing a music store 

Tom and I happened to walk by this amazing university library.  Bologna's university was officially founded in 1088 and claims to be the oldest in the western world.  The library that we found had ceilings of monuments to lawyers, doctors and other professions.  It is still the center for law study in Italy.
Rossini's Stabat Mater was first performed in this hall. Seeing this hall was exciting to me because I had sung the Stabat Mater a year ago with the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus.

the entrance to the Stabat Mater Hall 

The ceiling as you come
up the stairs in the library

 Bologna is a food lover's paradise.  The food is reasonably priced and even in the smaller trattorias, the food was excellent.   Tortellini and tagliatelle are original to Bologna.  Not too far from Bologna is Parma, the origins of Parma ham, Parmesan cheese and Balsamic vinegar.  This is a picture of our first meal in Bologna at Trattoria Anna Maria.  Outstanding!

Tagliatelle with Bolognese sauce

a display in a pastry shop

all varieties of tomatoes were out on this sunny day

olives, cheeses, mortadella, parma ham.  

I took this picture of tortellini in a pasta store.  I learned that tortellini is typically made with meat or cheese and smaller than tortelloni.  Tortellini in brodo is a common way to eat tortellini,
which is simply tortellini in a broth AND it's simply delicious.

Our extended weekend in Italy is over.  We will take wonderful memories with us of fantastic food, marvelous music, and good times with friends and family.