Two travellers In Italy

Henry Canova Vollam Morton 1892-1979 was a revered travel writer and journalist who was present when the tomb of Tutankhamen was opened by Howard Carter in 1923. H.V. Morton was born in Ashton-Under-Lyne (my home town), son of Joseph Morton who was the editor of the Ashton Herald newspaper. He has written many excellent travel books, many of which are now collectors' items. My account of our travels in Italy in 2001 has recently been published on the H.V. Morton Society website.

“Two travellers in Italy: in the steps of H.V. Morton”

Based on a 10 day trip to Northern Italy in October 2001

by Meg Gain

Re-reading H.V.Morton’s “A Traveller in Italy” recently, I was surprised to discover that, when, in October 2001, we (husband and I) spent 10 days travelling through Northern Italy by train, following the valley of the Po, we had been subconsciously following in HMV’s footsteps. The actual inspiration for our trip was a highly individual & idiosyncratic account of travelling to six North Italian towns in the mid -1950s, called “The Surprise of Cremona” by Edith Templeton. However, I think I must have subconsciously had HVM’s account in mind when planning our trip. I would love to think that these two wonderful travel writers met somewhere ‘en route’.

Our trip began in Milan; Edith doesn’t include the city but the flight took us there and we wanted to see the Brera Gallery and the Duomo (cathedral). Having learned some Italian prior to our trip I wanted to use the phrase we’d carefully researched: “Dove il duomo, per favore?” However, you don’t need to ask the way in Milan as the cathedral building stands out amongst the ancient architecture and, like HVM, we climbed to the roof and walked amongst its forest of spiky pinnacles and sculptures. We were lucky, as unlike HVM, we were rewarded with a view of the distant Alps, shimmering in the heat haze, their summits white with snow.

HVM weaves into his writings about Northern Italy the stories of the great families who ruled the states of Mantua, Milan, Ferrara and Ravenna. The pages are riddled with names from the Renaissance- the families of Gonzaga, D’ Este, Visconti, Sforza and Medici and the condottieri or mercenaries who were in the pay of these families, now immortalised in stone and paint - Gattamelata in Padua, Hawkwood in Florence, Colleoni in Venice and Guidoriccio da Folignano in Siena.

From Milan our first stop was Bergamo where the delightful Colleoni Chapel stands, almost hidden away in a corner of the square in the upper town (Bergamo Alta) reached by funicular railway. The capella was built as a funerary chapel for the condottiere, Bartolomeo Colleoni, for which he left money in his will. The thing I remember reading about Colleoni, that HVM neglects to mention, is that, because of Colleoni’s great machismo, he is reputed to have had three testicles. His coat of arms on the entrance gate shows the three testicles, the third worn smooth by the local tradition that rubbing it will bring a person luck.

The chapel is a confection of pastel coloured marble carved into arcades, balustrades and twisted columns. The weather was extremely wet when we were there and we were glad to take refuge from a downpour in the Carrara Academy, a famous art collection. I was glad we did so because, like HVM, we enjoyed seeing the profile painting of Leonello d’Este by Pisanello as well as a wonderful collection of Bellinis and Titians.

HVM travels to San Pellegrino Terme which was a ‘lively spa’. We didn’t go there but the ubiquitous green bottles of naturally carbonated water are common to every ristorante or trattoria. HVM says that the very word ‘spa’ has a period ring to it and, among the sights disappearing from the world, is that of “a footman tucking in rugs around elderly invalids.” The latter may be true but “the spa experience” is now very popular once again although for a younger set. The SP Terme has been recently re-designed by French architect Dominique Perrault.

Cremona on a summer morning was one of HVM’s destinations. We arrived by train from Brescia on a cold but bright morning in October. Edith Templeton, writing in ‘The Surprise of Cremona’ (published 1954), also arrives by train where she tells the porter that she wants to take a carriage. She is told that “Here we have no carozzas. They are old-fashioned. Horses are old-fashioned. Here we are modern, we have only taxis”. Somehow the idea of arriving at one’s hotel by horse-drawn carriage is infinitely more appealing than turning up in an anonymous petrol-powered car. The main piazza, the Piazza del Comune, in Cremona has the usual arrangement of cathedral, campanile, baptistry and town hall. HVM remarks that “one can discern a moment in the early Middle Ages when these towns vied with each other in the size and beauty of their cathedrals, the height of their towers and the dignity of their town halls” and, despite the same formula, each place succeeded in coming up with something quite different. Cremona’s Torrazzo (a clock tower rather than bell tower) claims to be the tallest medieval tower in Italy. We found the energy to climb to the top for excellent views of the rosy-red rooftops of the town and the countryside beyond. Edith was told she wasn’t allowed up there alone as “last year four people threw themselves from the top…”.

Strangely both HVM and Edith Templeton remark on the Public Gardens- HVM finds them a delightful spot – “lawns, a fountain, a bandstand, well-grown chestnut trees, polled acacias etc. whereas Edith tells us ‘they were a sorry sight, with meagre plants greyed with dust and a filthy little pond surmounted by an arrangement of artificial rocks and enlivened by a couple of wild ducks who are gliding about beneath trailing branches of a weeping willow and trying to look Chinese”. Were they in the same place, I wonder?

Like HVM, Edith actively seeks out locals or somehow manages to get introductions to a knowledgeable person who takes them into places the ordinary tourist would not have access to. Edith visits the local newspaper office where the Chief Reporter tells her “There is nothing interesting in Cremona, nothing, nothing, nothing!” She considered this an unhealthy attitude for a newspaper journalist and imagined his headline “Nothing happened again!” I like her sense of humour. Lost in a maze of streets, she finds that they are entirely populated by grand palazzi, ‘built of dark brown stone with a rugged surface, unobtrusive and serviceable, like brown packing paper.”

Sources

“A Traveller in Italy” by H.V. Morton, published by Methuen, 1964

“The Surprise of Cremona” by Edith Templeton, published by Methuen, 1954 (paperback edition 1985)

“Hill Towns of Italy” by Lucy Lilian Notestein, illustrated by David Gentleman, published by Hutchinson of London, 1963

“Eyewitness Guide to Italy” published by Dorling Kindersley, 1996

Abbreviations

HVM = Henry Canova Vollam Morton (1892-1979)

ET = Edith Templeton (1916-2006)