Travel

October 2006

Sea of Gods - Country Life International
Carla Passino explores the western Mediterranean in the wake of religion, myth and medieval sailors

Casablanca is a false start. An honest journey along the western Mediterranean should start at the rock of Jebel Musa, which, along Gibraltar on the opposite shore, marks the true beginning of the Mare Nostrum.

December 2005

On Turin's Chocolate Trail - Country Life
Carla Passino embarks on an indulgent tour of Turin before the Olympics.

A little too much is never enough for me. The words, engraved on the wall of one of Turin's oldest cafés, the Caffé Torino, could be my motto for the day. After hearing that Turin has more maitres chocolatiers than the whole of Belgium, I have embarked on a calorie-laden quest to visit as many as I can.

August 2004

My Week in Sardinia - Country Life
Carla Passino reveals the face of Sardinia that the Blairs will not see.

I have finally discovered something Tony Blair and I have in common: we are both spending part of this summer in Sardinia. My humble abode in the countryside can hardly compete with Silvio Berlusconi's rather garish Villa Certosa -- a neo-Classical mansion complete with Roman baths and amphitheatre on the fashionable Emerald Coast -- where the Blairs will be staying. But I have no doubt which of us will see the island's true colours.
The Emerald Coast's glitzy lifestyle of trendy swimsuits, yacht parties and political intrigue shares as little with rural Sardinia as St Tropez opr Cannes with the deep French Midi. Why, the place did not even exist until 1962, when Prince Karim Aga Khan IV launched it as a luxurious haven to rival the French Riviera. Now its strings ofhotels and resorts attract celebrities from across the world, and an even larger army of hangers-on who are happy to pay for the privilege of being pointedly ignored by the rich and famous.
While Mr Blair feasts with television presenters, politicos and footballers in Sardinia's jet-set ghetto, I have been exploring the hills behind out home.

March 2004

In the Footsteps of the Island Queen - Country Life
Carla Passino takes a tour of Sardinia, tracing the footsteps of its remarkable medieval queen, Eleonora.

The Queen is ugly. Peeking through the masses of her unbound hair, her face is marred by a scar that stretches from her right ear to her mouth. Eleonora, last Queen of Arborea stares at me from the cornice of the apse arch in the tiny church of San Gavino Martire, in San Gavino Monreale, Sardinia.

I am traipsing up and down the island on her footsteps and this church is a milestone in my quest because it contains her only surviving effigies. Although Eleonora was portrayed innumerable times in later centuries, her real looks had remained a mystery until the San Gavino sculpture was identified in 1983. The discovery shattered the queenÕs legend, which wanted her to be as beautiful as she was wise and brave. Nevertheless, she remains a remarkable woman who withstood a foreign invasion, thwarted a conspiracy to overthrow her rule and granted its country one of EuropeÕs earliest constitutions.

July 2003

They Speak Britalian - Country Life
Britain's love affair with Italy is as old as the Grand Tour. But do British people who live in Italy view the country so rosily? Carla Passino and Michael Hall asked four British Italians.

British journalist Tana de Zulueta first went to Italy in 1976 on a temporary assignment for Granada Television. Twenty years later, she was elected to the Italian Senate.

July 2003

Please Make It, Maestro - Country Life
Skilled craftmanship is entwined in the fabric of the Tuscan culture. Carla Passino visits local artisans who brave the pressures of a modern economy to keep medieval skills alive.

'Such one as hath become a Florentine, And trades and trafficds,' wrote Dante in teh Divina Commedia. Crafts have been Tuscany's life and blood since the Middle Ages, when trade guilds effectively controlled local government. The guilds have long gone and many craft businesses have turned into large-scale enterprises, but a handful of true artisans keep tradition alive.

May 2003

Castles and Crossfire in South Wales - Countrylife.co.uk
Pembrokeshire has born witness to centuries of battles between numerous factions over the past 900 years since the Normans invaded. Carla Passino takes a tour through some of the more spectacular remains and delves into their tangled histories of deceit and revolt.

Military history is carved into Pembrokeshire's every stone. Since the Normans invaded it in 1093, Little England Beyond Wales has seen centuries of battles between the Welsh and the English, Lancastrians and Yorkists, roundheads and cavaliers. Each has left behind a trail of interesting fortifications, which almost justify Orson Wells' line, in The Third Man, hat the arts thrive in wartime.

September 2002

On the Trail of the Exmoor Beast - Countrylife.co.uk
Carla Passino travels round Exmoor in search of panthers and pumas.

A dark shape some five-foot long crouched over the top of a hedge, green eyes glaring at the truck which dared be in its way. The driver moved back up the slope to get a better look, but the animal disappeared in the shadows. It was May 2002 - and it was the latest sighting of the Beast of Exmoor.
Legend has it that a big cat - a panther, or perhaps a black puma - is stalking the moors, killing sheep and cattle. So off I go to Exmoor, armed with my digital camera, to hunt for the beast.

July 2002

Echoes of the Past - Countrylife.co.uk
Carla Passino meets a group of musicians who are bringing the sounds of medieval Spain back to life.

Mudéjar music found me by chance. It was a summer afternoon two years ago, when the sun gives no respite and the heat makes it difficult to breathe. Cordoba was swarming with panting tourists in badly assorted shorts and flip-flops. In an attempt to escape the crowds, I sought refuge in the Casa Andalusí, a little known museum spanning ten centuries of daily life in Cordoba. As I walked along the rose-strewn patio, I first heard it: a blend of Spanish sounds with elements from the Arabic musical tradition which captivates the ear.
What really intrigued me, however, is that Mudéjar isn't an established variety of traditional Spanish music, in the same way as flamenco is. Rather, it is the work of a small group of passionate musicians who have delved into the rich coffers of medieval Spain to bring its musical culture back to life.