A few more, a bit more, as the course goes on...

Back from our fantastic trip to Ravenna and Pomposa, we had an optional visit to the fantastic Museum of Modern Art, in the sensational Ca'Pesaro, the Baroque palace of the 17th century that used to play host to the collection bought from successive Venice Biennale shows, and then the next thing on the itinerary was our drinks party in the bohemian studio of Geoffrey Humphries

Oh, and in the week before our Ravenna trip, Ca'Pesaro visit and drinks party we had our private visit to the Basilica of San Marco and, beneath the 8000 sq metres of gold mosaics we were treated to a stunning mini-concert of Patrick Craig singing for us. The Pala d'Oro, the crypt and the entire church were ours, and only ours for that magical hour

The next few days were devoted to a wonderful combination of visits and lectures. The Accademia gallery, a cooking class and an exceptional and privileged invitation to the Palazzo Contarini Polignac on The Grand Canal for a memorable performance from the Isadora Duncan group (she was married to a former owner of the palace) and afterwards we were invited upstairs to the piano nobile overlooking the Grand Canal for Prosecco and cicchetti