and the last Week in Venice...

No trip to Venice could possibly be complete without a dip at The Lido. As the sun set over the lagoon a bunch of intrepid swimmers headed out to their cooking class early. The sun may have been shining but the sea is still fresh!

and as our six weeks in Venice drew to a close the bonds of friendship were tightened. Geoffrey Humphries' last Life Drawing class, Louisa Buck's wonderful express-train talks on Modern and Contemporary art and a visit to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, to be welcomed by the present director, Karole Vail, who is also (but not connected), the grand daughter of Peggy herself! We were really honoured and felt very privileged to have her there at the start of our private visit to the museum.

Our time in Venice has been enhanced by the wonderful care lavished on the group by chef Massimo, bosses Dan and Andrea and their front of house team led by Toni. As we bade them farewell we were treated to a cake and a round of limoncello...the next days there were sad farewells as some of the group headed home to continue their gap years around the world...and we packed up and headed to Florence!

I was particularly and personally moved by being invited, by the early leavers, for farewell prosecco at The Schiavi wine bar, the irrepressible Claudia Henderson organised and officiated at the JHV2026 awards ceremony before we watched A Room with a View, and I took Guy, Tom and Ramier to Harry's Bar for drinks to congratulate them on (in Guy and Tom's case) walking to visit every single church in Venice (the Chorus Card has been discontinued so there's no more Chorus Challenge - but bear in mind that that competition involved visiting only about 17 churches!) Ramier qualified for his drink by being the tireless editor of the 2026 Yearbook...watch this space for that!