With only a few days to go before the launch of the 2022 edition of the John Hall Venice Course, our 58th consecutive event, I went out to Venice to have a look around, meet up with our fantastic course manager, Patrizia, and generally take the temperature in the city.
One thing that's worth bearing in mind is that at the moment they are taking mask-wearing and the 'green pass' very seriously. You cannot get into even the smallest and most modest bars without presenting them with your QR code, whether it's on paper or your smart phone, so be ready!
Venice was FABULOUS! Wonderful weather, either beautiful, mysterious mists or sparkling blue skies and sunshine. Museums, bars, restaurants are all opening up, our fabulous hotel is all scrubbed down and everything is ready!
So, in the spirit of getting everyone ready, I'm starting the 2022 blog. Over the next nine weeks I'll be updating at various moments so that all of you, parents, cousins, potential students for subsequent years and any other interested people can see what we are doing.
It's really exciting. These past few years have been pretty nervy, with covid coming and going, last year's course was incredibly successful, we evaded quarantine and the virus, and we all had a fantastic time. This year we are reverting to the original dates and will run from January 24th in London until March 25th in Rome (if you have only signed up for London and Venice there is usually a little bit of leeway in that you can add the Florence and Rome weeks whilst we are in Venice) What I can tell you is that the reason why we love being in Italy (and Venice especially) in the 'winter' and spring is that it's usually pretty empty, and we get to have the city to ourselves (more or less)
So here are some photos that I took over the last couple of days that should give you a flavour of what to expect.
A gorgeous sunset shot of where our hotel is, a view of the lagoon from the plane, gondolas in the mist, a little taster of some of the fantastic paintings in the Accademia gallery including rabbits, and the carnival treat, a stupendous fluffy, tasty doughnut called a 'fritella' that is incredible (but FULL of calories!!)
More soon!
