Roslyn Dee News Today

Alongside Fondamente Nove, the broad quayside walkway that runs like a ribbon along the northern edge of the island of Venice, the vaporetti waterbuses come and go with relentless frequency all day every day, transporting locals and visitors alike from one side of the city to the other and further afield.

Alongside Fondamente Nove, the broad quayside walkway that runs like a ribbon along the northern edge of the island of Venice, the vaporetti waterbuses come and go with relentless frequency all day every day, transporting locals and visitors alike from one side of the city to the other and further afield.

Last November, I spent a few days in Istanbul and one of the highlights was my visit to Hagia Sophia, the stunning 6th century Christian church that later became a mosque, was then designated as a museum in 1934, and since 2020, is a mosque once again. My visit was a truly memorable experience that cost me nothing; if I were to visit today, however, I would have to pay the equivalent of €25 in Turkish lira.

Napoleon prized lucky generals. Simon Harris surely seems one.

Last weekend my meticulously planned 52-hour journey from Dublin Port to Santa Lucia railway station in Venice nosedived – thanks to French train strikes – to a trip that stretched to 96 hours.

Only the wilfully blind can ignore that the history of human existence is simultaneously the history of pain: of brutality, murder, mass extinction, every form of venality and cyclical horror.

It’s almost 30 years since I stood and wept in a tiny museum in Jerusalem. I was in the Children’s Memorial, part of the complex that comprises Yad Vashem, Israel’s extraordinary museum dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust.

In the past week, I have experienced two incidents when I feared for my dog’s safety and, to a lesser extent, my own. Both occurred in my locality, but it’s the one that happened on the beach that perfectly illustrated the disregard so many dog owners have for other people, displaying a selfish lack of consideration that’s simply unacceptable.

It was the summer of 1983 when I first arrived here – young, wide-eyed and excited, and I fell instantly in love. With the city, with the people, with the whole experience of this wondrous place, which has one foot in Europe and the other in Asia.

About a year ago, a dear friend of mine had an appointment with her oncologist. When the main business was done and dusted between them and she was ready to leave, he suggested another appointment in a month’s time.