Tanti auguri!
Tanti auguri to you all for a merry Christmas, a jolly festive season and a happy new year. Many thanks for subscribing, it’s greatly appreciated! I have just spent a couple of convivial pre-Christmas days on the Suffolk coast eating oysters, taking muddy walks, looking at the infinite stars of the vast East Anglian sky, and imagining Roman sailors bewildered by the mutable coastline of those shifting mudflats.
While there I stumbled upon a fairly unlikely Roman connection: a Holy Family attributed to Raffaellino del Colle in the silent gloaming of the exquisite church of St Bartholomew at Orford. Raffaellino was a pupil of Raphael and worked with him on the frescoes for Agostino Chigi at the Villa Farnesina in Trastevere, where my final tour of 2024 had taken me just the day before.
The inscription below the painting tells that, in this very High Anglican church, it was dedicated to the memory of a former rector. Close to Rome indeed. Here are some photos of festive East Anglia, and the muddy reaches of the grey North Sea where once baffled Romans sailed.
Tanti auguri, e buon anno nuovo!
Agnes
Tanti Auguri and Buin anno
Thank you for your posts and your beautiful photos. Best of holidays to you and your family