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Archive for the ‘Italy’ Category

Follow Italian Virginia Woolf Society as we stay at home

Posted in coronavirus, global series, Italy, Virginia Woolf, tagged , , , , , on Friday 3 April 2020| Leave a Comment »

If you’re not following and reading the posts on the Italian Virginia Woolf Society Facebook page during this time of staying at home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, you are missing out. I know I was.

Virginia Woolf reading at home

I had let many intriguing posts from friend Elisa Bolchi — and former society president — slip through my Facebook feed. So I finally clicked over to her page and on to the Italian Society’s page. There I found some comfort and some inspiration from those whose country is one of the hardest hit during the current pandemic.

Inspiration from Italy

On its page, the society, formed in 2017, has posted inspirational messages from its president, Nadia Fusini, along with those from its founding partners, and another from beloved bookseller Raffaella Musicò.

It has also shared a video of Federica Leuci reading aloud letters from Woolf to various friends like Vita Sackville-West and Clive Bell.

In addition, the society has issued a photo challenge we can meet while staying at home and reading Woolf.

The #Woolfincasa #Woolfathome photo challenge

The challenge posted on Facebook reads: “At this time the right thing to do is stay in the house. What better opportunity to (re)-read a Virginia Woolf book? Take a picture of yourself reading a Woolf book on the couch, the chair, table, bed… wherever you want, as long as you’re home! Then post it and tag us and add the hashtag #Woolfincasa and #Woolfathome, we’ll create the album “The Rooms of Woolf” with all your photos. Good morning 💜 #iorestoacasa #sharingbeauty

A number of followers posted photos of themselves reading Woolf.  A few are shown in the screenshot below of the Italian Virginia Woolf Society’s Facebook page. You might want to post yours on social media as well.

I took mine today when I just happened to be wearing the “Italia” sweatshirt I bought from a street vendor in Rome five years ago. Elisa Bolchi was kind enough to post it for me.

#Woolfincasa and #Woolfathome with Blogging Woolf in Ohio

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Going Italian with Virginia Woolf

Posted in Italy, Jan Morris, Travels with Virginia Woolf, Virginia Woolf, tagged , , on Sunday 9 May 2010| 4 Comments »

I’m going to Italy with Virginia Woolf. I’m sure we will have a wonderful time.

She accompanied me to Ireland a few years ago, and we had such fun that we are traveling together again.

Woolf was a great European traveler. Of course she traveled around England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, but she also visited six other European countries. She spent time in Germany, the Netherlands, France, Spain and Greece, as well as Italy. She toured some of these countries more than once.

While in her twenties, she also made two trips to Turkey. 

I got most of those facts from a wonderful book titled Travels with Virginia Woolf written by Jan Morris and first published in 1993. And it’s because of that book that I know whenever I am traveling in Woolf’s steps.

Morris scoured Woolf’s diaries and letters in preparation for writing her Woolf travelogue. Then she went one big step further. She visited some of Virginia’s favorite spots herself. 

I expect to find Morris’s own observations most useful on my own Italian trip, for she has noted how the sights and scenes of present-day Italy do or don’t match up to what Woolf experienced during her seven trips to the country where she said she would “come to die.”

Right now, I have a photocopy of the 15-page “Italy” chapter in my carry-on bag. I plan to spend my eight-hour Alitalia flight highlighting the spots Woolf saw that I, too, will have a chance to see.  I will let you know how they compare.

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