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Saturday 22 November 2008

Guiding Lights

Charlotte Metcalf goes on a glorious tour of Venice

Lady Frances Clarke, president of the charity Venice in Peril and widow of Venice’s late ambassador, Sir Ashley, was also our occasional guide. She arranged access to places most tourists never see such as the exquisite Sala della Musica with its frescoes by Guarano in the Ospedaletto, a little hospital originally founded for orphaned and abandoned girls.

One evening we were entertained in a little flat in the Palazzo Gradenigo by Rosemary Forbes-Butler, a renowned British soprano. We were treated to prosecco and canapés in a tiny room, swirling with so much original creamy stucco that it felt like being walled in by wedding-cake icing. After drinks, we sat down in another tiny room containing a piano and a spinetta. Rosemary, in floor-length pale blue silk, brown lace and scarlet slippers, was accompanied by Roberta, wearing a chain-mail sheath over a black catsuit, and we were regaled with music ranging from raunchy sailors’ love songs to Handel and Rossini. Some of our group found the performance embarrassing. ‘No one smiles that much and means it,’ one woman muttered to me disparagingly. Certainly, Rosemary’s overt charm and dramatic style were not subtle, but I was moved that a young, attractive woman was singing her heart out to a private audience in a corner of an ancient, grand palazzo, and I did feel we were genuinely seeing something of ‘Insider’s’ Venice.

Perhaps the highlight of the tour was the night our group took sole possession of the Church of San Marco. We were let in a side door and told to sit down in the dark. Then, slowly, the lights came on, illuminating every gold mosaic with as much blazing drama as possible. It was simply glorious.

The course is not cheap at £1,700 for six days, but it includes accommodation in the comfortable Hotel Monaco, right on Piazza San Marco, and several delicious meals awash with wine. Besides, the course was a far more potent tonic than any luxury spa or Caribbean island for a hungry soul shrivelled by a British winter. I felt soothed by the presence of so much beauty, mentally stimulated, and I even felt physically better after a lot of walking in invigorating salty lagoon air away from cars. I feel more than ready for all that summer has to hurl at me.

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