PORTAL TO PARADISE

The loving eye and flowing pen for this picture of the author's new home in Italy, which was a fifty year old dream come true and also an antidote to the memories that haunted his Pilgrim Cottage in England. First renting the Villa Perdita, then buying an apartment in the Palazzo Vairo in Alassio, he delves into the delights (and sometimes drawbacks) of living in Italy; he tells of his fellow British residents, of the changes in the population as the seasons progress, of the festas and carnivals of the community and of local companions and their family stories. A passion for ""firm facts"" sends him into Roman history and to nearby ruins and towns to verify some detail, and this lends him to new acquaintances and experiences as glories of the past and present are disclosed. There's a touch of serendipity as his sedulous searches take him from subject to subject --Hannibal, Napoleon, churches, saints, customs- and a collection of personal delights as he makes the transition from past to present. The whole makes a pleasant ""Italian excursion"" for the leisure-minded.