Page 35 - Mediterraneo e dintorni - 4-2020

enGLishness, TraVeLinG BeTWeen enGLand and
WaLes

Only the English term Englishness makes that particular
way of being that you can find after crossing the Channel.
An attitude that pervades all of Britain in different ways and
forms and concerns everything related to meetings in the city
or in the countryside: the way people dress and behave, so
respectful of forms but often bizarre and in any case always
imperturbable; the long sequences of houses that differ from
each other only in the lively color of the door, always painted
with frescoes, with the inevitable arched window all outside
and floral wallpaper inside; pubs with old signs and the same
recurring names, Red Lion, King’sarms, Black Horse; that almost
fluorescent green of the parks where cows and sheep also graze
in the center; aristocratic and upright dogs, owners of dogs as
they are to their pets; the red double-decker buses, the black and
white taxis, the legendary red telephone booths, so iconic that
they have remained in place even though they are now totally
ma sono inguaribilmente legati alle loro abitudini out of use. Chiara and I, my wife and travel companion, have
e tradizioni anche le più bizzarre. Ed è così che noi been visiting Britain for more than forty years. In England we
li amiamo. Io e Chiara, mia moglie e compagna di have some of the closest friends and we can’t stay long without
seeing them. So after a few years of absence we decided it was
viaggio, frequentiamo la gran Bretagna da più di time to dedicate our three weeks of vacation to this country, a
quarant’anni. In Inghilterra abbiamo amici fra i più week to be with friends between Cambridge and London, and
cari e non possiamo stare a lungo senza vederli. fifteen days strolling in the car, touching places especially in the
Così dopo qualche anno di assenza abbiamo deciso countryside that we had not yet visited, but which more than
che era ora di dedicare a questo paese le nostre tre others promised us an authentic immersion in the most typical
British atmosphere. First stop in the Cotswolds, the largest and
settimane di ferie, una settimana per stare con gli oldest protected area in England: you will find immense pastures
amici fra Cambridge e Londra, e quindici giorni a but also adorable villages with magnificent honey-colored stone

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