Summer is the best season to travel and visit interesting places. Everybody focuses on
choosing where to go, what to do, and how to enjoy the long and pleasant daylight in the most satisfying and delightful way. My holidays are usually a journey back to my hometown. An opportunity to see parents, relatives, and friends I unwillingly neglect because of the numerous miles distance between London and them. It’s true; social media and the internet do allow us to keep in touch daily, but it’s definitely not the same. Wouldn’t you prefer a face-to-face chat, possibly in front of a tasty glass of wine and a lovely sunset on a marvellous seaside, instead of a cold screen? I tell you, I surely prefer the latter. I'm not visiting my hometown only. On 14th of July, I’m travelling to north of France – Normandy – with my life-long friends Silvano and Luca. Since we finished the college and, then, the university, we have been in touch, but some difficulties made quite hard to arrange something together – Luca has been living in Turin, and he’s happily settled in the North Italian city; a few years later, I in turn left for London. This is the first joint holiday we've had in almost a decade. I’m happy and excited. It's an amazing adventure. You might wonder why I’m writing about my holiday in a blog mainly dedicated to books, authors’ events, and reviews. As I said, we’re heading to Normandy. The region is famous for its cuisine tradition, the typical and beautiful villages, and, mostly, for the important and heroic landing of the Allies forces in 1944. The land was the beginning of the attack against the Nazis forces and the end of their invasion. Soaked with intense historical meaning, Normandy has an intimate and inspirational relationship with art and literature. Its small and typical villages helped and instigated the genius of important authors. To begin with, Marcel Proust lived in Cabourg. The cosy atmosphere and the intense landscape inspired Proust to write his masterpiece "In search of lost time." Etretat is probably the most known city, along with Rouen. Etretat inspired Monet for his paintings, but it was home for Guy de Maupassant, the most famous and talented short-stories writer in French literature, and Maurice Leblanc, creator of the cunning and unstoppable gentleman thief Arsene Lupin. Victor Hugo spent time in Fecamp and lived with his family in Villequier. Last but not least, the "son of Rouen", Gustave Flaubert, was born in the city, and the places and environments inspired numerous part of the famous "Madame Bovary" . Normandy didn’t fascinate French authors only; Oscar Wilde lived at the Bernevalle Hotel, near Dieppe, after the incarceration in Reading. Here, the British writer composed "The ballad of Reading Gaol", one of his most known and famous works. In the following weeks, I'm writing about my holidays and the places we’re visiting. The feelings and emotions this literary-soaked region stimulated and enriched these famous authors with are the core of my future posts .
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