In the Footsteps of The Young Victoria

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Parent Category: Travel Info

Category: Travel Feature

Published on Saturday, 19 December 2009 04:23

Written by Laura Blum

The teen-to-queen story inspires. And an arranged marriage where girl meets boy and actually falls in love has its charm. But it's Britain's royal palaces and scenery that make The Young Victoria, a costume drama about Queen Victoria’s 19th-century ascent to the throne and betrothal to Prince Albert, such a lush and atmospheric production.

The film stars Emily Blunt as Victoria and Rupert Friend as Albert, her husband and consort [see upcoming interview with Blunt], who felt regal just visiting its grand locations. Though some viewers may find the story a tad flat or have had enough of the queen-exploitation genre, but-- to misquote Her Majesty -- "we are amused" by the lavish interiors and English gardens, and itch to do some palace hopping of our own. 

Granted though, the average tourist won’t have Sarah Ferguson to broker special arrangements, as she did for the 50-day shoot in 37 UK locations. 

And not even Fergie could use her pull to retrograde the look of residences like Westminster Abbey or Kensington Palace, which required body doubles to stand in for their Victorian-era selves: Lincoln Cathedral played the former; Ham House, the latter. And Blenheim Palace did its Buckingham Palace best, with interiors shot at Belvoir Castle, Ditchley and Lancaster House. For Windsor Castle, Arundel Castle had a chance to shine, and Belvoir Castle showed what it could do as Windsor Great Park.
 
Whether the original or the movie stand-in, the centuries-old residences of British kings and queens will summon footloose romantics from the cinema to the airport. As director Jean-Marc Vallée put it to a native, “We have shot at some of the most beautiful locations imaginable -- Lincoln Cathedral, Blenheim Palace, Wilton House, Arundel Castle… I love them all. I even love your horrible weather.”
 
Many of the monarchs’ mansions are open to the general public:   
 
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace was the true site of the Coronation Ball, where on June 28, 1838, 19-year-old Victoria feted her new status as queen. Today it does double duty as the office and London residence of Her Majesty The Queen and as the administrative seat of the Royal Household. Its 19 State Rooms, where paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens and Poussin preen alongside sculpture by Canova and Sèvres porcelain, can be visited during August and September, when the Queen makes her annual rounds in Scotland.
The Official Residences of The Queen
London SW1A 1AA
+44 (0)20 7766 7304
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Ham House
When a 17th-century painting took some hairspray meant for Emily Blunt, the keepers of this Stuart mansion were reportedly up in arms. But Ham House has seen considerably darker days. From Civil War politics to Restoration court intrigue, the reputedly haunted house on the Thames packs a history that’s as wild as its garden mazes. For hours of operation, contact the National Trust.
Richmond, London TW10 7RS
+44 20 8940 1950
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www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-hamhouse
 
Frogmore House
Set in the private Home Park at Windsor, Frogmore House comes with 18th-century gardens and a lake. ”All is peace and quiet and you only hear the hum of the bees, the singing of the birds,” is how Queen Victoria described its allure. She was such a fan that she built a mausoleum there for Prince Albert when he died of typhoid in 1861, reserving an adjacent plot for herself. The interior House walls showcase several generations of artwork by the royal family.
Windsor SL4 2JG
Berkshire
+44 207 799 23318
For August and September tours, pre-book at +44 (0) 20 7766 7321
http://www.thamesweb.co.uk/windsor/frogmore/frogmore.html

Windsor Castle
The world’s biggest and oldest occupied castle dates back nearly 1,000 years, to William the Conqueror. Its 15-acre sprawl contains a royal palace that served as Queen Victoria’s principal residence. The Blue Room has the dubious distinction of being where Prince Albert died. Visitors can tour the Castle precincts, the State Apartments, Queen Mary's dolls house, St George's Chapel and the Albert Memorial Chapel. During the winter months the route includes five more rooms, called the Semi-State Rooms.
West of London
Via Windsor/Eton Rail, Windsor, UK
+44 (0)20 7766 7304
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Osborne House
Tucked away on the Isle of Wight, Osborne House was the perfect place for Queen Victoria to skulk following Prince Albert’s death. Albert himself had designed the manse, with a nod to an Italian Renaissance palazzo. After its completion in 1851, it served the royal couple as a summer home and rural getaway. Victoria favored its “cheerful and unpalacelike rooms” over Windsor’s gloom, but after her death (at Osborne) her heirs fobbed it off on the state. Today it – and its museum dedicated to England’s longest-reigning monarch -- is the charge of the English Heritage, and can be visited from spring through autumn. 
East Cowles, Isle of Wight
+44 (0) 870 333 1181
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server.php?show=nav.14479
 
Osterly Park and House
Posing as Buckingham Palace, Osterly Park House made a fine sitting room and ante room for Emily Blunt’s Victoria. It began life as a manor house in the 1570s, among other then fashionable country retreats west of London. In the 18th century, architect Robert Adam gave it a neo-classical makeover, prompting art historian Horace Walpole to deadpan that its drawing room was "worthy of Eve before the fall."  Now under the care of the National Trust, the House is open to the public from March to November, with additional dates for other Osterly Park sites.
Jersey Road, Isleworth, Middlesex TW7 4RB
+44 1 494 755 566
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http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-osterleypark
 
Hampton Court Palace
Southwest London’s Hampton Court was built under King Henry VIII in 1514. Queen Victoria put her stamp on it with a nip/tuck to the Great Hall, but, like other kings and queens after George II, never called it home. Questers are invited into the palace and out to its 60-acre grounds, where the 17th-century Wilderness Garden maze awaits their confounding.
Surrey  KT8 9AU
+44 (0)20 3166 6000
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Lancaster House
The movie set for the Coronation, Lancaster House is every bit as over-the-top as the venue it fronted for. This wasn’t its first gig as Buckingham Palace; National Treasure: The Book of Secrets was. Gossip has it that Queen Victoria once commented to her host at London’s finest townhouse, "I have come from my House to your Palace.” Ground broke on the neo-classical residence in 1825, three centuries after the site was joined with St. James's Palace complex. Today HM Government uses Lancaster House for official receptions. Like St. James’s Palace, it’s closed to the public, but worth catching from the outside if you’re in the West End neighborhood.
London SW1A 1AA
+44 (0)20 7766 7304
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Kensington Palace
Victoria’s birthplace was where she was told on the predawn of June 20, 1837, that her uncle, the king, had died and that she was now queen. Until then the almost-18-year-old had slept on a cot by her mother, as part of an overprotective hysteria known as the Kensington System. Yet memories fade, and in 1899, the Queen celebrated her 80th birthday by opening The State Apartments to the public. The restored walls were decked out with pictures and exhibits, especially of her reign.
5 Prince Of Wales Terrace
London W8 4PX
+44 (0) 20 7937 9561
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http://www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace/building/stateapartments.aspx

Balmoral Castle
Adored by Queen Victoria and purchased by Prince Albert, Scotland’s Balmoral Estate houses the castle whose foundation stone she set in 1853. Balmoral Castle has since served as the private residence of The Queen, and HM and her family summer there in August and September. Beyond looking pretty, Balmoral Estate does its part for the environment and local Aberdeenshire economy. The 65-acre Estate grounds, gardens and the Castle Ballroom welcome visitors from early April through July.
The Estates Office, Balmoral
Ballater, Aberdeenshire
Scotland AB35 5TB
+44 1 3397 42534
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www.balmoralcastle.com

For a related FFTrav story go to: http://filmfestivaltraveler.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=359:emily-blunt-the-young-victoria&catid=31:general

Italy’s Island of Capri

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Parent Category: Travel Info

Category: Travel Feature

Published on Thursday, 17 December 2009 15:30

Written by Laura Blum

For anyone still planning a decadent New Year’s escape, Italy’s Island of Capri could be just the ticket. Since Tiberius and Caligula indulged their darker pleasures there, the island resort has helped fun seekers pass the chillier months, and its lusty charms persist in heating the soul.

A veritable Who’s Who of writers, artists and composers have staked out Caprese crags in more recent times. Even your mom knows the song, “The Isle of Capri.”

All of four square miles, the Bay of Naples’ glammest island is easy to get around. From Naples, it’s a 40-minute hydrofoil or 80-minute ferry, and half that from Sorrento. A funicular railway hoists comers from either of Capri’s two marinas – Grande in the north or Piccolo in the south – to Piazza Umberto I, diminutively called the Piazzetta. No self-respecting tourist leaves without cadging a shot of its historic Clock Tower or sipping overpriced drinks in its café bars.

Blue Grotto
Capri’s signal attraction is the Blue Grotto. Whether this azure-watered cavern is open to winter visitors depends on the sea and the skies. (In amenable conditions, hours are roughly 10 AM – noon.) Should umbrella conditions prevail, simply imagine the nymphaeum that decorated its flanks in antiquity, and sourgrape that it wouldn’t have been on display anyway, even had the elements cooperated.     
 
http://www.capri.com/en/grotta-azzurra

Faraglioni

A stack of rocks jutting out of the sea iconicize Capri’s north vista. Never have landslides and erosion so ignited the imagination as with this limestone clump, partly named after a sea lion who sunbathed there centuries back.   

http://www.capri.com/en/faraglioni

Belvedere of Tragara
To properly gawk at the Faraglioni, this leafy road gives quite the view. Its name, which means “goats” or “pen,” invokes Capri’s early days as a Greek colony. Today's Villa La Certosella stands where the Roman residential complex once began, the only remnants of which is the marble floor now in St. Stephen's Cathedral’s Chapel of the Rosario. From the Piazzetta, reach Tragara by a 20-minute trek along Via Vittorio Emanuele and Via Camerelle.

Certosa di San Giacomo
The Charterhouse of St. James was a 14th-century monastery founded by nobleman and royal advisor Count Giacomo Arucci as his end of a divine bargain to produce a male heir. Today this exemplar of Carthusian architecture in all its monkish wonders hosts a museum, library and screening hall.

Via Certosa
+39 81 837 6218

Cerio Museum
The Cerio Museum holds everything from fossils and shells to animals and plants in its 20,000 natural and archaeological exhibits. Largely hoarded in the 19th century by Dr. Ignazio Cerio, the depot is housed within an old palazzo located on the Piazzetta.
Piazzetta Cerio, 5 - 80073  
+39 81 837 6681; 081-8370858
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www.centrocaprense.it

Gardens of Augustus

Landscaped among Roman ruins, this horticultural showcase was bequeathed to the town of Capri by Friedrich Alfred Krupp. One of its evergreen flourishes is a statue of Lenin by Italian sculptor Giacomo Manzu.
Near Via Krupp
www.capri.net/en/t/augustus-gardens-via-krupp

The Church of St. Michele Arcangelo
San Michele (St. Michael) ranks right up there in the island’s must-tour list. Its main event is a majolica tile floor depicting Adam and Eve in an Eden enlivened by unicorns and other mythical beasts. The frequent buses and chairlifts that shuttle between the villages of Capri and Anacapri, where the 17th-18th-century church and its surrounding Piazza San Nicola are perched, mean that trippers needn’t feel stranded. Another chairlift A chairlift from Anacapri’s central square, Piazza della Vittoria, transports the non-acrophobic to the top of Mount Solaro for a postcard-ready view of the Mediterranean.

Piazza San Nicola
Anacapri
80071 

+39 081 837 2396

Villa St. Michele
Just off of Piazza della Vittoria is the cliffside house and garden of Villa St. Michele. It was built amidst Roman ruins by Swedish doctor and animal lover Axel Munthe, whose 1929 memoir, The Story of San Michele, became a global bestseller. After recovering from the panorama of the Bay of Naples, browse the museum’s antiquities, including a head of the Medusa, a marble bust of Emperor Tiberius and an Egyptian sphinx.
Via le Axel Munthe
34 80071
Anacapri 

+39 - 081 – 8371401
www.sanmichele.org

Villa Jovis
Villa-hopping gains momentum at this 1st-century BC spread. Sited at the spur of Capri’s much-trumpeted Viale Amedeo Maturi, Villa Jovis is what remains of the palace where Ceasar Tiberius ruled the Roman Empire for a decade. Its perch at cliff’s edge afforded him privacy, security, and, a spit down the road at “Tiberius’s Leap,” a spot to dispatch unruly servants and guests. The villa grounds also house the Church of Santa Maria del Soccorso and a statue of the Madonna photographable from the sea below.
Via Tiberio
+39 81 837 0381
www.capri.com/en/villa-jovis

Villa Lysis aka Villa Fersen
Down the street from Villa Jovis is Villa Lysis, a Neoclassical beauty named after the young consort of Socrates mentioned in Plato’s Dialogue on Friendship. The columned and tiled residence is also known as Villa Fersen in honor of its first owner, Count Jacques Fersen d'Adelsward, a French poet and writer who overdosed on cocaine in 1923. Check out the basement Chinese Room, which was an opium den.
Via Tiberio 80073

Related FFtrav stories:
http://filmfestivaltraveler.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=336:14th-capri-hollywood-film-festival&catid=43:previews&Itemid=29

The Legend of Ray's Pizza

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Parent Category: Travel Info

Category: Travel Feature

Published on Saturday, 12 December 2009 16:00

Written by Eric Lurio

Sometimes historic events go unnoticed when they happen. In the late 1790s, some New Yorkers began trading shares of stock under a tree on Wall Street in New York for the first time, no one gave it so much as a glance. The same thing happened half a century ago, when a guy named Ralph Cuomo -- Ray to his friends -- opened a pizza joint on at 27 Prince Street in New York City. Few noticed at the time, but a trend had started that would end up as a treasured New York tradition and a regional joke. Everyone's heard of Ray's Pizza.

For the first few years of it's existence, Ray's was just a neighborhood pizzeria (with mafia connections, Cuomo would spend time in jail, but that's a different story). It was popular, and he opened a second one a couple of years later. But Ray was busy with his other business (for which he was sent to the pokey), and he sold the uptown one, Famous Original Ray's Pizza at 1233 1st Ave at 66th St., to Rosolino Mangano in 1964.

Mangano claims to have made the name Ray famous by offering several different types of pizza in a glass display case. But that isn't true, another guy made the name famous. His name was Mario Di Rienzo, who was, in 1973, a famous chef. In that year, he had a mission: create the best damn pizza on the planet, and that year, he opened his emporium. He called it Ray's Pizza. Why?

Many years ago, in the New York Times, DiRienzo, who was originally from the Italian Village of Roio del Sangro in Abruzzi, explained the derivation this way: "It's a small town I come from. Although I am a Mario, in Roio, I am also a Ray. The name Ray is a nickname for the family name of Di Rienzo. Every family has a nickname in my town.

"Someone asks, 'Did you see Mario?' and there are so many Marios in town you have to ask 'Which Mario?', so the answer is Mario Ray. And so my restaurant became The Famous Ray's Pizza. If it were The Famous Mario's, you would have to ask 'Which Mario?'"

Also in 1973, a certain Joe Barri bought the Ray's Pizza on 76th Street and Third Avenue, (later, he would change it to Ray Barri's) this was decent pizza too, but Di Rienzo's was amazing. It had almost but not quite enough cheese to fall on your lap when you picked up a slice. Word went out and it became instantly legendary.

But for the "in crowd," The Famous Ray's on 11th Street was the only place to get a slice -- there was so much cheese on it that a slice couldn't be cooked hard enough to make firm enough crust to pick it up. It had to be eaten with a fork.

Mangano decided to expand, so did Barri. Other people started renaming their places "Ray's" to cash in on the hoopla. Soon, you had Ray's Pizzas on almost every block: Famous Ray's, Original Ray's, Famous Original Ray's, Original Famous Ray's, "Fred's Ray's" even a Not Ray's in Brooklyn. There were hundreds. At one point, Mangano owned 25 Famous Original Ray's Pizza establishments, and his was just a tiny fraction of the "chain."

By 1990, "Ray's Pizza" was New York's official in-joke. The quality varied from wonderful to lousy, and at this point, one might wonder, "Why weren't there any lawsuits over copyright and trademarks and such?" 

Gary Esposito, who owned five "Original Ray's" wondered that too, and in the middle '80s, he located "Ray" Cuomo, who by now was out of jail. So, they decided to get together with some independent Ray's proprietors, and actually retrofit a genuine franchise chain.

Only Rosalino didn't want to. For five years, he frustrated every attempt to trademark the name and its variations. Then in 1991, he gave in and joined, going around in his limo telling proprietors to buy a franchise or get sued. Sometime in the last year or two, it is now noticeable that a number of "Famous Original" or "Original Famous" pizza places with the word "Ray's" whited out.

According to noted pizza authority Scott Weiner, there seems to be about 40 pizzerias with the name Ray's left in New York City, nine of which are part of the official chain. The one on 11th Street was sold in the '90s and resold several times, and the quality has gone down quite a bit but the ambiance is still there. As for the very first one on Prince Street -- they 're celebrating half a century in business. Perhaps they should get a plaque or something.

Ray's Pizza
27 Prince St.
New York City 10013

Famous Original Ray's Pizza
1233 1st Ave at 66th St.
New York City 100

Ray Barri's Pizza
76th St. and Third Ave.
New York City

The Famous Ray's
11th St.
New York