167 From a letter to Christopher and Faith Tolkien

[Tolkien, with his daughter Priscilla, visited Italy from late July to mid-August.]

15 August 1955

I am still staggered by the frescoes of Assisi. You must visit it. We came in for the great feast of Santa Chiara and the eve Aug. 11-12. High Mass sung by Cardinal Micara with silver trumpets at the elevation!

I am typing out a diary. I remain in love with Italian, and feel quite lorn without a chance of trying to speak it! We must keep it up.....

On the whole for pure fun and pleasure, I enjoyed the first days at Venice most. But we lived v. cheap in Assisi, and I have brought about £50 back. Our opera was washed out by torrents all Thursday evening; but they put on a special extra on Friday (our last day in Venice) at which our tickets were good. So we had our Rigoletto. Perfectly astounding.