Between the constant coming and going of family and the almost constant rain over the last few weeks, my normal morning routine has been completely mixed up. So today I made myself get up at only the second snooze of the alarm and checked out the weather. It seemed to have rained all night. I woke a few times to the sound of heavy rain battering the roof but first thing this morning it had either stopped or at least abated somewhat. Determined to get back to normal, I put my proper waterproof on (as opposed to my rather useless drizzle-proof running rain jacket) and set off on my regular round the village running route. It was actually dry when I set off and only began to try to rain again when I was on the home stretch.
I stopped to chat briefly with a bunch of dog walkers who were marvelling at the speed of the water at the ford at the foot of the road that goes past the millpond.and that is just a small tributary heading for the village where it joins the River Tame. And the River Tame is still bouncing along very full. I’m surprised we’ve had no flooding!
As the media furore continues about Harry Windsor, or Harry Sussex, or whatever he calls himself, and the success or otherwise of his ghost-written book, I came across this article about the Italian “princess” Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi. She’s described as the “US-born Princess Rita Boncompagni Ludovisi”, so I’m guessing that she’s possibly Italian and a “princess” by marriage. She’s involved in a wrangle about the expensive property that belonged to her late husband Prince Nicoló Boncompi Ludovisi. I’m not really bothered about who owns the villa but I am amazed at the insistence some people have on titles, especially in countries like Italy and France which no longer have kings or queens. It seems that republicans are still impressed by titles.
Investigating royal families a little further I discovered that Emanuele Filibert di Savoia, heir to the Italian crown, has been dabbling with a return to power of some sort. Until 2002 he was banned from living in Italy and lived in Monte Carlo but now also has a home in Umbria. Back in 2019 in a TV interview he said, “Guided by a strong sense of responsibility the royal family pledges to defend citizens [in order to allow them to] look at the future with renewed optimism.” In 2020 apparently he founded his own political party, called Reality Italy (Realtà Italia, a word play on royalty/reality), citing a poll that showed that approximately 15% of Italians would support the return of the monarchy, and 8% would approve of him being reinstated as king. I’ve not heard much about him since but I wonder what title he goes by.
As for our own rogue prince, I wonder once again why he insists on self-publicising so much if he truly wants to live an ordinary life. He could have just walked away and got on with good works without all the scandal! It’s not as though he is short of money after all. But that’s just my take on it all.
I suppose we all want to give ourselves a bit of importance. That’s probably why so many people research their family history. My own mother used to tell us proudly that her family (she was a Bosworth) could trace itself back to the famous field of the battle. We never investigated it though.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment