So wherever I go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
I’m not a big shopper. Particularly when I’m away, the idea of spending precious time trawling around shops is an anathema to me. I know, horses for courses and all that, but it’s just not my thing. So does that mean that I don’t buy souvenirs, that I have nothing at home that reminds me of places I’ve been to? No, it doesn’t.
Largely, of course, I carry the memories around in my head, calling up at a moment’s notice the sights and sounds and scents of places, even from times long past. The creaking ice-floe on the River Neva, the only sound on that silent riverbank on the cold November night we arrived into St Petersburg; the vibrancy of the women’ s coloured saris on the streets of Mumbai; the overwhelming smells as we squeezed through the Spice Market throngs on a Saturday afternoon in Istanbul; the sound of the sacred music that we followed on our first ever visit to Venice, on Christmas Eve in 1995, until it brought us to the great hulk of a church that is San Giovanni e Paolo and in we went for Midnight Mass; the old man selling false teeth (honestly!) amid the frenzy of the Djemaa el Fna square in Marrakech; the overpowering beauty of Michelangelo’s Pieta in St Peter’s in Rome; the elderly couples dancing, spontaneously, against the stunning backdrop of the Gaudi Park in Barcelona on a Sunday morning.
They are all there. I only have to close my eyes, think of a place, and I’m back again, in my mind’s eye. But I have souvenirs too. Little things, dotted around my home, that remind me of such-and-such a place at a certain time in my life. There’s my big collection of blue-roofed churches from Greece, gathered over 35 years. And there are my precious stones, like the red-hued one from the Rose City of Petra, and the appropriately sombre grey one from Auschwitz. They sit alongside the beautiful lilaccoloured shell that I picked up on a white-sand beach in Cousine in the Seychelles.
And then there’s the snow globes that I mentioned last week, the ones arranged higgeldy-piggeldy on a window-sill in my bedroom. I used to have more, but in a house move a few years ago a number were broken. So the one I bought in Jerusalem, another from San Francisco, and a beautiful one from the Seychelles have all bitten the dust, I’m afraid. Of those that remain, I have three favourites, all from European cities as it happens.
There’s my Segovia snow globe, with its flower-encrusted base and depiction of the city’s famous alcazar. The most fairytale castle I have ever seen, it was no surprise to learn that it inspired Disney’s Cinderella version. When I look at the snow globe now I recall the afternoon we visited, driving there from Siguenza, and being bowled over by that castle and by Segovia’s huge Roman aqueduct.
Then - another Spanish one there’s Bilbao. This depicts Jeff Koons’ famous flowering ‘Puppy’, outside the Guggenheim. The real one was just beginning to flower when we visited in early May when I was still using a stick to get around, recovering from a broken ankle. Despite having to hobble that weekend, Bilbao was such a joy - the Guggenheim itself (right beside our hotel) and the wonderful porticoed square in the old town where we wandered from bar to bar, sampling the most delicious tapas.
Last of my top three, and my favourite, is the one I brought home from Vienna. I have another ‘bog standard’ Vienna globe as well, showing the lovely Stephansdom cathedral, but this other one is far more special.
Bigger than all my other globes, it shows one of the city’s famous winter sights - the so-called ‘Heart Tree’ that is so central to Vienna’s Christmas market scene. One of a number of trees hung with themed balloons, the ‘Heart Tree’ is by far the most beauti- ful. And – important in my book when it comes to snow globes – there’s a profusion of ‘snow’ when it’s shaken, and it’s pure white, not that second-rate glittery stuff. So, one shake and I’m right back there, on a frosty December evening, in one of the most magical winter cities in the world.
What’s not to like about shopping for snow globes?