Ulla Bjerne

The author Ulla Bjerne was an eccentric in her own right, less extravagantly so than Luisa Casati Stampa (below), however visually striking and controversial as she would favour men's clothing, smoke a pipe and look like a garçonne a decade before the style was popularized in the 20's.

She wrote some 30 books between 1916 and 1958, all of them dealing with the same theme: a woman's (or a man's) right to choose her (or his) own way of living. There is a constant stream of gender playfulness and provocation in her texts

Above is her portrait painted by Swedish artist Isaac Grünewald 1916. This painting was the first modernist acquisition by the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and caused an uproar among conservative art lovers. (The painting is now part of the Moderna museet collection.)

Luisa Casati Stampa

A portrait by Man Ray of La Marchesa Luisa Casati Stampa, taken at the Hotel Ritz in Paris and said to be one of the most important surrealist images.

La Marchesa rented Munthe's Villa San Michele between 1912 and 1927, much to his annoyance and wonder it seems.

Sometimes referred to as the only female futurist - even though the futurists were overtly antifeminist - the Duchess was perfectly eccentric, walking pet leopards and monkeys at dinner parties all over Europe, possibly once sporting a tiny snake as a necklace.

I love the idea that her paths may have been crossed by my grandmother's cousin Ulla Bjerne (1890–1969) at the Capri town square around 1920.

Here is my kind of poetry.

Friday Oct 9

Stockholm - Copenhagen: 10.21 am – 3.31 pm

Copenhagen - Munich: 6.53 pm – 8.57 am

Saturday Oct 10

Munich - Bologna: 9.31 am – 4.11 pm

Bologna - Naples: 4.25 pm – 8.46 pm

Sunday Oct 11

Naples - Capri: around noon. I think.

What is this thing called blog?

Blog is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment.

Also, it demands quite a lot of editing.