Italy Holiday: Day 09

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Today I took my mum and her hubby back to the airport - they should be back home by now.

This means I’m entering the final phase of my holiday - the three phases are thus:

1. Brief holiday with BF (last Fri-Sun)
2. Mix of work and family time (last Sun-today, i.e. Sat)
3. Time by myself to think&read (today i.e. Sat-Tue)

I’ve still got 5 things on my iPlayer to watch which will be great for the evenings, and today started reading a biography of Karl Marx (by Francis Wheen). It’s a fairly easy and pleasurable read (I’m already on p. 87).

I’m very content out here, with a serenity that I don’t usually have. It takes a while for it to sink in and for me to ‘detox’ from my regular city life, but when it does sink in, it’s almost like a trip to a health farm or some such. I’m sure people pay loads of dosh to get this type of result, and I get it (almost) for free

Next time I stay in London, I want to go to Highgate Cemetery, where Karl Marx is buried (see pic). I went there ages and ages ago (roughly 13 years ago), but as far as I remember, he’s in the historical part - where you have to pay admission to get in. Maybe the BF and I can combine it with a visit to Marx’ old haunts, or even the house he used to live in (if it’s still there).

There’s a quote in the book that I can’t find right now, but which may even make me reconsider my current stance of agnosticism, and turn me into an advocate of atheism. I can’t quite remember what the quote was  (it’s not the one that Religion ist Opium fuer das Volk… I’ve known that one for decades and it never quite swung it for me).

Either way, it’s great to read an easily digestible biography about a man I’m interested in both politically and philosophically. Plus, Marx was of course born in Trier, and thus from the same area(ish) that I’m from - the Moselle valley