Pièce 53 - Letter from R. C. Trevelyan to Caroline Trevelyan

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Hôtel Timeo, Taormina:- Has ‘found fine weather and comfort at last here’, and will stay for the rest of his time abroad. Has got to work already on his first day here; the weather is ‘perfect, and rather cold’. Came straight here from St. Raphael, stopping a day at Naples to see if going to ‘Corpo di’ Cava, but thought he would have been ‘washed out’: was not till he got past Messina that it stopped raining. Most of Italy has been ‘flooded this winter’, though it has not been very cold; Taormina ‘seems to have escaped’. The hotel is very quiet, and only half-full.

The Cacciolas are ‘very glad to see’ Robert; their house is quieter since the ‘lunatic German governess’ has left. Cacciola suspects she took opium, if not her behaviour was ‘almost inexplicable’. Floresta, the ‘padrone’, has had a letter from [Roger] Fry saying that he and his wife are coming soon. Robert hopes they will stay for a while; believes they are currently at Tunis but has not heard from them recently. Hopes his family are all well. Hears the Russells [Bertrand and Alys] have returned from America; hopes he will ‘find them settled at Fernhurst’ when he returns. Does not think he will stay longer than a month. It is an ‘almost perfect place’ for his work, with the Cacciola’s garden and books; expects he will get ‘much more done’, as last spring he ‘was more uncertain as to what [he] wanted to do’.