IL Viaggio

This is a story of the author's earliest known relative, from his birth in Venezia, growing up and learning the ways of his local world, and being selected to represent the interests of the Doge in the court of Queen Elizabeth I. The narrative is of his travel experiences to get there and his interactions with the likes of Francis Walsingham, William Shakespeare, Thomas "Kit" Marlowe, to say nothing of the beautiful and talented Aemelia Bassano. His life included touching the music, politics and literature of the day, and had him marry and father a brood of children, most not surviving him to their adulthood. A son, Francis, was the exception. He was a relatively successful yeoman locally, with a wife with whom he fathered a couple of children. His son, Robert, found his place in the entourage of a young king, Charles I, son of James I of Bible fame. Charles lost his head in the Tower of London, Robert and his best friend, Lawrence Smith, quickly planned an escape to America to survive.