Francesco's back
 

For anyone else who enjoyed watching Francesco da Mosto's journeys through Italy, a new series, Francesco's Mediterranean Voyage, starts tomorrow in the UK on BBC2

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00cjz3g/comingup

- should be worth watching...

I loved his programmes on Italy and I have to say he is very easy on the eye and charming.

Maria, what has to do this program with the back of Francesco ????

Run everybody, it's the apostrophe police ! :-)

I really enjoyed the series on Venice. 4 hours concentrating on the history and origins of Venice alone.

I thought Francesco's Italy was a pale shadow of the Venice Series - too many scenes of "Italian man in red open top sports car driving through classic scenery".

I fear this latest series will be more of the same.

He IS back - and as far as I am aware, it is correct to use an apostrophe to show the omission of a letter.

I think there are quite a few of us who would be happy to see Francesco driving his open top sports car just about anywhere ;)

You gotta love the English language.

And you gotta love Francesco.

I'm sure his back is very nice too- as long as he doesn't have too many tattoos on it.

Woohoo! Love the Mediterranean. Love his accent. ;)

Please forgive me Maria, I had not any bad intention. English is not my language, and I try to improve it . I have not a large vocabulary and probably this is the reason that my intervention seemed rude.

As in this forum most of the people are from US, I am happy to pick a new word, a new expression or to learn that I use a word in a not proper way.
Sometimes, as in your post, I find things that I suppose that are not correct, and I just wanted to ask how is it correct.

Like, many times I think that people use "then" instead "than" (but I never asked if it is correct).

Marighita, there is no error here; it's just one of those things that can be interpreted two ways, because "back" can be either a noun or an adverb. Your English is far better than that of many native speakers!

No problem Marighita, it just goes to show how confusing the English language can be. I only wish I spoke or wrote second language as fluently as you.

From the first episode it looks like being good. This time he is sailing from Venice to Istanbul, with stop offs including Croatia, Greece and Turkey.

The first episode made for a rather slow start (all about him, his family, and setting him up as a bit of a klutz on a boat), but I was amused by this (female) reviewer's comments:

<i>Francesco da Mosto is a Venetian count with a simian face, a shock of white hair and an accent that could make you pregnant by the end of the programme. All that you need to know about the man can be gleaned from his preparations for the three-month trip: 20 gift boxes of biscuits for the crew and an armful of clothes thrown into an ancient suitcase, a light trim of the exuberant hair, the purchase of a handtooled leather logbook and he's good to go. Over the next few weeks, he will travel from his ancestral home in Venice along the old trade routes to Istanbul. I don't care where he's going. If he says he's catching the 8.25 to Purley I'll follow him, in a gently fibrillating state of aural ecstasy. </i>

Is it airing in the US yet?

&quot;Francesco da Mosto is a Venetian count with a simian face, a shock of white hair and an accent that could make you pregnant by the end of the programme. All that you need to know about the man can be gleaned from his preparations for the three-month trip: 20 gift boxes of biscuits for the crew and an armful of clothes thrown into an ancient suitcase, a light trim of the exuberant hair, the purchase of a handtooled leather logbook and he's good to go. Over the next few weeks, he will travel from his ancestral home in Venice along the old trade routes to Istanbul. I don't care where he's going. If he says he's catching the 8.25 to Purley I'll follow him, in a gently fibrillating state of aural ecstasy.&quot;

Wow what a review! Who can disagree with that? Wonder if he knows he is attracting this kind of interest with his &quot;travel&quot; programs.

Oh, I think so - why else is this series so much about him (with the wife and children in evidence).

<i>an accent that could make you pregnant by the end of the programme</i>

Love that comment! :D

Alas, I don't think I have access to BBC2, and my BBC America doesn't have this program, but the BBC already has DVDs available for pre-order, and a hard cover book that's supposed to be out tomorrow.

And this is what he's travelling on, though the programme wastes a bit of time on the rather tiresome concept that he's &quot;helping&quot; the crew (incompetently of course), so we haven't actually seen any of these interiors in the programme:
http://www.eliteyachts.com/blackswan.htm

Having watched the first two episodes, I am very disappointed. It seems very contrived, with the few interesting bits being overwhelmed with &quot;Padding&quot;.

Have to agree with willit. I watched last night's episode and thought it was pretty dull, and all very &quot;set up&quot;. Won't be watching again!

(Give me Michael Palin any day... )