Writing on a budget can be a challenging and frustrating process, not least when your dearest wish is to fly off to that exotic location to complete your research (let’s face it, why else would you want to go?). I think you know where I’m going with this.

Just now, a few weeks in Italy would make a world of difference. I need to walk the streets, savour the ambiance, connect with the history. It’s a professional necessity I tell myself, not an indulgence. How else can I write this part of the book? How else indeed?

Well “bless the internet” I say. For weeks now I’ve been strolling down the virtual streets, hovering above cities in high-definition splendour, orienting myself with unerring precision around squares and alleyways I’ve never trod. And bless the evangelistic amateurs too. Where would I be without their meticulously researched guides to churches and monuments, histories and traditions; without their passion? With their help, and a little imagination, I’ve come to know something of these places, albeit from a distance. But heavens, how those distances have reduced.