Nigel McGilchrist’s book, which was released in July of 2022, looks at the moment in history when a way of thinking which we can truly call ‘Western’ was born. It was a fruitful coming together of the ancient knowledge of the East – of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India – with the restless curiosity and ingenuity of the Greek mind. It was a hinge moment in which what we understand as the scientific way of thinking, first gained traction. And yet it was a science that was also deeply imbued with spiritual awareness and a sense of the beauty and unity of creation.

Venice is perhaps the world’s most beautiful city, and certainly one of its most anomalous human creations. Built in the water of a lagoon, it needed, as it grew in size and importance, a hinterland of its own which both protected its approaches from the land, and provided it with agricultural produce and timber. This became the area known as the Veneto – the flat-lands and alpine foothills that extend to the north and west of Venice. The unequalled international wealth and culture of Venice at its apogee, in the 15th and 16th centuries, flowed out into this area, imbuing it with some of the most accomplished painting and dignified domestic architecture we possess – the works of Paolo Veronese, Titian, Cima, and Giovanni Bellini, and the harmonious villas and gardens of Andrea Palladio which were to influence so profoundly American architecture in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Veneto is the incarnation of a quality of life and civilization that has rarely been equaled in history.

Susie Orso and Nigel McGilchrist converse and reminisce about the Museum’s Travel Program over its busy half-century of history – discussing what the real significance of travel is for us, how travel is done at its best, and what instructive lessons we all learned from our abstention during the pandemic years. They share stories and joyous moments - including reflections on gastronomy and art - as well as pictures from recent journeys, far and wide, with the Museum’s indomitable group of traveling members and friends.