Villa Diodati

Back to my weekend in Geneva two weeks ago, my parents and I went to look at the Villa Diodati just outside the city in Cologny. What is Villa Diodati and why did you go to see it? I hear you ask!

Well this was one of the reasons I wanted to come to Geneva, sadly you cannot visit the Villa and I had to make do to trying to see bits of it! It was not easy I can tell you, trees and bushes everywhere but I snapped these photos anyway.

This villa was rented by Lord Byron in the summer of 1816, here he stayed with,  John Polidori his personal physician. During the summer the villa was frequented by his new found friend Percy Shelley, Mary Goodwin (soon to be Shelley) and Claire Clairmont (with whom Byron had had an affair), they had rented a place near to the lake.

That was summer was to be know as "the year without a summer" because Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted throwing ash and dust across the northern hemisphere, causing lots of bad weather.
Due to this weather front the group were forced to stayed indoors and to help pass the time Byron suggested each guest to write ghost/horror stories. It is said that Mary Shelley got the idea for Frankenstein during these times cooped up in the villa.

Like I mentioned already it you cannot visit the villa, but now I have just discovered that there was an exhibition nearby about Frankenstein that we could have visited! Oh well never mind now!

Wishing you a great week ahead!