• MICHAEL White’s preview of upcoming classical music concerts recommended the William Walton cello concerto, being performed by Steven Isserlis at the Proms, (Proms; Carousel; Fidelio Orchestra; Peter and the Wolf, August 6).

He said the piece, composed while Walton was around the Bay of Naples, is “saturated with the sultry, spangled magic of the Mediterranean – in a way that makes you want to book a flight and leave tomorrow”.

I don’t quibble with that view of Walton’s music; but I do quibble with the writer’s knee-jerk reaction in linking a trip to Italy with a plane journey.

Such travel within our continent is unnecessary, environmentally disastrous, and shouldn’t be contemplated let alone assumed.

You can leave St Pancras station in the morning, change trains in Paris onto a through-train to northern Italy, arriving in time to switch to an Italian express from Turin or Milan direct to Naples; arriving that same evening after a relaxing and civilised journey with just two changes of train between London and Naples.

Or for a more leisurely approach, without such tight timing, stop off for a drink or a meal in Paris, and then some food in Turin or Milan, and catch a comfortable overnight sleeper train to arrive in Naples for breakfast the next morning.

Again, a low-stress journey with just two changes en route. Easy.

In the past I’ve even taken an overnight connection from Milan (having left London that morning) all the way to the far corner of Sicily, with no further changes needed (the train crosses the Strait of Messina, between Sicily and the mainland, by being shunted onto a ferry for the crossing).

Far from being the default, flying within mainland Europe ought to be eliminated; unless we don’t care about the death of an ecosystem that is conducive to human existence.

ALBERT BEALE
Caledonian Road, N1