Discovering Italy

The elderly woman in the pink dress immediately leaves the building followed by her agent. She leaves her dogs behind, in her office and steps into a helicopter that gives her a tour of her city

She flies past Churchill’s statue, she liked him when she was a child, past the symbols of Old and New London - Big Ben, the Revolving Eye, the huge dome of St’ Paul’s, that was once a temple to Diana and is now a church.

She passes under London Bridge. She goes on and on, that woman in the pink dress. She watches her city, her people and her land.

Then she just falls from the sky with her emblem, the Union Jack, as her parachute. She is followed by her agent Mr Bond, James Bond.

Ladies come first! 007 comes after! Could Ian Fleming in his wildest dreams imagine this? This lady is the Lord of all she sees.

The whole world, every Londoner is silenced by this and me drinking beer in a Gatwick pub – I am speechless, all words are just stuck in my mouth. London, that noisy city, silenced me. Her Majesty silenced me.

As we watch Her Majesty the Queen appears amongst the Olympians. The arena, the city and the world stands up for her. The woman is now accompanied by her husband The Duke of Edinburgh and Jacques Rogge IOC President. Elizabeth II greets her nation, the world and her Olympians.

Great Britain and its leader invited all nations and they came. That was my first time in the United Kingdom and my first day in London as well. After being silenced by her majesty I began to see the city in a new way and in a new colour. I was welcomed by an entire city dressed in pink and magenta. The army of volunteers, The Queens Army I called them, dressed in those colours. They greeted me, they hailed me and I was treated like her, The Queen, like royalty. They are well equipped with smiles, tablets, maps and magazines. They are eager to see you and help you.

People say that the British are overly mannered that they are really-really reserved and polite. However, they are also very curious and open.

I love the way that they mix these contradictions, reserved yet curious, conservative and extravagant, the ancient with the brand new, the Brit with the pop. How they do this is still a great mystery to me.

I have visited London three times to investigate it.

The only person in the world who seems to know the answer to this question is the woman in pink.