Miami - A volunteer working in the Anna Maria Island museum in Florida had a strangely familiar accent.
“I’m Welsh,” she said. “From Glynneath!” Five years ago, she and her husband were on holiday here and never went home. “There’s just something about this part of the world - it’s magical,” she told me.
Anna Maria Island, about an hour’s drive south of Tampa on Florida’s Gulf Coast, was not always such a welcoming spot. The local history museum tells stories of pioneers who fought storms, snakes and mosquitoes in their battle to establish a thriving community.
The first settlers built a life on farming or fishing. In more recent years, like the woman from Glynneath, people have been drawn by year-round sunshine and the easy life - but then Florida has been exercising its charms for more than 500 years.
At Easter 1513, Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon arrived in the land he named La Florida (short for Pascua Florida, meaning Flowery Easter). He had come looking for the legendary Fountain of Youth (tell me about it, Juan).
He was the first of many who have travelled here in search of transformation and acceptance.
For Hollywood, Florida has often been presented as a place to escape to. In Some Like It Hot, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon flee Chicago after a hapless involvement with the St Valentine’s Day Massacre, join Marilyn Monroe’s all-girl band, get into drag, and jump on a train bound for Miami.
For Cuban emigre Tony Montana, Miami proved to be the source of untold wealth for the brutal gangster dubbed Scarface.
Large-scale migration to Florida began about 100 years ago. In the 19th Century, Americans in search of a new life were heading towards the Pacific (‘Go West, young man!’ was the sage advice of the time). Florida, with its extensive malarial swamps and baking summer heat, seemed less enchanting.
It took the arrival of the railroad at the end of the 19th Century to unlock the state’s potential. Families who had earned fortunes during the Industrial Revolution recognised that the Sunshine State offered them the perfect winter base.
It’s easy to believe that Florida’s tourist business began with the opening of Walt Disney World in October 1971, but tourism was already well established by the time the First World War broke out.
There is no better Florida rags-to-riches story than that of the Ringling Brothers, from the backwoods of Wisconsin. They set up their own circus in 1884 and subsequently acquired their rival, Barnum & Bailey, to create what they described as “the Greatest Show on Earth”.
The five brothers made a fortune. In 1911, the youngest, John, and his wife Mable built an extraordinary version of a Venetian palace in Sarasota and called it Ca d’Zan (‘House of John’ in Venetian dialect).
Shortly afterwards, the couple completed their journey into high society by opening their own art museum to showcase a huge collection of paintings expensively acquired in European sale rooms.
When they first moved to Sarasota, the place was a fishing village of just a few dozen people - now it is one of the most desirable residential districts in Florida.
While the unusual Circus Museum is well worth a look, more intriguing is the grand art museum whose star attraction is a painting by Rubens, The Departure Of Lot And His Family From Sodom. It shows Abraham’s nephew Lot with his wife and daughters being led by angels from their house as they flee the city before God rains down fire and brimstone.
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An even more impressive collection of art is on view in St Petersburg, 60 minutes north of Sarasota. The town was named after the Russian city - a decision that came to be regretted during the Cold War when all things Russian were deemed to be the work of the Devil.
I’ve had a soft spot for Salvador Dali ever since my art teacher informed my classmates and me that all followers of the surrealist art movement were “charlatans”. Dali’s playful approach to art was catnip to adolescents, and we were quickly painting our own versions of melted watches and lobster telephones.
For me, Dali’s greatest artist achievements are his wonderful house at Portlligat on Spain’s Costa Brava coast, and the Dali museum in his home town of Figueres. And number three on the list is the Dali Museum in St Petersburg, built around the world’s largest privately owned collection of his works.
Reynolds and Eleanor Morse built a fortune from mining machinery, and through their friendship with Dali, they gradually acquired more and more of his works which eventually needed a home.
In 2011, they were housed in an impressive new gallery in St Petersburg. If Dali’s friendship with mining machinery millionaires seems unlikely, I was surprised to learn at the museum that Dali was a close friend of Walt Disney. A special exhibition features home-movie footage showing Walt and his wife visiting Dali in Spain.
Florida’s most famous winter residents made their home further south, in Fort Myers. Thomas Edison bought a property here in 1885 and lived there until his death in 1931. His neighbours included Henry Ford.
Like the Ringling and Dali museums, the Edison and Ford estate is largely run by people who give up their time to help out. On the face of it, “voluntourism”, as it is known, is a good thing. However, just occasionally you will come up against a disgruntled employee.
Dali Museum #Idontdodrugs #IAmDrugs #salvadordali
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During my visit, the person on the ticket desk was unhappy about something. “I’m a journalist,” I began, about to ask if they had a press officer. The employee cut in with a sweet smile: “You’re a journalist?” Pause. “Good for you! You still have to pay twenty bucks.”
If You Go...
Seven nights in a three-bedroom home with private pool on Anna Maria Island costs from £985pp (about R20 000) with America As You Like It (americaasyoulikeit.com, 020 8742 8299), including return flights on Virgin from Heathrow to Miami, and fully inclusive hire of a seven-seater vehicle.
For further information visit bradenton gulfislands.com. For details on the Museum of Art and the Circus Museum in Sarasota, visit ringling.org.
For the Dali Museum in St Petersburg, see thedali.org. For the Edison and Ford estates in Fort Myers, go to edisonfordwinterestates.org.
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