It’s been half-term this week. Somehow the Beda operates on
a two-semester model – the first semester ends on 28 January, then we have
exams – these are oral exams – then there’s a break between semesters 1 and 2.
The new semester starts on 16 February. But we also manage to half-term breaks!
Not that I’m complaining. The lecture programme and everything else makes for
an intense working experience.
So it was off on the train for my hols to Florence
(Firenze). Luckily a friend of a friend lives in the centre, adjacent to the
central market, and I was generously given space to stay. From a house of men I
was in a (somewhat smaller) house of women. And that was important; I was
missing my contact with women but also I hadn’t had the opportunity to talk at
length with Italians. So it was a ‘sane-making’ journey.
Just like one can find one’s position in the wilderness by
using different landmarks as points of orientation, I believe we need a variety
of viewpoints to stay sane, to know where we are.
If you haven’t travelled on the Italian high-speed trains,
they are everything you need – comfortable, fast, smooth, reliable (as far as I
know) – and only an hour and a half from Rome to Florence.
The weather there was mostly rainy but it didn’t stop me
being shown around the city by my Florentine host. We looked and we talked
about everything you can imagine plus a bit more. She works as an interpreter
so her English is fluent and she gave me lots of hints and tips on my Italian.
Walking by myself, back from an evening Mass at Santa Croce,
the street market was beginning to close, stallholders packing away their
goods, but there were the informal (illegal) sellers surreptitiously offering
their wares. A black guy, a couple of watches dangling from his sleeve, asked
me, out of the corner of his mouth, ‘need a watch.’ I smiled, almost laughed, at the comedy of it, declined his
offer, and wondered what it was about me that told him I was English.
We also got up to San Miniato al Monte that looks down over
Florence. I’m just checking The Rough Guide and it refers to this church as
‘the finest Romanesque church in Tuscany’. It had a stunning frontage of black
and white marble (reminiscent of the Baptistry and Duomo) with a glittering
mosaic of Christ between Mary and St Minias.
Inside, I was struck by the apparent three churches in one.
They were on three levels, ground, semi-crypt and choir, each one quite
different in look and feeling. The one in the choir was particularly attractive
with a soft roseate light filtering through the red tinted alabaster windows. A
small community of monks live there. They are actually of the same Benedictine
order as one of the two monks on the course here at the Beda. His monastery is
in New Mexico but he was telling me that he was staying at San Miniato for a
few days before coming to start the course.
And now the second half-term is gathering pace . . . but
hey, Christmas is looking . . . .
ummm not too far away.