A warm day in Florence today with temperature around 28C. And the humidity was fairly high also. Nothing much to report from class except Enrica and I had a discussion about how, and whether, I could get my poor efforts back into Australia. I explained, or tried to, the strict rules governing imports Into Aus. It will be interesting to see whether my pieces will be a) confiscated for burning, b) allowed in without any problem, or c) allowed in after treatment by ASIS. I would prefer if they were allowed in but am also aware of the risks involved should any of the wood be carrying pests (unlikely) or seeds (very unlikely).
After class I got myself a sandwich from the Conad store and walked down Via Guiseppi Verdi and across the Ponte Alle Grazie to a garden which is located on the Lungarno just downstream of the bridge. It was pleasant to sit on a bench in the shade and gaze out over the Brunelleschi dome and other monuments dating from the Renaissance. Florence is full of Palazzos, Piazzas, and churches which all held significance during the Renaissance and afterwards, sometimes for good reasons, but often for bad reasons. As Charles Dickens observed about a quite different time period:
'IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.'. (A Tale of Two Cities)
He could have been writing about the Renaissance, or about things in more modern times. Perhaps great creativity comes particularly in times of great turmoil (or opportunity). I have just picked up a book called 'April Blood' by Lauro Martines and it is about the plot to kill Lorenzo di Medici (the Magnificent). Not far into it but is obvious that the times were both benign and violent in approximately equal measure. Probably better if you were of the nobility and managed to stay on the right side of power. Or maybe if you were a serf or villein and not in a position to be called to arms. (? Is it any better now? Sure the risk of violent, and politically OK, death is less, but not zero, but we are still at the mercy of the power brokers. They have just dressed it up in what passes for democracy).
Ah, enough vino Rosso talking for one night. Ciao ;-)
