Italy's favourite son, finally moving out - The Florentine

22
Thursday 7 September 2006
Book REVIEWS
Travels with Intent
Ed Hayes sees Italy through new eyes
Nothing can be more depressing… than to encounter a husband who boasts
of having seen everything in Rome in three days, while the wife laments that,
in recollection she cannot distinguish the Vatican from the Capitol, St Peter’s
from St Paul’s.
Augustus Hare: Walks in Rome (1893)
I
am sure many of the visitors to
Italy today still come away with
that sensation of having seen too
much to digest. There is so much to
see that without a sense of purpose
you can just get swallowed up. Most
of us, not being specialists in art history,
structure our excursions by following
a well-trodden itinerary of the
‘main sights’ – acknowledging the
superior wisdom of the guidebook.
Tourists have been ‘doing the sites’ in
Italy like this for centuries, in search
of the curious and the beautiful.
But before the tourist came the
pilgrim. Long before the grand tour,
travellers made a beeline for Italy as
the centre of Western Christendom.
Lucinda Vardey’s Traveling with the
Saints in Italy shows that pilgrimage
still has significance to travellers
in the 21 st century: “As we require a
physical vacation and a rest for our
bodies, so too do we need the same
for our souls.”
Vardey’s book takes us to locations
that played a central role in the
lives of an eclectic selection of saints
– from mystic and hermit to practical
church reformer – from Saint Benedict,
who first established monasticism
in Europe to Saint Francis of
Assisi, whom she describes as saving
the Church from itself through
humility at a time when it had
‘become elitist and removed from
the needs of the poor.’ She also treats
Mary Jane Cryan
lives in a small
town nestled
between Rome and Tuscany
that has been under
the protection of the English
crown since the time
of Henry VIII. Travels to
Tuscany and Northern
Lazio, the latest addition
to her decades of ferreting
out hidden history, gives
readers a glimpse of 18 th -
century travel as experienced by highranking
ecclesiastics and nobles.
The heart of this thoroughlyresearched
and well-documented book
is a travel diary kept by Don Giovanni
Landò, secretary to Cardinal Henry
Stuart, Duke of York, who made three
trips to Tuscany and Northern Lazio
between 1763 and 1776. The extraordinarily
detailed diary records the Cardinal’s
daily schedule, habits, dress,
health, and social engagements, and
we are swept up at once into the bustle
of this royal Cardinal’s travels.
female saints like Catherine of Siena
and Saint Francis’s helpmeet, Saint
Clare. The book contains suggestions
for meditations and intentions to give
further purpose to the pilgrim’s journey,
practical information about how
to get to the locations, and observations
about art and points of local
interest.
While these itineraries could give
an overarching purpose to a journey
in Italy, the book does not pretend
to be a replacement for a guidebook.
The telling of the stories concentrates
on reverence rather than historical
inquiry. Vardey refuses to go into any
News & Views
McRae Books, Via Dei Neri 32/R
September 19
Lucinda Vardey talks about her new book Traveling with the Saints in Italy
(see review). She has guided pilgrimages in Italy for over ten years with her
husband and divides her time between Toronto, Canada, and their Tuscan
retreat house, Migliara.
The British Institute of Florence – Book Group
The Harold Acton Library – Lungarno Guicciardini 9
The book group meets at 6pm on the second Monday of the month in the
Library.
Sept. 11: The Matisse Stories by A.S. Byatt
Oct. 9: The Accidental by Ali Smith
Nov. 13: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Dec. 11: The Southern Gates of Arabia by Freya Stark
All are welcome, the only condition is that you have read the book.
What was Florence like in 1764?
Students of history will
relish the book’s rich documentation,
but Travels
to Tuscany and Northern
Lazio is not just for specialists.
It gives a fascinating
picture of what life was
like in 18 th century Tuscany
with detailed descriptions
of Florence, Pisa, Bologna
and the towns of northern
Lazio. Travel times are
meticulously noted so that
modern travelers can compare how
long it took to travel between Tuscan
cities 250 years ago. There are minute
descriptions of churches visited, and
of the treasures and reliquaries they
contain, as well as of the sumptuous
food served at banquets. In addition
to the diary, previously unpublished in
any language (the second part of the
book contains the full text in Italian),
Cryan provides a wealth of historical
information to help set the scene–itinerary
maps, old prints and period
illustrations of vestments and towns
controversies over the saints’ lives
and works.
Much of the art that makes Italy a
remarkable destination is religious, so
why not acknowledge that? At least
spare us from ‘doing the sights’ in the
manner of a tourist my father-in-law
overheard in the Uffizi. Passing his
umpteenth Madonna and Child, the
tourist commented to his companion,
“Don’t you think it’s sinister, don’t you
think it’s a bit sexist – the way the baby
in these paintings is always a boy?”
Lucinda Vardey will be coming to
speak about her book on Sept. 19 at
McRae books.
by L. Lappin
visited, a bill for carriage repair, the
members of the traveling party, and
even a list of prices at a local grocer.
These practical details are the stuff of
historical reconstruction which allow
the reader to understand the daily life
of a bygone era.
A brief chapter on other travelers
to the area, along with current
descriptions of the places visited on
the Cardinal’s three journeys, completes
the volume. The finely-done
illustrations and art work by Justin
Bradshaw make for a handsome book.
In retracing the steps of travelers
throughout history, Cryan has helped
fill in a blank space on the map of the
Grand Tour, for much documentation
still lies buried in archives. Her books
are a mine of information, anecdotes,
and curiosities for all those interested
in delving deeper into the history of
central Italy. Signed copies are available
at www.elegantetruria.com or
may be ordered at BM bookshop on
Borgo Ognissanti.
www.theflorentine.net
Florence
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