Library Notes
July 31, 2004
By Pansy Hundley, Librarian.
While in Rome, we left to spend one night in Florence, traveling down on our tour bus, which took several hours.
There are no advertising signs along the roads we traveled. It is forbidden, so that the scenery can be seen with no distraction or interruption. I’m not sure if that applies to all of Italy or not. One question I forgot to ask.
Among many other interesting things, our guide, Marisa, told us: At one time in Italy, salt was so precious, it began to be used as payment for workers. So, it became known as salary.
Of course, there are as many gorgeous buildings in Florence, as in the other towns we had seen. The Cathedral of Florence, called the Duomo, was outstanding, it was so elaborately decorated with so many cravings and detail. There is a tall stone tower built by the side of it that was the bell tower and it was almost as elaborate as the church building. They were so closely surrounded by other buildings, it was impossible to get far enough back with my video camera to get a picture of the entire building. I had to do it in bits and pieces.
As we made our way around the city on our bus, Marisa, our guide, suddenly pointed to a cemetery we were circling, there in the middle of town, and announced "There is the grave of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. We all scrambled to see the large statue that stands on her grave, a statue of a woman. We could not stop, we just had to look and take pictures as we drove by. We didn’t stop because we were in the middle of traffic, there was no place to stop and we would have gotten run over, had we tried. Elizabeth had lived in Tuscany, prior to her death, according to Marisa.
My trusty World Book tells me that Elizabeth and Robert Browning were married in secret in 1846. "They soon ran off to Italy, where Elizabeth’s health improved remarkably. Elizabeth’s father had opposed their marriage and never forgave her. For the rest of her life, Elizabeth lived in the villa of Casa Guidi, overlooking Florence." Her life ended in 1861. Just a little detail about the lady I thought you might be interested in.
During World War II, several ancient palaces were destroyed during the fighting for Florence. Six bridges connected the right bank with the Oltrarno, the section of Florence south of the River. All of the bridges, except one, were destroyed during the War, by retreating German troops. The remaining one, the Ponte Vecchio, was built originally in 1345. For a 659 year old bridge, it sure looks good!
The handiwork of Michelangelo is seen all over the city, in both paintings and sculptor, as it is in Rome.
We have to leave Florence now and get ourselves back to Farmersville, because room, as usual, has run out. We must get back to books, and I started to say back to the real world, but some of these books are not in the real world either. As a matter of fact, this one I’m looking at now, is not in the real world of today, it’s a throw-back to Indian-cowboy days. It is entitled "Beyond the Stars" and is authored by David William Ross.
"This is a richly textured story of courage, greed, love and violence told against the backdrop of the spectacular decline of the great American Indian nations. The tale involved three white men, their search for treasure, and their searing encounters with unexpected enemies and allies in an alien and war-town territory.
The three ride out into the windswept northern plains on a desperate quest for an abandoned gold mine. Instead they discover an unforgiving landscape and its Indian inhabitants – Sioux, Cheyennes, Crows, Blackfeet, Pawnees, and Arapahos – pitted against one another in a life-and-death struggle for survival.
There is Andre Marcher, the brash, strangely driven son of the Eastern aristocracy, who vows to reclaim the mine – or die trying; Benjamin Amiel, Andre’s half brother, whose pacifist soul is gradually torn apart by the savagery he encounters; White River, the indomitable, stoic frontiersman raised partly by Indians, who wanders in search of an elusive dream. With them rides Ironfoot, the Crow chieftain who is embarked on a very different, but dangerous mission ."