Monday, April 15, 2002 14:40
Weather: Sunny, and warming up
Location: Car 3, Intercity 591, sitting in Florence station

Amazing, the power of the written word. Three hours ago I was leisurely finishing the paper over a cappucino, planning to spend the afternoon on some palaces, wandering up the Duomo's bell tower, etc., when I came across a little article in the Italy Daily insert to the IHT saying there would be a general strike, including all transit, tomorrow.

Three hours later, here I am on a train, set to leave Florence in five minutes for Orvieto, from where I will catch a bus to Bagnoregio, thence by a shuttle to Civita, mountain village, population 15. In the mean time I've spent an hour on the web (mostly involving frantic train schedule searches), had lunch, packed, rebooked by stay in Civita's B&B, checked out of the hotel (had to take a half-day penalty for late checkout), and otherwise bid a hurried farewell to this wonderful city.

Nothing like the unions to shake a man out of a lazy day. Or something.

I guess I earned it, in some way, 'cause I sure didn't do much yesterday afternoon, besides reading in a café, and after a nap back at the hotel had no time left for anything except a couple of slices of pizza (and glass of yummy wine (total cost: €3.80 -- now THIS is fast food I can get used to!)) on the way to the Teatro da Pergola.

Between buying my ticket (about 8:15) and entering the theatre (8:35) I walked back towards the river and got another gelato cup from the Gelaterea Rivoli, this time a 50/50 selection of coffee chocolate and mint chip. Absolutely delicioso.

The concert was, disappointingly, in the Teatro's back hall, not in the main theatre (which I think was being used for a stage production of "Una Tram che si chiama Desirido" or some such thing). The back hall has all the glamour and glitz of a high school gym, with a little stage and movie theatre seats on a flat floor. The featured artists were the Tokyo Quartet, and they played two works by Brahms and one new work by somebody I hadn't heard of (J. Tower) called "In Memory". They were joined for the second Brahms work by clarinetist Sabine Meyer. (Found a link to the concert programme if you're interested, at the bottom of this page.) String quartets aren't really my thing, but I guess they were pretty good. I had a friendly chat with the guy sitting next to me, a concert pianist named Fernando, on my way out.

C'est tout, other than to note (for those pursuing me though Italy) that although Albergo Montreal is nice, I found it a bit noisy and impersonal. You might be able to do better.

Ciao for niao...
posted by Tom at 3:05 PM | link |