10.07
Hotel Acceptable, Udine.
Morning View I…
Two female lady serving-persons were engaged in a shouting match in the serving room off the Pumping Chamber; ie they were conducting a friendly conversation in the Italian manner. Astonishingly (although this should no longer astonish me) the shouting continued, filling the breakfast room, for the entire 90 minutes I was there; other than brief interludes while one or the other addressed small duties that fell under their job description, such as attending to the hotel guests.
Noise Cancellators to the aid, with Grumpy Ludwig’s String Quartets. I heard music speaking directly, without Beethoven as intermediary; and then, Beethoven speaking as well.
Now, to packing. We have a lobby call for 10.15, departure at 10.30.
18.24 Hotel Acceptable (With A Walk From The Action), Florence.
And in these temperatures, 90s F, a short walk is a long enough walk already, and a long walk hard. An afternoon’s 75 minute stroll towards the action, for one not quite familiar with where we are, has left me dripping.
My room is, once again, a Matrimonial Chamber, actually a suite; more than enough for me. The League have a meeting room for rehearsing at 18.30: they could meet in here while swinging a cat in each hands (one in 5, the other 7).
I...
19.30 Computing computing.
22.47 The Team met just after 20.00 in the lobby & we set off to dine at a
modest local establishment. Eating modestly, in a modest establshment, cost more than fine food in Reggio Emilio. But, this is Florence.
The toast proposed:
A common aim is closer than blood.
May we wish for each other what we wish for ourselves.
Discussed over dinner, inter alia, yesterday evening’s performance at Udine. Further commentary on this later.
Then a stroll to the centre of town for dessert & coffee. I left the Team enjoying Florence & walked the long walk back to the hotel.
"Quiet is the absence of sound, silence the presence of silence."
