www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Florentine Reflections - the lighter side

CIX!

Now comes the funny moments of my Florence trip! Apologies that both incidents involve American tourists, and I hope no one accuses me of American-bashing for mentioning these two incidents, but they're simply too good to pass up. We've all heard of tourists asking the silliest things, but these really do take the proverbial biscuit.

Was visiting the convent of San Marco one Saturday morning, where Savonarola preached and Fra Angelico painted the stunning frescoes. There was American highschool group visiting, with their teacher explaining things to them.

The 18yo girls were going "oh it must have been so cool being a monk.. you get your own room... you get a cool fresco by fra angelico.. how cool is that?"

The teacher looked a bit exasperated and explained that it wasn't all that enjoyable, that monks took three vows - poverty, chastity and obedience.

One girl in a tiny miniskirt that looked more like a belt piped up "What's chastity?"

and if you think that's funny enough, wait till I tell you about what happens next -

The teacher says that "chastity means you have to be chaste all the time"

and the little blond airhead then goes "you mean they got chased around all the time?"

My group - two french girls, one belgian girl, the spanish girl, the polish boy and myself, all hearing this, look at each other... not quite believing the exchange that's just gone on.

Me (to one of the french girls): "Mathilde... non credo... non e credibile... non e possibile per humani essere tanti stupidi... e impossibile..." (Mathilde... i don't believe it... it's not believable... it's not possible for people to be that stupid... it's impossible...)

Mathilde: "ah, si... ma per gli americani, e possibile..." (ah yes... but for the americans... it is possible)

Later, when they were told that Savonarola and followers were burned at the stake eventually, the same girls went "wow it was like Disco Inferno!"

I swear... non e possibile...

Next, during my lunch break one afternoon, I was looking at the sculptures on the west facade of the Cathedral. A tour group moved in next to me and the tour guide explained that the central figure of the woman holding a child was the Virgin Mary and the Baby Jesus. Ok, so far so good.

A tourist asks who those men surrounding Mary and Jesus are.

The tour guide looks back, peers at the statues above, and replies "Well, the Florentines were very proud of their artists, so when their great artists died, they honoured them by putting statues of them up, so next to Mary and Jesus you see the great artists of Florence.... Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Donatello, Botticelli and so on".

And the tourists just went "oh, okay!"

After they move on a few minutes later, I look closely at the statues, and on the bases they have Petrus, Paulus, Bartholomaeus, Thomas, Matthias...

Dear Alfred,

No offense taken! I have copied and pasted your stories to a few family and friends to enjoy!

A few thoughts about the cute little blond girl...

1. Unfortunately 'chaste' is not a widely (if at all) heard word in today's teen culture, so perhaps she REALLY never heard the word to have to understand it?

2. In U.S. High School culture it is often 'way cool' to act dumb, thus making your peers laugh, and making you more popular! Think 'Clueless' the movie. (In other words, she may not have truly been that dumb!)

Anyway, please don't judge all Americans by these standards, although we are generally more culturally limited than our European counterparts..that is sad but true.

Living isolated for centuries by two great oceans hasn't helped!

In Christ,
Alice

CIX!

Dear Alice,

Never fear! I love Americans, and I love poking fun at them too! Having said that, I poke fun at EVERYBODY. Nobody is exempt. I think we should be able to laugh at ourselves. If anyone thinks his or her group is not made fun of enough, please let me know, I'll start immediately!

Regarding (1), it's disturbing enough that Chastity and Chaste are words unknown to teenagers... if she was just acting dumb, that's not so bad, but if she really didn't know the concept...

and regarding (2), I loved "Clueless" actually. It's not just an American High School culture thing to act dumb... bimbotic behaviour just for kicks is popular all around the world. I've been guilty of playing himbo often enough (and sometimes I'm not acting). Nevertheless, it may not have been a good idea for her to play bimbo in front of an international audience... heh heh heh

Those two stories I'm going to have to tell my grandkids!