a thought about ARWAV

Posted by Barbara on February 19, 1998 at 18:22:10:

Unfortunately, I am not able to participate in the group read, but I am trying to follow the discussion a bit because this if a favorite story of mine.

I spent a glorious year at university in Florence, and I love that city above any on earth, I think.

It seems to me that the setting in Florence is almost like another character in the story. This is a city that is so alive, and in the old part of the city, it is really not so very different from what is seen in the film. The cradle of the Renaissance seems an appropriate place for a young woman to "wake up" to the passsions that have been within her, I think.

The hills and surrounding countryside of Tuscany are gorgeous, of course, and could not help but awaken one's senses. But to awken one's heart and passsions...Of all the city of Florence, I would have to say that the Piazza Signoria (or it is also called the Piazza Vecchia) is the "heart" of Florence. Even now, if you walk through that square, it is like going through a time portal somehow. (And you can still buy postcards there, like Lucy did, and I did!) You are instantly surrounded by the Renaissance architecture and awed by the fact that some of the greatest artwork in the history of the world is just steps away, as is the Arno river and the Ponte Vecchio.

So the fact that Lucy has this key experience of witnessing the murder in this very place in this city is important, I think, because something has finally gotten through to her heart. The Italians are, and always have been passionate. The stabbing seems to be a crime of passion. The knife goes straight to the man's heart. This experience is penetrating straight through to Lucy's (and to George's) heart.

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