At one end of our Piazza there is a church – La Santa Croce.  At the other end is the ‘Commune’  (The government building)  The church is about 200 years old.  The locals tend not to get married in the church nowadays – they go to the ‘Commune’ instead.  However Baptisms, Confirmations and Funeral proceedings still win the day in the Santa Croce.  I don’t know how the locals behave with the Friday meat question, or the Confessional thing and “sins below the belt” in these times.  My Italian is not good enough to understand their answers, if I were to ask.  One thing I did understand was: last night, the Church hosted a concert. (See photo above)  About 30 singers from America, the Symphonic Orchestra from Florence…three pieces of Mozart with an encore Mozart piece were performed that would make a grown man weep.  All for FREE.  The church was packed by Locals and the 9:00 concert started the customary 40 minutes late.  Imagine such a thing in this time of need and greed.  After the concert was over I went home and turned on the TV to catch up on the news.  There was a piece about how the  White House is hosting an Ultimate Fight Club event on the President’s birthday,  right there on the front lawn.  The event will cost somebody millions of dollars.  The Secretary of War has said some U.S. soldiers, if they are fit enough and can afford to pay their transportation, can come and watch for free.  And I thought one of my two worlds is approaching Beauty and the other has gone towards a certain Crassness.  But maybe it’s just a mood I’m in.

The town I live in was a market town a thousand years ago and we still have a market in the piazza at least once a week.  I first came here, for a six year visit, about thirty years ag0. In those days the tourists came for a brief stop; a coffee break or a lunch on their way from Florence to Sienna…in search of Cathedrals, museums and the like. Back in those days, American tourists first went to Rome, Venice, maybe Milan.  If they liked the trip they might come to Tuscany on the second or third Italian visit.  Today, many Americans come to Tuscany straight off – to see the beautiful landscapes, to drink the wine, to eat the good, non-processed food and to enjoy the pace.  So. what’s changed in the past thirty years?  The cars are bigger.  That’s a MINUS: (-).  There are more dogs.  That’s a PLUS: (+).  Half the tourists are constantly looking into their phones – not really being here (-) and the other half  are using their phones to take pictures of themselves in front of the view (-).  I don’t recall seeing these phones thirty years ago.  People had to look right and left and see what was going on around them. Today’s tourists tend to pay with credit cards – not so in my neolithic days. (tip: the locals prefer cash payments.)  Thirty years ago, you had to eat everything on your plate.  Today you can take leftovers home “Portare Via” (+).  You can still smoke, but outdoors only (+).  This part of Tuscany used to be called “Chiantishire” because of all the British x-pats.  Today there are many American x-pats in the hills. I don’t know what they are called by the locals. (+/-?).  There are also: Germans, French, South Africans, and more living in the countryside.  There are Albanians and Romanians who have come here to live and work.  It is a true Mosaic and Melting Pot – just as Americans used to  boast about their past(+).  There are many BNB’s in the heart of town, (-) which is creating a shift in the ratio of ‘Locals’  to tourists residing in the area (-).  The coffee has not changed (+).  There are more small restaurants (+).  Nine places to get a fresh pizza:  (I am told 80 years ago there was no pizza in Tuscany) (+).  The lady who used to sell threads & needles for a living has gone out of business and is replaced by a Real Estate agent (-).  No matter how many changes there are here, the Tuscan life is still very, very good…enen though no one here is creating a slush fund to pay me for doing bad things.

I went with my wife into Florence the other day. (About a 35 minute drive.) She wanted to buy some soap, or perfume,  or something like that.  I’m a man, a real man – and I do not care about such stuff; but I went along because I’m a nice guy.  And then we entered this soap store, The Farmacia di Santa Novella. To my shock, it is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.  As good as the Duomo down the street.  Better, maybe – God forgive me.  Every inch dedicated to Beauty.  And then I noticed there were no price tags.  No items shouting ‘Bargain”…or “Two For The Price of One”…No room for sales tags because every inch was dedicated to Beauty.  The place seemed to be doing a booming business.  It’s been there making fragrances and soap, for over a thousand years.  Imagine trying to sell something and promoting it with “Beauty” instead of “$ Savings”.  What an idea.  I grew up liking that White Soap, the one that floats…and the other one that “Powers The Dirt Out”…but buying something that someone took the care to make look beautiful?.  Whoever thought that would be the way to go about making a good, long term business?  The answer is: Some Nuns. Just goes to show how the world has changed.

I’ve read: Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder.  I’m told some of the most powerful people in the world behold the newly brightly painted swimming pool blue Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington is a now thing of Beauty – as will be the forthcoming Giant Arch…So, Beauty and Money might be intertwined. We”ll see.

You know how several places in the North East of the States – through to Virginia – they advertise: “George Washington Slept Here?”.   Well, there is a similar sort of thing going on in my area of Tuscany with Mona Lisa.  You see, Monna Lisa lived in the Tuscan hills.   (The French changed the spelling to ‘Mona’ at the Louvre – you know how the French are.)    Leonardo painted her around 1503-06: no one knows the exact date.  Her real name was Lisa Del Giocondo, and everyone here calls her “La Giocanda”.  Many people who live in these hills claim the view in the painting is the view from the back of their own house.  Several of these people claim it with all their heart.  The king of France “Acquired” the painting in 1517 and the Tuscans have not been happy about this ever since.  As a matter of fact, it is nearly impossible to export any painting out of Italy these days…you must prove it is not a National Treasure to the Ministry of Belle Arte.  They seem to want to keep their art at home rather than send it to foreign lands.  Strange these Italians.

Oh.  If you were to look past La Gioconda’s right ear…my apartment would be several meters in back of that little green shrub.  So If I were to have used a set of good German binoculars and have looked out my terrace a couple of centuries ago, I would have seen Leonardo painting her…pretty good, eh?

See that statue standing in our Piazza? (photo above). He is Verrazzano, the famous explorer…discovered the Bay of New York and a lot of the East Coast of the U.S. in the early 1500’s. His family was one of the top 2%ers of his day…They owned the Verrazzano Castle and winery here since the 7th century. You should see it to believe. The bridge in New York was the only thing named after him in America, as far as I know. What would have happened if he did not discover the Bay of New York? Would better or worse people have taken over? Would it ever have been discovered? Take a walk up the hill from the statue…Go about a mile and you get to the town-house sized home of Amerigo Vespucci. There is a  figure of a ‘Wasp’ etched in the stone above the door; that’s how you can tell it was his home. Amerigo uncovered the fact, and drew maps accordingly, that “America”  (which was named after him) was a ‘New’ Continent (Mundus Novus)…and not the Eastern Coast of Asia as theretofore believed. Imagine if Amerigo had not figured that out – the America’s might be Chinese to this day. And where would all the good, white, Christian people, who wanted to flee from Europe have gone? These are the kind of things one can ruminate about while enjoying a morning ‘Doppio’ Espresso (for only $2.20) in a nearby cafe. Something to take your mind away from the threat of redistricted elections in the Mundus Novus. “History is bunk!” said Henry Ford (one of America’s early 2%ers); but bunk can be interesting too…sayeth I, as I order another.