HOLY WEEK—EEEK! (April 2010)
Did you know that a bagpipe is pitched in B flat and therefore it makes it difficult to plan songs in other keys, and also makes singing some songs impossible? Plus, they play a drone note that is a constant, well, drone and interfere with most peoples’ ability to find a pitch to sing in-tune. It’s true. The bagpipes were meant to be an instrument to lead Scottish troops into battle, along with the drum, and not to be an accompanying instrument for a parish. So when my former priest suggested that we use the bagpipe to lead the Palm Sunday processional around the block that our church is on, both Bob Robins, former choirmaster, and I winced in pain. She thought it would be a ‘joyful’ thing and since we were in her self-declared year of ’joy’ what better ‘joyful’ thing to do than walk around the block with a droning, wheezing set of pipes. Oh the tintinnabulation of it all! And oh my elementary-band-damaged ears!
After weeks of searching for a bagpiper, I found one and contacted her. She was eager to see the music and find out if she could indeed play it in B flat or ‘fudge’ it with the limited pitches she had on the instrument. The response took another couple of week: Nope, the songs chosen couldn’t be played. Undaunted, our priest asked if she could play something else, anything…like “Amazing Grace”, to lead us around the block. The piper eventually said yes. Oh, well I tried.
The forecast was for that Palm Sunday was rain, and the piper told us she wouldn’t play in the rain. So the night before, I had to ‘nail down’ the priest for an alternative plan if the heavens opened and issued forth. She obliged. However, “miracle of miracles”, it didn’t rain—just a slight ‘spit’ towards the end of the city-block long walk. It was, I had to admit, a joyous journey, walking in full choir robes, behind the cross and piper, the able-bodied congregation members behind, through the streets of the ‘waking’ community, nodding to the smokers outside the bars, waving to the startled bank patron using the cash machine, and getting a good exercise in, while the piper replayed and replayed “Ode to Joy” and “Amazing Grace”, over and over, stretching into minor and augmented keys, just anything to keep the music going. As we entered the church, I could see that she was sweating and very winded, but she kept playing and even joined us of the service. It was actually kind of fun.
The choir anthem went well, after 3 months of practice, the addition of an ex-soprano, and the ex-pianist, who came back for both this service and Easter the next weekend. This was the week after I was literally ‘forced’ to tell the choir and the congregation that I had turned in my resignation letter. That was when the organist told me she would be gone the entire month of May—I would be going it alone again. I loved the music and the worship, but the accumulation of work that each successive priest and interim had placed on my ’part-time’ job had really taken its toll on my real job and my real home life. Needless to say I started Holy Week with only slight joy.
To add to that burden, I got not one, but two emails from the car rental office in Empoli, Italy we had arranged for transportation the third week, closed. This left us without transportation. They offered an alternative and wanted to know if we might rent a car in Florence. “In the city” I groaned. This is one of the cities that even Rick Steves had warned travels about. “There’s no reason to do it.” The rental company thought it would be fine for us to pick the car up at Stazione Santa Maria Novella and return it the following week to the same place. I couldn’t even believe it. Here was the very thing that I had planned and tried to avoid months ago now as our only option. I had more than a couple of sleepless night during the week trying to figure out how to drive a car out of the mess that is Florence streets and back in without damage to the car and us.
Maundy Thursday, the agape supper—Eucharist and hand washing, actually went well. It was a good thing that we had planned on having the bulk of the service in the parish hall, because sometime in the space of time between Sunday (Palm) and Tuesday morning when the alter guild ladies came in to get things ready, a water leak had developed in the pipe to the new sacristy behind the alter and had flooded a good portion of the carpeted naïve. The carpets were all saturated as well as the under lament and the floorboards. It was funny that no water leaked into the basement below, just the church. Apparently, when we had remolded about 10 years before, someone had nicked or crimpled a water piper wrong and it finally hemorrhaged. The small fountain of water spouted up onto the top of a floor joint and slowly but surely trickled down the wooden beam until it accumulated on the floor in front of the raised alter. Talk about your ‘Acts of God’.
Luckily the puddle was discovered and a water clean-up expert was contacted. Water extractors were called in and huge heater-fans were turned on full blast to dry everything. Needless to say the Wednesday night choir rehearsal was a little more ‘noisy’ than usual. We had to practice in the loft because the anthem required the organ. The organist, bless her heart, slightly blind after the cataract surgery and nearly deaf could not hear any of my directions. I had to keep running over to her and telling her what to do. Volumes increased, people talked louder than usual, I had to sing high tenor parts louder, and I trashed up my voice. All in all it was a very positive rehearsal.
The Agape dinner/Eucharist went well and the priest rescinded her decision to only wash hands and everybody was happy—joyful in fact. The stripping of the alter is always very meaningful for us; it is part of the process for preparing for a burial, Christ’s, and the journey that we must take with Him every year. I really cherish these reminders. The chanting ‘Taise’ music added to the profound somberness of the service. This was the night that He was handed over to be a sacrifice for all. And in Saint George’s there wasn’t even a whiff of mold or mildew to be smelled.
Meanwhile, back on the rental car hunt trail, I started asking for help from anyone I could think of that had ever driven in Florence. Judy Tighe, from Vintage Singers, had driven in Florence, and used the same company. She said they never had ‘any problems.’ They have traveled everywhere and spend a month each year in Puerto Vallarta—of course they didn’t have any problems. I decided that I would contact Fiona Lapham and get a real perspective on the situation.
Ciao Fiona:
With a little over two month left before our trip, I thought we should touch base with you. Thank you up-front; you may not even be able to answer our questions.
We’ve kept up with your blog and hope you are you still working? If we can arrange it, we’d love to come to the restaurant.
Our 1st two weeks in Italia, including our time in Firenze, look great. We think our Chianti day-tour has fizzled out—no word in 4 months.
Firenze transportation concerns us. Marianne thinks she needs taxis to go everywhere; I say buses. ? She is having mobility issues, so this will be interesting.
Our biggest problem now is the rental car for the third week. The Empoli office closed at the end of March, but Maggiore Rent has offered a car at SMN. We are EXTREMELY unsure about getting a car in and out of the city. Perhaps Sandro would have some ideas about what routes that would be most drivable for ‘hick’ drivers like us? Marianne also wanted me to ask if he can hire out for people—like, umm, inept foreigners. Where does he actually work?
We arrive at SMN at around 10 AM on June 19th and we can’t get into the apartment until 4 PM. We’ll stash the luggage in lockers and explore the San Lorenzo/SMN area before getting a cab to the Piazza Cimatori apartment.
Question: Can a taxi drive to the piazza, Sandro?
Molto Grazie, David and Marianne Jones
She replied:
Ciao David and Marianne,
Nice to hear from you, hope you are getting excited about your trip!
Okay, I am going to try to go through the questions one at a time.
First of all I am about to start working again, this time at a restaurant specializing in fish that is actual in the center of Florence. It is a really amazing place and I am sure you would have a great meal there if you wanted to come. The name of the restaurant is Il Cenaccolo del Pescatore, the website is..http://www.cenacolodelpescatore.it/
If you still want to do a day tour to Chianti I recommend the company Tuscan Trails whole website is ....http://tuscantrails.com/
In the center of Florence the easiest way to get around is walking. It's a very small city and most of the buses are designed to take people from the historical center to the outer suburbs. There is a small bus that makes the round of the center, and there is also a tourist double decker bus that you can hop on and off. That might be the way to go. Otherwise taxis are a pretty good way to get around, it shouldn't be crazy expensive if you are just going places in the center.
There really aren't too many routes to get from SNM out of the city as the center of Florence is a closed city and you need a permit to drive through. Therefore I am sure the car company will give you a map and point you in the only direction you can get out of there. I would ask Sandro, but he, being a taxi driver, often doesn't know the routes that normal people take. Just take a deep breath before hopping in the car. Driving is really not as bad as it looks, just go slow and ignore anyone who seems to get annoyed from behind, they can always go around you.
Sandro works in the center of Florence, but sometimes goes as far as Milan and really doesn't usually hire himself out. Logistically and monetarily it is much better for him to pick up clients quickly as they come along.
Are you sure that there are lockers in the train station? It might be easier to get a cab first and leave your luggage at the hotel just so you don't have to worry about it later.
Sandro says that yes, you can take a taxi to Piazza Cimatore. There should be no problem.
I hope I have answered some of you questions. Don't hesitate to ask more. Or, if I didn't answer something very well, feel free to ask again.
Looking forward to meeting you,
Fiona
Easter went off without a hitch--if you don’t count the use of the same hymn twice in the service. I don’t know how it happened, and I don’t know how I, or the two people in the office, didn’t catch it either before the bulletins were printed, but it happened. I had to go to the priest, between choir warm-ups and rehearsing, and ask her what she wanted to do. She went with my second recommendation and I changed the reader board in the sanctuary while the congregation gathered. Embarrassing—well, yes. Myana, our friend and ex-church choir soprano, consented to do a ‘sight-unseen’ solo during communion, and the choir out-did themselves with their anthem.
So Monday after Easter it was bleak and grey when I went back to work to a classroom that hasn’t had heat for three weeks. The work order was “in”. Try playing keyboards in 60-degree temperatures. You wouldn’t like it—neither did the kids. Our ‘Miracle March’, and April, went out like a lion, with rain, hail, snow, wind, and we froze our derrieres off. I wore my coat all the time at school. I couldn’t believe that kids were coming in with short sleeve shirts on and no coats. Parents were definitely sleeping when they sent their kids back to school after Easter that year.
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