Enough About Love

ANNA AND YVES

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IT IS NOVEMBER and yet summer is still lingering in southern Europe. The French Institute in Florence has invited Yves for a reading of his first book, which has been translated into Italian. Yves takes Anna with him for a long weekend. Their room is very light, with a balcony overlooking the Arno. Anna is watching the river and suddenly spins around.

“Please can we go to Arezzo? I’d really love to see the Piero della Francesca fresco. It’s of the Virgin when she is pregnant, she’s standing like in Byzantine images of her, impassive, hieratic. She’s resting one hand on her stomach, the other on her hip. The colors are gorgeous and her features so fine. They used it in Nostalghia, the Tarkovsky film. Do you remember? The poet and the young blond interpreter are driving along in an old Volkswagen. It’s pouring rain, the sky’s black, it’s a winding road and the chapel’s right at the top of a hill, surrounded by cypress trees.”

Yves thinks he has seen the film, but is not sure he remembers the scene. Anna is insistent: “When they get there, they’re celebrating a Mass for the Virgin. The girl goes in alone and the poet stays on the doorstep. The roof has collapsed and the Roman beams are open to the storm. It’s raining inside the church, on the flagstones, but the fresco’s in an alcove, sheltered from the rain, lit by hundreds of candles. Do you remember?”

Yves wants to remember. Arezzo is in southeastern Tuscany, on the border with Umbria, they will need a car, he rents one.

Anna buys a guide to Tuscany, tries to find the church. With no luck.

Yves makes his inquiries. An hour later, he knows everything.

“Anna, I have bad news.”

“The church is closed?”

“It’s not that. Your church with the broken roof isn’t near Arezzo.”

“Really?”

“Yup. It’s a Cistercian abbey somewhere near Sienna, San Galgano Abbey. It’s so romantic it’s been used in several films, like The English Patient.”

“Is it far?”

“Southeast of Sienna, an hour and a half by car. But you definitely won’t see the fresco from the Tarkovsky film there.”

“Why not?”

“Because the pregnant Virgin in his film is the Madonna del Parto. If you want to see her, you have to go to the Museo de Monterchi, a church not far from Arezzo. Actually, the director chose to film a reproduction of it which is much better quality: the Nostalghia Virgin. And that particular Virgin is somewhere else again, in the crypt of a Roman church in San Pietro, in Tuscany.”

“I see. Nothing’s true.”

“Let’s say Tarkovsky pieced everything together to make the scene. That’s movies for you, make-believe.”

Anna says nothing for a moment. When she does speak, her voice is sad.

“You know, that’s me all over. The things I want don’t even exist, it’s all make-believe.”

L’abbazia di San Galgano

Dove si trova?

Il complesso monumentale di San Galgano sorge circa 30 km ad Ovest di Siena, al confine con la provincial di Grosseto, fra Monticiano e Chiusdino, in una terra serlvaggia e incontaminata, ricca di bellezze naturali.

Museo della “Madonna del Parto”

Indirizzo: Via Reglia, 1 Monterchi (AR)

Telefono: +39 0575 70713

Orari: Novembre — Marzo, tutti i giorni: 9.00–13.00 e 14.00–17.00

Aprile — Ottobre, tutti i giorni: 9.00–13.00 et 14.00–19.00

Costo dei biglietti:

Intero: 3.50

Ridotto: 2.00 (student oltre i 14 anni)

Ridotto gruppi: 2.50 (gruppi a partire da 15 persone)

Gratuito: ragazzi sotto i 14 anni, donne incinte, abitanti di Monterchi, invalidi e disabili