Pictures and the Picturegoer (Jan-Dec 1925)

20 Picture s and Pichure puer FEBRUARY 1925 me for was my handiness about the .house. What we really shopped for in Florence more than other thing's, were books. Costume books. We had heard that there were rare finds to be had we found only after a really exhaustive search. Some day we are coming back to spend a considerable period of time in Florence. It would be like paying a beautiful woman a curt compliment and then turning one's back, to say something about Florence unless one could say a great deal. Leisure is needed for Florence. To hurry through the city is to annihilate the impressions one should get. On the morning of September fifth we left Florence early for the ride to Rome. It was raining like blazes, if there is such a thing. And in such a state we started off, stopping for luncheon at one of those small villages right in the province where Chianti is made. From there, warmed by the Chianti, we proceeded. I wanted to make Rome by afternoon, but I couldn't do it on that road. There wer too many turns and sharp corners and while I might have achieved the feat had I been alone Auntie and Natacha had me pretty well A snap taken at the Coliseum, Rome to speak, or glide gracefully in in a scenic attitude. One has no idea how difficult it is to be scenic with fourteen pieces of luggage strapped (rather precariously) to a dusty car. I had upon my arrival in Florence two automobile trunks on each side of the fender, on the top of the car were six valises, two hat boxes and then a .huge leather steamer trunk, three cameras and all the utensils I night have required (but really didn't very much) to tinker with the car, if tinkering became a dire necessity. "VY/e managed the best way we could that first night in Florence, and in the morning, with a gusty sigh of relief, I had the car thoroughly washed, greased and so on. I must say that I attended to necessary details before I gave any attention whatsoever to the beauties of the beautiful, feminine city. I even stood around and supervised the car's grooming, and couldn't help preening myself a bit before the mechanics by telling them the trip we had made, the rate of speed we had made it at, and the comparatively little trouble I had had. While in Florence we went about and did some shopping that we needed. Not the romantic thing to do in Florence, I fear, but even as with poetry so it is with the allied mistress, Romance. One puts them off and on hkt bright vestments only to be donned at certain hours for particular occasions. Natacha tells me that I can be the most practical man under the sun, and I well remember that one of the things she first liked iff down in that section of the town known as Lungarno. That, by the way, is where Dante used to parade in days gone by. The we.ll known tableau picture of the meeting of Dante and Beatrice took place on just that spot. On the cold stones we tread to-day an immortal love had birth. I felt as though my feet were pressing the rich aromas from the very stones. VY/e are always on the look-out for costume-books, because you never can tell when you are going to need them. In picture work, where, with any picture one may be called upon to dip back into periods only too little familiar to have a collection of these books is, I think, invaluable. Both Natacha and I feel very strongly about authentic detail. Many a whole is marred because of incongruities that peer out and strike one like wrong notes struck in a symphony. We found, in Lungarno, one particular book first published in 1500, with sketches of oriental costumes of that period. A very rare book. Almost impossible to find. This particular thing m trained a amenable this time. I facetiously observed that Rome was not reached in a day, and Natacha said that she very devoutly hoped NOT. And so. about ten o'clock at night. we drove up to the very best hotel in a small village and then I set about finding a garage. Onally, after a long search, and after waking up three or four families (ten o'clock is the middle of the night there), we found a stable, a little larger than the others, and so we could put the car up. Oh, yes, before putting up for the night, we went by Siena, and as we went by we saw an antique shop which somewhat attracted our attention, as antique things (and persons) always do.