A Room with a View

Chapter II

Chapter II of A Room with a View, titled “In Santa Croce with No Baedeker,” follows Lucy Honeychurch’s first morning in Florence. After waking in her bright, bare room overlooking the Arno, she is chaperoned by Miss Bartlett and the eccentric novelist Miss Lavish on an outing to Santa Croce. Along the way they become lost in the city’s eastern quarter, and Miss Lavish ultimately abandons Lucy—taking her Baedeker with her—to chase a “local-colour box.” Inside the cold, barn-like church, Lucy’s frustration gives way to Italy’s quiet charm until she rescues a fallen Italian child and encounters the Emersons, father and son, whose candid unconventionality both unsettles and intrigues her. The chapter closes as Lucy, freed from Baedeker and from Miss Lavish’s guidance, allows the younger Mr. Emerson to lead her toward the Giotto frescoes.

Morning in Florence

Lucy wakes in Florence to a bright, bare room with red tile floors, a painted ceiling of pink griffins and blue amorini, and windows opening onto the Arno, marble churches, and green hills. Outside, working men on the foreshore, an overloaded electric tram, marching undersized soldiers, and tumbling boys create a chaotic but vivid Italian scene. An old man selling button-hooks finally restores order, and the narrator warns that such trivialities can absorb a traveler’s valuable hours.

Florence Street Scenes

Miss Bartlett interrupts Lucy’s window-leaning to urge her to dress and come to breakfast. The clever lady already at the table prompts a familiar dance of conflicting suggestions: Miss Bartlett is tired and prefers to settle in, Lucy would rather go out but offers to stay, and Miss Bartlett insists on accompanying her everywhere. The clever lady—soon identified as Miss Lavish—breaks in to reassure them that English girls are safe in Italy, citing the example of Contessa Baroncelli’s daughters.

Outing Discussion with Miss Bartlett

Miss Lavish invites Lucy to spend a long morning in Santa Croce by a “dear dirty back way,” promising adventure. When Lucy reaches for her Baedeker, Miss Lavish chides her, declaring that Baedeker merely touches the surface and that the true Italy can only be found through patient observation. Lucy, thrilled that Italy is “coming at last” and eager to be liberated from the Cockney Signora, hurries through breakfast and sets off in high spirits.

Invitation to Santa Croce

Miss Lavish leads Lucy down the sunny Lung’ Arno, darting past the Ponte alle Grazie and San Miniato and calling out Buon giorno to bystanders. She proclaims each city’s distinctive smell and declares that one does not come to Italy for niceness but for life. Lucy delights in her new friend’s playful energy and the festivity of her Italian officer’s cloak as they trade political remarks—Lucy defends her family’s Radical allegiance and Gladstonian sympathies while Miss Lavish declares herself a Radical too.

Wandering and Lost in Florence

Drifting through conversation about Surrey acquaintances, the women gradually lose sight of Santa Croce’s plainly visible tower. Miss Lavish cheerfully names this mishap an adventure and forbids Lucy to consult her Baedeker, so they meander through the grey-brown streets of Florence’s eastern quarter. At the Square of the Annunziata, Lucy is ravished by the terra-cotta babies of the della Robbia fountain, but Miss Lavish drags her on, insisting they are a mile off course, and the women fortify themselves with hot chestnut paste from a dusty shop.

Arrival at Santa Croce

They emerge at last into a large, dusty piazza fronted by the black-and-white façade of Santa Croce, which Miss Lavish greets dramatically. Lucy remarks that the two tourists entering ahead are the Emersons, who gave up their rooms the previous night. Miss Lavish mocks the Britisher abroad, suggesting she would set an examination paper at Dover to turn back ignorant tourists, then rests her hand pleasantly on Lucy’s arm as they ascend the church steps—only to shriek and dart across the piazza to catch an old man with white whiskers, her “local-colour box.”