A Room with a View

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.