A Room with a View

Planning the Visit to Santa Croce

Miss Bartlett insists on accompanying Lucy everywhere, declaring “Of course she would accompany Lucy everywhere.” When Lucy protests, Miss Bartlett concedes she could go alone, but immediately contradicts herself. A clever lady among the pension guests intervenes, suggesting they ignore Mrs. Grundy and that Lucy, being English, will be perfectly safe in Italy. She references Contessa Baroncelli’s daughters who go about alone in sailor-hats and are mistaken for English. When Miss Bartlett remains unconvinced, the clever lady—Miss Lavish—offers to take Lucy to Santa Croce herself, promising to show her “a dear dirty back way” and promising an adventure. Lucy opens her Baedeker to check the location, but Miss Lavish snatches it away, declaring they must “emancipate” Lucy from the guidebook. She explains that Baedeker “does but touch the surface of things” and that the true Italy is found only through “patient observation.” Lucy agrees eagerly, and they set off together, leaving behind “the Cockney Signora and her works.”

Wandering Lost Through Florence

Miss Lavish leads Lucy along the sunny Lung’Arno, commenting on the warmth and the cutting wind in side streets. She points out landmarks—Ponte alle Grazie mentioned by Dante, San Miniato with its story of the crucifix that kissed a murderer. They pass men fishing on the river (though this is “untrue”). Miss Lavish darts through an archway and declares she has found “a true Florentine smell,” explaining that every city has its own scent. Their conversation drifts from art and Italy to more personal matters: Lucy’s Surrey home near Dorking, her father who voted for Mr. Gladstone, the Glass family property of thirty acres, and various aristocratic acquaintances like Sir Harry Otway and old Mrs. Butterworth. As they discuss these suburban matters, Miss Lavish suddenly realizes they have lost their way. The tower of Santa Croce, visible from Lucy’s window, had been their intended destination, but Miss Lavish’s confident declarations about knowing Florence have led them astray. She refuses to let Lucy consult the Baedeker, insisting they will “simply drift” instead. They wander through unremarkable grey-brown streets of the eastern quarter. Lucy glimpses the Square of the Annunziata with its terra-cotta babies, finding them more beautiful than any reproduction could convey, but Miss Lavish shrieks and drags her onward, declaring them “out of their path by at least a mile.” They buy hot chestnut paste from a shop, which tastes of paper, hair oil, and “the great unknown,” then drift into another dusty piazza where an ugly black-and-white facade reveals itself as Santa Croce. The adventure is over.