Since I arrived around the 15th of September and courses started up only at the end of the month we spent all the intervening time harvesting grapes in the Val di Chiana or Plain below and putting them through the huge wine press in the cellar . The juice was then poured into 12 gigantic 1000-gallon oaken vats for fermentation... some of which was reserved for domestic use... meaning us !! ... whereas most would be sold during the coming year at the "mercato" or market in Camucia thereby bringing revenues to the community for the purchase of other goods and necessities.
During this whole wine-making process I learned a great deal about the structure of power within our walls as well as one minor struggle for power and priveleges among the "hired" help. As mentioned before our legally appointed superior was Padre Canuto.... a big panda-pitbull ,"one of these days , Alice" kind of guys. He was also our professor of Canon Law and looked upon by most as having a bigger bark than a bite. However , from the very outset I learned that any time Padre Canuto acted with authority he always seemed to run it by the balding priest at his right , Padre Natalizia , economist and money handler... often referred to by the students as " money bags " who held the purse strings drawn tight on the monastery's frugal financial situation. Padre Natalizia taught moral theology . Then there was our chubby , pint-sized Padre Roberto.... Socius (or friend in Latin) to the student body.. our immediate superior .... whom I convinced early on that it was imperative that I travel as often as possible throughout the whole of Italy during my stay to get a better grasp and deeper understanding of Italian history , geography and culture . LOL. I'll deal more generously with this aspect a bit later on. Anyways Padre Roberto was a real sweet , mild - mannered character whose academic specialty was Patriarchy.. or the study of the Church Fathers. This triumvirate was the authorative hierarchy for the whole seminary. As for the other priests - professors I shall talk about each one of them in a later post .
Now for the fun guys... the lay brothers and the "hired" help. The role of the lay brother within the monastic framework is that of an auxiliary or aid to the priests in the carrying out of the latters' missions or ministry... freeing them , so to speak , from the more menial tasks so that they might deal almost exclusively with spiritual matters. There were three lay brothers at the college ... Brothers Valentino , Luigi and Francesco.... Valentino visibly being "numero uno "and my best friend.... the main cog in the wheel who took orders directly from Padre Natalizia , the BOSS !.... while Luigi ruled the kitchen.... Francesco simply helped out wherever he was needed and wielded no power or influence whatsoever. As for the "hired" help... well ! There were three of them.... Cecco , who lived in a room off the kitchen , who had no idea of world geography ...thinking I came from somewhere across the Pianura because of my funny accent and whose principal job was gardener to the tracts of arable land allotted for the growing of vegetables and spaghetti inside the courtyard walls. Cecco was a kind wee geezer .. even too gullible to be true and I spent many an hour sitting in the shade with him telling me what it was like under Nazi occupation. The next "hired" help was Nello... called the "Philosopher" by the locals because of his profound views on life in general such as the best ways to get as much out of the system while doing less and all this on a decreasing curve. In other words how could he milk the priests for all they were worth by lulling them asleep with his sweet talk about how often he prayed to God , etc . Nello lived with his sister in a rundown rock hut just outside the college walls. Last but not least comes Marconi , our old burly surly Facist-hating bachelor caretaker-guardian whose hut near the entrance gate looked more like a combined machine gun nest and munitions dump than living quarters . At the market in Camucia he started the rumour that he had planted mines all around his place so as to ward off possible thieves... and I for one believed the old buzzard and , as a precaution , would always stay on the main pathway and call out to him should I need to ask him something !! Marconi answered directly to Valentino... il Capo or foreman. In my next post I 'll talk about studies. Deo gratias!
After supper and night prayers in the chapel Belvedere showed me to my room and bade me "buona notte". There was one weakly lit light bulb hanging from a wire over a desk so I could make out somewhat that , apart from the desk , the other pieces of furniture at my disposal consisted of one wobbly wicker chair , a huge heavy-set wardrobe with two swinging doors above and two drawers in the lower section.... ah yes , and one horizontal slab of wood mounted on four iron legs and covered with a " paillasse" or sack full of new mown hay plus a blanket.. so I guessed this to be the bed and straightforth flopped into the latter and sped off to dreamland . 
It was August 22nd , 1958 when I boarded the Holland America Line's cruise ship "Ryndam" in Montreal bound for Southhampton .. then across the English Channel to LeHavre in France. From there I would travel by train to Paris ... then on to my final destination, Cortona ,Italy..... this latter stretch likewise by train. But first let's go back to my Atlantic Ocean crossing on the Ryndam. It was a trip I shall never forget... the immensity , strength and beauty of the sea .... the warmth of the 900 passengers almost all of whom were Dutch on their way back to Holland after visiting relatives and friends in Canada. I even won my first singing contest on amateur night with my version of a big song from back then which might ring a bell for a few of you .. The Purple People- Eater...accompanying myself on my own guitar . I managed to sneak in on second prize too won by my travelling buddy , Ralph McQuaid ,from Prince Edward Island who dragged out his fiddle and treated those foot-stompin' , hand-clappin' Dutch folks in the audience to a real oldtime downeast hornpipe . I simply played backup strum and chords while Ralph did all the work. It was in the off-shore bar in international tax-free waters of the Atlantic that I bought my first glass of excellent Dutch beer for 5 cents and was introduced to Holland's next of kin to firewater.. "jonge"... a kind of heavy duty gin . Those were the days !!
A few years ago I was sitting here in my office at home .. half daydreaming about my past life with one eye on the computer screen while the other kept tabs on the TV set... just in case I miss something. All of a sudden my TV eye notified my mind's eye to turn all my attention to the TV screen. And there unfolding before me was a sequence of flashes.. familiar scenes straight out of my youth.... il palazzo communale , la piazza Signorelli , la chiesa di Santa Margherita , il Calcinaio etc... the historic townhall , Signorelli Square , Saint Margaret¨s Church , the Calcinaio Church etc... it was a programme showing the marvels of Cortona , Italy... an old Etruscan fortified or walled in mountain city in Tuscany where I had lived and studied for a number of years back in the late fifties and early sixties. I don't know whether any of you have ever heard of or read a book by Frances Hayes , Under The Tuscan Sun , published in 1996 . This work catapulted Cortona into the limelight and and an ensuing movie made it known worldwide for what it is... the most beautiful place on earth !! I checked it out on the net last night and .. my heavens to Betsy !! How things have changed !! Landgrabbers , real estate mania , University of Georgia has set up archeology courses there for Summer semester, ... like opening up the West !! Remember what happened to the Indians ? I haven't been back now in a few years . That time I stayed at my old Alma Mater some 500 meters below the old ramparts and visiting with some of the old peasant farmers who are still alive and remember me. I'll post a pic of my college immediately after this post and tell a bit more tomorrow about this God's Little Acre on earth.
This is Collegio San Alfonso jutting from a hillside in the foothills of the Appenine Mountains some 500 meters below the old fortified city of Cortona overlooking the Pianura Toscana.. Tuscan Plain. For the history buffs among you .. at the bottom of the mountain to the left of the picture is a small grouping of farm buildings and empty rocky fields called Ossaia.. I used to walk there almost every day... where the great Roman army took a lesson in military strategy from the even Greater Hannibal who led his forces to an overwhelming victory over the masters of the Italic peninsula on this precise site in 216 B.C. ... in fact , Ossaia means "boneyard".Turn left at Ossaia and you are on the road to Perugia and Assisi..........cut straight across the Pianura to Montepulciano (20 kilometers) for you wine lovers out there.... or north of Ossaia a wee bit.. maybe 10 to 20 kilometers to Castel Fiorentino where La Bella Vita .. The Beautiful Life ... was filmed . Oh yes , Sienna is but a few kilometers away to the Northwest across the Plain. Now I am just rambling on and shall stop here before I lose those of you who have shown such great patience so as to even come this far. I just got carried away !! Amen for now !!