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A modern inferno

8th December 2007 by Helena 2 Comments  

I brushed my teeth this morning as the Ligurian countryside flashed by. I am on a night train bound for France after two days in Florence. The night train does not compare with the luxury of the Grand Hotel, and the view of Liguria may not be as dreamy as the one I had of the Arno and the Ponte Vecchio, but as a method of travel it is marvellous. I got into my bunk at midnight and woke at 8am. That happens about once a year at home.

I was rather tired. The office party the night before was great fun. “Don’t get drunk,” my mother emailed to tell me just before I left my room to join the others in the bar. And for once I didn’t. We ate in a restaurant that doubles as a museum during the day. I was sitting opposite a fresco of Dante having a conversation with Boccaccio. After dinner we went to a nightclub. Yes, you did hear me right. I went to a nightclub. And there discovered another advantage of getting older. I never have to go to one again.

The music was loud (funny that) and that sort of house stuff I loathe. They played one song Tamsin (a colleague from The 7 Arts) and I could sing along to and we danced happily. But then it was back to the dreary deep thud of monotonous music I’m sure even young people don’t want to listen to. Wouldn’t they prefer some Abba? Or maybe some Banarama? I know I would. And most of the pretty young things looked bored out of their minds.

DavidAs far as I can make out the point of a nightclub is this. If you’re a girl you show up wearing as little as possible and dance nonchalantly hoping one of the boys will come and pick you up and take you away from this meat market. If you’re a boy, you stand around posing and drinking and assessing the talent. I guess for women the ultimate aim is to be picked up by someone who marries you, thus making another visit unnecessary.

As we walked back to the hotel through the streets of Florence in the early hours of the morning I couldn’t help wondering if nightclubs had been around in Dante’s day the Inferno would have been even scarier.

Before I get to Nice, I must just tell you the best line of the trip. Ben, my boss, was looking up at the statue of David (the real one in the Accademia) when he said “Jeez, look at the size of him. Imagine how big Goliath must have been.”

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Italy, Travel, ageing, blog --> Tagged With: inferno, modern

2 thoughts on A modern inferno

  • Leanne MacMillan says:
    8th December 2007 at 4:18 pm

    Just caught up after a few days absence…. renting your house… oh what a concept!
    You should call Betheanne about your “spa”.. with her medical degree and her dance and choreography she would be a great addition!
    Also, her daughter is in Florence now! You might have just missed her at the night club.
    Love to all. Cheers, Leanne

  • Jonathan says:
    8th December 2007 at 10:01 pm

    Tell me more about the fresco – who painted it? Boccaccio was of course 8 when Dante died. As any fule knows. I love the Decameron. But Boccaccio is also very good on women, including Carmenta, my personal favourite.

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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