Maria-sama ga Miteru:Volume17 Chapter5

What Kind of City is the Capital of Flowers?

Part 1

Monday.

They left Termini Station a little before 11 o'clock aboard a Eurostar, heading towards Florence. The Eurostar is a train like Japan's Shinkansen.

Unlike the subway, national railway stations have no ticket gate. Each person must carry a stamped ticket. If you forget the stamp, you may have to pay a fine. It appears that the system is unaffected by the tears of countless surprised travelers.

While eating sandwiches, they watched the rural landscape float past the windows.

The greenery filled their eyes. The color of dry earth. Clear sky. Stone buildings. The scenery that appeared and disappeared was just like an oil painting. Maybe the arts blossomed here because of the beautiful land.

They rode the Eurostar for around 1 hour 45 minutes, then arrived at the Santa Maria Novella station, which was the next place they were staying: Florence.

The Capital of Flowers, Firenze, was a small town. There were plenty of local buses running, but they got around on foot so that they could focus on the tourist attractions centered in a 700-meter radius around the Duomo, as printed in the guidebook.

So naturally, they walked from the train station to the hotel. To avoid the roads packed with tourists, they walked along the Arno river, and soon arrived at their hotel.

It was not yet check-in time, so they left their luggage and strolled around the vicinity of the Duomo. Although it was a small town, there was plenty to see. They could not go around and see everything. First, check what was Monday's class activity, the Sensei said.

The Duomo was a beautiful church, like something out of a fairy tale. Looking at its surface, it was glamorous like a wedding cake. It appeared like a round cake, covered all around with chocolate powder.

When she expressed these thoughts, her classmates guffawed with laughter.

"Yumi-san, are you sure you're not hungry?"

"Nothing of the sort. After all, just now when I saw that statue of the boar, I thought that I didn't want to eat it."

Well, there you go.

"So, if Yumi-san is hungry, do you think live cows, pigs, and chickens look delicious when you look at them?"

This evoked even more laughter. Certainly that wasn't it. Although, when she saw a crab in an aquarium, she did think it looked delicious.

"I've got it. Yumi-san is hungry for sweets right now."

At this moment, she could not deny that point. Why? Because right now in front of her eyes was the Basilica di San Lorenzo. As she looked at its walls, she imagined that it looked like a black tea chiffon cake with sides covered in combed icing.

"But, for me, that wasn't totally wrong."

Yoshino-san whispered quietly to herself.

Exactly.

Florence is a delicious-looking down that looks like a cake shop.

Part 2

They checked into their hotel after finishing their light sightseeing. This hotel had a unique charm, different from their hotel in Rome. Simple. Chic.

Both exterior and interior had a modern theme, using lots of hard and cool surfaces of glass and silver.

"Oh! This time the shower has a hose! Lucky!"

Yoshino-san called out, having burst into the bathroom first.

"Hm, they don't have a toothbrush though. That's strange. Hey, Yumi-san. Did you hear me? Even though this point was emphasized at the informational meeting, it seems that lots of students didn't bring a toothbrush. The majority of us purchased one at Narita, but there were still some who didn't realize they needed one until they were at the hotel. But since Sensei had predicted this, she came prepared. I wonder how many it would take to fill that huge suitcase of hers? Hey, Yumi-san, are you listening?"

Good grief, Yoshino-san sure was chipper. Back when they arrived at their hotel in Rome, she had been ill, and no condition to explore the room. Essentially, this is the type of person that she is. In fact, this is what Yumi wanted to do in the hotel in Rome.

"Hey hey hey, did you try using the bidet?"

Yoshino-san asked, pointing to a washbasin-like fixture next to the toilet.

"I never used it. I don't know how."

Yumi answered, overwhelmed by Yoshino-san's excitement.

"Right. I don't know, either."

"As for the toilet, I think I prefer the Japanese shower and toilet."

"I agree. And bath. I want a separate washing place and tub."

"Ah, me too."

When they saw that they both held the same opinion, they laughed and playfully batted each others' hands.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

But it can't be helped: after spending a long time in a foreign land, you still yearned for the familiar.

Even in modern times.

One can't help but think that long ago, when the first missionaries set foot on Japanese soil to spread Christianity, they must certainly have had the same difficulties.

Part 3

That night's dinner was huge.

Even though young girls should be thoughtful when choosing from a menu, the volume of food piled on one plate was not particularly varied.

A donburi-like bowl filled with soup cooked with vegetables was plopped in front of them with a big "don!" Roast beef, not sliced, just served as a lump. "Plop." And more. Pasta and bread, "ba-ban." They were growing children, but they could not eat all this.

"What a waste!"

While such laments continued, not a single student could finish their meal.

An elderly local couple was seated a bit from the Lillian students. While eating a meal even more voluminous than the students', they drank wine, "glug glug."

When their bellies were full and they still had food left over, Yumi thought "if only Yuuki were here." With an "it would be my pleasure!" he would eat it all up. "Chomp chomp."

"Not just Yuuki-kun. He'd have to call Kobayashi-kun, Takada-kun, maybe not Alice, but also Nikko/Gakkou-sempai, too."

Yoshino-san said while laughing. If he did that, there would certainly be no leftovers after they ate.

"Yuuki-kun is Yumi-san's younger brother, right?" The current Hanadera school council president. Has anyone asked if he's coming to help with our own school festival? Like last year's prince or something?"

"Prince!?"

That's way past his limits, Yumi denied and shook her head. The Fukuzawa family had a couple tanuki-faced siblings. The only time Yuuki could play the prince is when the story takes place in the Tanuki kingdom.

"Maybe it's a more incredible role than the Prince!"

Yoshino-san, with a slightly indiscriminate mouth, threw a pick-off ball.

"Yoshino-san... That's confidential until we return from this school trip. Sorry."

"All right, I'll stop talking. Just one more little hint? Hey, it's okay, Yumi-san."

"It's a secret."

"No way, a love scene between siblings!?"

"... Stop it already!"

Originally her stomach was full, but Yumi clenched a fork.

A love scene between siblings? That's not something to joke about. Ew, gross.

That notwithstanding, she still could eat: a lady came carrying an after-dinner cake. A girl's dietary needs are a great mystery, constantly changing.

"Florence is a cake shop town, so I have to eat this."

What an excuse.

Tonight, another image was added to the cake town.

A lump of meat.

Yumi thought that from now on, whenever she saw a lump of meat, she would remember Florence.

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