It’s a beautiful summer’s day. I have just left Siena, and am driving southwards. Big cities, traffic, noise, the usual encounters, or tagging along to art monuments greyed over with pollution, have no appeal to me… I know that in the district of Siena there are tiny little worlds to explore - villages, churches, estates, farms, abbeys and castles still well preserved. I allow my eyes to guide me as I cross the bare clay hills, famous throughout the world for their warm ochre, yellow and green colouring. These areas tell stories - thousands of years old - about princes, counts, bishops and saints, artists and craftsmen, painters and peasants. The rigorous and at the same time simple architecture of these zones have defied the centuries, continuing to our day with its solemn and untouched charm.
From the radio within my car, songs, jokes and phrases continue to burst forth. Today, however, I am seeking some peace. I stop the car to consult the guide. While leafing through the pages, the photo of a church in Romanesque style, isolated and beautiful, attracts my attention – it’s the abbey of Sant’Antimo, about 50 km to the south of Siena. It is there that I decide to go.
I drive along singing happily in anticipation of a new discovery. All at once, in the distance, I notice a white slender figure walking along the side of the road. On approaching closer, his features become ever clearer; it is a religious brother – a religious brother who is hitchhiking! He wears a white tunic and has a becoming smile. I stop the car and ask him, “Father, would you like a lift? Where are you going?”
He replies with a question, “And you?”
“I’m on my way to Sant’Antimo. The abbey of Sant’Antimo.”
“Oh how nice! I’m also going there!”
He gets into the car and puts out his hand, “Ciao, I am brother Giovanni, and you, what is your name?”
“Francesco,” I reply.
Then the brother adds, “How come that you are going to Sant’Antimo?”
“Because I read in the guidebook that there is a beautiful church, a real masterpiece of art; I want to see it. And then, that a community which celebrates the liturgy in a very old type of singing, the Gregorian Chant, lives there – for quite a few years now. I want to hear it. And hmm…then…there’s also good wine there! And you, why are you going to Sant’Antimo?”
The brother fixes his eyes on the road and with a somewhat mischievous smile replies, “Because that is where I live!”
Rather embarrassed, I just keep quiet. In a friendly way brother Giovanni continues, “If you like, I will teach you not only to look and to hear, but also to observe and to listen, and above all, to get to know and to venerate the Abbey of Sant’Antimo. I’ll guide you so that you can discover an art treasure which conceals and protects within itself an unexpected and even more precious treasure, the treasure of faith.”