'Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.'
Adapted from the “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” by Thomas Gray, madding means “frenzied.” The lines containing the phrase speak of the people buried in the churchyard: “Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife / Their sober wishes never learned to stray.”
And in the late nineteenth century, the English author Thomas Hardy named one of his novels Far from the Madding Crowd.
To be “far from the madding crowd” is to be removed, either literally or figuratively, from the frenzied actions of any large crowd or from the bustle of civilization.
I learnt this phrase from hearing my father refer to it so I understood the meaning but not the source; I love it when travel (and art for that matter) inspires you to dig deeper into meaning and history and when an experience makes it all gel.
After yesterdays' experience of the 'madding crowd' I decided today to be completely unstructured and avoid the crowds, and so packed my back-pack for a walk, again not knowing how long it would take or where I might end up. I headed uphill towards the hills behind my accommodation and discovered steps to ascend; I only ended up on a road with cars for a short time before I found steps yet again. With no deadlines and no tours to adhere to I stopped to admire picturesque views and have fun with the panorama function on my phone's camera. I rarely passed any humans at all.
Eventually I saw signs to Telegrafo and, intrigued as to what Telegrafo may entail, I thought 'that will do'. At times the very narrow (single file) trail took me right between working vineyards and gardens. How privileged I felt to be given permission to walk through private properties. Eventually I arrived at Telegrafo and found a modest and charming cafe peppered with elderly woman playing cards; I could actually hear the high pitched cacophony of excited multiple syllabled conversations from a while away and had wondered what was happening; it clearly sounded celebratory. I completed another another walk nearby which was quite different to the one along the beach with trees shady and paths spacious. After completing this walk and exploring an abandoned house with a beautiful antique ceramic tiled fireplace I returned to the cafe, thinking that I could have lunch there. It was right on lunch time for the ladies and in they went, cards and cash away and sat down as their small carafes of red wine were speedily plonked on the table. I enjoyed seeing them helping each other walk along, arm in arm, all smiling at me (and shorter than me). I decided to let them have their time and headed back down the pathway again; taking a slightly different route I took a windy path passing by quite a few little shrines with different prayers inscribed on them. One phrase I anima mia magnifica il signore translated as My soul magnifies the Lord. When photographing I noticed that the inscriptions were all different; I thought about how I would have missed these if I had taken the same path home and thought about how it is always good to challenge yourself to have new experiences. 15 kilometres later, whilst enjoying my complimentary Corona at the bed and breakfast, I pondered whether to go off the beaten track again tomorrow or brave the crowds by taking the train to one of the five Cinque Terre towns. After all, there must be beauty in the madness.
