Viaggio in Italia

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
What noisy people! I've never seen noise and boredom go so well together.

Katherine Joyce:
Oh I don't know, Uncle Homer lived here for 40 years without getting bored.

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
Uncle Homer was not a normal person.

Katherine Joyce:
I wanted you to take a rest. It didn't occur to me that it'd be so boring for you to be alone with me.

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
What's that got to do with it? I'm just bored because I've got nothing to do.

Katherine Joyce:
This is the first time that we've been really alone ever since we married.

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
Yes, I suppose it is.

[first lines]

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
Where are we?

Katherine Joyce:
Oh, I don't know exactly.

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
Are you sure you know when I'm happy?

Katherine Joyce:
No, ever since we left on this trip I'm not so sure. I realised for the first time that we... we're like strangers.

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
That's right. After eight years of marriage, it seems like we don't know anything about each other.

Katherine Joyce:
At home everything seemed so perfect, but now that we're away, alone...

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
Yes, it's a strange discovery to make.

[last lines]

Katherine Joyce:
Tell me. I want to hear you say it.

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
Alright, I love you.

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
We English aren't allowed to enjoy long stays abroad.

Katherine Joyce:
He wrote some beautiful verses.

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
I'll buy his books.

Katherine Joyce:
He never published them. You think a young poet can find a publisher?

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
So how do you know them?

Katherine Joyce:
He would read to me, and I copied many of them down. "Temple of the spirit. No longer bodies, but pure, ascetic images, compare to which thought itself becomes leaden, opaque, heavy." He wrote those verses here in Italy, during the war.

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
Where did we meet him?

Katherine Joyce:
At the Smith's house.

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
Was he an attorney?

Katherine Joyce:
No. No. A poet. He was slender, blond, tall, so delicate and romantic.

Count of Melissa:
Your compliment hides the usual veiled criticism, the "dolce far niente."

Katherine Joyce:
No, not at all.

Count of Melissa:
How do you say "dolce far niente" in English?

Count of Trebisonda:
I think they use the Italian phrase, but I think you could translate it as "how sweet to do nothing."

Countess of Melissa:
They say all Neapolitans are indolent. But you tell me, can you call a castaway indolent? In a way, we're all castaways. We have to fight so hard just to stay afloat.

Katherine Joyce:
I would say it's a very pleasurable shipwreck.

Duke of Lipoli:
Especially when I look into your eyes, stars in the night.

Katherine Joyce:
Ha-ha-ha...

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
I can't stand this damn country anymore. The idleness is toxic.

Katherine Joyce:
What did Charles's cough tell you?

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
That he was a fool.

Katherine Joyce:
He was not a fool. He was a poet.

Alexander 'Alex' Joyce:
What's the difference?