Bells

You might think that church bells sound kind of nice, kind of cool, kind of European.

Maybe that's true if you're spending a few days in Florence in a beautiful hotel room that looks out over the Arno. Remember Helena Bonham Carter flinging open the shutters in A Room With A View, bells tolling in the background as the river rushes beneath her? She had all that lovely long hair and a lacy dressing gown, and she was filled with wonder at the fact that she was in Florence, on holiday. At that moment all the romance of Italy was just outside her open window, and she didn't even care if her cousin Charlotte was being a royal pain.

That scene from that move used to be my main image of church bells, and it made me love the whole idea of them. Bells ringing every day, as they had been for years and years! The romance of it all!

But I am here to say that if you lived 500 feet away from two churches, both of which ring their bells a minimum of 3 times a day, you'd hate them too.