How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #7
They travelled for thirteen hours downhill, whilst the streams broadened and the mountains shrank, and the vegetation changed, and the people ceased being ugly and drinking beer, and began instead to drink wine and to be beautiful. And the train which had picked them at sunrise out of a waste of glaciers and hotels was waltzing at sunset round the walls of Verona. (6.9)
This passage is a great example of Forster's ability to paint a picturesque image of Italy. As Philip and Harriet travel deeper into the Italian countryside, the scenery becomes increasingly beautiful. Forster seems to suggest that there's something irresistible about the country, something that England (and Sawston, in particular) lacks.
Quote #8
Italy was beastly, and Florence station is the centre of beastly Italy. But he had a strange feeling that he was to blame for it all; that a little influx into him of virtue would make the whole land not beastly but amusing. For there was enchantment, he was sure of that; solid enchantment, which lay behind the porters and the screaming and the dust. (6.20)
Philip's initial arrival into Florence isn't ideal: it's dirty, noisy, and hectic. But Philip suspects that his bad mood is partly to blame—he'd prefer to be traveling to Italy for pleasure, but instead he's here on the request of his mother to bring home Lilia's baby. Philip acknowledges that under better circumstances, he'd probably be able to appreciate the city more fully. Notice the phrase "solid enchantment." Doesn't this sound somewhat like an oxymoron? "Enchantment" is usually something intangible—magical and often indescribable. The narrator's choice of words here seems to suggest that Italy's charm is so palpable and all-encompassing that it's almost as solid as a rock.
Quote #9
There is something majestic in the bad taste of Italy; it is not the bad taste of a country which knows no better; it has not the nervous vulgarity of England, or the blinded vulgarity of Germany. It observes beauty, and chooses to pass it by. But it attains to beauty's confidence. (6.189)
We know this passage is full of contradictions, but that's sort of the point. Italy is a country of wonderful contradictions. But how can "bad taste" be "majestic," you ask? Well, what makes Italy unique is that it knows what beauty is, but "chooses to pass it by." In other words Italians simply don't care if they're being beautiful or vulgar. They just do what they please and embrace their preferences, good or bad. Unlike the English, Italians aren't afraid to be themselves.