44. Woman in Black

The Medici family had built another huge mansion on a hilltop about 200 yards from Il Poggio.

This mansion was not as large as Il Poggio but was a good sized stone chalet.

A dark-haired woman of about my age lived alone in this mansion whom I met several times walking in the fields, Sometimes she visited Elisabetta as a neighbor.

Married to a very wealthy Italian who was never around, she spoke English with a British accent was obviously well educated. She was always dressed entirely in black and on cold days wore a theatrical long black cape which made her look kind of spooky when she was out "on the moors".
She invited me to visit her to view the house and it was quite an interesting old place. As a nice historic touch, the old Medici family crest--an arrangement of balls in bas relief  like the Olympic Games circles, decorated the main dining-room mantelpiece.

She was  obsessed with death--her own --and had purchased a nice grave site  in a cemetery she could see from an upper floor window of her grand house.


"My life is over." She told me several times--and obviously believed it though she was in good health and, as I said, was about my age--and I personally never believed MY life was over--and in fact I have lived several lives since then!


But she had definitely decided that she, mournful soul, WAS the woman in black.

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