My Latin-Speaking Grand Tour of Europe Pt. 2: In Lithuania!

Having arrived in Lithuania and found my hotel, I was happy indeed. I then went to the university - a fine old building, the sort of place glowing newlyweds go to be photographed in their finery. The courtyards are ample and attractive, with enough columns, Latin inscriptions, and other quirks to make for a fine memory palace, if one is so inclined.

The conventiculum itself was pleasant in the manner of all good conventicula. There were old friends and people I’d never met before. The tea was good and amply provided, the biscuits delicious. We heard many interesting lectures and took a tour of the library. This was probably the most exciting part for me, because we had the opportunity to see many old books adorned with the most playful of designs - poems printed in odd shapes, phrases with images in the place of words, riddles of the most thrilling kind. This exhibit fascinated me. I began to dream of a short course on these themes, perhaps including a workshop in which the students attempted to create “manuscripts” of their own, and lamented to myself because I doubted that the charming, lively fellow explaining all this to us had the time to teach such a class! Vita, qua fruimur, brevis est.

There were also dinners, walks, and the socializing that makes Latin gatherings so special. We even made a marvelous little day trip in which we saw the biggest piece of soap in all the land. Lithuania, according to Wikipedia, “covers an area of 65,300 km2 (25,200 sq mi)” which is not, I think, especially large, nor can there be so many soapmakers in a country of this size. Though I must say I have never seen so large a piece of soap, even in the USA, which is full of such oddities. It was in a big glass case in the hall of one of the buildings we visited and the source of more questions than anything else we saw on the tour.

The conventiculum was L.V.P.A‘s Seminarium Latinum Vilnense.

Living Latin , spoken latin , living latin in Rome , spoken latin courses , where can I speak latin , where to speak latin , who speaks latin, latine loquor, ubi possum latine loqui, ubi latine loquuntur homines vivi, latinitas viva, living latin, conventiculum Latinum , Latin speakers today

Where to speak Latin , how to speak Latin , how to learn Latin , Latin podcasts , best Latin podcasts , who speaks Latin , quis latine loquitur ubi latine loqui potero ubi latine loqui possum , latine loqui volo , schola latina , scholae latinae , lezioni in latino , parlare latino, che parla in latino , voglio parlare in latino voglio imparare il latino , quali persone parlano in Latino , dove si trovano lezioni in latino , podcast in Latin , podcast in Latino