What time is it?

2 July 2014

I'm so happy in my life right now.  I really love the inside-outside living and the bellezza that is all around.  I just catch my breath at every turn.  There's a palazzo or an old church or statue or something that just blows me away and the people here are so casual with it.  It's just where they live, it's normal to them to have ancient stones uncovered when you dig in the garden (and don't tell anyone, for heavens sake, or they'll come in and take over your back garden with an archeological dig that could take YEARS-see comments about time below). It's absolutely common to have a foot from an ancient statue on your terrace.  Walking around on cobbled streets laid by hand, stone by stone is just what you do, they're all like that.  Busses and streets have to be diverted around a columns, crumbling walls and mosaic floors that are 25 ft. down and 2000 years old.  

Last night, while wandering around trying to find the Pantheon, or rather my favorite gelato shop right next to it, it could have been 100 years ago, or 300.  The narrow ways between the buildings were car free, the lanterns could have been lit by gas, or candles before that.  Some of the paths were cobbled by black stones too uneven to have been cut by a machine.  There is just a warren of streets intersecting with one another at weird angles, widening at a piazza with a church or some Roman artifact.  I admit, I asked for directions a couple of times.  One Carabinieri (a sort of police) said, "Turn right, then go straight."  Impossible!   I wandered into smaller and smaller vicolos really enjoying the feeling of lost in time.  Then suddenly, there it was, in all it's glory, the majestic Pantheon.  The piazza just in front of it is a car free zone now, and it's so much more romantic. Plus, the gelato shop was still open, so that was a double bonus.  

Italians seem to have a different sense of time than we clock watching Americans.  I hear all the time "piano, piano". Which isn't about musical instruments, it means slowly, slowly.  There's time for it...domani o doppo domani -Tomorrow or the next day - today, let's have a coffee.  Today, let's just enjoy where we are and what we're doing.  When you live amongst 200-400 year old buildings built on the ruins of others that are 2000 yrs old or more, I think you just gain another appreciation of time.   What happens tomorrow happens, what really matters is right now.  

The rhythm of the days and the beauty which surrounds me is just soothing to my soul.  

I think I'll go cook up some of the yummy veggies I got yesterday, then head out to the Coliseum this afternoon.  I want to go to the top...I've never been.  All that time I lived here and I never went into the Coliseum. Guess I always thought there would be domani.  Well, today is the day.