Like running your fingers over your lover’s body, taking in the textures, and colours, and noticing beauty spots, I want to run my fingers over these walls of Italian towns and cities, taking in the scents.
The scars and birth marks are beautiful and make things what they are.
The first half of my year abroad I went to Dijon, France.
The shape and the feel of the student hall of residence. Conveying to some extent the feeling I had of being an alien, of venturing out, without a paddle. Finding it stark and lonely, at least to begin with.
Self portrait at 21.
In transit between countries; on a journey from childhood into adulthood.
How wonderful these streets are. These ordinary streets, quiet and green (alright, in summer they are). These treets that I have walked countless times, that are so easy to take for granted.
They are beautiful with that peaceful sky above, a sky where planes fly full of tourists and businessmen. A peaceful sky is so easy to take for granted.
Moody, cloudy Richmond full of boats.
Wistful Richmond at dusk…
Calm and mysterious Richmond at nightfall…
Richmond Park was bleak at the beginning of January 2019. Yet this is a time when hopes for the new year are high and I found beauty to admire.
Delightful deadwood, natural sculpture.
London is overcast on Christmas Eve and one can’t help but think back to a snowy winter…
Later that night…
This story is about a small, sleepy Italian town where everything still closes for a long lunch break (or siesta). It’s also about how I spent the best 5 months of my life there. A town with a cobbled medieval town centre protected by a wall. Not on the map for the main touristic routes, it’s a perfect place to visit for a taste of Italy. In February we had just arrived, friendships were tentatively taking root and sending shy, bright green shoots towards the sky. We were walking around the town, exploring. The weather was grey in that last month of winter and my friend kept complaining about the wind. “The wind, oh the wind! My cheeks are so red!” And indeed, it wasn’t much of a welcome. At times it seemed the town was abandoned. Had we walked onto the set of a post apocalyptic movie?
Yet Viterbo was giving us vivid signs of life even then because at some point you will walk into the town centre and find a celebration bursting with colour, kids and confetti. Even clowns! Here’s what celebrations in Viterbo look like – in cold February and later, when it comes to life and its vibrant little community explodes into life and colours in spring.
Thanks to one celebration – Città a colori (or the Town in colour) – I got to try my hand at proper photography. There was a photo competition going and my friend and I stumbled across it a couple of hours before the photos had to be handed in and I had to run back to the Casa dello studente (the student halls of residence) to recharge my camera batteries! In all, I managed to take photos of clowns and red-nosed lions and balloons and was very proud to see a few days after in the exhibition three, yes THREE!, of my photos!
In spring…
… life extended into the warm and convivial evenings. In February the streets were so empty and grey, you felt you were in a ghost town but after Easter we came back to a different Viterbo where people and music flooded the Busy piazzas, cozy cafes buzzing with conversation, quiet nooks with beautiful fountains where courting couples hide away. Viterbo took on a more romantic, mysterious personality as the sun went down…
There was a small piazza with a fountain. Light was warm, yeallow but mystical at the same time. The strange effect was reinforced by the weird images of oranges and palm frond floating in the water…
Day or night, there was always Schenardi.
A cafe nestled in a small street, by my favourite piazza – Piazza delle Erbe, housed in a wonderful building. A couple of years ago it closed, sadly. After being converted back into a cafe around 2010, having been a McDonalds of all things before that, it only survived a couple years. I am glad we were there to see it as a cafe bustling with life and alive with the smell of good coffee and all the colours of the ice cream rainbow.
Magdalena and I at Schenardi
Schenardi
There was nothing better than just sitting in a cafe for hours over one latte macchiato with friends. One of the most wonderful things about friends is that they push you out of your comfort zone. One of our wonderful Italian friends was in a band and they played the right music. We went along to see one of his performances.With the right people and the right music I danced.
[Here I cannot help but advertise the lovely band Riflessi – there is a hint of Frank Sinatra, The Beatles and The Beach Boys to them. Check them out: http://rifflessi.blogspot.it/%5D
There are also chance encounters and friendships you don’t expect. When I say “friend”, I don’t necessarily mean human. I met the same cat in the same spot several times.
Perhaps the time was right. Perhaps it had something to do with me coming out of my shell. Perhaps I am romatasizing… But Italy put a spell on me and going to live there one day is always a possibility or, perhaps, merely a dream…
Magdalena, thank you.
My love story with Italy started during a few months in 2011, on my year abroad. So, before I go on holiday to Tuscany in May (woohoo!!!), I felt I needed to do justice to the lovely, sleepy, medieval town of Viterbo that came to life right under our noses when spring came. Besides, going to Italy as a holidaymaker is not the same.
I’m sure we’ve all had experieces that we see through the telescope of time, as we look back into the wide, ocean-like expanses of our life, and say “Yes, that’s what made me who I am, that was the year of my life”. The memories of my year abroad have not left me and even as the years march on, those wonderful months stand out as bright in my mind as they were in the warm Italian sun at the time.
A new tide of nostalgia was brought upon me as I re-watched a wonderful French film “Auberge Espagnole” or “Pot Luck” in English. I really recommend this film to everyone and especially anyone who went on a year abroad – whichever country it was. You will feel those strings of friendship and self-discovery tugging at their heart as they watch it.
Rome was very close, even though it took you 2 hours on the train to get there… We visited Rome, sure! Many times! But we didn’t leave Viterbo as often as some of the other Erasmus students. We were happy wandering around through the winding cobbled streets, taking in the sounds and textures and the light and atmosphere of the town and enjoying each other’s company.
So, here are the views, silhuettes, textures, colours, walls and windows; light and shadows and the centuries of history Viterbo has to offer. Viterbo, the town.
At first I was going to do this in just one entry but I realised there was too much life and memories to Viterbo than I thought. This is the first of a few entries in which I will try to convey the wonder of Italy.
Till we meet again…
Life, only still. 