The End of the Light Streak

Most of my expierences in Italy so far have been based on one factor and one factor only: Light.

The day we got here it was gray, and the following weeks remained as lifeless without sunlight in the city. The moment the clouds broke, was the moment the city woke in me for the first time. It was the first moment I felt alive and present in this environment instead of brooding somewhere in my thoughts. In art history we discuss the term: Chiaroscuro-the effect of shading and the portrayal of an object enhanced or more fully realized by the presence of shadow and light. In painting, we practice this technique and seek out postcards to replicate that best describe this effect. And in daily life, with its presence, the dull mustard yellows and the grimy grays suddenly become cool fields of speckled stone and cheering golden walls along the walkways. For four days now, the sky was bare and blue and the sun lit the streets. Today, the rain returned.

Here is a bit of a journal entry I wrote yesterday-
"Today was a beautiful day. I saw sunlight leak through the shutter slats. I saw it glaze the Duomo and the smiling face of Santa Croce. I saw the yellow afternoon light cake the city walls and I saw the shadows climb them until they put the halos of the statues to sleep. I saw, from the corner cafe, the streets fill with night the way water fills a tank. I saw the white cool light of hallogin bulbs kiss the bodies of bottled water and rim a cup with its dried hot chocolate clinging to its sides like fresco paint on a chapel wall-A secco, they call it. The mixture of yellow and white, hot and cool pours from shop windows and glass plated doorways, painting the walkways with inverse shadows of themselves. Today the city soaked in a light that pooled in its corners and tapped on its doors and bade me come outside to see what a spectacle it could perform. Bravo Firenze, bravo."

Poetic and embarrassing I know...but there you go.