A young man runs in a deserted field. A girl rides by on her bicycle. A lime grasshopper perches on the train windowsill. Despite the jet lag, the hunger and obvious anticipation, my soul underneath is calm. I feel like maybe I need to be here, in this place, at this time. Just to breathe. If nothing else. And of course there will be so much more. Just like wine is more than a liquid we imbibe and school is more than courses and books, my new perch has roots deeper than the mind can perceive. The mind after all is good for calculating, not deriving meaning. Meaning rests in spirit. And so, I arrive, sono arrivata.
The train station in Colorno is a room scratched with graffiti and a few outdated signs about schedule changes. One of my new roommates had offered to accompany me from the station, and I had described myself to her so that she would find me easily among the other passengers. As it so happened, just one other person got off in Colorno, a man, and I found three girls waiting for me at the station steps. It all felt a bit awkward at first, a mixture of first day of school and summer camp. The girls were very sweet, two straight from high school, Giulia and Silvia, and Lisa, Milanese and the same age as me. Lisa, like me, was looking to change careers, and had left behind a lucrative but unchallenging job in Milan.
We arrived at the apartment and I was told that I’d be sharing a room with Lisa, which came as a huge surprise. I had specifically requested a single room, and hadn’t had a roommate as such since college. The idea of spending three months with absolutely no privacy was harsh to say the least, but I decided I would make the best of it, and rationalized that I’d be saving money.
A decidedly more pleasant surprise arrived in the form of fireworks. The annual event had been rescheduled due to inclement weather, and I was offered the greatest welcome into the town of Colorno that I could’ve ever imagined. In front of the stunning, eighteenth-century Ducal Palace, the region put on a show of light and fire with suggestive accompanying music the likes of Enya and Debussy.
The difference between spectacle and performance and perhaps nodding to greater cultural divide was evident in this fireworks display: in the US, on the Fourth of July, there is a massive explosion of the biggest and best fireworks, with no music. Here, instead, it is all artistry, where less is more, but that less is none the less beautiful and enigmatic. Thank you, Colorno, for welcoming me with such panache!
The train station in Colorno is a room scratched with graffiti and a few outdated signs about schedule changes. One of my new roommates had offered to accompany me from the station, and I had described myself to her so that she would find me easily among the other passengers. As it so happened, just one other person got off in Colorno, a man, and I found three girls waiting for me at the station steps. It all felt a bit awkward at first, a mixture of first day of school and summer camp. The girls were very sweet, two straight from high school, Giulia and Silvia, and Lisa, Milanese and the same age as me. Lisa, like me, was looking to change careers, and had left behind a lucrative but unchallenging job in Milan.
We arrived at the apartment and I was told that I’d be sharing a room with Lisa, which came as a huge surprise. I had specifically requested a single room, and hadn’t had a roommate as such since college. The idea of spending three months with absolutely no privacy was harsh to say the least, but I decided I would make the best of it, and rationalized that I’d be saving money.
A decidedly more pleasant surprise arrived in the form of fireworks. The annual event had been rescheduled due to inclement weather, and I was offered the greatest welcome into the town of Colorno that I could’ve ever imagined. In front of the stunning, eighteenth-century Ducal Palace, the region put on a show of light and fire with suggestive accompanying music the likes of Enya and Debussy.
The difference between spectacle and performance and perhaps nodding to greater cultural divide was evident in this fireworks display: in the US, on the Fourth of July, there is a massive explosion of the biggest and best fireworks, with no music. Here, instead, it is all artistry, where less is more, but that less is none the less beautiful and enigmatic. Thank you, Colorno, for welcoming me with such panache!
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