October 13, 2020

Piazza Navona, stealing my whole heart, per usual 💛

What does it mean to have connection to a place? Rome is a string of stories and memories and history woven together and then played back. A movie set backdrop.

Like that scene, in The Talented Mr. Ripley, where Phillip Seymour Hoffman meets Matt Damon here. Or like the story my Granny used to tell about leaving my 12-year old father and 15-year old aunt in a piazza in Rome while her and my pop-pop went to the opera. And the countless Roman evenings where I’ve ended tours here and sent my hungry clients to wine and dine down cobblestones alleyways. Domitian’s battles held here in the 1st century. Bernini cheekily tricking Innocent X into choosing his fountain to grace the square in the 17th century.

Piazza Navona swirls with so many stories that I have to catch my breath at its magnificence. To be fair, these days, when I walk through this city, I feel it’s like a fairytale enveloping me. Ten years of working in tourism and over the last 6 months, I think I’ve fallen even more in love with Rome.

Call me a bit of a hopeless romantic or perhaps a misguided lover who doesn’t understand the chaotic underbelly of the city, but being in Piazza Navona makes me feel like beauty might just be one of the many elements that helps to save the world.