Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Postcard from Piazza Navona I

9/12/07
1:46pm

To You-Who-Are-Not-Present,

The sun is hidden. The light of the Piazza Navona is diffuse. There is an equality in the square, for the dichotomy between shadow and blinding brightness that so usually characterizes this place is gone. Accordion music still drifts, bouncing from building to building. But where I sit by the fountain, the chattering of water greeting water submerges most of the other sounds. The people move slowly in the surprising shade, they linger by the Fountain of Neptune. The benches are all full. Time seems to move slower when the sun is not looking. At the North end vendors are selling prints of paintings. The cobblestones are clean.
Without warning the top of the obelisk grows bright, sunlight reflecting off of the frozen dove. The light slides down the hieroglyphics that cover the obelisk's sides as if some occult incantation has been cast. The Church of S. Agnese in Agone replies to this when its marble towers counter the red granite of Egypt. Soon the whole Piazza is again shadow and light. The benches are vacant now, and people move away quickly to avoid the heat of the sun.

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