We are starting the very preliminary planning of our trip to Italy for Easter vacation. In recalling our initial trip to Italy, I remember the simultaneous covergence of feeling both very small and very immense. I was acutely aware of time and its passage, the accumulation of human inhabitance on this wedge of the planet. The literal layers upon layers of humanity to the terra firma of Rome was mind numbing. I felt connected in a way I had never known. I also felt insignificant. To stand upon the same cobblestones that ancient Roman soldiers marched evoked a feeling of being infintesimal. I add to the dust of time, but my singular existence may account for almost nothing…..yet I could feel all those souls, all the time, all the existence that had passed along the same alleys and streets. I felt both nothingness and vastness. I am excited about going again, learning more, layering upon what I saw once, another view of beauty, time and history.Â
The value and the beauty of man is most evident when we step back from today and see how we once were. The grandeur and the opulence is unreal. Even the most elaborate and exquisite of construction in modern time cannot rival the ancient world.
