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Listen: the laureled poets
stroll only among shrubs
with learned names: ligustrum, acanthus, box.
What I like are streets that end in grassy
ditches where boys snatch
a few famished eels from drying puddles:
paths that struggle along the banks,
then dip among the tufted canes,
into the orchards, among the lemon trees.
Better, if the gay palaver of the birds
is stilled, swallowed by the blue:
more clearly now, you hear the whisper
of genial branches in that air barely astir,
the sense of that smell
inseparable from earth,
that rains its restless sweetness in the heart.
Here, by some miracle, the war
of conflicted passions is stilled,
here even we the poor share the riches of the world—
the smell of the lemon trees.
See, in these silences when things
let themselves go and seem almost
to reveal their final secret,
we sometimes expect
to discover a flaw in Nature,
the world's dead point, the link that doesn't hold,
the thread that, disentangled, might at last lead us
to the center of a truth.
The eye rummages,
the mind pokes about, unifies, disjoins
in the fragrance that grows
as the day closes, languishing.
These are the silences where we see
in each departing human shade
some disturbed Divinity.
But the illusion dies, time returns us
to noisy cities where the sky is only
patches of blue, high up, between towers.
Rain wearies the ground; over the buildings
winter's tedium thickens.
Light grows niggardly, the soul bitter.
And, one day, through a gate ajar,
among the trees in a courtyard,
we see the yellows of the lemon trees;
and the heart's ice thaws,
and songs pelt
into the breast
and trumpets of gold pour forth
epiphanies of Light!
There are hole in the wall gelaterias, overpriced gelaterias, tacky neon sign tourist trap gelaterias, chain gelaterias but then there is the occasional hidden gem mom-and-pop gelateria. As for now, La Carraia is at the top of my list. I ordered fragola e cioccolato, my favorite, and it was perfect. The gelato was very fresh with chunks of real chocolate and strawberries. Even better, its the cheapest I have found so far - 1.30 euro per due! I will definitely be back! Next on my list is Carabe, just steps away from my apartment on Via Ricasoli. Carabe is run by a lovely Sicilian couple who bring up their ingredients from Sicilia regularly. I haven't tried the homemade gelato yet but they do make a delicious cannoli and cassata. Sophie, Nami and I all went on one late night before closing and ended up receiving what Jenny calls the "hottie discount." That is, the man brought Sophie, Nami and I back into the kitchen to show us how he makes the fresh cannolis. They were very delicious and courtesy of Nami's good looks, free! I will definitely be going back to try the gelato...just maybe not too soon...
