4/30/24

This morning Nino took me to Lanciano to catch the bus to Rome. He had to go early and offered me a ride. After a transfer in Chieti I was on the autostrada. It’s quite beautiful as it winds its way through the mountains. 
I wasn’t surprised that the a taxi from Rome Tiburtina to my hotel cost more than a bus all the way across the country. Weaving through the busy streets I felt the culture shift. Big cities thrive on alienation and anonymity. I just came from a town of four hundred forty where everyone knows everyone, and people like Nino offer to take you without having to ask.
The city is a place of privileged and power. The measure of success that came with the new world, that drove my father’s aspirations, were never something that I embraced. It’s not a new story, I’m a generation removed, a generation away from the fear of not having enough. It’s not that we were rich, that was for my generation to achieve.
While I eat my pizza at an alley cafe off Borgo San Angelo there’s a roving duet, accordion and guitar, playing a mashup of My Way and Somewhere Over the Rainbow. They skillfully transition between the two and if you didn’t recognize the tune, you’d think it was one song.
It’ll take a while to feel this is normal