Valentina Expressions

The air of this May evening is fizzy and clean. Breathing without the city smog feels liberating. The yellowish streetlamps of this area add a sense of antiquity bathing everything in a golden glow, just as I remember these streets were in my childhood. Here, yellowish lights are still preferred, they keep the circadian cycle in check. Mornings are somewhat busy under a hot sun, evenings are supposed to be slower, people want to see the stars in the sky not being blasted with bright streetlights when they stroll for pleasure. Life is much slower here, it rolls differently than everywhere else and every moment has its own meaning. There is the smell of wood burned in home’s fireplaces, and meat being grilled in fire brick ovens at butcher shops where passersby stop to get a cone full of delightful small bites of roasted meats.

A stylish landau carriage with a colorful harnessed horse is parked by the marble steps waiting for an elegant woman to board it. Her hat made of feathers by a skilled hatter reveals a certain social wealth. I notice her fine shoes, silk and embroidered in soft pastel colors, just like her gloves. I would love to wear those shoes. Enchanted, I admire her for a short while, her gestures are feminine and well-structured as if she went to a finishing school. Her affected behavior reflects the manners of the time when beauty perfected even in the smallest details served to enhance the harmony of a woman. A man in a top hat gives her a hand to climb on the landau… soon they disappear in the distance.

I woke up from a dream and returned to where I really was, in Alberobello, Puglia, in an evening in May colored with yellow glowing streetlights, women in jeans and high heels, modern cars, colorful scooters, fashionable shops and the smell of wood-burning in fireplaces, the only thing that indicates I was in a slow life in the country and not in the city. I was there to see the Spring horse and carriage show. The horses wearing shoes were elegantly dressed for trotting the streets, and so were men and women on display riding the carriages.

I often travel in different eras, I guess it is my way to escape this reality that stinks a little more every day. Ciao,
Valentina
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Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel.
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