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| {taken in 2007} |
Ciao da Milano!
I arrived late last night and am already immersed in the beauty of the city! So a little something from Henry James on my adopted city for the next week:
Milan, at any rate, if not bristling with the
aesthetic impulse, opens to us frankly enough the thick volume of
her past. Of that volume the Cathedral is the fairest and fullest
page--a structure not supremely interesting, not logical, not
even, to some minds, commandingly beautiful, but grandly curious
and superbly rich. I hope, for my own part, never to grow too
particular to admire it. If it had no other distinction it would
still have that of impressive, immeasurable achievement. As I
strolled beside its vast indented base one evening, and felt it,
above me, rear its grey mysteries into the starlight while the
restless human tide on which I floated rose no higher than the
first few layers of street-soiled marble, I was tempted to
believe that beauty in great architecture is almost a secondary
merit, and that the main point is mass--such mass as may make it
a supreme embodiment of vigorous effort. Viewed in this way a
great building is the greatest conceivable work of art. More than
any other it represents difficulties mastered, resources
combined, labour, courage and patience.
-Henry James, Italian Hours
When I was a PhD student, many moons ago (actually exactly 10 years ago!), I lived here for a few months. It's an exciting city to be in with all its fashion and style and of course its fascinating history. I'm back again for archival research--here for a week and then off to Genoa next week.
stay tuned for pics etc... and you can keep up to date over on instagram!
baci,
L
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