Pieces of Siena

We stroll down the path of bricks with rotten fruit as mortar. The picturesque beauty is only enhanced by the presence of my four delightful companions, two of whom (one Matthew and one Erina) merrily belt out their own, disharmonized version of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.”

*****

The clap of thunder, the roar of engines, and the wail of sirens cannot compete with this: the sound of utter, absolute Silence. It is ever pervasive, filtering in, through and around us. We are awed. It is a disease; the Silence around us steals our own voices, and we make no attempt to win them back. Instead, we let Silence win, for she so very rarely wins today, and such beauty deserves an occasional victory.

*****

Matt informs us that Rick Steves told him about the dome in the distance. The colossal dome was intended to cover the largest church of its time. Now, it is but a monument to a colossal failure, for that church was never completed. Not even a hundred years later, as Brunelleschi’s Florentine dome completed the unfinished church. We always ask, “Who could live up to such rampant success?” But, the true question is, “Who could live up to such rampant failure?”