now. "But there was a beauty even in these collapsing
buildings, and such majesty and grandeur in a landscape
unchanged for millennia, literally since the end of the ice
age. Those rolling hills. The way the light changes as the
day goes on. Immediately I fell in love. And—like the best
love affairs—this passion has only become stronger, and
more powerful and fulfilling, as time has gone on.
"Because in addition to that natural beauty, there were
the bones of a man-made beauty, too: architecture dating
back 800 years. In this space, there was such a sense of
serenity and tranquillity. And though there was very little
left, just a dilapidated little restaurant—one visited many
times by Fellini, by the way, but that's another story—I
spent several hours there that day. I found a bench, I sat
under a tree and read, and thought, and wandered around.
And all the time I was falling more and more in love.
