italy

Portrait shot in Apulia, Italy.

"Italy was my first love.
We were two sisters in delirium,
thinking it was safe to sneak out dancing in the
middle of the night, with our blonde hair in wild halos around our curious minds of 9 and 12.

Italy was my teenage heartache crush,
sitting in the worn wooden benches of the 
Abbazia sant'Antimo of Tuscany; tears streaming 
down my face. (Most likely from the sheer weight
of the beauty in just being,
the olivetan benedectine monks song echoing
softly beneath the stone arches.
Also, I think, from the bursting musings of a teenager),

- sensing that there's a love not yet known to me,
as our parents fought in the warm shadows of
the courtyard olive trees, heatedly discussing the fact that my mamma wouldn't stop wax lyrical over

'the most beautiful hands she'd ever seen on a man with the possibly only exception of Sean Connery..!',

namely those of a monk, and me not being able to decipher that slight smile
hiding in the corner of my papa's mouth.
The rapid exchange of words in between them,
that turned into kisses. Me trying to make maps
out of grown up relationships, from a maze of
mixed emotions and passionate impressions.

Italy is my eternal love.

These days i visit and let it's sun kiss me, it's wines flow and we stay up all night; still wild halo, these days in the company of a black haired spartan.

And it all makes sense. I've got my own map now 
and I know the secret language of corners of mouths.
 

I will always feel rooted in the country where I learned about the lightness of being and the stunning darkness of love."
 

/ Hannah