Above is a real video of last Sunday in Lecchiore. It was taken by a friend and amazing chef, Nino. It was taken at the village festival planned by a few dedicated souls for the greater benefit of the community.
This below, is a real photo. It’s not generated by AI. I took it last night in the village of Casa Carli, which is over the next ridge and into the second of the three Prino valleys that make up my ‘hood.
Isn’t it beautiful?
Although the more I look at it, the more unreal it seems. The midnight blue sky, the street lamps, the wistful girl in a yellow dress walking barefoot. The yellow painted houses and the iron balconies.
Just one moment captured.
Maybe I could write a little piece on AI, but I don’t want to waste my breath and so this post is not gonna be a bash on AI, rather, a little mignon on what is real.
To start…this is what I know to be real:
That lizards have a shorter rustle than snakes, even though I generally only catch them out of the corner of my eye as their tail/final slithery bits disappear into the grass.
That some birds round here squawk and chatter like machine tools in a factory, while most others sing real tunes.
That weeds are pretty flowers, just they’ve got a bad rap.
That butterflies, black and white, yellow, cream and red, when they land on my head, I can’t feel them.
Last night I took this photo as we drifted off home after an evening watching an outdoor harp performance and eating a shared meal in the village square in the next valley. It was a still and cool night, walking back to the car through the ancient stone houses that stood protectively each side. The silent, dark interiors as families were still enjoying themselves in the square.
Home. This is home.
I like the photo, a random snap that looks dreamy and surreal. I met interesting people who had likewise been drawn to this little corner of Liguria, and I felt excited that my circles are widening, yet also connecting up people that I now know, who, like me, enjoy moving between a few different communities.
Connected, coherent and conscious. Within this beautiful dream I’m living, is the knowledge that together with Marty’s brother and sister in law, we were fortunate to have everything line up to consciously choose this place.
Nothing to regret.
Other things I know to be true, now (take note if you are transferring to Italy!)
A UK driving license has to be exchanged for an Italian one with a year of the date you applied for Italian residency. Not the date stamped on your residency card, which is later.
Your UK driver license name must exactly match all your other names on your other documents, otherwise you might run into difficulties convincing the authorities you are the same person.
These two important truths currently divide me from an Italian driving license. Not that I’m in a hurry to drive here on the bendy, one lane road that leads up to Lecchiore from Dolcedo.
I have another truth, which is that for me I like to perform in front of an audience. I did this last Sunday at the Lecchiore May festival, a poem, my own poem, that my friend helped me translate. A performance for performance sake. That was all.
These are my truths for June.
What are yours?
