That’s why I took my time with the descriptions made by ancient and modern travellers who visited the Mediterranean and the Orient.
Houses, residences, temples and paved roads, merchandise and luxury are things you can find in the North too, Paris, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Oslo.
What I want to highlight are the people that walk aimlessly, the musicians, the performers, the shade of the gardens, the lovers… there’s a perfume, a laxness, a rhythm…
Nevertheless someone told me:
«It’s because of the crisis, you see? Before, instead of 2 record players there were 2 little bands, a male one and a female one which played 100 meters away from each other. When the women played a tango, the men played a jazz piece...».
There are also three cinematographers. In any other place a cinema is a cinema, something industrial and without a specific character.
Here instead it recalls a Greek or Roman circus. No, don’t smile. A vast open air space, surrounded by freshly repainted railings. On the front, a pediment, a curtain and a stage on which Aristophanes could be performed.
In any other place, then, the words «continued performance» emanate a strong smell of industrial product.
Here instead they mean that you come in and come out, go up and down the room, go to the bar and eat an ice cream or drink a lemonade, or go to the garden to make love.
The most important thing is that it is cool. Above there is only a dark blue of the star-filled sky. In the first rows sit the admirers of the singer, of the three creole ballerinas and the pigeon charmer, so soft and sensual.