16 Comments
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Gabrielle's avatar

Loved this so much Danielle.

I’ve been on a recent “deep dive” of Room with a View —there’s a wonderful free play dramatization on Audible (with Julian Sands playing the elder Mr Emerson!) and that in turn made me want to hear the full version, and then I confess to third listen with a better reader. Never gets old!

I do wish we could slip in and out of time to see these places as they evolve.

And I’ve been enjoying looking through old guidebooks as well!

Danielle Oteri's avatar

I really did not catch that the Baedeker was low brow when I read this in my 20s 😅

Gabrielle's avatar

Well at least in Eleanor Lavish’s view! 😄

“We will simply drift” is a favorite line although we might quote “a true Florentine smell” more often …

Buona Pasqua!

Kathy Janiec's avatar

This is a lovely philosophical take on change, loss and how we try to deal with it. I love how you detail several different generations saying the same thing as time moves along.

The Vesuvius scrolls sound amazing - I really hope we'll discover something through the latest technology. Imagine, it reads through the layers!?!

Danielle Oteri's avatar

I don’t really understand the technology but also it’s being developed as it goes. It’s a competition like the cupola project!

Gillian Longworth McGuire's avatar

Same!!

Michelle Ciani's avatar

Julian Sands as the elder Emerson — how time flies!

Gabrielle's avatar

I know! A shock to the system! But also, it was lovely and felt just right.

Sarah Bringhurst Familia's avatar

I loved this article. We didn’t know how good we had it in the nineties and early aughts.

Although, as you point out, people are always longing for some idealised past when things were better and unspoiled.

Nobina Robinson's avatar

Very impressive Danielle. timely and relevant. Inspiring and nostalgic.

Danielle Oteri's avatar

I want to go back in time and be a public writer on the streets of Naples!

Nobina Robinson's avatar

Just a wee note from Venice. Ai Do Leoni was good and just what we needed before night tour of St. Mark’s. Still “glowing” from that. I won’t be able to join you for Ask me Anything tomorrow, for obvious reasons. But if you share recording, will gladly listen later. We are in Parma by Friday and home to Ottawa by Wednesday next. Nobina

Sandbox Italy's avatar

great... really enjoyed.

Michelle Ciani's avatar

Another fabulous post Danielle! Pity there aren’t scrivani anymore — surely the love letters they composed for others were more romantic than anything AI can spit out ….

Danielle Oteri's avatar

I want to be a scrivano. I'm gonna set up a desk outside right now.