Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Orvieto
    Orvieto
    Orvieto
    Ebook45 pages38 minutes

    Orvieto

    By William Anselmi

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    A richly woven story about life in the heart of Umbria, this travel narrative is filled with nostalgic and personal recollections of the city's history, architecture, culture, and its unique people. {Guernica Editions}
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGuernica
    Release dateJan 1, 2009
    ISBN9781550714821
    Orvieto
    Author

    William Anselmi

    William Anselmi has published (with co-author Kosta Gouliamos) Mediating Culture (1994), Elusive Margins (1998), and Happy Slaves (2005), all with Guernica.

    Related to Orvieto

    Related ebooks

    Europe Travel For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related categories

    Reviews for Orvieto

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Orvieto - William Anselmi

      WILLIAM ANSELMI

      ORVIETO

      URBS VETUS

      CITIES SERIES 4

      GUERNICA

      Toronto – Buffalo – Lancaster (U.K.)

      2009

      Angela, Ezio – 1957 . . .

      ORVIETO

      Gaze down, swooping towards Orvieto

      From a distance, and under the Gemini sun, Orvieto is a narrative, an island written in the tuff. In the tuff, names, work, heroes and failures are entwined like the vines of a dream. There is no respite in the Umbrian valley that surrounds it, everything is a reflection. Only February with its fog licking its way through the lines of a face can still the lips, and suddenly time is inconsequential.

      Yet to turn away would it not take away from each bitten cherry a few seconds, from each burst of juices the pulp of a story? Would you not want to stop, high on the hill past the cemetery, and consider how human flight becomes a leap of wrath in front of you?

      Stand there. Orvieto is straight ahead in the air. Each curve of the road, descending for kilometers, until a temporary level is reached, just past the cypresses and the tombs, ascending, curve after curve, left and right, until the city door is trespassed: breath of asphalt then apnea. Stand there, Orvieto is in the distance. Breathe, calmly. There stands Orvieto in the distance. Who is flying today, here, from La Rupe?

      Delightful Gianna. Overhead a plane, silver hyphen glittering against the sparse clouds. No cosy traveller, harbour of an elsewhere, will be able to recount Gianna’s flight trajectory today. Perhaps Luca Signorelli will, but he has her commodiously atop an infernal being, with the wings of a bat and horns of a goat. She is stuck in the Call of the Elect’s final, painful depiction. Notice how Hell is reflected in his sardonic gaze, as he holds his place above the damned souls.

      Here goes Gianna, throwing herself over the short tuff wall. See her crush in a confusion of bones near the paved road. Hardly aesthetic, the little fleshy puddles against the overwhelming grey of a road bound by yellow lines. She is not the last of a long sequence in the Malediction of the Tuff. The body of this sixteen year old, comical in its reach is invisible. Flying has this magic: it hides the points of a compass with a sweeping motion. No tree or bush is harmed in this flight. No taste altered or farmed.

      Later, the gravel, the grass and the sullen gods will quickly absorb the shadow there. A dash of rain will complete the task so that others might follow, so that one more Icarus will point to the sky and substitute the sun by twist of arm. Give me honey and wax, baby.

      Everything is still. Everyone is asleep tonight. No tippy toes will do, no breath withheld, no dull tongue, no candle. Fangs: to sink as fast as the wink of the inner eye. The pulse slowly skips a beat. Orvieto is a sea of lights. No moon atop the concave stop. Each eye dazzled by an inner glow.

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1
      pFad - Phonifier reborn

      Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

      Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


      Alternative Proxies:

      Alternative Proxy

      pFad Proxy

      pFad v3 Proxy

      pFad v4 Proxy