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| Pessoa drinking wine in a tavern, 1929 |
“What we see is not what we see, but what we are.” ~ Fernando Pessoa, The Book of DisquietFernando Pessoa once viewed the world from the western edge of Europe through the lens of saudade, the uniquely Portuguese longing for what has been lost or can never fully be regained. Although his reflections were deeply personal rather than historical, they resonate in lands where successive civilizations have left their mark.
In this, I find an unexpected kinship with Southern Italy.
The Mezzogiorno is a land where history is never entirely past. The temples of Magna Graecia, Roman roads, Byzantine churches, Norman towers, Aragonese castles, and Bourbon palaces remind us that political power fades, while civilizations leave behind something more enduring than kingdoms. One does not merely study history there; one walks through it.
Perhaps this is why I find Pessoa’s reflections so compelling. Both Portugal and Southern Italy know what it means to inherit greatness. Their storied landscapes are inhabited not only by monuments, but by the ghosts of the civilizations that created them. Those ghosts still speak to anyone willing to listen.
~ By Giovanni di Napoli, July 23rd, Feasts of Saints Apollinaris and Liborius