I hope you braced yourself, winter has come!

Brandenburg Gate, quadriga

A rose on the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, on the Holocaust Remembrance Day

Crossing

Manhattan street, night.

New York Skyline from Liberty Island

Back from NYC

From the Top of the Rock

L’infinito

Sempre caro mi fu quest’ermo colle,
e questa siepe, che da tanta parte
dell’ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude.
Ma sedendo e mirando, interminati
spazi di là da quella, e sovrumani
silenzi, e profondissima quïete
io nel pensier mi fingo, ove per poco
il cor non si spaura. E come il vento
odo stormir tra queste piante, io quello
infinito silenzio a questa voce
vo comparando: e mi sovvien l’eterno,
e le morte stagioni, e la presente
e viva, e il suon di lei. Così tra questa
immensità s’annega il pensier mio:
e il naufragar m’è dolce in questo mare

The Infinity

This solitary hill has always been dear to meAnd this hedge, which prevents me from seeing most of
The endless horizon. 
But when I sit and gaze, I imagine, in my thoughts,
Endless spaces beyond the hedge,
An all encompassing silence and a deeply profound quiet,
To the point that my heart is quite overwhelmed. 
And when I hear the wind rustling through the trees
I compare its voice to the infinite silence. 
And eternity occurs to me, and all the ages past,
And the present time, and its sound. 
Amidst this immensity my thought drowns:
And to flounder in this sea is sweet to me. 

G. Leopardi

This picture is taken from the hill the poet wrote about.

Church in Recanati, in the square Leopardi watched from his house.

Bell Tower in Mantova