Italy. Immersion

Italy. Immersion
I'm traveling to Italy – a beautiful country where new impressions, meetings and acquaintances are awaiting me. "It smells like sunshine here" is printed on my ticket. That's exactly what I need; there are too few sunny days in Russia in the end of October.
My first impressions of Italy are bright shop windows, busiest streets, stylish Italian women, a lot of motorcycles parked along narrow sidewalks. Italy under the clear skies, Italy with stone pines, fashionable Italy with many tourists and wine tasting festivals. Foggy Italy with vineyards to the horizon.
Gradually, the exaltation from the first impressions is replaced by a tranquil joy from the sights of ancient architecture, monuments and frescoes under the open skies. I listen to Bach at an evening mass that continues playing in my head when I am returning home late along wet cobblestones glistening in the autumn rain. The city is not asleep yet, it’s a perfect time for a stroll. Umbrellas like butterflies are fluttering in lantern lights, lovers are kissing unabashedly at café tables. It’s still warm enough to sip some spritz outdoors.
I spend a lot of time exploring the city and begin to get used to the celebration that I encounter every day in the streets. Behind the external hustle and bustle, I am seeing another Italy – wistful and often rainy, since it’s almost winter. Now we are on the same wavelength, we share my melancholy, which never fails to come back to me as soon as the feeling of novelty subsides. I am no longer looking for its cause; I am used to that longing that rises from somewhere deep inside me. I see it in the faces of people, in the gray sky, in the muddy waters of the Adige river churning under the Ponte Pietra.
Someday, I'll believe again that there's no reason to be sad. Someday, my former lightheartedness will come back to me. In the meantime, after finishing my latte macchiato, I go on wandering without purpose or plan in the rainy streets. I observe the signs of modernity or, on the contrary, get lost in time, traveling many years back, and play with the scenery of the old walls to create my own stories.
The photos are made during my trip to Italy mostly in Verona and suburbs, also in Venice, Rome, Brescia and Milan in 2016 and 2018.