Why Malta?
The title from my blog comes from a place I was taken to in Rome that forever caught in my imagination: the garden of the Maltese brotherhood. A native of Rome walked us up through a beautiful neighborhood on the Aventine hill, one of those surrounding the city; she was very mysterious..not letting on where we were going..she tended to be like this.
We never actually entered the garden, merely peered through the keyhole in the garden gate, a keyhole with the classic bell-shaped hole of a lock that would open with a skeleton key.
What do you see when you peer in? A long vista of hedges, cut precisely in the design of the hole, that seems to somehow stretch to infinity, like one of those infinity pools you see in upscale architectural magazines. Very surreal. And at the end of the vista--lined up and framed perfectly by the keyhole and matching hedges? St. Peter's Dome. The Vatican.
Just amazing to me the artistry, the thought put into creating this singular view--and preserved all these years. The human spirit can be remarkable when it isn't busy destroying itself. My desire is to be this thought provoking, but I'm not sure if I will ever accomplish that.
Wow, so I'm watching one of my secret old lady pleasures--Monty Don, the rather eccentric English gardening guy who does shows where he helps people make extraordinary gardens in small spaces, but also has gardening tourist shows. One catches my eye: all about Italian Gardens. The first episode is Rome il mio amore---
So he has some quick cuts of various Roman tourist sites: the Colosseum, , the Forum, St. Peter's. Then he stays on St. Peter's and notes the money and power the Church had to build outrageous gardens. Then...
A quick shot of my Key of Malta. Without explanation. I'm wondering if I will finally hear the story behind this extraordinary human endeavor--no t sure if I'm happy to know the Church was its midwife.
We never actually entered the garden, merely peered through the keyhole in the garden gate, a keyhole with the classic bell-shaped hole of a lock that would open with a skeleton key.
What do you see when you peer in? A long vista of hedges, cut precisely in the design of the hole, that seems to somehow stretch to infinity, like one of those infinity pools you see in upscale architectural magazines. Very surreal. And at the end of the vista--lined up and framed perfectly by the keyhole and matching hedges? St. Peter's Dome. The Vatican.
Just amazing to me the artistry, the thought put into creating this singular view--and preserved all these years. The human spirit can be remarkable when it isn't busy destroying itself. My desire is to be this thought provoking, but I'm not sure if I will ever accomplish that.
Wow, so I'm watching one of my secret old lady pleasures--Monty Don, the rather eccentric English gardening guy who does shows where he helps people make extraordinary gardens in small spaces, but also has gardening tourist shows. One catches my eye: all about Italian Gardens. The first episode is Rome il mio amore---
So he has some quick cuts of various Roman tourist sites: the Colosseum, , the Forum, St. Peter's. Then he stays on St. Peter's and notes the money and power the Church had to build outrageous gardens. Then...
A quick shot of my Key of Malta. Without explanation. I'm wondering if I will finally hear the story behind this extraordinary human endeavor--no t sure if I'm happy to know the Church was its midwife.
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