beauty seeps in

The thing about experiencing true beauty is that I feel like it brightens my insides in some mysterious way to become a part of me accessible in memory. I carry this picture around in my head. It is a spot in Tuscany outside of the Albergaccio Machiavelli restaurant, which is in the building where Machiavelli was exiled to, and from where he wrote The Prince. We ate in that place and had antipasto of local sausages, cheese, olive oil, tomatoes, and bread. Next was pasta, ravioli, wine and more wine. Then cheesecake. This was after a morning of wine tasting. Next, in Pisa we devoured gelato. I started that day in jeans that fit comfortably, but by nightfall those jeans could barely button. Lesson learned: when you go to Italy, bring elastic waist pants.

This shot is along the Grand Canal in Venice. There's something so enchanting about the water and those old buildings twisting all together in that space filled with slanted light.

This is in the park at Montjiuc in Barcelona. We wandered through this area at the end of our last full day in that city after walking for eight hours straight through museums and parks. I drank in this refreshing yet cozy green world and a speck of me is still there.