Rome

First time I came to this place it was something I have never experienced in my life. The height of the columns, the vastness of the piazza, the stillness of the air, the great number of people waiting in line. It was a hot day in June, but there was something magical in the air, something that got attached to my soul which I carry with me to this day. “Mille viae ducunt homines per saecula Romam” and indeed they do. Every picture I see now of any place in Rome, my mind sends me directly to that place, to that particular time, to those particular moments I ate a peach on the steps of the forum, I drank water near the Colosseum and admired the beauty of Piazza Navona or the Spanish steps. I even remember the smell of the water from the Fontana di Trevi, and the freshness of the air in the Circus Maximus. I remember all these magnificently beautiful places reminiscent of a world passed, of a time distant, of a civilization greater than our own. Peter Zumthor once said  that good architectures is not the one in magazines, but one which touches us deeply. Rome did that. The mixed cluster of the roman city touched me deeply and impressed me to such extent that it made a deep imprint on my soul. Everything there touched me, buildings, people, the air, the noises, the smell, the colors, the textures and shapes. My state of mind, my feelings, the wait I experienced while sitting there. Everything is only within me. If I eliminate the square – my impressions disappear. I would never have had them without their atmosphere. That is logical. There is an interaction between human beings and things. That is what makes certain places better than others. That is what defines architecture. It’s not just the buildings, it’s not just the people, it’s the interaction between them…