It was one of those deep-blue sky mornings here in London today.
I packed up my camera and headed into the city, out on a mission to explore a little. I'm getting there but so slowly.
It was a quietly exquisite day, one where I was mostly unsure of where I was but one where I learned that you're never really lost for long in London ... there's always another Underground station, and it's relatively simple to find your way home in the end.
I had lunch at a restaurant called Spaghetti House. An older gentlemen smiled as me as I arrived and I decided that all restaurants should have lovely older gentlemen, in that front table, who smile as though you're some old friend returning.
The staff speak in Italian, as did so many of their customers, and the food and wine were just what I needed. And I have finally learned to say no to extras, like water and bread, in London ... to just have my dish and a small glass of wine, not the large glass. And an espresso to finish is fine, grazie.
Italian is spoken all around me out there in the city and so, while I'm so tempted to move to Genova and try a life there, Im not completely cut off from that culture I love.
It was a day of wonderment, amusement, and quiet bemusement. There's a story I would love to tell but, to be honest, it would need so much wine for me to even speak of the incident. No doubt, friends will hear of it over time, perhaps.
It's enough to know that, on hearing it, Lenn laughed and said, 'You have to stop with the drugs, Di'.
My excuse is that I had just taken the series of shots of the fountain, at the start of this post, and was still kind of lost in that world of light and movement.
There's more, there's always more, but this is enough for tonight. It's late and I'm tired. I'll leave you with a photograph of the landmark I use to find my way 'home'. I always do this thing. In Genova, it's Porta Soprana that guides me into my street whenever I'm there. In London, it's the apartment building in the photograph that follows.
I looked up as I walked past it this morning and couldn't resist attempting a shot of it soaring into the blue.
