At work lately I've been using a website called live365.com, which has gazillions of little radio stations with everything a heart could desire. The two I listen to most frequently are, believe it or not, stations that play "Sean's music"--big band and swing. I used to complain that it's too perky, but amid the dullness of an office it's entirely welcome. Today I found a station from France that plays gypsy music, and a Spanish station that plays flamenco--they're such vibrant rhythms, so different from the hollowness that permeates a lot of pop music here.
And I've been monitoring an Italian station, waiting for it to play Ligabue...Zero Assoluto...Negramaro? Anyone? Sigh. I kind of wish I'd paid the 20 euro for Ligabue's new CD before I left. I miss listening to "Le donne ha sanno" as I walked down Borgo San Lorenzo to wander yet again through the warren of back streets around the Duomo.
On my lunch breaks I'm rereading "Rise and Fall of the House of Medici", wishing I were one of them. To go back, to see the Palazzo Medici Riccardi when it was just Lorenzo's house, when Savonarola was at San Marco just down the block, when Italy was full of counts and condottiere! What a dramatic world to be a part of, even as a peasant; how much more amazing to be a Medici. When I was younger, the name Medici had an echo faintly like that of Borgia--sinister, surrounded by poison and intrigue, not a good thing to be compared to. Unholy. How different I found them to be!
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