I love this photo so much.
Taken in a side street on a family visit almost two decades ago, it’s not an obvious framer. It’s the kind of shot that gets passed over for the posed, more obvious holiday pictures.
Nevertheless, I’m mesmerised by the moment it captures, as our daughter stopped to play with pegs on a collapsible clothes dryer, left outside in a terracotta alcove, sun-bleached and peeling.
We were probably on our way back from lunch, or from coffee in the piazza.
I love that Will is looking on, without stopping, rushing or hurrying her along (or maybe he was—but he looks pretty chill!).
In Italy, seeing laundry pegged from window ledges and strung bunting-like from balconies, blowing in the breeze, is commonplace. I love this short video on an Instagram page I recently discovered, Vita Lenta (“the slow life”).
Its creator, Italian designer Gianvito Fanelli, describes the page as, simply, “a quiet place on the internet”.
I couldn’t agree more.
The accompanying audio is, somehow, just as captivating and soothing as the visuals.
Looking at the photo of my husband and little girl, I can see her energy and curiosity, but also the comfort of the slower rhythms of daily life.
Of lunch and laundry.
I can almost feel that moment again. I vividly remember those pink Boden pedal pushers with the rosebuds, my daughter’s curls and the pretty, pastel hair clips I’d found in a local Italian shop (I could never stop myself).
Discovering this photo again was a reminder to stop and savour the slower, everyday moments. To pause and seek beauty in the rhythms and busyness of the everyday.
Maybe, even, especially then.
Slow listening
With slow beauty in mind, I love this new track by Ludovico Einaudi (who, I just learned, was born in the city of Turin, in the northern Italy region of Piemonte).
Also, I enjoyed listening today to this conversation about slow living between authors
and Mary Marantz, whose Dirt I haven’t read but have long wanted to. This episode prompted me to grab it on Kindle).Is there anything you’ve been reading or listening to lately that’s helping you to slow down and savour the new season? Or to find “pockets of peace” in the everyday?
Vita Lenta! what a concept. thanks for the link. I have been playing with a concept for a while. Analog 2.0. Slowing down our technologies and moving to and using more and more analog things.