[aesop_parallax img=”https://www.visitfiumicino.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Una-rampa-verso-lInfinito-ricordo_web.jpg” parallaxbg=”on” caption=”di Francesca Marchi e Alessandro Marocchini” captionposition=”bottom-left” lightbox=”on” floater=”on” floatermedia=”L’eco del Tempo” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]

[aesop_audio title=”Intro” src=”https://www.visitfiumicino.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/harbour-music3.mp3″ loop=”off” viewstart=”on” viewend=”off” hidden=”on”]

[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”] L’odore del mare.
It 's so strong and firm, so particular, its taste fills my nostrils for a long, perhaps too long.
We are at sea for 20 days and can not wait to see my land.
There it is, on the horizon, a few miles from me, I can see in all its grandeur the great lighthouse overlooking Portus, with its fires always on, like stars in the night.
Yet I have an emptiness inside me, a black hole that devours the soul and that I made my sleepless nights.
I'm happy to go home, but at the same time are broken. I hope to soon have peace.

[/aesop_content] [aesop_parallax img=”https://www.visitfiumicino.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Leco-del-tempo_web.jpg” parallaxbg=”on” caption=”L’eco del tempo (foto di Francesca Marchi)” captionposition=”bottom-left” lightbox=”on” floater=”on” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]

[aesop_content color = "#ffffff" background = "1 ″ ″ position columns =" #333333 = "none"; imgrepeat = "no-repeat" floaterposition = "left" floaterdirection = "up"] We just landed from the ship and already my thought is turned towards the East.
I did nothing but think about what I have left. The hope of a future and present so arid.
But above all I thought about what I said and not what I did.
While the sailors unload the food on the ground and bring the slaves to their masters, I am going to walk to the warehouses of Severus surrounding the lake hexagonal Portus.
How I not walk in these streets, so full of colors, of people, of life but at the same time so spooky to me. They are like ghosts that busy scrambling to find something that they will never have.
Within in a tavern, I am hungry and thirsty, the threshold in a long time I hear the familiar sound of a tintinnabulo and raised his head to watch him curiously: the tintinnabulo is a kind of rattle phallic Romans that we use to fix the revenue of the houses and shops. We think it is auspicious touch them and make them ring out every time you go under. Customs, traditions that I thought he had forgotten.
The owner of the tavern recognized me and greeted me by name, then tells me to sit down in front of him and I pours good wine flanking it with garum homemade. What flavors. I close my eyes for a moment and return child, happy when I ran through the streets of Ostia.

[/aesop_content] [aesop_parallax img = "https://www.visitfiumicino.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Lalbero-delle-rimembranze_web.jpg" parallaxbg = "on" caption = "L'Albero delle rimembranze (photo by Richard MacArthur) captionposition" = "bottom-left" lightbox = "on" floater = "on" floaterposition = "left" floaterdirection = "up"]

[aesop_audio src=”https://www.visitfiumicino.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/forest-music6.mp3″ loop=”on” viewstart=”on” viewend=”off” hidden=”on”]

[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”] Mi ricordo di quell’albero, un pino marino, per me era immenso.
My child's eyes saw him as a giant green, crisscrossed by large wrinkles who painted his face with wisdom and history, a witness of time and memories.
I had called the tree of memories, the priest of memories and melancholy. I wonder if he is still alive, if its roots are firmly anchored to the ground and its branches touch the sky blue.
I just told him the truth that consumes my spirit. Only he knows what happened so many years ago on these lands.
I pay the shopkeeper, I greet him with a gesture of hand and I go for the exit with my head down and the mind full of thoughts. I knew I would come back here awakened in me old remembrances.
I pass a long line of tabernae, each with their own objects hanging outside, useful to understand what is sold inside. Here there are many and have grown it seems: the bronze craftsmen, confectioners, a fiorario, a manufacturer of mirrors, a pearl merchant, a shoemaker, there is even a eborarius working tusks of ivory from faraway Africa .
Obviously there Vicus and clivus argentarius, bankers and money changers.
I keep walking and head east. I know where I want to go.

[/aesop_content] [aesop_parallax img=”https://www.visitfiumicino.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Alla-luce-io-vivo_web.jpg” parallaxbg=”on” caption=”Alla luce io vivo (foto di Francesca Marchi)” captionposition=”bottom-left” lightbox=”on” floater=”on” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]

[aesop_content color = "#ffffff" background = "1 ″ ″ position columns =" #333333 = "none"; imgrepeat = "no-repeat" floaterposition = "left" floaterdirection = "up"] Walk through the alleys and streets that cut into two warehouses of Trajan and the dock, I savor the smells, sounds, colors, shapes, a wall which accompanies my journey absent-mindedly infinity and stumbling upon a root winding road.
Every time the sun's rays peek out and light up my face and I walk the streets, so shrouded in darkness.
And when it happens I feel like being born again, the heat on my skin reminds me that I am alive, the blood flows in my veins, the breath swells my chest, pupils dilate.
Yet I feel an emptiness inside, a fear that touches my soul and at the same time turn on my heart.
A wealthy merchant strikes against my shoulder and curses while collecting some jewels that have fallen, a slave oriental features it helps so obsequious while his master yells and kicks.
My heart would tell me to intervene but my head takes over and tells me to continue the journey. I'm not here for that. Around my eyes and I keep walking on my left and overcome the great dock of Portus.

[/aesop_content] [aesop_parallax img=”https://www.visitfiumicino.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Il-protettore-dellantico-Porto_web.jpg” parallaxbg=”on” caption=”Il protettore dell’antico Porto (foto di Francesca Marchi)” captionposition=”bottom-left” lightbox=”on” floater=”on” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]

[aesop_content color=”#ffffff” background=”#333333″ columns=”1″ position=”none” imgrepeat=”no-repeat” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”] Esco dall’imponente portico di Claudio ed entro dentro un bosco.
The silence around me and around me I only hear chirping, cicadas and the sea breeze that caresses the trees. It sounds like paradise.
Suddenly I see a deer, proud and majestic, I look austere but serene, not run away, it looks back, there remains undaunted at me as if he were seeing inside my soul.
It is he who must run away scared, but I do. As a guardian of the port and the forest remains still, impassive, waiting for my move, my pace away from his kingdom so that it can continue to rule the realm made of leaves, wind and silence.
For a moment I become deaf and blind and my breathing slows. I am petrified. I do not know what to do.
I'm not afraid of him, but that meeting is like an omen, a sign of what is to happen.
A branch falls and produces a thud, I turned suddenly in the direction of the noise, and when I offer again my gaze to the deer, he's gone. It 'disappeared, almost never happened.
And 'I run away, so as I did many years ago.

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[aesop_parallax img=”https://www.visitfiumicino.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/La-strada-delluomo-la-strada-dei-ricordi_web.jpg” parallaxbg=”on” caption=”La strada dei ricordi, la strada dell’uomo (foto di Francesca Marchi)” captionposition =”bottom-left” lightbox=”on” floater=”on” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]

[aesop_content color = "#ffffff" background = "1 ″ ″ position columns =" #333333 = "none"; imgrepeat = "no-repeat" floaterposition = "left" floaterdirection = "up"] Walk for several minutes to the via Severiana, beside me spend several wagons, merchants, slaves, politicians, even a legion marching to some foreign land. All shadows for me.
The closer I get to the cemetery, the more my heart increases heart and my mind is clouded by distant memories I had buried in the deepest caverns of my soul. I fear and at the same time I'm happy.
Within the necropolis. And 'beautiful in her golden deadly.
The necropolis of Porto, as all Roman necropolis, was built outside the city limits. Here the citizens of Ostia are to greet one last time their dead, laid them in small islets, like small houses. Outside them put the stones in order to talk about their lives: who they were, what they did, what was their profession.
Next to me dozens of tombs accompany me to my final goal, the reason for my return home.
The fire that burns my spirit.

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[aesop_parallax img = "https://www.visitfiumicino.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Ciò-che-prima-era-ora-non-lo-è-più-2_web.jpg" parallaxbg = "on" caption = "what was now not anymore (photo by Richard MacArthur) captionposition" = "bottom-left" floater lightbox = "on" = "on" floaterposition = "left" floaterdirection = "up"]

[aesop_content color = "#ffffff" background = "1 ″ ″ position columns =" #333333 = "none"; imgrepeat = "no-repeat" floaterposition = "left" floaterdirection = "up"] After some meters coming to a tomb richly defined.
And 'the tomb of a wealthy merchant of Ostia, Aurelio family of Corneli, known by many, respected by all.
I open the small gate that protects his remains and by lowering his head. A strong smell of incense envelops my nostrils and I see the dim light of a candle that lights the cave timidly tomb of the man who was and is no longer.
On the floor there is a large mosaic depicting a ferocious lion, the protector of this tomb.
There she was, beautiful in its palliative white and gold, adorned with small jewels that illuminate the face and body.
He is praying for her husband. And 'who died a few months ago and she is still in mourning.
And 'why I came back. For my love.
She suddenly realizes that she is not alone, turns, looks at me, she recognizes me and for a moment we remain suspended in time and space, as if they had never passed these 10 years.
Her mouth slowly opens, the pupils dilate, the falls from holding a bouquet of flowers and bursts into tears.
Then she throws herself into my arms and I cingo to me with all the strength of my soul.
It was 10 years waiting for this moment.
It was 10 years that my heart and my soul burned each day away from Livia, the love of my life.
After a short prayer we leave the tomb and head to the customs of Portus, where we expect them.

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[aesop_parallax img=”https://www.visitfiumicino.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Una-rampa-verso-lInfinito-ricordo_web.jpg” parallaxbg=”on” caption=”Una rampa verso l’infinito ricordo (foto di Francesca Marchi)” captionposition=”bottom-left ” lightbox=”on” floater=”on” floaterposition=”left” floaterdirection=”up”]

[aesop_content color="#ffffff" background="#333333" columns="1" position="none" imgrepeat="no-repeat" floaterposition="left" floaterdirection="up"] Ours has always been a cursed love, I was a simple sailor, she was the daughter of a rich merchant, her father never wanted us to be married. All his life he fought the bond that brought us together.
Ten years ago, thanks to its influences, made me embark on a muriophoroi, a large freighter, headed for the East for a long journey that would have turned away from Livia for too many years.
Then he married Livia with Aurelio. Their love was never true, as is often the case it was only a marriage of convenience, so barren of love and hope. We love that instead set fire our hearts and our souls.
With all the strength I tried to run away, back to her, but I could never in my purpose.
And every time I failed a part of me was dying slowly. Only a portrait, I always carried with me, gave me the strength to continue, conscious that one day I would come back.
No matter how long it would take. I would return to her.
Then one day, while I was anchored in the port of Alexandria in Egypt, he was handed a letter signed by Livia.
He reads that her husband was dead and that now there was a hope to be able to stay together forever.
Our imprisonment was over. We hope to get married.
With the last money I had left I embarked on a cargo ship direct to Rome and now, here I am, finally, after so many years. With my love.
Here we are at customs.
We climb the last ramp as we watch a fiery sunset ignite the sky.
We're going to get married, a friend of ours held the ceremony here in the harbor master, along with an officer.
We hold hands. We gaped.
Together we pause a moment, we turn away and look at the sky in front of us.
Now we are happy and we will be forever, even when our lives will turn off, even when the sky will fall and the fire that lights will envelop the earth. Even then we will love each other.

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Music by Synaulia
Photo by Francesca Marchi
Texts of Alessandro Marocchini