Nevertheless

In the summer of 1999 we spent three weeks in a wonderful old house on the edge of a village in the Sabine Hills, just north of Rome. It was an idyllic place. Even doing the washing up was a pleasure: the kitchen window had a fabulous view across the vegetable garden and olive orchards to the terracotta roofs of the village across the valley, and the breeze wafted intoxicating perfume in from the jasmine growing on the wall outside to keep the lucky washer-upper happy at his station.

What would my life be like if I lived there? It's tempting to fantasise. Even mundane chores like the washing up are exotic viewed through this lens. Such daydreams are pleasurable, but also frustrating. I'm a happy person, and very fortunate. Mooching about picturing a fantasy alternative lifestyle only makes one less happy with one's current arrangements. But there would be all sorts of difficulties involved in starting a new life in another country, and in all likelihood the reality would not live up to the fantasy. The head knows it's pie in the sky; nevertheless, the heart persists in longing for what it can't have.

Details: Minolta X-500, 50mm lens, exposure not recorded. August 1999, Monteleone di Sabino, Italy. Placemark.