Un Piccolo Borgo
Our small little place in the world. Our tiny little borgo in our tiny little village.
So many have reached out to say how worried they are about us. We are so grateful for the outreach, care and concern directed our way. We try to explain that we are well, that we are safe and that we are protected. We try to lend context to why that is so - “The Red Zone is far north” , “There are few cases in our region”, and “Italy is tackling this head on”, etc.
The truth is, we have our piccolo borgo and history protecting us.
Like many villages in Tuscany, our village harkens back to the 11th century. As most villages of the era, it is built almost like a fortress - in the center, a palazzo and church, surrounded by protective walls with ancient dwellings tucked safely inside. Further inside, wrapping us in stone and brick, is our borghetto. Or tiny borgo. It’s part of the original village built long before wars and epidemics. It has stood the test of time.
We can’t help but sit here, in our little walled fortress, surrounded by agricultural land, and marvel about all the residents past. We think about their hardships and how they endured life well before modern heat, cooking, and communication. Now, on mandated isolation due to the Coronavirus, we think about it more…more deeply, more meaningfully and with more appreciation.
While we have no family roots here, we feel the presence of generations past. I look at our massive fireplace and while it no longer provides us heat, and serves as mere decoration, I envision its warmth keeping generations of family alive serving as both cooking and heating vessel. I garner strength and fortitude realizing the past inhabitants had only the land around them, their stone walls and each other to forge on each day.
It is with this remote geography, our stone walls and these ancestral strangers presence, we find safety, strength and resilience. We are living in a physical history with antecedent souls that prove we will ‘all be okay’.
So, ‘stay safe’ you say? We are as safe as safe can be, tucked away in our tiny borgo, in our tiny village, in a large countryside, staying to ourselves, protected by a trifecta of geography, architecture and history. Thankful and ever so fortunate, to have modern conveniences.
Our wish? Is that we could tuck all our family and friends safely away in our little borgo with us. And live through this virus the way they did years and years ago. (We also wish for a clothes dryer and pellet stove, but I digress.)
Please treat your home as your own little borgo. Stay inside your fortress walls, gather around your kitchen, stoke your fires - actual and metaphorical, pull energy from generations past and voice your gratitudes instead of complaints.
Together, each tucked in our own little borgo, where everything will be fine. Andrà Tutto Bene.
Want to see our little borgo? Here’s a quick video tour…Andiamo!
