Returning to Rome is a little bit like visiting the woman who took my virginity so very long ago. Mamma Roma was my first European trip away from home; and like all formative firsts, these things have a way of staying with you. As a student eager to disprove the axiom that every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world, the Eternal City expanded my heart and horizons in way I couldn’t have foreseen.
So it seems strangely appropriate that this morning I was collected at Fiumicino by the beautiful woman above: Marialauro, posing here at the hotel on a settee designed by Lagerfeld, immediately reminded me of a young Anna Magnani. Coincidence? I guess we’ll see soon enough.
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