Changing perspectives

Huw Williams | 22:08, 05 October, 2012 | Turin, Italy

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may remember the street party last year. Well, last week, it was back. It has been fun to re-read that blog post again, and then to enjoy the same event twelve months on.

It wasn’t exactly the same of course, Kitty was woken, surprisingly well-tempered from her afternoon nap, by possibly the worst racket I have ever heard. The local singer and his band from last year had been replaced in the spot outside our apartment by a DJ, who managed to make as much noise as they did, only in her case, the sounds all came from a laptop. (Call me old-fashioned, but I thought that ‘live music’ constituted, well you know, playing or singing something. And I don’t mean pressing “play” on iTunes… )

Anyway, said local DJ provided us with plenty of motivation to go and explore the Festa at the other end of the street. The stalls were colourful, the smells from the food stands were wonderful, a lady walked the length of the road to present Kitty with a balloon and slightly strangely, Ali got fleeced into buying a rather expensive (and as it turns out a rather tasty) jar of honey. Somehow it all simply added to the sense of occasion.

Normally our street is a thoroughfare, busy, noisy with trundling trams and whining ambulances rushing and clattering, twenty-four hours a day. But for this one day only it is closed. For one day only you get the (safe) opportunity to walk its length and enjoy the view of the shops and apartments from the very middle of the road – right on the white line. Somehow all these familiar buildings look very different from that vantage point. Twelve months on from the last time we walked here, somehow a lot of things look different.

The distance gives you a new perspective.