Europe

Have I told you lately, that I love you?

And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven …

It was the hour of four in the afternoon, and already in hillside homesteads the day was nearly done. There was everywhere an air of that sweet, old-fashioned leisure which the world has nearly lost. It lingered in the slant sunlight that threw shadows across the winding road… — Florence Bone (1875–1971), The Morning of To‑Day, 1907

The Bridge of Angels (Ponte Sant’Angelo), leading to the Castel Sant’Angelo (Hadrian’s Castle) It took me a half an hour to slowly traverse it :) It was that beautiful.

Go thou to Rome,—at once the Paradise, The grave, the city, and the wilderness; And where its wrecks like shattered mountains rise, And flowering weeds, and fragrant copses dress The bones of Desolation’s nakedness Pass, till the spirit of the spot shall lead Thy footsteps to a slope of green access Where, like an infant’s smile, over the dead A light of laughing flowers along the grass is spread … — Percy Bysshe Shelley, Adonais, 49. ...

Before I became old I tried to live well; now that I am old, I shall try to die well; but dying well means dying gladly. — Seneca, Letter 61: On Meeting Death Cheerfully