Chapter 2 roman holiday

When I went to Rome for the first time, I made an appointment with a group of friends, and invited a special friend, Mr. Jiang Xianyang, who everyone knew, to lead the team.What makes Jiang Xianyang special is that he was originally a famous tenor singer in Shanghai. He has settled in Rome for many years because of his love of Italian bel canto.He first drove to Germany to pick us up, and then went to Italy via Luxembourg, France, and Monaco. He saw countless sculptures and palaces along the way, but as long as we stopped and looked up for a long time, he raised a finger and shook it gently, saying: "No, no, look at Rome, that's the source." We laughed at him too much, and he replied with a more confident smile and stopped talking.But once we entered Rome, it was the other way around. We were the ones who were silent. Everyone was indeed overwhelmed by an indescribable aura, but he became more and more active. Every time he went to a place, his face was full of rhetorical questions: "How is it? Am I right?"

Today, I am mentally prepared to visit Rome again, and my partners are also full of energy after listening to my introduction. They just want to take a good look at a truly great city.However, who would have thought that the most surprising thing happened. The partners couldn't believe their eyes, they stared blankly for a while, then turned to look at me, as if asking what was going on, but they immediately found that I was more flustered than they were. It turned out that Rome in front of me was almost an empty city.How is this possible?The doors of every store were closed, and the streets were empty of pedestrians.The thousand-year-old city gate is wide open, and there is silence inside and outside the gate.There are also guards with swords at the city gate, but they are sculptures, with a pair of live pigeons standing on bronze shoulders.

Even if the whole city goes out to fight, it will not be so quiet.Even if the Roman Empire was bloodbathed, it would not be so dead. Of course, occasionally a few pedestrians appeared from the corner of the street, but it was clear at a glance that they were foreign visitors like us, not the owners of the city.After finally seeing two old men coming out of a room, they stopped to inquire quickly, only to find out that a long vacation started yesterday, and everyone went on vacation.It is said that 30 million of the 58 million Italians have gone abroad in the past two days. Historically, Rome has only done big things.I stood on the empty street and thought, this wide road, this tall gate, this mottled building, I have seen how many neat crowds come in and out. Today, the descendants of these crowds leave in a mighty way. It's a big deal to leave us an empty city, to strangers who don't know where they came from.

Standing here, I suddenly realized why the four-line poem written by Liu Yuxi in the Tang Dynasty in China formed such a boldness in people's hearts that even the great poet Bai Juyi said after reading it, "I know that the poet after I know no longer speaks words." ".These four poems are: "Mountains surround the homeland, the tide beats the empty city and returns lonely. To the east of the Huai River, the moon is old, and the night is still past the female wall." People say that this poem is inspired by nostalgia. I say that there are many nostalgic poems and essays in the world. Liu Yuxi's unique advantage lies in the creation of an empty and quiet environment, and only this empty and quiet environment can make the nostalgic feelings go to heaven and earth without boundaries.

The emptiness in Rome today is not created by poets, but a reality.A real stone city, a stone city that once belonged to Caesar, Augustus, Trajan and Hadrian.This kind of emptiness that can be touched and the silence that can be heard deeply are incomparable to any poem. It is all Roman citizens who create such an empty and quiet environment.It was only then that I suddenly remembered that there were indeed so many strange vehicles going against us from the city along the way.Some towed RVs with bedrooms and kitchens, others had yachts strapped to the roof, and some even towed small gliders.In short, they went on vacation thoroughly.

It means a thorough vacation in form, which is a closed cut off from the usual work.Where to go on vacation, there is no need to let colleagues in the same office know, and there is no need to report to the direct supervisor.Contrary to the busy people in China who turn on their mobile phones even when they are on vacation, they no longer think about the phone ringing when they go on vacation, and they will not feel like a sleepy beast because they haven't talked to anyone for two days.When they were on vacation, they became a different kind of people. They were usually well-dressed and well-mannered, but now they were casually dressed, laughing again and again, completely playing with a mentality of playing with nothing to do.Yesterday I was walking in a hurry on the streets of the city, staring straight in the eyes, and staring at no one. Today I met everyone on vacation and greeted everyone affectionately. In fact, I didn’t know each other. I only knew that they suddenly became Tianya colleagues.The same thing is a vacation.

Conceptually, it obeys the European philosophy of life, which regards individual leisure rights as paramount.Chinese people work hard and take breaks occasionally, but that is only for better work; Europeans, on the other hand, think that most of the hard work on weekdays is for vacations, because only during vacations can chores be interrupted, anxiety frozen, and so on. The return of the limbs makes the relatives attach importance to it, which means that people can temporarily leave the state of alienation and restore their humanity. Many of our entrepreneurs and officials actually have vacations, and they can also choose an undisturbed scenic spot. However, it is a pity that they can leave their work and family, but they cannot let go of their identity.Therefore, as soon as I arrived at the vacation place, I just wanted to get rid of the emptiness and panic after letting go of my identity, and immediately used the phone to unblock all public and private networks, and even connected with the relevant local agencies one by one.As a result, one can imagine that the frequency of phone calls, the number of visitors, and the abundance of banquets are often more than those before the vacation. After a few days, I have been thinking about when I will go back and have a good rest.Rest has become a dream that will always flash on the other side.

Obviously, an important difference here is that other people's vacation is to switch identities, while our vacation is to superimpose identities.Superimposed in a place far away from the office, superimposed between mountains and rivers, how unnatural and hypocritical it is.You can close your eyes and let go of hypocrisy in other places, but hypocritical in private holidays, it really spoils the last secret corner of life, which makes people feel pitiful. So many Romans took holidays abroad, mainly to France, Spain and southern Germany, I think.The overall economic situation of the Italians is much worse than that of France and Germany, and a little better than that of Spain. They should be a relatively frugal group outside.Europeans generally don’t like to show off when they travel abroad, and most of them are willing to choose hard ways to test their mental and physical strength. This is very different from the Asian travelers with big pockets, groups, and constant shopping that we often see along the way. .

But even so, many people in Europe cannot afford the economic pressure of long-distance travel, and some elderly people are unable to travel far due to physical limitations. They often only go to town villas for vacation, and rent a temporary residence if they don’t have a villa. We met an old man on vacation in a small town villa who typifies this approach, so it is unforgettable, and it may be useful to describe it. That day we went to Port St. George on the east coast, and when we passed a small town, we saw a white-haired old man stop us and insisted on inviting us to a nearby seafood restaurant for dinner.The reason is that he has been to China many times and is currently vacationing in a villa in this small town.

Following him, we also visited the town by the way.The town is indeed very small, without a single luxury building, just rows of ordinary houses made of white stone, cement, and wood boards, and there are no special scenery or historic sites, the whole is gray and simple.Compared with the small towns in southern China, it even looks a bit shabby, but the simple colors and clean streets make people extraordinarily quiet.In our past experience, simple tones only belong to elegant districts, and the more rustic and secular, the more colorful it will be.This characteristic is not only in mainland China, but also in Taiwan and Hong Kong.Why are small towns like this in Europe so pure and harmonious? Just by subtracting colors, how many levels have been added.

After walking for about ten minutes, we saw the small seafood restaurant.The old man didn't say anything else, let us sit down first, and serve a bowl of seafood noodles each. What is the mystery of that bowl of noodles? We began to sip with suspense.The noodles are actually Chinese style, not Italian pasta. The soup is very clear and covered with a thick layer of small shell meat, which is similar to the "sea melon seeds" that are often eaten along the coast of China. The meat of this small shell can be eaten in your mouth. It is soft and tough, and extremely delicious. It is a great pleasure to swallow it together with noodles and soup. The old man looked at our expressions and smiled reassuringly, and began to talk. His first sentence was: "Now I have told you why I bought a villa in this small town. The noodles are the best here in Italy." Welcome to us. It turned out that this bowl of noodles was his business card for meeting.However, it was soon discovered that this judgment was wrong, and his business card was much more complicated.He said at the intersection just now that he has been to China many times, so why did he go? His answer surprised us. He went to China as Italy's Minister of Foreign Trade, Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, and a senator. That is to say, the white-haired old man sitting opposite us is a real big shot. Today he is very reluctant to say too much in the role he has held because he is on leave.He tried to narrow down the reasons for stopping us to personal and temporary reasons.He said that his wife is a poet and is writing poems in the villa, but the villa is too small, so he was afraid of disturbing his wife, so he came out and met our convoy. So we congratulate his wife for writing a good batch of poems this holiday season.He expressed his gratitude, and then said sincerely: "Her poems are indeed well written, really." His eyes were like those of a shy old farmer. After saying goodbye to the old man, we walked on the gray streets of the town again.I think such a small town is attractive and dispelling to all those who are tired of official duties.It has the ability to hide dragons and crouch tigers, and it has the ability to make them forget that they are dragons and tigers.This kind of forgetting makes many characters who are gradually becoming non-self become self, and makes this world more sincere real people.So the power of small towns, like the power of vacation, cannot be underestimated. Then Rome, every empty city of yours will inevitably bring about a major addition to your personality and humanity.