Chapter8.Passagio Scuro: Revealing Shadowed Vitality

Chapter 8. Passagio Scuro: Revealing Shadowed Vitality

Passagio Scuro

Copyright © 2005 by Dan Giordan

I was visiting the abbey of Santa Anna in Camprena when I found the inspiration for this image. The abbey was at the end of a long, winding dirt roadthe kind that constantly makes you question whether you're going in the right direction. No cars passed me, and it didn't look as though any had been on this dusty, quiet road for some time. I pressed on in spite of the nagging voice in my head that wondered just how lost an English-speaking American can get on the back roads of Tuscany. At the same time, I resisted asking whether there had ever been an Italian version of the movie Deliverance.

After 45 minutes, I finally reached the top of the hill and began to explore the abbey. It was just about sunset, and although the building and grounds were open, the entire place seemed deserted. I explored inside and around the grounds and didn't see a single person. Around back I discovered a small, quiet, and slightly disheveled garden, with olive trees, wildflowers, and cypress trees.

As the shadows began to deepen, I found two pale orange roses. They were fading fast, sagging under their own weight, with wrinkles and blemishes that almost looked like age spots. The light and context of place gave these dying flowers a sense of warmth and beauty; and yet in another day, perhaps two, they would be lifeless and discarded. Passagio Scuro means Dark Passage, and it explores the tangible point where momentum and vitality slip away, and living things become entropic objects.