a blessing or a curse?

For my photography class here I have to take 200 pictures of one object. It's due tomorrow. Of course in typical molly fashion I didn't start taking the pictures until today. Let me tell you, 200 pictures is a lot of pictures. Anyways, I chose to take all of my pictures of this old fountain at the end of the main piazza in town. This fountain has charmed me from the first time I set eyes on it my first week here (how dramatic) But really, there's something about it. It's elegant, but surrounded by bright flowers and small palmettos that seem slightly out of place here since we are smack dab in the middle of the country, not near the coast. Somehow it works though. And my favorite part is that there are always, always people sitting on the benches surrounding it.

So this morning when I strolled speed walked up to the fountain with dripping wet hair and a bag big enough to knock someone out filled with books to get me through four classes, lunch because I'm too cheap to buy it, water bottles, and probably a bunch of other stuff I don't really need and started snapping pictures in an aggressive manner I'm sure I was causing quite a scene. Oh well. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

As I was taking pictures I found that the most interesting part of my pictures was not the fountain, but the people in the background sitting on the benches. And then I started thinking about benches in the States. Who actually sits on benches and just sits there? I know my bench sitting usually only occurs when I am shoving down food or talking on the phone, and in most cases I am walking when I am doing both of these.

The more I thought about it the more I realized how much I had noticed people in Italy just sitting on a bench. Thinking. Talking to a friend. Reading. Enjoying the sun. Enjoying the day. My first week here I remember taking this picture of two old men sitting on a bench.

 

But this morning it wasn't just old men. It was business men and middle aged men as well. However, it was just men. The entire time I was there not a single woman sat down on one of the benches (this is a whole different topic) But how often to you see a business man pop a squat on a bench in America at 9 in the morning?

Never.

I can't get enough of these old men. Just love them.

I am so intrigued by Italian street life. In their ability to walk slowly, to enjoy their coffee at a table outside instead of on the go, to sit on a bench and just sit there. I didn't take all 200 of my pictures this morning so maybe tomorrow morning when I go back I'll go earlier so that I can just sit there on a bench after I'm done and just sit there. But I'm already thinking that there are other things I could be doing instead. Get a coffee... finish my reading... do my Italian homework... Does this kind of thinking help you get more done? Or just cause you more stress? Is it a blessing or a curse?