January 29, 2019

Pocket paradigms

Umbria is a section of Italy north of Rome remarkably indifferent to centuries of its history, where even the homes and whole villages seem to grow like native plants out of the rural earth rather than being placed there by human effort. Yet the Umbrians have been invaded, burned, or bullied by the Etruscans, Roman Empire, Goths, Longobards, Charlemagne, Pippin the Short, the Vatican, Mussolini, the German Nazis, and, most recently, the World Trade Organization. Umbria is a reminder of the durability of the human spirit during history's tumults, an extremely comforting thought to an American these days.- Sam Smith

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