Nov 062013
 

Have you ever met a person where you just thought “wow, this is amazing; this is something special; this is simply someone that I want to be around.”  You can’t explain it and you don’t know exactly why you feel this way but there is just something, something intangible that exists between you and this person.

Well, I met such a person while in Florence, Italy and it was the best 45 seconds of my trip to Italy.

It was a hot and tiring day of tourism in Florence.  I had just finished walking through the city and had come from the gallery that contains Michelangelo’s David, one of the most famous and talked about art works in history.  Now, I was working my way through a second tour, this time through the Uffizi Gallery.  This place is massive and, by this point in the day, I was tired, exhausted, over-saturated with world-famous art, and I needed a break; this is when I met her.

While my tour group was looking at some painting, I took a moment to sit down in one of the long corridors in the Uffizi Gallery.  I found a two-person bench covered in leather and with wrought iron legs upon which to rest my overheated, tired, and simply exhausted self.  Not even 10 seconds pass by when she sits down next to me.

Her skin is caramel colored, she is from Colombia, has long flowing silky smooth black hair, big brown eyes, and a smile that could melt the devils heart.

We immediately start chatting and I forget everything else that happened before this moment in the day.  Of what splendor and importance is a static cold statue, read Michelangelo’s David, when compared to the warm greeting smile of a beautiful woman that takes all your cares and throws them to the wind!

Her name is Isabella and, in the short period of time that we spoke, we exchanged greetings, talked about what we like and why we were in Florence, and had what would seem to be a completely typical conversation.

We both sat down on this bench, exhausted and tired and wanting nothing more to do with this gallery, but the moment that we started talking, well, at this moment, everything changed.

The way that we looked into each other’s eyes, the way that everything around us just seemed to disappear, our breathes lost and our eyes locked, nothing mattered any more.  It wasn’t true love, she wasn’t my soul-mate, and we weren’t destined to be together.  But, I could hardly tell you what we talked about except for that the emotions of simple comfort, tranquility, and bliss were overpowering.

Alas, we knew that it would not last for long.  And, towards the end, there was an unspoken anxiousness for the inevitable separation that we would shortly have to endure.  We both knew that this was soon coming to an end but, we also both knew that, were the circumstances different, we would be seeing each other again.

We looked into each others eyes and we sort of half-smirked at each other – a smirk that said more in that brief instant than anyone ever could.  It said how ironic it was that when you meet someone with whom you instantly connect, that you must just as quickly disconnect and leave.  The smirk represented a sad realization of the reality of this moment.

We said good bye and I ran to catch up with my tour group, which had by this point made it to the end of the hallway and down some stairs.  Our 45 second affair had ended as quickly as it had begun.

But, in this brief moment in life, lasting a mere 45 seconds, we had gone full circle from being total strangers to feeling instantly connected to being forever disconnected.  It was the most complete, succinct, and perhaps fulfilling relationship that I have ever had.

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