Linking Past and Future

Lecce is an ancient city. In the Roman era, the she-wolf gave the city its name, Lupiae and later, the towering holm oak, ilex, conferred its name; so the grand crest of Lecce, seen here in the center of the main piazza, includes both wolf and oak tree.

Today in a historical and archaeological building of the Faggiano family, I saw evidence of a time span of 2000 years. The Messapii were an ancient people who migrated from Crete or Illyria and inhabited the heel of Italy since around 1000 BC. Through a walkable glass floor, I viewed a V century BC Messapian floor and a Messapian newborn infant tomb carved in stone; a granary of the XI century; frescoes of the XVI century, and much more, all in a single building. Take the 3D Tour  if you’d like to see it yourself.

Here is the infant tomb seen through glass. Thanks to stairways that enable visitation to the underground rooms, I took the next photo from the bottom of a  bell-shaped cistern excavated in rock in the XVI century.

XVI century cistern

Shattered Time

Time travel here in Lecce gives rise to thoughts of both human impermanence and human  lineage. We who live now are as evanescent as those who lived in all these other times. Poof! An age is past. And, we who live now are the recipients of all the stories of the ages that passed before, as our descendants will be our beneficiaries. We stand between the past and future,  fully responsible for our legacy. Feel your own ancestors behind you, gifting you with life. Sense your own descendants, whether of the heart or of the body, reaching out their hands to you, asking for continuity. Be the loving link.

Madonna Di Roca, in Roca Vecchio on the Adriatic Sea