the seagull and the ice-cream

I was all week in Rome for a course on European Defense Policy. I had been to Rome before, but a beautiful town allows itself to be discovered all over again. I went to the Pantheon, and this time I was able to get inside. I could forget the crowds if I just focused on that blue circle of sky floating up there in the dome. Then I saw a seagull fly by. Tomas, one of my colleagues from the course, took me to Giolliti for an ice-cream late in the evening. It's his favourite place in Rome. There is one franchise in Seoul, South-Korea too. The place was almost empty, apart from a few tables with kids, and a young couple, silently, devoutly, eating big ice-cream cones. I had mora (blueberry) for the first time in my life and can still feel the taste. It was tender and cold, dark purple and spicy. It had stars somewhere in the middle and they tickled my throat. I would wrap my tongue around it and dream of the seagull crossing the blue-eye of the Pantheon's dome. My week in Rome condensed to a magic flavour and a circle of light.