'My grandparents met in L'Aquila, the state capital of Abruzzo, Italy. I still have family there. Until five years ago, relics from old, forgotten ages covered the city. Unlike most of Italy, the city was spread out wide like an enormous country town. The Santa Maria del Suffragio, a tall and dignified stone cathedral, cast a stern shadow over the dusty cobblestone piazza. The Santa Maria di Solemaggio was a bone white basilica covered in a pattern it might've stolen from a Persian soldier's clothes. It had sat alone in a field of grass since the 1200s, much like the Forte Spagnolo, a Spanish castle with a moat that dried up long ago and now had vegetation in place of water. People took brisk walks up the stairs that the army once patrolled, past the skeleton of an Ice Age Archidiskon standing in the castle which they incorrectly called Il Mammut, The Mammoth. My cousin suggested I scale the castle for exercise, good advice until five years ago but now impossible.' (Publication abstract)
