In bella Italia, everything is certainly beautiful: beautiful people, fashion, architecture, nature, food, wine, even the window displays are beautiful. But what is beauty? It is easy to get caught up in the superficiality of beauty. They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and in the modern era we have assumed it is only way kind of eye. The eye of fashion, make up, body beautiful and everyone looking and appearing in the same way. I watch the younger women, smokes in their hand with an air of aloofness wearing the latest fashion – hipsters revealing their pelvic bones, all looking the same with white belts, sandals and tiny tops. The men look tough, sunglasses on their heads, jeans expsosing Calvin Klein underwear, trying to impress the women. Fashion can help to express oneself but it can also act as a mask. The mask of beauty hides an insecure society – not just in Italy but all around the world. Every society has its mask but what are we hiding from? Ourselves, the outside world?If you focus too much on the outside, what happens to the inner. And is it true that once you find the beauty within, it shows on the outer? What does this beauty look like? It’s not so much a look but a feeling. You see it when friends are connecting and laughing with one another – that’s beautiful. You see it when two old toothless men are sitting at a bench playing cards in the park. That’s beautiful. You can see beauty everywhere. You just have to look further than the mask.
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever” Keats
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” “The Little Prince” Antoine Saint Expurey
