Flaneurette

"Oh, I love New York", said Holly Golighly and thousands of thousands of people all around the world.
But it was the word of Miss Golighly that I trusted when I booked my flight to finally see the Big Apple.

Even before I landed at JFK airport, I kind of felt like I knew New York. The scenario was already very familiar: the Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, Times Square. Any tourist from outside the US that tells you he/she didn't felt like in a scene of a movie while walking around midtown NY for the first time is lying to you or hasn't seen many movies yet.

One of the first things I wanted to do when I got there was to see "where the magic happened", which means all the places where my favorite productions were filmed. I stopped in front of Tiffany's very early in the morning just like Audrey Hepburn, I walked around Greenwich Village on high heels just like Carrie from "Sex and the City", I sat on a bench at Washington Square Park just like Patti Smith described in her memoir,"Just Kids".

I did feel great when I visited this places. I think literature, TV and movie's history is just as important as politics and stuff. It changes who you are. It changes your life. But NYC changed my life a little bit more when I gave it the space to be itself in the moment.

One day, I was just being a flaneur (a sociological concept meaning an urban explorer) - or, as a female version of it, a flaneurette - when I found Petrosino Square in Soho. There's no need to get flowery about it: it's a tiny square with a small garden , not a lot of flowers and plants. But I could swear that, right there, NYC magic happens too.

I had the best cupcake ever sitting on a bench on Petrosino Square (from Georgetown Cupcakes). I bought my Halloween costume in a store in front of Petrosino Square. I saw Petrosino Square changing according to each season. I saw the sunset from Petrosino Square, through the buildings, and it was one of the most touching sunsets I've ever seen. I listened to a street artist perform "Wish You Were Here", by Pink Floyd. It's kind of cliché, I know. But still, I thought: 1) how I wish more people could have the opportunity to see it and get this feeling; 2) I'm going to miss not being here when this trip is over.

You can see New York from a movie, sure. You can watch it on TV, you can read it in a book, you can hear it in a song. But there's nothing like being there, living the city and its tiny details and serendipities. Live, from Petrosino Square.