Santa Croce inspires. So do the delivery-truck drivers on their daily predawn rounds.
© Joyce McGreevy

Discovering Beauty in Life’s Little Rituals

It’s no revelation to say that icons of awe-inspiring beauty are everywhere in Florence. For some visitors,  the rarified aha moments induced by a surfeit of grandeur can even become physically overwhelming.

But as Italian psychologist Piero Ferrucci writes, we can also “discover [beauty] in everyday life: a song heard on the street, a crumbling old wall, the reflections in a puddle.”

A walk along the Arno at sunset is glorious, but . . .
© Joyce McGreevy

. . . a walk home from the local grocery can also be good for the soul.
© Joyce McGreevy

These are the piaceri piccoli, small pleasures, the everyday aha moments that balance “the exasperating vicissitudes of daily life.” My piaceri piccoli include everyday Italian rituals. Come, I’ll show you.

Let us begin at the end, on an evening when the sky exhibits a variety of blues, like someone choosing among silk scarves. Imagine you are returning from work, expecting to open the door, toss the key, and turn on the news.

Not So Fast—This is Florence

The towering double doors, i portoni, conceal a smaller door, una porta. Extract the proper key, enter the vestibule, and pause to admire the wrought-iron cancello, or gate.

Now you see it, now you don’t: the porta within the portone.
© Joyce McGreevy

It is a sentinel, this cancello. One passes around it, not through, by means of swinging doors. Spingere, says the first door. Tirare, replies the next. This means only “Push, Pull.” But the joy-inducing rhythm makes your mind sing Spingere, tirare. Girare è volare! “Push, pull. To turn is to fly!”

Cancello (Italian) and cancel (English) share a common origin. To cancel written text,
one crossed it with a latticework of lines.
© Joyce McGreevy

Now you are in the cortile, a courtyard, where an advisor to Anna di Medici once walked. The apartment complex was formerly one magnificent home, and its beauty includes ancient frescoes. Just as beautiful is how the layout guides you to take steps mindfully.

If you are laden with groceries from Mercato Sant’Ambrogio, a second key opens the narrow elevator. If not, insert a third key into the next cancello. It opens with a satisfying pop.

Press a button to light the lantern. Then mount stone steps that bear the imprint of centuries. At your apartment, brass lions guard the door. Never mind that Florence is one of the safest cities in the world.

Everyday rituals: it’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it.
© Joyce McGreevy

Extract two more keys. The lock that lifts an interior metal bar likes to challenge you. When you succeed in turning it, it spits the key upon the floor to keep you humble. The smaller lock is kindly and ushers you in to coziness.

Life’s little ritual of homecoming is now complete. Sei qui—you are here. The world of offices and schedules, traffic and to-do lists is there. And there it stays.

There’s beauty in the rituals of accomplishment (above), but also
in the rituals of learning one’s craft (below).
© Joyce McGreevy

© Joyce McGreevy

The Daily Dance of Adaptation

A change of environment disrupts our automatic routines. Our response reveals whether we feel invited—or put upon—to try something new. Says Ferrucci, “We can proceed according to the planned itinerary, strenuously trying to make life conform to our expectations, or we can adapt to whatever we meet, and flow without effort.”

Oh, I see: Everyday Italian rituals shed light on life’s little rituals in our own localities. They make us more attentive to the piaceri piccoli that punctuate a day.

There’s beauty in our special occasions (above, Via de’ Tornabuoni), but also
in our times of solitary effort (below, Via del Moro).
© Joyce McGreevy

© Joyce McGreevy

The Choreography of Chores

Emptying the spazzatura has its rituals. (Yes, even “garbage” becomes beautiful in Italian.) You sort the spazzatura by type, then deliver each type to the correct municipal cassonétto. (That’s Italy’s poetic upgrade for “dumpster.”)

This takes time, because leaving the apartment for anything less than a fire means putting on polished boots, a colorful scarf, and gloves di buona qualità. The sporting element kicks in as you arrive at the receptacles. Let the games begin!

• Don’t let the bin’s exterior muss your clothing, because to be Florentine is to be impeccable.
• Do protect your posterior from  vehicles rushing by like the Arno at flood tide. To be Florentine means appreciating life, and it helps if one is alive to do so.
• Urrah! Celebrate with another Italian ritual, la passegiata, the walk taken for pleasure, always at evening.

Taking out the garbage in Firenze is a satisfying ritual for the street-smart.
© Victoria Lyons

All in Good Time

Other everyday Italian rituals have their timing, too: Drinking cappuccino before 10:30am only.  Knowing when to cede the narrow sidewalk to a fellow pedestrian. Anticipating when they’ll courteously jump off the curb for you. Stowing away cellphones to enjoy the pleasure of conversation.

Even sneezing involves ritual. In Italy, the proper response is: Felicità! “Happiness!”

“If we live in the here and now,” says Ferrucci, “each moment is a surprise, every instant a new wonder.”

Aha Moments at the Laundromat

While not the storied “room with a view,” a laundromat offers you
the pleasure of Italian conversations with your neighbors.
© Joyce McGreevy

It’s true, even at the lavanderia, where you help each other fold double sheets and discuss the weather and the books you’ve brought. But what about the sockless teenage customers, who pass the time hunched over video games, or elbowing each other and chortling at in-jokes?

Each time somebody enters or departs—no matter who they are—the boys pause, look up, and say Buongiorno or Ciao.

And there it is, the aha moment in an everyday Italian ritual: Acknowledging one another is essential. In this city of awe-inspiring art and grandeur, life’s little rituals reveal the true beauty of Florence.

Our rituals honor grand epochs (above, Piazza della Repubblica)
and everyday aha moments (below, Lungarno delle Grazie).
© Joyce McGreevy

© Joyce McGreevy

Explore Piero Ferrucci’s lyrical analyses of the human condition here.

Comment on the post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.