AppTiAmo

The very first time I had a closer look at a love declaration written on a wall was on a photo shoot in Tuscany, near the marshlands, known as “padule”. Under a small bridge, in big dark brown letters a drooling soul had decided to share his sweet pain with the whole world – and the loved one:”ogni tua parola e’ una goccia di amore che voglio bere”. Which, when translated to English means, “each of your words is a drop of love I want to drink”.

From that moment on, I had a careful look at the  messages left on the streets, walls, banisters and in places where young people meet, or where the author presumes his urgent message will be read by the object of his secret veneration. It opened up a completely new world and placed me straight in the center of “I need you’s”, “Be mine forever’s”, “I want to caress you’s”, “You are my world’s” and more. I found myself in a dimension I had not been before. When I was young we shared tender feelings too, but written on paper sent in a very discrete and private way. I must say that it was practical, too. The love letters, in fact, could be easily kept in a book or a diary, always at hand to be read again. But naturally, this way was not quite so remarkable!

Lovers have always found a way to declare their feelings and we know that the ancient Egyptians, Greek and Romans were pretty familiar with nails, chisels or pieces of carbon, unfailing tools to carve or “scratch” = graffire (that’s where the term graffito comes from) tender words on stone walls and streets. Some Roman noblemen used to count the number of the females he had conquered by writing their names over the bed…

Today things are different. We are citizens of a global world of the twenty-first century and have other utensils, like for example photography, to communicate what we want others to know. But love is still love, and gentle feelings are still gentle feelings waiting to be put – at least here in Tuscany – into words, in order to find an open space where everyone can see and read them. For all those who would like to share with others what is hidden in their heart and have got neither a camera nor a chisel at hand, this app is just perfect. It is on one side the result of revisiting a tradition, old like the world, and one the other side a modern way for sharing love, passion, longing, need… perhaps sometimes a little hate, too. Are you prepared to dive into this emotional whirlwind?

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Anneliese Rabl

Anneliese Rabl …. finding a life in Tuscany