Aeorporto Leonarado de Vinci, Fiumicino, Italy

In Rome, but not in Rome.

The space where I am not where I want to be on the way between where I am and where I am going.

Airports everywhere embody the wisdom of Paul Virilio, our great philosopher of speed, that "the invention of the ship was also the invention of the shipwreck."

Having an hour and a half to myself before my ship departs for America, in safe de-militarized space, having saluted the statue of de Vinci, I realize that I would prefer to depart from Piazza Navona in the heart of Rome, aftrer two Campari and soda's, but not even de Vinci could make that happen.

And that the strangest place of all is art, made by people who feel it necessary to connect and who are most often impelled in its making by a profound disconnection.

And how all travel continues even as it ends.