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Ciao Amalfi

LIFESTYLE · July 5, 2013

Pure Meaningless Beauty?

Ciao Amalfi Coast Travel Sunset Ravello

This doesn’t even begin to capture just how beautiful this sunset on a clear June evening really looked or felt. But, it comes close. The sunsets have been lovely the past few weeks, so quietly beautiful. When I see the colors of the sunset so distinctly running in lines across the horizon, it reminds me of a book called How to Use Your Eyes, which I read years and years ago by James Elkins, a writer and professor of Art History at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. There’s a chapter dedicated to the colors of the sunset, earth shadows and twilight that points out all the curious and remarkable things taking place in each beautiful sunset we see. Here’s what Elkins writes:

“Even the colors of sunset, so famous because they are nothing but pure meaningless beauty, can say a great deal about the Earth, the sun, and the path of the sun’s light through the air. And it’s also a wonderful way to spend the evening – looking into the air and trying to find invisible boundaries between colors that mutate slowly and continuously into one another, blending imperceptibly and growing imperceptibly darker.”

In the midst of busy schedules and crazy days, the sunset is one of the ways that nature slows me down to a halt. Colors, in themselves not meaning one thing or another, have the power to evoke such intense emotional responses. Every day nature puts on a show, but it’s up to us to see the beauty and make the meaning.

Posted In: LIFESTYLE · Tagged: Amalfi Coast

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Comments

  1. LindyLouMac in Italy says

    August 14, 2013 at 20:17

    I read this and then just shut my eyes and dreamed, I will return to the Amalfi coast one day Laura, but not this year as David and I had tentatively planned. 🙁

    Reply
  2. Andrew says

    September 29, 2013 at 17:49

    We were in Minori in June and loved the week of evenings of watching the sun descend into the horizon. 🙂
    Wonderful memories.

    Reply

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My name is Laura and the Amalfi Coast is my passion and my home. I’m a writer and photographer who is endlessly inspired by the incredible beauty of the Amalfi Coast. Welcome to Ciao Amalfi!

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