"Ghosts of the Villa Borghese" by Frank Scozzari
Issue #13 / December 2014
Illustrated by Gabhor Utomo
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FRANK SCOZZARI's fiction has previously appeared in various literary magazines, including The Kenyon Review, Tampa Review, Pacific Review, The Nassau Review, Berkeley Fiction Review, Ellipsis Magazine, Minetta Review, Eleven Eleven, South Dakota Review, Roanoke Review, Reed Magazine, Hawai’i Pacific Review, and The MacGuffin. Writing awards include Winner of the National Writer’s Association Short Story Contest and three Pushcart Prize nominations.
Sample:
"They stood on the Pincio Terrace, that place above the Piazza del Popolo with the commanding view of Rome. Beneath them, a thousand red-tiled rooftops stretched out across the ancient city, from the distant columns of the Coliseum to the glistening dome of St. Peters’ Basilica. To the west was the long, winding curve of the Tiber River where it came around past the Castel Sant’Angelo.
“It’s like we’re back on the Terrace of Infinity,” the young woman said.
“Yeah, but that was a little higher,” Garrett replied.
“Do you think Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck stood here?” she asked.
“Probably.”
“And Sophia Loren.”
“Most likely.”
“And Marcello Mastroianni and Roberto Rossellini?”
“Them too.”
“Such a romantic place!”
“It is.”
A warm breeze swept up from the city below and blew against their faces. In the distance they could see tiny black dots walking across plazas and sunlight flashing off the windshields of moving vehicles.
“Just think of how long this city has been here,” the woman said, “…of all the many people who have come and passed.”
“Probably thousands, hundreds of thousands, standing here like we are now, enjoying the same view and feeling the same warm sun.”
The woman gazed thoughtfully at the horizon. “The Bernini was like a ghost, I mean it was very life-like but without color.”