Mariangela Fumagalli- Nettuno

In July 1999 I spent about 10 days at the Rockefeller Foundation. It was in the good days when it was some hope for peace in the Middle East and with an ambitious and very active and political Jewish American architect from New York (Michael Sorkis) we succeeded to organize a meeting in Bellagio between Palestinians and Israelis to discuss the future of Jerusalem. In fact this meeting convinced me that peace is very far away. In fact Sorkis had the right connections; he got the premises and a grant from the generous foundation. He also took care of inviting a lot of people, mostly with unchangeable ideas and not open to a dialogue…
But I met some interesting people, I made a friend or two and I spend a wonderful vacation being located in the tower of the property, a very special place with a magnificent view over the lake.

One afternoon I was walking in Bellagio by myself, I entered in a shop and met an Italian lady with a noble look. We spoke a bit, and I told her that I am from Jerusalem.
A few days later I found in my room a letter. Inside the envelope a hand written poem, signed by the lady, the Italian poet Mariangela Fumagalli-Nettuno.
It goes as follows:

Gerusalemme
Il respiro di Dio vibra
Nelle tue strade Gerusalemme,
Il pulsare del tuo cuore spirituale
Entra nelle mie vene.
Quel colore, non colore
Delle tue mura, dei tuoi ulivi,
Quel greve muoversi del tuo popolo Rotto dalla Cosmopolita dei pellegrini.
Quella spianata ocra di tombe avite
Di chi a te caro era.
Oh, Gerusalemme,
Quale osmosi sentire
Le mie ossa abbracciate
Dalle tu gigantesche ali.
L'universo pulsare
Puntato ad oriente
Come centro dell'Universo.

Seven years passed by. I think sometimes at Mariangela Fumagalli -Nettuno,
(http://www.club.it/autori/mariangela.fumagalli)
I am so grateful to her for the sweet and sour memory of my broken dreams at Bellagio.