Openings and Doorways

Monday 2 February 2008

It is often said that when one door closes another one opens.

There have been a number of times during my life when a door closed on me unexpectedly. For a brief moment I was disoriented. For a short time I lost my way because I wasn't expecting the door to close. I was intent and contented to follow the path I had been following for a number of years and suddenly I found my way blocked. This loss of direction and disorientation can easily lead to confusion and depression.

But thinking back with the benefit of hindsight I am now thankful that those doors did close; that I found my way blocked; and that I had to find an alternate path. If I had not been forced, seemingly against my will at the time, to find that alternative there would be many things that I have since done and experienced that just would not have happened.

Today I seem to be at one of those points. A door seems to be closing on me. Somebody else is closing it. I could resist and try to push it open again. Or I could accept the fact that sometimes doors do close. Sometimes something blocks the way. And the alternate way that I will inevitably find will in fact be more fulfilling and more rewarding, than if I had stayed on the comfortable path that I had become used to.

Recently I was in Italy and found many unexpected openings as I walked around the streets of those ancient towns. I could have just gone with the flow of people in the street and I would have missed out on the delights to be found down hidden alleys and behind mysterious doors.

Yes, when the way seems to be blocked; when a door closes; it is worth exploring the alternatives. There is sure to be something new and exciting to be found.

Here are a few doors and openings from Italy.

North of Rome where the suburbs begin to give way to farms there is a hidden place. It is Santa Maria di Galeria. It is approached along a path that goes through an opening. A gateway. An arch that perhaps once had a door.

Through an opening in a wall is seen a clock tower. Its time has been long lost in a long lost time.

Looking from the forgotten town of Santa Maria di Galeria we can see the buildings of modern suburban Rome in the distance. Yet nobody seems to take any notice of this hidden place.

Back in Rome, in the Pantheon, there is another opening. But it is not the door through which we might enter or exit. It is the massive circular hole in the top of the dome far above us. It is an opening that astounds us by the very fact of its existence.

Surrounding the Piazza della Repubblica in Rome are colonades behind which there were once elegant shops. Today there are hotels and cafes. Sitting in a cafe we can look through the openings between the columns and see the fountain outside and daydream about other things.

North of Rome on the shores of Lake Bracciano is the town of Bracciano and the Castello Odescalchi.

It is well known that any castle worth its name will have hidden passages and doors leading to secret rooms.

Leaving the castle I turn to look at the door that has just shut behind me. It is obviously easier to get out than in.

An elderly woman makes her way through the cobblestoned streets carrying her shopping bag. How many countless others have walked through this arch over the centuries doing exactly the same thing? It reminds me that there is hardly anything new in this world. Whatever difficulties face us today have been faced by countless others before us.

Hidden away in the suburbs of Rome is the ancient seaport of Ostia Antica and again I contemplate the people who came through these doors two thousand years ago.


North of Rome is Tuscania - not Tuscany, but Tuscania. It is a town that has been inhabited since Etruscan times - several hundred years BC. On a hill next to the modern town (if anything can be said to be modern in Tuscania) is the basilica of San Pietro.

Walking along the via Roma there are many doors and gateways. Stop to look and you will find hidden courtyards.



Approaching the medieval basilica of San Pietro we are greeted by an arch. And through the arch another hidden treasure.

In the outer suburbs of Rome, just a kilometre or two from La Storta train station, is the ancient place of Isola Farnese. Most people wouldn't know it was there as it is not on the main road. But it is delightful.

Yes, there are many doorways and opening that we encounter on our travels through life.
If one door closes there will be another one that opens, or that is waiting for us to open it. And the new door will probably reveal things that we never knew existed.