 |
| Lakeside walk at Avernus Photo©Nigel Summerley |
I am drawn to revisiting Lake Avernus almost as much as I am to returning to Naples.
I'm already beginning to lose count of the number of times I've done the great circular lakeside walk – around this body of water to the west of the city calmly filling an ancient volcanic caldera.
When I was here three years ago I wrote about meeting my mother's ghost as I sat down on a bench overlooking the water (see this blog 28 November 2020, An Odyssey in the Year of the Plague – 10: 8-14 September 2020). On reflection, it seemed a quite normal encounter, bearing in mind that this was the place where Odysseus entered the Underworld and did the same thing.
Whether my experience was real or imagined, it had lasting impact on me. So when I walked by that same bench in 2023, I was saddened to see that it had literally fallen to pieces. No one – human or ghostly – would be sitting on it for a while.
 |
| The broken bench Photo©Nigel Summerley |
But even this sorry sight brought to mind my late mother once more. For I remembered a while after my walk that when a bench near her home had fallen into disrepair and been removed, she campaigned to have a new one put in its place.
Some of her neighbours were not in favour of the replacement – one didn't know who might come along and sit on it, they argued. My mum, though, had seen elderly people using the old bench as a place to stop and rest when they were halfway home from the local shops. She saw it as a social necessity – and she succeeded in getting the council to install a new one.
I wonder if her spirit will somehow bring about the appearance of a new bench by the side of Lake Avernus, entrance to the Underworld.
From this distance I can only hope so... but I am looking forward to my next visit to find out.
 |
| The water is wide Photo©Nigel Summerley |
No comments:
Post a Comment