It never ceases to amaze me how tiny the world has become. From my little apartment in San Francisco, I have an idea. I sit down at my desk and pound out my thoughts onto my computer. Because of the nature of the internet today, my viewpoints and impressions are broadcast instantaneously across an ocean where a man sitting at his computer in Italy happens to run across my article, Orvieto, Italy: A Land Where Time Stands Still. Something moves him to send me a short note – he says he likes what I wrote about his hometown.
Just a few short months later, I find myself sitting across the dinner table from a lovely couple to whom I’d been introduced that evening. Halfway through the supper conversation we discover the link: “So, you’re that Toni DeBella”, the husband declares to our astonishment. You could have knocked me over with a feather!
In these crazy moments, the once unthinkable becomes
imaginable. Here we all sit together in a restaurant in Orvieto, experiencing firsthand the growing obsolescence of continents and landmasses with hard-drawn borders. Can’t you just picture it – the entire human race clustered in one big archipelago – chained loosely and floating alongside one another, just waiting to collide? And do you know the most amazing part? My story is becoming more and more common and every day. Il mondo e’ piccolo (it’s a small world), and it’s getting smaller all the time.
Read another “small world” story by Lisa Chiodo at Renovating Italy here.
Orvieto or Bust: 
That is such a fun experience! He said you are THAT Toni De Bella-could there be any other? Once again Toni you have written in a way that I can not even express in my thoughts!
Ah cugina…you are always too kind! How are you? I have decided to try to extend my trip through May, but will definitely be back for our meetup in SF in June. Hugs.t
I agree with you Toni. I think the Internet and the vast array of ‘social media’, blogs, twitter, SKYPE, Facebook and the like, that it is spawning is creating a paradigm shift in way humans relate and interact comparable to the impact of the 1st Gutenberg printing press.
Martha, yes a major shift has occurred in the world. Information moves at lightening speed and finds people in the most obscure and distant place. I still like the one-on-one relationship – which is not how this meeting started out, but incredibly it ended with a real, personal friendship. How great is that? Toni
Toni!!!! This is what it’s all about. The good fairies of the internet at work! It all starts with the courage to dream. And you are way beyond that first step. An inspiration to me and I’m sure so many others. A big hug. Just keep on dreaming and doing and enjoy every moment!!!! Jxx
Janine, Well, the good fairies connected us, right? I can just imagine us someday taking our caffe’ together and we are so old, we can’t remember that we met this way. I’ll take the bus to Perugia because I’ll be too old to drive. We’ll drag our carts to the market and fight over who will get the last melone. t
What a gorgeous image Toni! It’s OK. I’ll come to Orvieto. It’s flatter. A bit easier to drag our little carts around!! Un bacione tesoro!
How funny Toni that we were thinking along the same lines at the same time. Such a small world and there seem to be instances everywhere if you look for them. I am reading “The Alchemist” at the moment and it is filled with this type of thought. I’m going to pop a link on my post to yours for further reading!
ciao bella
lisa x
Me too….I will link you. bacio. t
[…] Orvieto or Bust ~ Toni DeBella […]