The Girl in the Fresco: A Year in Italy
When my new husband and I decided to spend a year in Italy, I imagined a happy adventure in a beautiful city. But the medieval town of Bergamo confronted me with loss. A serious accident sent my husband to the chaotic town hospital. A traumatic pregnancy threatened my dream of a family. When we discovered a 500-year-old painting under the wallpaper of our apartment, the mysterious girl in the fresco emerged as an image of hope. The Girl in the Fresco: A Year in Italy is a memoir of a new marriage, a lost child, and the tender remedies of art.
A fresco remembers everything.
The artist’s hand, alive and moving quickly with the brush.
The goddess who comes each Spring to bless the earth.
The sound of voices
and, perhaps,
the stir of children in the house.
The fresco remembers each crack and scrape of time’s brutal wing.
from The Girl in the Fresco: A Year in Italy
Margaret Todd Maitland 