A gentle summer breeze cajoles me out of a sweet nap. The whiff of an earthy cigar and the brilliance of a young Vino Rosso flushing my goblet and from beyond the yellow roses, a lilting melody played on a stray single-string fiddle rising with the blue Adriatic; I am being baptised into poethood!

Perched high on a hill along the Italian Adriatic, I stare into the Slovenian wilderness a few metres away as the Buddhaesque stillness of the otherwise moody sea merges with the sky. The mysticism of Italy’s lesser-known jewels unfold and so does the words of one of Persia’s greatest poets, Omar-e-Khayyam. In his legendary work, the Roba’iyat or the book of quatrains, Khayyam, though historically unconnected with the place, seems to have vividly described Italy’s mystical beauty. It appears as if each Robaa’ee or quatrain brings out the subtle enchantment one experiences...

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