historyofbloodandgold:

Mortal again?  I can barely fathom what such an experience might be like.  The answer does come easily enough to me despite that.

First, I would go to Rome and mingle with other mortals that gather around the Colosseum.  How enjoyable it would be to join one of the guided tours, listening to a charming guide talk so animatedly about the history of the structure.  And I would thrill to stand within it, feeling the sunshine upon me from all sides – Prometheus’ blessing for just one more day!  I might get my photograph taken with the men that dress up as Roman gladiators and soldiers.  Wouldn’t that be funny?  To be standing there in the shadow of Vespasian’s vision with men of this age, the Roman and the would-be Romans?

After that I would find a rooftop upon which a hastened studio might be put together.  Then I’d paint and paint and paint by the light of the sun, in such a fervor, until the setting sun stole too much illumination for me to continue.  I fear such an event might leave me obsessed for such a chance.  Why, I might very well rest my body there upon the ground near those canvases until the sun had risen again, if just to take full advantage.  I don’t think it’s avoidable.  To see those colors by the light of day again, to memorize them anew rather than trust to distant memory, I couldn’t help myself.

I’d probably act as a glutton too.  Feasting upon the treats of chocolate, coffee, the Italian foods that are as much as a visual feast as they are a physical one.  And wine.  Plenty of wine.  Or perhaps I ought to avoid it.  I suspect if I got my hands upon wine I’d get too intoxicated in the morning to get anything done and the opportunity would be wasted by a drunken Marius.