For a long time Pyrrha to me was a fortified city on the slopes of a bay, with high windows and towers, enclosed like a goblet.
Note
Before seeing it, Marco imagined Pyrrha: a city on the slopes of a bay, towers and high windows, enclosed like a goblet, with a deep square and a well in the middle. When he arrived, Pyrrha was another city, and the imagined one vanished for ever: now the name calls up only the real Pyrrha. Yet his mind still holds many cities he has not seen, each with its name.
In the scene the cities of the mind float over a pale plain, drawn only in lines: in the middle Pyrrha as it was dreamt, around it the others. Only one has already been visited, and in its place stands a real city, low and ordinary.
Touch a dreamt city and you arrive: the lines breathe away upward, and from the ground rises the real city, unlike any dream. The dream does not come back. When you have visited them all, others will appear further out, in the haze.
Quotations are brief excerpts for the purpose of commentary. The full text is available in published editions. The Cities of Ottavia, Valdrada & the soundtrack are inspired by "Monument Valley" from ustwo games.