The people we like

At Fra le Righe there are people who arrive.

People who leave.

People who stay with their heart.

And people who stay in ours.

We like people with kindness inside them.

The kind that makes no noise.

Who thank you for a gesture you did not think anybody had noticed.

Who can tell the difference between hospitality and service.

We like people who really look.

We like eyes that do not slip away,

that hold still a moment longer.

That see what is not said.

We like people who do not take everything as owed.

Who respect other people’s time,

the space they occupy,

and live it even for a single night.

We like people who do not have to explain who they are.

Who arrive quietly,

set the suitcase down gently,

have a coffee,

and meanwhile watch the light move across the wall.

We like plain gratitude.

A real smile,

a note left among the books,

a sentence said while the door is closing:

“It is good here.”

People who leave us something.

And leave something open in us too.

People who come back.

Or who perhaps do not come back,

but stay all the same.

Sometimes we wonder whether an Art Guest House can have a memory.

Whether the walls hear, whether the chairs remember who sat in them.

We think they do.

Which is why we like people who leave light traces.