Faldoni, parts 2656 - 2659

  2656. I still remember the day I became aware of the problem of the peculiar size things seem to be, as explained to our brain by our eyes. It was my first day in Rome and I was in a hurry to get to the Colosseum before it got dark but at the last instant, with the Colosseum in sight I decided to have a cup of coffee at an outdoor cafe.

 2657. I sat down and ordered some coffee and immediately noticed that there was a man sitting with his back to me at the next table, and just like at a movie, his hat completely blocked my view of the Colosseum. I was going to ask him to move but then I found that by moving my table a little I could see around him.

 2658. I became fascinated by this simple fact, from where I sat his hat was exactly the same size as the Colosseum. It seemed so strange to me that this little insignificant hat, perhaps only one year old was able to completely block my view of a two thousand year old building. I kept looking back and forth from the building to the hat, and then he leaned back in his chair.

2659. When he leaned back in his chair his hat became almost twice as big as the building, as a matter of fact it began to be possible to make a comparison of the Colosseum to just the hat band. Leaning back, his hat band was one-third the size of the Colosseum.