If you pass through the centre of Ungheni these days, stop for a moment and breathe in deeply. On Mihai Eminescu and Veronica Micle streets the linden trees have come into bloom, and the air has filled with a sweet, unmistakable scent. The municipal Culture Department is inviting residents to a walk under this “rain” of golden flowers — for as long as it lasts, because it does not last long.
It is one of those quiet summer spectacles that ask for neither a ticket nor a programme: only a little time and a little attention. The small, yellowish linden flowers, hidden among the leaves, perfume the street and wrap it, for a few days, in a cloud of fragrance. The Culture Department rightly calls it “open-air aromatherapy” and recommends the walk especially in the early hours of the morning or towards sunset, when the scent is richest.
A coincidence Eminescu would have approved of
That the lindens bloom precisely on the street that bears the name of Mihai Eminescu is one of those coincidences the town seems to write for itself. For the poet, the linden was more than a tree — it was the backdrop of love and quiet. In his poem “Dorința” (Desire), he wrote of linden flowers falling over the lovers “row upon row” — an image all of Romanian literature knows by heart:
Linden flowers above us Will keep falling, row on row. Mihai Eminescu, “Dorința” (translation)
And across the road, the name of the other street — Veronica Micle — closes the circle of this love story that Romanian literature knows by heart. So a walk under the lindens in the centre is not only a joy for the senses, but also a small gesture of complicity with two lovers of long ago.
How long it will last
Linden blossom usually lasts only one or two weeks, depending on the weather and the heat. Then the flowers fall, the scent fades, and the street becomes an ordinary street again. That is exactly why it is worth catching now — a short but unforgettable treat, within reach of anyone with a few minutes and a corner of the centre to cross on foot.