VISIT ITALY: CATANIA, THE BLACK CITY

Catania is known as "the black city" because of the color of its buildings, blackened by the soot and ashes of the Etna volcano, whose eruptions have often damaged and even destroyed the city, which has always been able to rise again from the her ashes becoming more and more beautiful. Etna is the highest volcano in Europe and every now and then you can see magmatic explosions and fumes coming out of its lava mouths.

SUB DIVING

OUTDOOR

NIGHT TRAIN TO LISBON

Why continue to live a monotonous life in which everything is marked by always the same rhythms when one can interrupt the known and go towards the unknown of oneself? Why do you choose to get moldy in a job or in a life that becomes a cage when you can get on a train and go towards a different future?

IN THE BLUE DEEP BLUE

There are many ways to get to the meaning of existence. One way is to do as a diver does. Let yourself go to immerse yourself in its unknown waters, ready to meet the darkness of the abyss and the ancestral monsters of conscience, together with the sense of wonder at what is mysterious and which hides pitfalls. Once on the surface everything will appear brighter and clearer and there will be the awareness that in life the most common things already coexist with the depths. And we will know how to orient ourselves. Other times, on the other hand, you have to act like an aviator, lower yourself to reality a little while remaining in flight and then regain altitude; one has to practice looking at things by changing perspectives and distances, learning that the meaning changes according to the height and distance from which one observes. Once back on the ground everything will be different. And the sense and respect for detachment will have been gained. Paradoxically, certain small things will become of enormous importance and certain dimensions rather insignificant. So much so that you wonder why you never noticed it before. So finally there comes a time when you notice. We realize that travel is the meaning of everything and that life is constantly transfigured by being on a journey. And wherever you are, everything will feel like a foreign country.

RUNAWAY

In short, rich or poor, sooner or later you will be plagued by this uselessness of time. You will be bored by your work, by friends, by husbands, wives, or lovers, by the view from the window of your home, from the furniture or upholstery of your room, from your thoughts, from yourself. Consequently, you will be looking for escape routes. Aside from the tools of self-gratification mentioned above, perhaps you will begin to change jobs, residences, friendships, country, climate; perhaps you will indulge in sexual promiscuity, alcohol, travel, cooking lessons, drugs, psychoanalysis. In fact, you could put all these things together; and for a while the combination could work. Until, of course, you wake up in your room with a new family and a different wallpaper, in another state, in another climate, with a lot of bills to pay to your travel agent or psychoanalyst, yet with the same prohibits the sensation of the daylight that spreads to the window. And you will put on your slippers only to find that those are not the most suitable footwear to escape from what you recognize as familiar. And depending on your temperament or age, you will panic or resign yourself to familiarity with that feeling, or, once more, you will go through the process of change.

IN THE MORNING

I had had to get up early that morning, a little earlier than when I went to school. I had taken the subway direction Jonio and I had gotten off more or less at the level of the tram station.

I had stopped on the sidewalk so that it divided the street in two halves and while I waited for the tram to arrive I had started to think, to elaborate and to compose, in my mind, the poem that could best describe that moment.

It was seven o'clock and the sun had not yet fully risen; its rays touched the skin of my face and arms, brushed me like a caress, like petals of pink, yellow, and orange flowers; the morning breeze made itself felt, gave a lonely breeze, fresh and soft at the same time.

I was, therefore, in the middle of the road, but perhaps it is more correct to say that I was at the center of an antithesis operated by time.

The feet were a little cold, while the hands, kept in the pockets of the jacket, were too warm and I felt that if, at any moment I took them out, I might find that they were melted like candles in the fire.

After a few moments, perhaps a few minutes, perhaps half an hour, it seemed to me that I could hear the sound of the mechanisms that are located above the trams that run on the great wires that are placed for the operation of the trolleybuses; and at the same time the perpetual and fast and repetitive sound of the contact between the rails and the noises of the tram.

I looked around, it seemed that I was the only one listening to it, maybe the others just heard it, they just didn't care, everyone cared for himself alone: ​​who was on the phone, who listened to music and who chatted animatedly with the person that stood beside him.

Nobody seemed to notice the wonder that was happening.

he sound was getting louder, until I could see the tram: it was making the curve.

Then, for a moment, a gust of wind produced by the cutting of the air of the vehicle, and then a light whistle.

He had stopped: the doors had opened in front of me and practically immediately I moved and placed, first one, then the other, my feet on the plastic that covered the floor of the wagon, a little loose and a little sticky. Then I looked for a free seat on the tram, and as soon as I found one on the back I sat down.

I put my arm on the window and with my hand I moved the hair that the wind had blown up in front of my eyes. Here it is, the wonder.

From the window I could make out the buildings opposite, of that color between cold beige and yellow, but which were warmed by the warm rays of the sun, which gave those ancient buildings an orange hue.

They were like satellites that glow with reflected light.

From where I was observing that scene, I could also see below the tracks on which he was traveling, the electric wires above; around pines and other magnificent buildings of the same color as those described above.

It looked like one of those perfect landscapes for an analog.

There I found peace.

 

NOMADLAND

I know you expected to see the poster for this famous movie. But I won’t show it because it’s bullshit. Nomads do not receive a pension and those are the real nomads. But the people in this movie travel because they have a monthly income that allows them to do what they want. A story written by a pensioner, and not by a true nomad! So I would like to say that yes, it is a beautiful thing to travel the world but if you are rich or have a pension you cannot go and advise others on how to survive. You are a false nomad. If you want to see the real nomads go to Mongolia instead where they can give you real advice on how to survive. It pisses me off all these people who have put themselves on a camper or van and already have money and want to believe that they survive only by traveling and selling bracelets. Come on?!!! Can we believe such fake people?

https://youtu.be/3Tg6EQ4Dio0

The term nomad is really overused today, and we often forget that there are people who live this lifestyle out of necessity or culture, as the only reality they have and not as a choice.

Once very many, today there are few people who still live in this way: the nomads of Mongolia are one of them. In the arid Mongolian steppes there is no room for cultivation, the main means of livelihood is livestock, and to always guarantee new pastures for the cattle, families move with their gers and their trucks, which represent all their possessions.

Living this life is not easy, there is no hot water (not even cold water to take a decent shower), no toilet, no power outlet other than solar panels for the cell phone, no fridge and no entertainment. We tried to live like this for a week and it was pretty tough. Between the food always based on the strangest meats, the lack of hygiene and the most absurd behavioral rules, nomads live a truly crazy life.

You cook on the floor, eat on the floor, sleep on the floor ... but if there is food placed on the ground and you try to climb over it, walking over it with your feet, you will hear it screaming! Nomads really eat everything: from sausages made of guts emptied of excrement, to the head of a kid with delicious eyeballs, but the most absurd thing we saw presented for dinner was a… marmot !!! Not just its meat: a marmot emptied of its entrails and used as a "pressure cooker" to cook its own meat!

Thank goodness there will be something good to drink, right? Obviously not, because what they usually drink is salty tea. Yes, salty. They are people used to riding for hours and hours, they will have a very comfortable and soft saddle ... but no, their saddles are made of wood and, in order not to miss any inconvenience, their stirrups are very short, so that you always have to ride raised from the saddle. An infinite pain. The ger is a concentrate of ancient engineering, a real portable miniature house. Once disassembled, it is transported entirely with all the furniture in a pick-up. Do you know how long it takes to assemble one? Two hours, counted.

https://youtu.be/fthhtiTGEBg

A nomad wakes up every morning at 6, milks the cows and then accompanies the herd of sheep on horseback to pasture… then he stands there watching them for 4 to 7 hours, with a nap attached. The horses are not tied up, nor in the pens. They are left free but with the 3 legs tied by a rope, so that they can graze and move but… do not stray too far.

What we would call spoiled milk for them is a delicacy in which to dip cookies or add to soup. Nomads eat a lot, it will be to stock up for the harsh winter. And they expect you to eat the same. The problem is that grandma's delicacies aren't exactly what they offer you. And they are almost aggressive in insisting that you do an encore, forbidden to say no.

"I am proud to be born in the taiga," says Tumursukh sitting at a table in a cafe in Ulan Bator, the capital of Mongolia, a stone's throw from the offices of the Ministry of the Environment, for which he works. “My father took me there since I was a child, and he taught me to know and love her. When I left to study in the capital, I began to miss him. I waited several years before my dream came true: to be appointed by the Ministry of the Environment responsible for the protection of the Hovsgol region. So in 1987 I was able to create the first protected area and safeguard a part of the region from mining. In the 1980s, the first industries began to settle down, digging the mountain to get phosphorus. We fight to preserve our nature from this type of threat because the taiga, which is home to rare flowers, elk, bear and ibex, is precious and fragile. The government understood this and decided to keep it ”.

Ulaanbaatar (Ulan Bator), the capital of Mongolia with just over a million inhabitants, has become the most polluted capital in the world, surpassing Beijing and New Delhi, which both have 20 times the number of inhabitants. In December, when temperatures drop to as low as -40 degrees, air pollution levels are five times worse than in historically polluted Beijing, largely due to the number of coal stoves that poorer residents rely on.

Agence France-Presse reports that Mongols are turning to drinks like "oxygen infusions" and "lung tea" to try to strengthen their bronchial ducts and protect themselves from the polluted air they breathe every day. Advertisements for these probably ineffective drinks promise that "an oxygen cocktail is equivalent to a three-hour walk in a pristine forest" and grocery stores sell canned oxygen that they swear will turn ordinary glasses of juice into oxygen-rich cocktails.

Meanwhile, producers of so-called lung teas such as Enkhjin, Ikh Taiga and Dr. Baatar claim that their products are capable of filtering pollutants from their customers' airways. "It first removes toxins from the blood, then turns them into mucus, and then all the plants contained in the tea help strengthen the human immune system," said Baatar Chantsaldulam, CEO of Dr. Baatar.

Unfortunately, it is becoming an increasingly far-fetched prospect. Over the past 30 years, 20% of the entire population has moved to Ulaanbaatar, and many of them are displaced farmers, herders and rural residents who have come to the city to find work. They are too desperate to live in the Gobi desert, but too poor to afford housing, so they live in gers, one-room tents heated by coal stoves that can be built, or dismantled, in a couple of hours.

According to Newsweek, there are more than 180,000 gers in the city, and all that coal (or wood or trash can be burned to warm up during those freezing winters) is responsible for most of the air pollution; WHO estimates that 80 percent of Ulaanbaatar's airborne pollutants come from ger stoves, compared with 10 percent from transportation, 6 percent from power plants and 4 percent from "solid waste."

The Times reports that Prime Minister Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh announced in January that the transportation and use of raw coal in Ulaanbaatar will be banned after April 2019 (this has generated a lot of concern as it will cause another economic crisis among those mining, selling and transporting coal). Meanwhile, the Ulaanbaatar Clean Air project is doing what it can to help, trying to replace Ger residents' coal stoves with cleaner, more energy-efficient models. It is also trying to pressure the government to seek affordable permanent housing options for this section of the population.

"Ulaanbaatar may be the coldest capital in the world, but it doesn't have to be the most polluted," said Coralie Gevers, World Bank Country Manager for Mongolia. "Improving air quality management in Ulaanbaatar and reducing pollution concentrations would prevent disease, save lives and avoid huge health costs."

ON THE ROAD

I want to travel. And do you know why? Because life is so much more beautiful when you see every nation in the world. Life is definitely more beautiful when you meet people other than you. And by different I mean another mentality, other cultures, other colors. Life changes you and becomes more beautiful when you book your plane ticket, when you get on the plane and leave, when you arrive in that city, when you arrive at the hotel, when you start to see something new. And nothing, life is even more beautiful if you travel.

It’s a time when I let go of a lot of things: people, situations, feelings … I learned to let go of what didn’t do for me, everything that hurt me. Sometimes you have to leave out certain situations because they are no longer part of us, you feel them extraneous, which are no longer yours. It is precisely at that moment that you choose to think about yourself and your happiness. last night I dreamed of a beautiful tree, with dark leaves at the top that faded downwards, they were shiny and moved in the wind, then in that wind I hear a voice hissing “look in the trees, this is the key”. the meaning is broad and intense but already very understandable. When someone lives by restraining himself, at a certain point something is triggered in him: An escape. A positive escape, because he finally escapes from too many requests and learns to say “no”. Run away from too many duties and start doing what he likes. Escape from too much perfectionism and learn to love yourself. Escape from the fear of never being up to it, of never being able to really live. Run away and look for himself, sometimes ending up finding himself.

If my energy doesn’t wake you I’m not for you, if my spirit doesn’t inspire you don’t force the connection, if my mind doesn’t make you think deeper, it makes no sense that you have me in your thoughts If my passion doesn’t move you then it will be better to change direction, if my presence does not help you to evolve my absence surely will, If my love doesn’t open your heart surely another love will, go and find what makes your being vibrate, don’t even stop to look back. One of the greatest acts of love is letting go, the vibration doesn’t lie. Trust your process.

You have only one chance, accept what you have lived and what you are experiencing, they will serve for everything you will live and in the end, you understand that the future is the best part. The present does not exist because, just by saying “now”, it has already passed and then you live the uncertainty that must make you smile, because it is a surprise and you have to go to meet it, like when as a child, you jumped out of bed and ran to go to unwrap christmas gifts. It takes an hour, a day or a night to find the sun, to find yourself and to understand that everything passes and that after a slap, life offers you a caress.

Move away from where the time is up Or stay, accompanied if you think you can’t get away but keep dreaming beyond that closed window Go through everything while you color the world with each step Stop interpreting, let yourself flow Avoid looking for the signifier, immerse yourself in the unknown Connect to fullness, it will replace any deficiency Love independently, intensely, hopelessly and then let it all slip through your fingers Don’t hold back, blow every whys away Don’t pretend, get confused Don’t lead, let yourself be carried away by the wind Don’t build houses, hologram bridges Don’t be satisfied with those who caress your heart Know what you deserve and not because it will be difficult to find but because it will allow itself to be reached. And allow yourself to fall in love with the possible, while the impossible will show you the way.

VISIT ITALY: MIRAMARE CASTLE

Near Trieste, on a rocky spur overlooking the sea, stands the Miramare Castle, once the southern gate of the Austrian Empire. A place of wonders where Princess Sissi stayed during her long travels in Europe. A treasure trove of history and legend that tells the tragic story of its founder, Maximilian of Habsburg.

Here Princess Sissi saw the sea for the first time and was captivated by its beauty and impetuosity; characteristics in which the empress probably found herself.