Among the woods...

It seems like a million and a half hours ago. But it hasn't even been a week.

I still feel the beauty of the time I spent in the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines with Stefano Mezzani and Le Guide del Pennato. I'll try to put the magic I experienced into words...

Happy to leave my world behind and with an empty mind, I was ready to capture the silence of the forest, which is not silence, you listen to the life around you, and suddenly you manage to find yourself in a spot where the winds intertwine and you hear their music.

The old paths have left signs that speak of times gone by. You'll find the old coal mines, which, as our guide describes them, magically transport you to a distant time. And you see before you the images of those who toiled to bring home the coal... Their forgotten shelters are still there, open to the public.

sky.

Flowers appear along the chimney,

beautiful, rooted in the rock and the wooded terrain of which they are part, lulled by the wind, which caresses them with its passage, the gentle movements here and there.

It all seems to the eye like the most beautiful kaleidoscope, which nature can give to those who know how to listen, in harmony with her.

With every step you encounter perpetual change, the trees dying and reborn, the carpet of yellow leaves beneath your feet, and as soon as you look up, the greenery of budding life explodes, mingling with the sun's rays filtering through those centuries-old branches. Some of these places are almost haunted, you stop to feel the mystique they convey on your skin. And I smile, the more time passes, the more I feel the connection to similar places. Could I have been a witch burned at the stake in a previous life?

It's strange, but when you walk, among thousands of trees, there's always one that says, "Hug me!" It connects you with the entire universe, what we can't see, hidden in its roots, and what we can't touch, the air caressing its branches above us. All that's left to do is embrace it and listen, eyes closed, to its profound perceptions.

Enthralled by the climb, I felt as if I could almost touch the clouds. With each step, I believed that with the next, I would be sitting on the soft cloud above me... To feel at one with the beauty of the infinite universe of which we are a tiny part, fortunately only passing through...

Thanks to Le Guide del Pennato, to Stefano, who, like a true shaman, guided us by recounting the mountain's history, both near and far, making us part of it, and to all the companions on this beautiful day, a precious gift to treasure among my treasures.

Oops, the names of the flowers are missing, the guide was clear on the homework :)