ITALY my homeland

I have lived there for almost 70 years since I arrived there at the age of 5 in 1955 from Koper as an Istrian refugee and in any case I was already Italian and lived in the lands which had been such since 1918 and were almost lost after the Second World War when they were ceded to Yugoslavia with various events that I will leave aside now. I lived from 1955 until 1993 in Trieste and then in Lombardy between Milan and the province of Como and perhaps soon I will return to Trieste, I already bought a house a year ago because I feel the call of my roots, to conclude the last part of my life. But let's get to Italy, it was only in 1967 that I began to visit its beauties, in that year Rome, Florence, Rimini, the republic of San Marino and Verona. A year later I took a school trip to Naples and the surrounding area, visiting Sorrento, Pompeii and the island of Capri. This is a land that I liked a lot from the beginning and in fact I returned to Naples to visit the Amalfi coast, the island of Ischia and Procida and then I walked around the alleys of Naples during the celebrations for the second scudetto won at the time of the footballer Maradona Naturally, I know my region of origin, Friuli Venezia Giulia, quite well, as well as my own Trieste, Monfalcone, Gorizia, Udine, Grado, Aquileia, Palmanova, Lignano, Cividale, Tarvisio. Also several locations in Trentino and Alto Adige for both winter and summer holidays. And I know the nearby Veneto quite well with the splendid Venice that saw me as a ten-year-old visiting it during a school trip and it was my first trip ever and then I visited Verona where I served in the military for three months and I have various cousins, but also the beautiful Padua and Vicenza, then Cortina d'Ampezzo, the Dolomites and the localities in the area. In the following years my partner and I went for a tour of Tuscany when I went to visit Pisa, Florence again, San Gimignano, Siena, Arezzo, Lucca, Viareggio, the Maremma park, Talamone for a beach holiday, etc. . But also the beautiful and green Umbria with Perugia, Assisi, Gubbio, Spoleto. We also went to see the Etruscan tombs and some places in Lazio such as the volcanic lakes of Bolsena and Bracciano. In 1989, again with my partner who is of Sicilian origin even though she was born in Lombardy, we took a trip to the south of Italy and so I had the opportunity to see the beautiful Puglia, the towns of the Gargano such as Peschici and Vieste and then Barletta where we suffered a mugging with a fracture of her shoulder and as we discovered it later, we continued the journey towards Alberobello with its trulli, then Salento with S.Maria di Leuca, Lecce and Ostuni. We also went to see the stones of Matera. We quickly passed through Calabria without stopping and when we reached the end we took the ferry and arrived in Sicily which we explored almost completely for over a week and during those days we conceived our daughter who was in fact born about nine months later. We visited Syracuse, Catania, Taormina, Enna, Piazza Armerina, Selinunte which in addition to the mosaics of the Roman villa is also a beautiful fortified medieval village, then the valley of the temples near Agrigento, Trapani and Erice and finally Palermo and Cefalù. In the following years with the little girl we took various holidays in seaside and mountain places, for example one in Val d'Aosta in Valpeline and we toured the whole beautiful mountainous region with beautiful valleys and castles as well as the interesting capital Aosta by car. Other mountain locations visited were the Asiago plateau, a ski week in Canazei, when I was young with friends I had already visited the towns near the Dolomites and San Candido where we went skiing, but also in Friuli Venezia Giulia in Piancavallo, Tarvisio , Sella Nevea, Forni di Sopra, and in Trentino in Val Badia and other places such as Andalo and Molveno, the lakes of Misurina and Braies. Later, having moved to Lombardy, I began trekking towards all the mountains around Lake Como which I learned to appreciate both above and below. I also did years and years of trekking in the Bergamo area, in Val Sassina and Valtellina and a week's holiday near Bormio in Isolaccia and another in Santa Caterina Val Furva, Deborah Compagnoni's town. I also took holidays on Lake Garda in the province of Brescia and went by car up to Limone and other towns and lakes such as Idro. I visited Lombard and Emilian cities such as Bologna, Modena, Parma, Ferrara, Ravenna and Lodi, Mantua, Cremona, Pavia, Brescia and Bergamo as well as of course nearby Como and Lecco. Also a trip to Varese and Sondrio and its beautiful valleys such as Val Masino and the beautiful Val di Mello twinned with the Californian Yosemite. I visited Sardinia on various trips, one to the Costa Smeralda with a stop in Arbatax and trekking to Baunei then descending to the beautiful coves Luna, Goloritze and Foca Monaca. I went to Maddalena and took a holiday with my daughter on the island of Caprera in the Club Med which later closed. I took three holidays in Sulcis Iglesiente as a guest of my sister-in-law who owns a house in Nebida near Iglesias and Carbonia, so I toured all those beautiful areas, wilder and less touristy beaches, the areas of closed mines and the beautiful capital of Cagliari. I had nice holidays with my daughter in the Marche, Abruzzo and Molise, touring both regions by car, Recanati, Urbino, Loreto, L'Aquila, Termoli, the Abruzzo park, Sulmona, a nice holiday near Mount Conero with the wonderful beach of Sirolo. I returned with my daughter to the Gargano in Calenella and we visited the Tremiti islands, the island of Elba and the Aeolian Islands, taking ferries from one island to another. I also have a fair knowledge of Liguria, holidays in Albegna, trekking to the splendid Cinque Terre and visits to Lerici, Rapallo, Alassio and of course Sestri Levante where I had a holiday and Genoa. It was also Piedmont's turn which is one of the regions I know less about, I took a trip to beautiful Turin but I wasn't able to visit the Egyptian museum due to time constraints, on the other hand I traveled around Lake Maggiore on the border between Lombardy and Piedmont. All in all I think I know the most important places in Italy but I have several gaps, for example I know very little about Piedmont and Calabria. However, I believe that among the 70 countries visited, Italy is the most beautiful for various reasons: it has a variety of landscapes like few countries in the world albeit in limited spaces it has rich cities of art that the whole world envies and which attract millions of tourists we have had an important history, just think of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance we have excellent cuisine and excellent wines the climate is temperate and pleasant Italians are quite sociable and nice the only problem is that we are incapable of organizing ourselves, too polemical, with a corrupt and incapable political class, unfortunately! we hope to be able to improve in the next few years, but I don't believe in it on the other hand, when I traveled around the world and said I was Italian, my eyes lit up and almost everyone showed their admiration for our country, for the beautiful experiences they had on trips to Italy and for their desire to come and live there, some even showed admiration for our mafia but I don't agree at all on this point