10 years of Aria Sottile

I began my adventure at a time of great questions about life. I was ready to probe the outer limit of my physical strength, ready to probe my resistance to fear. I was walking along the ridge of solitude. The emotions I have felt in these 10 years of Aria Sottile have been an endless, marvellous kaleidoscope of positive and negative emotions. Aria Sottile and my relationship with the mountains have been like going in and out of the darkness...

In and out of the darkness...

Saturday 20 September 2014

I began my adventure at a time of great questions about life. I was ready to probe the outer limit of my physical strength, ready to probe my resistance to fear. I was walking along the ridge of solitude. The emotions I have felt in these 10 years of Aria Sottile have been an endless, marvellous kaleidoscope of positive and negative emotions. Aria Sottile and my relationship with the mountains have been like going in and out of the darkness... probing fears, passions, wonder, nerves, fits of hysteria, well-being, serenity, self-satisfaction.
And I don't disown a single moment of all I have lived through in the mountains, because it was unique and unrepeatable.
My idea of Aria Sottile, for some reason, in these years, is exploring new territory. Today, the need to lead my  family by the hand onto those mountains that have given me so much.
To lead children, though, you have to be willing to make big sacrifices. In this society that aims to make us all “efficient”, “high-performing” and “muscly” it isn't always easy to choose to give up your own goals.
We wake up at our leisure on a Saturday in September to walk the nearby, easy paths of the Lago di Albano, on the slopes of the volcanic cone, so evocative, of the nearby Roman countryside. They call them the "Castelli Romani". They are the towns that go from Castel Gandolfo through Albano, Rocca di Papa, Marino, Grottaferrata, Frascati. Romans know them for the cool air you can enjoy during hot, muggy Roman evenings. People go there for the fraschette (the country wine taverns) and not much more...
We decide to start from Albano, an area still little known to us but one that hides plenty of hiking possibilities, far from the by now all-too-familiar porchetta sandwiches. The rise of the volcanic cone and the heights around the Lago di Albano go by the name of "Colli Albani" and, compared with the higher reliefs of the Apennines, they seem to have a structure  all of their own, and very independent.
We meet Paolo near the Convento dei Cappuccini in Albano at around ten in the morning. There are Elisa, Gabriele and Valeria, that is, my family, who so often ask me to involve them in my mountain explorations. This hike, we all know it, isn't very demanding, it's dedicated to them (to the children), but for us it's a reason to be together and enjoy a day immersed in a wood that is completely new to us.
The path runs mostly on the level. The maximum height gain is around 100 metres.
I started 10 years ago climbing Monte Cavo by the Via Sacra that leads to the ugly cluster of aerials and radio repeaters. Here I am again on the Colli Albani to open a new season of hikes.
There have been moments of light and of great illumination. There have been moments of thick fog, of dark woods. But the wounds and the pain we have suffered are what defines us; we wouldn't be the same without those wounds.
All that remains is an iron stubbornness that defines me sharply. I will never stop starting again because, as a dear friend of mine said, “I love this Samsara”... every time I start dreaming again of new destinations, new hikes, new friendships and new projects.
As I once did... I start imagining again mixing hikes on foot with hikes by bike (cycle-trek), imagining food tours (gastro-trek) in Abruzzo, Umbria, Lazio and Tuscany. Every time I start dreaming again, because whoever doesn't dream is as good as dead. I celebrate, with this modest route and with my children, these first 10 years of Aria Sottile, in the wish to go along, still, with trusted friends, in the desire for discovery but also in the hope of achieving and reaching new goals together, so that climbing to the summit of a mountain can, once again, make sense!