Cairo, the 1st April, 2011

Merano, Italy souvenires...

A meaningful trip becomes special and unforgettable for so many personal reasons only each person can define.

I always have my own special, unsuspected reasons to value a person or event. My reasons are not most people s regular reasons as I am kind of crazy (did I just call myself crazy?! I guess I did...move one! ) and a detail lover.

The trip to Merano was, once more, one of those "things" that I define as SPECIAL for professional and human reasons.

As soon as I arrived to Milan, I made no mistake: I was in Italy!

No one was available to give informations to a lost girl from Cairo, except the kind italian men who threw at my face "Sei una donna muolto bella" all the time as if the fact of seeing me as a beautiful woman would be the only reason to stop on their tracks and give me some help.

Then I only passed by Verona and remembered some of the lines of "Romeu and Juliet" from William Shakespeare. Why did the author found Verona as the background to one of the biggest love stories of all times...I don t know. But I still remembered the scene of the balcony when Romeu sees Juliet and compares her to the moon, finding out that she is even more beautiful and that the moon itself would be jealous from her beauty.

Outch! I am the one who wouldn t like to compete with the moon. She might be a hell of a bitchy lady, when teased...

Then I was headed, by train, to Bolzano and, although it was night time, I could grasp the shape of mountains getting higher and higher. Count Dracula came to my mind, as did Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music".

I didn t expect to direct myself to the South Tyrol so it was the most delightful surprise when I found out, next morning, all those gorgeous mountains of Merano surrounding the city where I was staying for the workshops.

I looked out the window and felt breathless with the surprise and the beauty of it all.

These are some of the perks of ignorance. Great that I didn t inform myself properly before travelling to Merano. I was hoping to find a regular italian city and I found myself between Heidi and Peter singing "ude leri udeleri udele ih oh"!

Happy surprise, may I add.

Then the quick visit to the top of the mountains where we ate some Tyrolese food, my amazement towards the whiteness of the snow and the whole culture of the place, the smell of the wood from which these tyrolean houses are made, the mornings by the water in Merano, the workshops and classes I taught filled with true joy and laughter...

I could say so much about this trip to Merano but, somehow, the best that is to tell was just LIVED, fully enjoyed, tasted and smelled in a way that words cannot describe.

I understood, as usual, that the world is such a rich place and human beings are surprisingly WONDERFUL, when they want to.

I thank all the students who shared precious moments with me and Gabriele for her generosity on informing me about local traditions.

I also thank once more to Simone, the organizer of the events, who worked beyond what professionalism required.

No detail passes through me without being noticed and I KNOW when someone is living from their hearts and doing something from that sacred point.

Simone did it and I ll never forget it.

My love to you all and to the gorgeous Merano where I sang the whole "The Sound of Music" soundtrack!