The best place I have ever been

Last night at a barbeque at Maximo’s place, Jeremy, a new contractor working on coral reefs, asked me where is the best place I have ever been. Now, I have not been in many places (and the more I travel, the more I realize how much I am missing), but I still thought that this question needed quite a lot of thinking. So I asked for a day extension in answering and today, after an afternoon nap, I found the answer. Here the essay Jeremy asked me to write in exchange for the extension.

The best place I have ever been. Quite a broad question. The best country? The best location? The best moment? The best feeling? I could have so many different answers based on countless singular shades of feelings I experienced in my life.

But yes, there was a very special moment in my life when a seed was planted in my soul. Today I can see how many of the adventures I lived are nothing but the fruits that had grown from that seed planted many years earlier.

I was about 10 years old. I remember that because the winter before it snowed in Rome, and everything closed up, including schools. I was very excited to go on holiday with my family and I was hoping to get extra days due to snow that year too. Usually, every summer my family (and sometimes family’s friends) would go for a tour to some other countries, and then rent a house next to the beach somewhere. But that year the big trip was reserved for the winter. KENYA

The plan was to spend some time taking a photographic safari around the country, and then spend some relaxing time visiting friends in Malindi, next to Nairobi.This holiday would satisfy my mamma’s deep love for nature, and my papa''s spirit of adventure. I think these are the two main qualities I inherited from them, and in this trip I experienced them both as my very own.

Unluckily, I cannot remember much of what I saw then, but if I close my eyes, I can experience all the excitement, the beauty, the surprise, the wonder, the fear, the commotion, the peace that that place left with me.

And this was my magical moment: it was early morning but I was already awake. I liked waking up early in the morning because the armed guards that walked around in the resort did not have many tourists to look after and I knew they could give me lots of attention and they would show me things that I otherwise would not see without the help of their trained eyes. Plus, in the morning there was a concert of singing birds and screaming monkeys that wouldn’t let me sleep even if I wanted to. At that time my English and my Swahili were at the same level, but when you are a little kid, you do not need many words to communicate. The night before a guard escorted me to my room because there were some lions around, and you know, lions like little Italian girls like me for dinner. It’s said we taste like pasta with the best red wine ragu sauce. He told me to lock myself into the room and then said something like “See you tomorrow”. I thought he wanted to see me in the morning and as a result I got up early to look for him.

Suddenly, as I was roaming around, my moment of glory: at the horizon, again the red sky of the morning sunrise, I could see the silhouette of a group of elephants walking. Even if they were far away, they looked so huge. It was overwhelming, not only because the moment was so beautiful, but also because that view was my very own trophy, something I found by myself, without anybody pointing me to it. I could do it! I could find gems on my own. I guess that was one of my first revelations as an individual, and what I felt was that I loved all: the nature, the horizon, the feeling of discovery. And that those feeling were something I was designed to look for in my life.

I was breathing deeply, tasting every second of it, for those few minutes they felt like a lifetime, until my guard-friend hit me on the head. I looked up at him. He was so tall, so dark, so different from me, and with the most beautiful smile I have ever seen. I felt like he understood me and he smiled in approval.

Kenya left a deep mark in all our souls; it is called “febbre d’africa” in Italian “african’s fever”. Whoever goes to Africa has to go back. We talked about going back many times, about buying a house there. I remember flying back to Italy and finding a cold winter, we were all so confused, why did we leave Africa?

My brother went back many times, my parents disappeared once when I was living in Wales and then I discovered that they were in South Africa. I never went back. I guess I am due now. My next experience won’t be the one of mass tourism that I experienced when I was 10, it scares me, but it is due. That was the best place I have ever been in my life. The best place for me. The one that inspired me to be what I am today. KENYA.