London 1999

 

Many years ago I visited London. For a week I stayed with my family in a flat near the dock of a canal on the Thames. In the morning, I was woken up by drums making the rythm for the rowers training on the boats. Near my home there were very beautiful gardens and my first daughter (who was then seven years old) enjoyed running in the paths and flying a smart kite. We had a great time in British capital.

We visited the principal monuments and museums but also suggestive places like Portobello Road, Greenwich, Covent Garden, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. I think that's important to stop at least a little in front of the statue of Peter Pan to reflect on our lost childhood.

There would be no war, no injustice, no thirst for power if we sought the purity of that age. While I was thinking about this and other things, many planes were flying in the sky of London that was always veiled despite the beautiful season. The fly of these planes remembered me that I had to return at home and that every beautiful experience, sooner or later, ends. The memory remains of an extraordinary journey and of a time now very far away.