Cuba, the land of the rainbow!

We chose this destination because we found an exceptional price with a direct flight from Rome (Alitalia, €393 each) and because the idea was to hurry up and go there, "before it changes!" Not that otherwise we wouldn't have been interested; so many people had told me that Cuba is beautiful, but I was convinced I would find something beautiful and that's it, perhaps with many rip-offs along the way... instead, I fell in love with it already on the stretch of road between the airport and Havana. Then... it was only a confirmation and a continuous crescendo, to the point of not wanting to share the emotions experienced for some time. Why so much magic? Because besides being a world full of colour, being full of magical and fascinating places and having a rich and beautiful nature....it is one of the most authentic countries I have ever travelled in.

A country with a soul of its own, which has managed to forge it in an autonomous and very personal way, even when it has pursued the usual overseas myths! Then certainly these emotions were also born from the fact that we were always among them, trying to avoid places and venues that were too "only" touristy and hotels in general. And we talked continuously with them, who explained their Cuba to us, debunking myths (like that of Che!), explaining and better describing the deceptions, deprivations and abuses received for decades and by no means ended just because Fidel has died, describing how they see the world, according to the little they know. On top of all this, their love for life with everything it offers you, for better or worse: necessarily, but with a smile and irony.

We were in Cuba at the end of March, a period when the temperature and climate were perfect and the sea water sufficiently warm. Despite the fact that the flight offer was only from Tuesday to Tuesday, we decided to take advantage of it, even if only for a week, even though it was difficult to decide how to divide the days and what to see. In the end we decided to spend just two nights in Havana, two nights in Trinidad and three in Viñales, all three UNESCO Heritage sites, with two half-days at the sea and the last half-day in Havana. It may seem all a rush, but I savoured everything "slowly" and with great intensity, and looking back I would organise the trip the same way. It is obvious that with more days available it would have been better, but I came back completely satisfied.

As for sleeping, we had no doubts, because we wanted to experience the casas particulares; the difficulty consisted only in deciding exactly in which area of Havana and which one to choose among so many. Having said that we chose to stay in Havana Vieja (and never was a choice happier!) I started with the usual reading of many travel tales, from which I skimmed the names of many casas, then I looked for them on Trip Advisor and through this and other sites found in the travel tales and which unfortunately I no longer have, I started sending a flood of emails to all those whose address I had obtained (this is the real difficulty and it made me waste a lot of time).

Among these, perhaps 40% replied to me, some after many days (an hour of wifi connection costs them 3 euros per hour..with average salaries of 30 euros a month) and based on this data and instinct, I chose my three casas, without regretting any of them.

In Havana I stayed at the casa of Lysette y Orlando (lisette-orlando@enet.cu) with no possibility of ordering dinner, a room for three with an external bathroom, 30 CUC (a little more than 30 euros) and an incredible breakfast (but it will be like that everywhere) for 5 CUC each; in Trinidad, Hostal Ana (ana.basulto@nauta.cu or hostalanatrinidad@gmail.com), 30 CUC for a nice room with bathroom and a great little terrace, 5 for breakfast and 12 CUC for a meat dinner and 10 for a fish one; in Viñales, Casa Grether y Carlos (casagrethercarlos@gmail.com), 25 CUC for the room with bathroom, 5 for breakfast, 10 for a meat dinner and 8 for a fish one. This is the casa where we were best off, overlooking a secondary street of the very rural Viñales, with a closed parking space and a porch with rocking chairs that made you believe you were back in a colonial village of the late 1700s.

Magical! Moreover Grether, the daughter of the hosts, is married to an Italian and spends six months in each of the two countries in turn and knows Italian very well. This, even though we get by with Spanish, allowed us to have long and interesting conversations. There was more indecision about getting around. Given the little time available, we discarded the local buses (described with too many unexpected events and with long times) and the doubt until two weeks before departure was: rental car or car with driver. In the end we opted for the car with driver through Alejandro Lamarid (ale.amorcuba@gmail.com) who I think can also provide assistance to find somewhere to sleep: we paid 85 CUC per day plus petrol, valued at 1 CUC per 10 kilometres. We didn't pay anything in advance and we paid at the end of each day.

It's not little, it will be the only truly expensive thing of the whole holiday, but other people met during the trip told us they had paid much more for the rental car... with roads with no shred of signs and a little too crowded with people and animals or in ruins, with the exception of the motorway (also that, however, with carts and people on the sides). Moreover, the added value of the whole trip was precisely Yunior, our driver, who was doing this kind of work experience for the first time in his life and with whom we talked for hours, reaching a great familiarity and conviviality.

To the point that at the end of the trip he introduced us to his family! Eating and sleeping costs little and as for the phone, we didn't buy SIM cards either for the internet connection (which is available in few places) or for calling: we just sent a few SMS when we felt like it; maybe we paid more than if we had bought a card for the wifi, but I swear we were much freer and happier that way!