Switzerland by www.born2travel.it

if you want to find out more or see all the photos visit:

...How many things have changed since the last trip... Each of them represents an important moment in my life in which I not only grow, fed by different adventures and misadventures, but also take stock of my existential situation! So here I am! Heading for Milan, having left Caserta last night, and I was already imagining how bored I'd be spending the whole night alone in a dark compartment... But as soon as I reach the station I run into dear Flavio Tessitore, with whom I spend a large part of the journey comfortably stretched out on our backpacks (he, an army soldier, was heading back to barracks) recalling the happy days when we were SCOUTS together.

16. 07. 2001 Milan (ITALY) In Milan, sweet Sissy was waiting for me. We hadn't seen each other for years! It was lovely! Now she lives in Milan, where she studies Law and shares her studio flat with "Velenia", a name that says it all, a very pretty mongrel but far too frantic! She immediately takes me around the centre. I see the majestic and famous Duomo for the first time. It was the first time I'd visited it; it may sound odd but I'd been to Milan several times, only ever at the airport! 17. 07. 2001 Milan (ITALY) At last Pedro has arrived, and with him we'll face this new adventure. What a hassle to find him, we didn't know which city he'd be coming from, the time and so the platform, etc. What a mess! But in the end I spot him from a distance, his backpack resting on a bench and him nearby like a zombie. What a joy to see him again! 18. 07.

2001 Bern (SWITZERLAND) After a train transfer through enchanting landscapes, natural waterfalls, snow-capped peaks, grazing flocks. How beautiful! It felt like living the Heidi cartoon! So we arrive in Bern, in Switzerland. Lory, Sissy's sister, welcomes us. How she's changed! Neither of them is the girl I met three or four years ago in Caserta anymore! Living in Switzerland has transformed them (perhaps for the worse), I barely recognise them now. But deep down they're smart girls and I'm sure that if they'd carried on living in Caserta, everything, absolutely everything, would have been different! A friend of mum's reserved a whole flat for us in Ostermundigen (on the outskirts of Bern).

What a welcome! With the "fast one" Lory we spend an exciting evening going round various clubs: Lory is crazy! [Lory Mottola from Bern, Switzerland]: You brought back a piece of life, of emotions, of heart... A piece of life long forgotten in me... The importance of memory, distance overcome, being here... 20. 07. 2001 Bern (SWITZERLAND) Lory introduced us to lots of people. Almost all Italians (emigrants) doing the most varied jobs, from printer to hairdresser, and all with very high earnings. Here, though, life is very expensive! It felt like watching an episode of "Turisti per caso" when, abroad, they interview our compatriots who have since moved elsewhere! Each of them told us about the problems of settling in or adapting and about their present life.

They all seemed, at least financially speaking, satisfied! Good luck, guys! In the evening I get a terrible stomach ache, I felt like throwing up and my head was spinning... I barricaded myself in my sleeping bag, giving up going dancing with them, when suddenly the door flies open and in comes Lory, white as a sheet, rushing over to me asking: "How are you? Please, tell me how you feel!" Meanwhile two of her friends arrive: Carmen and Fabio, and after a while, perhaps because of the cheerfulness and the desire to have fun they'd brought into our flat, I immediately felt better. We spent the night at Carmen's house dancing with the stereo at full blast and making a racket....

Pedro and I nearly died laughing when we started dubbing the adverts or the films on TV, making up dialogues and stories! At 3.20 in the morning we start watching "Blair Witch Project" in German with English subtitles... 21. 07. 2001 Luxembourg (LUXEMBOURG) We arrive in the rich Luxembourg capital in the afternoon intending to carry straight on to Amsterdam, but as always happens on interrails, you never keep to the schedule and you let yourself be led by chance and by the people you meet... So we get to know a little group of Spaniards from the Canary Islands who were looking for a hostel. We join them! In the city there were open-air concerts everywhere and so many people! Luxembourg City surprised me a lot! Dinner of tinned ravioli bought in Bern and cooked on our little stove.

Delicious! That night I slept with my backpack beside me, in the bunk bed, and with my documents, money and money belt inside my sleeping bag.