Beirut, a Pleasant Surprise

After 3 years, unexpectedly and through a series of "lucky events", I return to the Middle East for a short but intense weekend, a step away from the war afflicting the beautiful Syria and for the first time in Beirut. The trip is with Alitalia and, as often happens when departing from Europe towards this part of the world, the flights are expensive and take place at night. This time it was almost convenient for me, because I didn't have to take days off and because at least the 2 days there were completely full... of course, the return on Monday was devastating, but it was worth it all the same! The city has the reputation of having been beautiful in the past, full of life, multiethnic and truly respectful of the very numerous religious faiths practised there.

Today it seemed beautiful to me still, even though I imagine that the numerous bombings have forever killed some typical features of these countries that I didn't see here. For example the markets... of course the city is vast and we mostly stayed in the centre, but it was very strange to visit a modern shopping centre with the usual chain stores, which, mockingly, was called Souk... moreover I know that even the famous Armenian market is unfortunately globalised and you mostly find Chinese trinkets of every sort. Beirut is a construction site being rebuilt and old destroyed buildings coexist very well with the modern skyscrapers located mainly on the sea. The seafront, the famous Corniche, is very beautiful and lives up to the reputation that preceded it, it's very crowded with people strolling, venues and also a beautiful marina reserved for wealthy boats.

There, there seems to be a lot of prosperity, ordinary cars, but many luxury cars driven by lone women, sirens and on average quite made up! It seems that in this city the ratio between men and women is 3 to 7... so women have to wage a war to reach "the goal" and every means becomes valid! As a woman, I felt no discomfort, compared to other countries in this area where I've been in the past, and indeed I was struck by the great tolerance and respect among everyone. The mosques can be visited and one in particular, whose name unfortunately we weren't able to find out, but which I can say is near the equally beautiful Omari mosque, is very beautiful and full of suggestions. Beautiful are the churches, and even more beautiful is seeing minarets and bell towers near one another in total harmony.

We visited the American University and, in another part of the city, the small but interesting Archaeological Museum. In this city there are no public transport services except for rickety private minibuses that run some fixed routes, unknown to tourists, that always travel with the door open, that drive like madmen and whose ticket always costs 1000 lire... hence the name millini! Otherwise, you get around by taxi... invariably for 10000 Lebanese lire, that is 5 euros. It seems that in Lebanon, a country that nevertheless seems modern and open, there isn't even a railway. One negative thing is the huge smog that makes you keep asking yourself, but if we weren't on the sea, would we be suffocated!? To eat we spent little and made up for it with some familiar foods we adore: labneh, olives, baba ganoush, olives, fattoush, olives, tabbouleh, olives, delicious meze, olives, hummus and...

olives. Paradoxically, the food to cook costs a lot! In short, this beautiful city reaching out to the sea seems to represent the openness of its inhabitants towards others, and only one small bitterness remains for me... not having thanked a person for a wonderful gift they gave me, which I only understood later to be such. It's about the guardian of the mysterious mosque, fragrant with incense, who had prepared a tea just for me, a woman, not for Simone: a beautiful and meaningful gesture carried out with such discretion and grace, that... indeed, I only understood it afterwards, replaying the whole sequence of images in my head. I'm sorry: salam.