A Stop in Detroit

After travelling far and wide across old, dear (in every sense!) Europe, we decided (my adventure companion and I!) to go and visit the United States. We seized a double opportunity: the friendship of a friend of ours who lives in a small town near Detroit (Ann Arbor) and the chance to take our holidays in late September, far from the usual routes of mass tourism. The flight went perfectly (we flew with Northwest Airlines), and at 7.30 pm on Sunday 15 September we touch down at Detroit International Airport! A real thrill, our first time in the legendary United States. We pick up our friend Gina and, once past the customs formalities, drive to her house.

Be ready to answer the same questions at least three or four times — "where are you going, how long are you staying, do you have return tickets" — before you get to the classic, famous ones: "do you belong to groups of Nazi fighters, have you been a member of the Communist Party, etc.". And arm yourself with plenty of patience, because the baggage checks are really strict and thorough.

The impact is truly disarming: huge cars, roads with four lanes in each direction and distances measured...in hours of driving! We stayed with our friend in Ann Arbor (about half an hour from Detroit). A very pretty little town, with a very famous and very expensive university (70,000 dollars a year in tuition), plenty of bars, plenty of young people and above all a huge number of shops.

We took a day trip to Detroit, or what is left of it...it's a ghost town, completely abandoned, shops closed, lots of homeless people and a great deal of crime. Locals refuse to walk the streets in the evening, and it's dangerous to be out and about after sunset...according to the statistics, the leading cause of death is firearms! It's very sad to see this wounded giant, with its huge skyscrapers (the GM one is beautiful) but empty in its soul, without any drive. They say that 20 years ago it was a city in the full splendour of its life, with General Motors as the driving (in every sense!) force of the region's and the country's economy. Today, with the car crisis, the whole city is left to fend for itself....and it gives you the shivers to think what could happen to our own Turin, tied by the umbilical cord to Fiat...