California...that's it!

In February 2008, gripped by a pathological anxiety at having gone several months from my last "travel experience", I decided that after my graduation I had to go to California, a land I'd dreamed of seeing ever since, at 14, I first began reading the books of the beat generation of Kerouac, Corso, Ferlinghetti and company, and when I listened to the stirring music of Janis or Bob or Jim.... So off we went, me and a friend of mine (who, for the record, I don't know very well, or rather now I know her only as "the girl that comes with me in Cal"). First stop San Francisco (do not call it Frisco...please), an exciting city, much better than I expected. Then by car a long crossing along the Pacific Coast Highway 1, which links San Francisco to San Diego. I wholeheartedly recommend everyone drive this goosebump-inducing road at least once in their life...

imagine on your left the grand Pacific Ocean with its high waves breaking on an immense, deserted beach, where the only inhabitants are sea lions and elephant seals and the occasional crazy surfer tackling waves up to 5 metres high (nuts)...ya guys...this is the legendary Big Sur. I also recommend stopping in the towns along the coast, from Monterey to Santa Cruz, from Carmel By the Sea to Santa Barbara. Once past Santa Barbara you'll meet Malibu.... and then Santa Monica but above all the exciting Venice (a mix of street artists/bums, animal rights activists and mad people rollerblading or more simply on foot, singing at the top of their lungs without a care in the world). The most beautiful part of Venice is....Venice...from the Canal Walk (it's just like Venice, ours) to Venice Beach, and the main street of Venice full of restaurants and strange places.

Then it's on towards LA....and here there's an embarrassment of choice...Downtown, a rather gloomy place where artists, more bums, businessmen and different ethnic groups often never heard of before mix together; Hollywood full of stars and crazy houses, the home of great American cinema; Griffith Park, twice the size of Central Park in NYC; the famous Hills where the Hollywood Sign appears. A few days later we decided to make a little trip to Las Vegas too,,,or Jesus Vegas....it's worse than you'd expect (in a good way), everything is immense, colourful, luminous, mind-blowing, and then the road linking LA to Vegas is worth it, through the desert for 4-5 hours where you come across crazy little towns of the American provinces (an example: Ghost Town)

It's impossible to describe what California is; to understand it you have to go there and live it to the bone...if they ask me I have to confess it...California is the most beautiful place I've touched so far, and do you know what shocks me about all this? That I wasn't expecting it!!!! Enjoy my lovely pictures