New York: a lifelong American dream

Finally I managed to fulfil a dream: the United States!! Of course, we're not talking about a big coast-to-coast trip, but a quick escape to New York which nevertheless, over the 5 days we had, let us roam far and wide through the endless spaces of this metropolis. My longing for America goes back a long way; I was taking my first steps as a boy eager to know the world... reading magazines about the most distant and different places, it was always those towers, that statue, those night-time lights that drew me the most! At the age of 14, having passed my middle-school exams, I would have had the chance to visit the USA... NY, Washington, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco, that was my father's gift, but... they were the years of the Scooter and that was the choice... "America can wait"... The by-now sadly famous 11 September saw me share in the general grief and solidarity...

in my own small way, I was deprived of a symbol that meant so much to me... I would truly have loved to admire those towers... In the following years I felt uneasy at the thought of visiting the sites of that disaster; seeing them, I thought, I would no longer find what I had dreamed of seeing for years. At last, the decision to leave!! As I said, we walked far and wide through the streets of NY; our hotel, right in the middle of Broadway, allowed us every evening to be at the heart of the chaotic and glittering Times Square. Central Park, the Empire State Building, 5th Avenue, Chinatown and Little Italy, Liberty Island, the Brooklyn Bridge, Soho, Greenwich Village and... Ground Zero were our destinations.

The visit to the World Trade Center Site was evidently the most touching moment; in front of your eyes lies a chilling scene, the gaping hole in the ground is immense and you truly realise how deeply the city was wounded!! At the same time, though, you feel a sense of rebirth; no one will ever forget, but the shared wish is not to let terror bring us down!! An incredible experience was the helicopter flight over the city; it was the madness of the last day but it was truly worth it! The flight, lasting 15 minutes, skirted Manhattan along the side facing New Jersey. The day was crystal clear and the view we enjoyed... indescribable. After circling the Statue of Liberty the flight ended and we landed at the heliport. Unforgettable: I could have imagined anything, but not that the most extraordinary, astonishing thing I would see in New York would be...

The Lion King at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway. I won't tell you the details, so as not to spoil the surprise for those lucky enough to see it, but I assure you: a unique experience!!!