Coast to Coast to Coast: September 2016

Sunday, September 25, 2016

A quick image of my trip

ciao all,

here an image of my whole trip. It seems I missed a huge part of the country, I should definitely go back.

The dots are the places where I stopped (at least for 1 hour I would say!!)

Grand Teton Pictures

After SO LONG TIME I start posting some pictures again! I had some major problems with my HDD but let's see what I can do with remaining pictures..

by the way I am back in Europe

Lake Solitude, beautiful hike to get there!

My hike to the lake

Another pic

I crossed it quite randomly. And it was still closer few secs before I took this, we were mutually curious and seemed it was about to come closer again!

Made me think about the necessity of staying away from wildlife, and how I could affect it forever just by giving food or stay too close to long.

(And I also made a parallel to people.. when we enter their life and one way or the other we change it forever afterwards, creating new needs and new feelings, new connections..)

Don't remember which small river is this!

One of the lakes (which?!)

Mountains everywhere!

Docks are always nice

Haven't take a boat sadly

Beautiful small lake with water lily

I do really like water lilies

Yep it is pretty majestic

Blue on blue

I had quite a fascination for it (maybe it's in the name)

Docks again

The Rockefeller family was quite settled in this part of USA and so many things are named after members of the family between Grand Teton and Yellowstone

The World Peace Table. Was here. Make zero sense.

All the smoke in this and the next picture is actually coming from Yellowstone. I thought it was out of a fire while it's actually normal! The geyser and the volcanic activity in Yellowstone is so massive that you can often see smoke!

Thick smoke from Yellowstone coloured in red

That's so similar to the picture I took in Badlands! A solitary tree

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Reflections after come-back (and a movie!)

I have just finished watching "where to invade next".

Probably watching this movie is the right choice, given that I am just back from USA while I am moving to a different country in Europe. And its vision also pushed me into posting one more comment on my trip.

The movie itself is about the differences between USA and Europe, and about what one continent can "steal" from the other, even if in fact the ideas already circulated quite a lot (I don’t want to spoil the movie for you!).

In my life I have visited and experienced more of the country than the average American (at least according to this: http://www.livability.com/topics/business-and-economy/how-many-states-has-the-average-american-visited ), I have seen places where “nobody” goes and some of the most touristy attraction of the country. After this time I am still intrigued by USA and without shame I can say “I do love USA”. I really thought I was just going to stay there, become a citizen and have a family, and by doing this just witness the incredible “assimilation” phenomenon that make foreigners become “Americans”, while here in Europe, no matter how French I can become I will always be an Italian (as it was when I lived in Germany and Britain, if Britain is Europe!).

I still admire the hope and the passion people can put in things, how strong they can embrace ideas and even religions. The spirit of the country is so different from mine.

At the same time I am writing this while walking by myself after midnight in a city which is definitely not home. And just by doing this I see what makes me love Europe and live here now. I can feel thoughtless without speaking the language, without having signed my contract, my lease, my bank account, my additional health insurance, without carrying a gun and paying too much attention to my surroundings, and I don’t have people shouting around me while cars speed everywhere honking their clacson.

There hasn't been a single city I would have felt fine doing the same in USA. (Possibly in National Parks)

And the walk and the movie make me see that in some ways what makes USA so lovable from another point of view is also what makes it so “hateful”.

So many people making others opinion their own without questioning them, and taking this careless behaviour to its extreme, in discrimination, sexism, racism, xenofobia, marginalisation, prejudice and so on. Offering a “green card” as passport to great values of hope, joy, justice, democracy, opportunities and (second) possibilities while expressing just a shallow range of emotions and customs/traditions as a nation that empty these words of (part of) their meaning.

I still look at USA with so much hope. I think as a country and also the single people I know can open their eyes. Be more accommodating. Realise life is not a constant struggle and the majority of conflicts (at ANY level) can be resolved through talk and comprehension and not by hate and a constant sense of superiority.

Where will I settle? wait, will I ever settle??

Today the answer is “probably no” and about USA I can just echo a fellow European in saying “I’ll be back”.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Baltimore, The End, Podcast

Baltimore! the beginning of my experience in USA and the end of my trip this time. I could say a ton of things about the city and about my feelings while coming "home" (am I referring to Baltimore? Europe? Paris? who knows!).

I think many knows my story, what I left behind, what I was afraid to find, a lot of contrasting ideas where in my mind.
Probably you can find everything here.

Podcast Ita

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3cUQxeEppX0VySDA

Podcast Eng

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3eHdaVEdEZzM5T00

Nashville Podcast

Here the podcast of Nashville, last place I visited with a friend and the home of country music!

Podcast Ita

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3ZHdmSVdWT3NIRDQ

Podcast Eng

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3VmlxYjNWQlZaeUE

New Orleans Podcast

Ciao All,

here the podcast about New Orleans, which is pretty beautiful and has a very special vibe.

Podcast Ita

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3WVJyVnp4aHhqRDQ

Podcast Eng

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3VHhMQV9yeFRpa3c

Houston Podcast

Here is the podcast about my short trip to Houston. Just to see the space centre which by the way was about to close for the day!

Podcast Ita

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3U0dSd2VEZjBZZms

Podcast Eng

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3ZzRqUG9zZWVWRTQ

Austin Podcast

Here the podcast of Austin! The first place I visited with somebody else during my travel! No more alone time for pretty much one week.

Podcast Ita

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3OHBUMV95WVIyRG8

Podcast Eng

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3P1xRfOv3b3WUtDQVRPNV9Kd28

Hiking in Wasach National Forest

Ciao! As I said Utah is really beautiful! In fact like 65% of land is OWNED by the State! So there is a huge quantity of it which is quite incredible and makes the whole state pretty much a huge National Park.

Here are some pics from a very nice hike just less than one hour from Salt Lake!

Salt Lake City Pictures

Staying in Salt Lake was really nice. The city is beautiful and it's also curious. Without being offensive I can say Utah is for the LDS-Church (it's the name! Mormons is just informal!) is what Israel is for Hebraism.

I had the opportunity to speak a lot about religion during my stay there and it was a pretty interesting talk in fact. I am pretty sure if you listen to the "podcast" you can find a lot about.

but let's go to the pictures

Here is Brigham Young and the pioneers which colonised Utah in 1847

A view of the Salt Lake Temple (1893), quite impressive

The imposing Temple

In all its magnifency

And from a distance.

A view of the really nice State Capitol, taken from "the Vatican".

Nice fact I was the only non-Mormon visiting here!

Still a view from above, You see the Temple, some visitor building, and the dome is the Tabernacle which can be used for concerts, while on the right the small centre is the HUGE conference centre (21.000 capacity!!)

it's really HUGE (222 feet tall, 68 meters!)

The "vatican" which is called just LDS Church Office Building (130 meters, 420 ft)

the over 3 meters (11 feet) statue of Christ..

YES it's the same as the one at Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore, USA) while the original is in Copenhagen (Denmark)!!

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Pictures from I-70

Hi everybody! Travelling through I-70 from Denver to Salt Lake has been a very nice experience. The scenery you find on the road in gorgeous and changes very much going from mountainous/forest to the Utah desert. Here some pictures from the travel!

(P.S. I really don't know where single pictures were exactly taken, there was pretty much zero cell reception anywhere!!)