...we continue to see extinguished fires surrounded by stones... Also the fences...there’s not only one.We see the cross, again. It no more seems so frightening, but still very attractive. We approach it: actually is very old, it oozes antiquity. Dead lichens cover its surface, giving it an even more unique look.
We are in a forgotten village where, for sure, we’ll never return, yet something keep us from taking a picture in front of the cross that, who knows how many hundreds of years it is fascinating people. We walk around it, as if it could say something: we expect it conveys us something, after everything we passed through, but it’s just an old cross.
-It’s amazing how fear can create such realistic fantasies that remain so even when you return to be rational- I think.
We continue quietly beside the castle and see again the extinguished fires surrounded by stones. We still don’t understand why they’re there. Also the fences... there’s not only one. At least two, maybe three, I can’t remember well. They are mostly located in correspondence of that sort of natural caves that I mentioned, and they limit their borders
––––––––
...we continue to see extinguished fires surrounded by stones... Also the fences...there’s not only one.
––––––––
on two sides. What could be the purpose, we cannot know, or rather, not yet, and maybe it would be better not to know.
We are at that point where before we heard that delicate voice. Who knows where it came from. I still can’t convince myself that it wasn’t a human voice. It was so near.
-Bah! Let’s forget it-
The road runs along the rock upon which the castle lords, with a slight curve; when we are in the middle of it, we finally begin to see the long awaited historical centre, the old town.
We see, in the distance, a bell tower, in perfect state, and various buildings around it. At a first glance we see a single street, not too wide, newest up to half, unpaved the rest of it. On both sides there are buildings that look united to each other. Plants are growing inside, some of them also invade the roadway. A contour of weeds covers the junction point between street and buildings. There are inputs of all kind: doors beyond which you can spot stairs that loose in the dark; bigger doors that could be two meters and a half by three, they’re probably stores; vestibules arc-shaped beyond which one can see other arcs. There are courtyards surrounded by other buildings.
––––––––
...a bell tower in perfect state and various buildings around...
We enter the now deserted town. Actually the street isn’t single, ‘cause we can see the others are very narrow streets. They go inside the town between the buildings, we could not see them before from that perspective.
The oldest and abandoned part is the farthest, beyond the pavement we are going through. In fact, ahead, the buildings are much worst, they look abandoned from ages. Finally we think we have understood the reason for the sign with the prohibition of pedestrian traffic. The old town is by now an open-air workshop, with construction sites everywhere. Theorically, the intention should be to make it a touristic and visitable site, and that wouldn’t be bad, either. In those not yet touched, it elude a truly indescribable desolation. Intact ovens hanging in the air, fireplaces that still seem to emanate heat, chairs...some chairs are still there.
-It shouldn’t have been easy, for those who lived there, to abandon everything and start over again, even if it wasn’t too far from there-. The town has its charm, it is from medieval times; in comparison, the reconstructed part looks like a tourist village. In the newest part; the works are suspended. Inert abandoned concrete mixers, restructures only externally made, just to give the impression of works being carried out. -Another way to steal money from the European’s community founding- we think bitterly.
Intact ovens hanging in the air, fireplaces still seem to emanate heat, chairs...some chairs are still there
––––––––
We still go around a bit, between collapsed houses, scattered structures and crumbling looms. Something capture our attention. On an external wall of a house, that looks someway already restructured, there is a tombstone. It is of a little girl death in 1980, probably during the earthquake. Considering that she was born in 1970, she was ten when the worst happened. It’s a poor tombstone: a simple white marble slab with black streaks, in the middle the child’s picture, very simple indeed, birth and death dates. No ornaments. There isn’t even the name. Surely the tombstone was already there when they started the reconstruction works, and didn’t remove it for respect to the young deceased...no, maybe it’s not like this...
Looking better, the wall around the gravestone appears broken, as if they had tried to remove it, but why? Was it hindering the works? Did they reconsider the removal? There are no flowers, it is abandoned to itself, like everything here. Underneath it, that has been put to the height of man, there are incomprehensible writings. They look to be made with spray paint. What we can understand is that the language is not Italian, nor English, nor German. They just look like bulleted letters:
PAACH UTIA’AL LELA’ NOH KAAH
‹‹What the hell does it mean?›› I ask .
‹‹And what is this?›› says Antonio nearing the writing. ‹‹To me, it looks blood!›› answers Anna.
‹‹Blood? Who would do such a thing? Don’t we start again››.
Just at that moment the camera begins to whims: I just can’t take a picture of that strange writing. The photos I’m trying to make are all overexposed, too white. I’m forced to give up, I don’t understand what’s the matter with it, what could have happened from one moment to the next.
While I carefully memorize the strange phrase on the smartphone, I say smiling:
‹‹Oh boys! What if it was the ghost of this child to say “Mum”?››
‹‹Come on, don’t you joke, Frà››.
‹‹Oh how boring! It was only a way to light up the situation››.
I’m still wondering why there is only that tombstone there. I don’t think the child is the only one that had the worst. Houses not yet restored are for a post-war scenario. I believe many people lost their lives in the earthquake.
Anyway, happy to have made sense to our trip, we move away from the tombstone to go to the exit of the old town.
A slight cold breeze is raised, leaf’s noise all around. The way they move looks like a whirlwind. A light grey mist surrounds me like odorless smoke. My eyesight is blurring, I think it could be because of the lentils. I blink my eyelids trying to see better, pulsation accelerate without any reason.
I have the feeling of tingling eyes. -It’s not because of the lentils- I think. I recon it’s as when I went to donate the blood: after that abundant donation I was going to lose my senses and began to see so many colorful and bright spots. Now is the same.
For a few seconds I feel alone. Then I hear someone’s breath near me: -I’m not alone!-
More than a sigh, it seems like a rantle.
I head towards that direction and in that same moment Anna makes me jump out of my skin:
‹‹AAAAARGH...What was that?›› she suddenly screams.
‹‹Ehiiiiii...what were you screaming for? You made me jump›› I say.
‹‹She was here, don’t tell me you didn’t see her!›› she exclaims looking around hasty and frightened.
‹‹But what !?››
‹‹No, boys, please...let’s go away. A shadow passed near me, I got shivers.››
‹‹A shadow!? What do you mean?››
‹‹Yeah...something...I felt something, I can swear it...it passed just in front of my eyes. Please, let’s go away!››.
‹‹Anna, first you say not to joke about these things, and then you try to scare us?››
‹‹Are you stupid? Damn! I really saw it. I go away, I’m not going to stay here anymore››.
‹‹Come on, we trust you. Anyway we were going back›› says Antonio with sufficiency. But she is visibly shaken.
I don’t want to mention the sensations we proved, because by now they disappeared. Actually I couldn’t say when, they disappeared. Does the things Anna felt where real? And what about Antonio? He too felt something? Who knows! I wouldn’t scare them again, so I don’t say anything.
We go backward, this time to leave this place definitively.
We pass again along the rock spur at the base of the castle, where there are fireplaces, we look again at theme, and the more we look, the more we can’t understand. Perhaps they were used by the workmen who were involved in the reconstruction. Could there be a plausible but intangible reason for the abandonment of the construction sites? What if they escaped? It isn’t so usual to find all those extinguished fires near an abandoned town. Could somebody camp in such a place?
I look around to the other villages with the binoculars and focus on the nearest one: actually they’re restored, but looking more carefully to the houses, I can see some areas where the plaster comes off and others seems to be patched in a hurry. One could really say that the workmen escaped... and not recently because of the plants already grown up.
Those fireplaces, then, made with so much care...it looks like...-Stop you!- I say to myself -you are thinking unrealistically... again-.
At the middle of the pathway we see a narrow side-road that goes up to the castle. We can’t understand how we didn’t see it before. Yet it clearly stands out. Above there is also part of a fence. We decide to go up there because we won’t have the opportunity to come back here again. We head straight to the path and can now understand why we didn’t see it before: a big bush almost covers the passage, making it invisible to those who head down to the historic centre. We could have seen the fence, but none of the three noticed it. We were probably excited to be able to finally visit the old town.
‹‹Oh guys! Do you really want to go up to the castle?... I want to leave, this place scares me!›› says Anna.
‹‹Come on! We’ll come down right away... but if you feel more quite staying here alone, you can wait for us to get down›› I say taking her to her.
‹‹I have a bad feeling... let’s go home!››
‹‹Anna, you are impressed. Let’s go to have a look. Remember that we won’t have the opportunity to come here again...come on!››
‹‹We have to keep in mind that it will soon be dark ...Anyway I’m against it!›› she says somewhat mumble.
‹‹Come on! I don’t think it’ll take much time. It isn’t so high.››
We overpass the bush and start climbing to the castle. It’s clearly a new path: there is a new fence all along one side and nice big stone steps that favourish the rise. After a couple of minutes we are no longer able to see the surrounding landscape: a dense agglomeration of trees hampers the sight and prevents us from understanding what height we are.
‹‹We should soon be there›› says Antonio.
As soon as I finish to say this, we see two identical signs to those near the gate at the beginning, but much older and rusty:
“Video surveillance Area”, a pedestrian ban’s sign with the writing “Except authorized”
-They were probably going to restore in here too-.
But something doesn’t fit. Going on, just a few meters away from those signs, one can see that the trail has been restored, but from there on, hasn’t been cared for. In fact it looks abandoned: most of the stones are even split. Of course you can walk quite well, but not with a positive feeling. They are darker than those we’ve walked on so far, there are little plants and herbs growing between them and in the splits, some stones are detached. It’s difficult to explain: new trail that seems old and also the surrounding flora seems wilder to us.
-This is so strange!-
‹‹Guys, we’ve come up here... is it ok if we keep going a bit?››
‹‹All right, as soon we realize it isn’t safe we go back›› says Antonio.
We prepare to proceed... in a minute I start shivering. The atmosphere change suddenly, again that cold breeze to envelope us. On the ground a light and almost imperceptible layer of fog:
‹‹There is more humidity here!››
That is, it’s quite chilly...
‹‹The weather is changing again!››
‹‹I put my sweatshirt on››.
Everyone wears sweatshirt or jacket. Light has decreased too:
‹‹Plants are thicker!››.
‹‹Let’s hope it becomes clearer and lighter as we step up...here is a little bit scaring!››
The trail is longer than we thought: from below the castle seemed closer. And the path gets worst more and more. Every now and then there are trees on the ground, certainly uprooted by some storm. It’s clear there hasn’t been maintenance for a long time: in order to pass we are forced to overtake or to raise some bounds to pass under them. There are some others on the left side, we can clearly see the roots. Every time I pass near them, I fear they could suddenly fell.
It is at just a short walk from me and immediately attracts my attention: a smooth, glossy area among the weeds, along the path. It could be a leather bag. I approach it wondering what could it be. The more I get closer, the more I realize it begins to have a shape. Or rather, of course is inert, but my eyes begin to draw the contour.
If I hadn’t started to recognize ribs, I might have spent more time to understand that it was the old carcass of an animal.
The broader part, the one that I had seen from afar, corresponds to the body of a beast lying on one side. Because of the size, I think of a deer right away, but I believe there aren’t any in this area. It’s dark and it looks burnt. The bones are covered by what I believe is the skin of the animal, now pulled and snapped so much that the skeleton appears thick, and the chest is perfectly visible. The extremities of the front paws are completely without flesh that, instead, is present but mummified in other parts of the body. I’m now closed to that skewed skeleton, but it doesn’t smell nasty, that’s why I suppose it’s there from long ago. And I don’t know why that bloody thing makes me worried.
The teeth are well visible, in an endless grunge. They’re sharp, most of all the two canines that I can see. A black hole occupy the place of the left eye, by now no more existing. I look without stopping, just slowly passing around it. I don’t even know if my companions have seen it, I’m too busy in my thoughts. Maybe they told me something, but I was barely listening. I walked a few feet away from that decomposed carcass and I see there is another one. It’s smaller, but it surely belongs to the same animal. Is a series of bones held together by the same black skin, just the same size of a chicken thigh. It might have been detached by another animal but, if so, it should have been a big one, ‘cause the bones seem to me a very hard type. From this angle I can see another disconcerting thing...the largest carcass is resting on crossed wooden boards... I think of the image of the cross with the animal tied to it, vertically placed ... as an alarming sign warning not to go further.
I look around searching for other clues. On the rocky wall that delimits the path, almost in correspondence to the carcass, there are red spots that remind me the writing under the tombstone. They are partially covered by the vegetation and I can’t well understand what it is. It could be one of those white and red marking along the hiking trail.
‹‹Ehi! Have you seen this?›› I say indicating the red writing. We approach the paret trying to better understand, eradicate some weeds grown in the rock’s splits and tear some long branches of a climbing plant that goes down from above: this way we free the view. There are mosses attached to the rock, but I can easily eliminate them helping myself with a branch found on the ground.
Actually there’s a script, but it’s too faded to understand it.
This is what we see:
M* *UUT *
The asteriscs (*) indicate the position of some red spots that probably were letters, but unfortunately they are inevitably incomprehensible.
It seems so strange to find an old carcass tied to crossing wood boards. This writing, then...I’ve got a bad presentiment. Antonio interrupts my obscure fantasies: ‹‹Fascinating eh? Have you ever seen a carcass so big e so... intact?››
‹‹Who knows what kind of animal it is...!?››
‹‹What do you think about this?›› I ask indicating the red letters.
‹‹I’m not going to say anything, ‘cause you never listen to me›› says Anna.
‹‹There’s nothing to think about. It’s the usual uncivilized people who dislike nature, they don’t respect it... Come on, let’s go away from here, we risk to take some disease ››
‹‹Waite a minute, I want to write down those letters›› and so I do.
––––––––
If that was one of my solitary excursion, that would surely be the right moment to go back. One of those moment in which you think: -is it really worth pursuing when you find such things?-
During my solitary tours I learned to listen to nature and to what surrounds me, but also to myself and my intuitions. I always supported my times, my body, my tiredness or my desire to move on. I learned that when I begin to feel that there’s something wrong, for any reason (it could be the change of the weather, the air or the atmosphere, or whatever), that’s the moment to say: “Now it’s enough”. Every time I didn’t listen to my inner voice, always something went wrong: in the worst case I got lost, other times paths became less interesting or began to become dangerous. I don’t know if this is a common capacity for everyone. Actually, I know that it isn’t so. My friend Anna says that I emane a strong energy and it is very likely that I have hidden capabilities that I cannot control.
To be honest, I’m not interested to the topic, but in certain circumstances I like to think it is so. Circumstances like this one.
In the end I think that the difference between Anna’s crappy ideas and my way of thinking about this topic, is that what to her are certainties, to me are fascinating possibilities. And thinking better it’s a big difference, because what is just curiosity for me, is a way of life for her. If she’s certain of my sixth sense, I want to believe that there’s something true. When she believes that the entire universe is dominated by energies that intersect, merge, interact and blend, and that it’s possible to “read” this energies through rows, tarots, etc., I believe more concretely (but even not too much), that if the moon succeed in influencing the sea, can also affect us, because we are infinitely smaller than an ocean. I think maybe there is a way to read this influences: as the science explains the rational, there might be an extra science that explains the intangible. The complicated thing is to understand, but above all, to find who is really capable to do it. Even more difficult is to really believe in all this, beyond the simple disquisition with puerile curiosity.
Apart from this parafilosophic-energetic-spiritual parenthesis, it’s very complicated to listen to your instinct when you’re not alone (it could be a matter of concentration), and it is even more difficult to convince someone about your feeling... even though, in this case, I’m sure I’d have Anna’s support: but she didn’t expect anything than having the excuse to go back. To say the truth I wanted to go on: I like the adventures.
It’s me again to be the first of the small group. Only few minutes have passed since we left the carcass.
I’m about to fall on one of the many rocks and, at the same time I try to dodge the plants that almost invades the passage, when Anna expresses everyone’s opinion
‹‹Guys, it seems to me that there’s no point in continuing, we risk getting hurt and, moreover, it’s becoming dark››.
When she spoke I was carefully searching for the right support where to put my feet on that dangerous path. Hearing her voice I look up and... I see it.
If she didn’t talk I would definitely bump my head, and that wouldn’t have been nice.
A rusty wrought iron gate. Halfway between one of those is seen in horror movies, and a cover of Iron Maiden. It’s height could be two and a half meters. In the middle of it there was an iron skull that left perplexed. It forced those in front of it, to watch it carefully. Let me say that its expression was not one of an “everyday’s skull”, I couldn’t explain why. Teeth and gums, well carved in the metal, made the image even too realistic. It seemed to grin but at the same time, screaming. A little difference that left definitely enchanted but also disturbing. It seemed too old to be false and too perfect to be true.
‹‹Anna...Antonio... Come to have a look!››.
We get stuck in front of that gate, that meaningless skull, without knowing what to think. It looks like another bad omen. We look at each other smiling without knowing why. -This can’t be true- I think.
Maybe they done it to give a touch of mystery to a castle that has to be restored. I never saw something like this, if not in some stupid horror film. Nevertheless is there, in front of us. Over the gate the ground appears white as if it was covered with cotton. There is little light here: we have to approach to see better.
The gate is not really closed: ‹‹Are we going?›› I say.
‹‹NO!›› cry out Anna, as if I said “Let’s bounce down”. Clearly she can’t go on anymore, I think she’s at the end.
‹‹ARE YOU JOKING?›› she says ‹‹IT’S A RUINED CASTLE, THERE ARE ONLY RUBBLES! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL FIND? ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! IT’S BECOMING DARK! I WANT TO GO AWAY. NOW!!!››
...she cannot finish the sentence that something interrupts her...someone, something. It was so sudden that it is difficult to define. All the rest happened in a fraction of a second.