STOP WAR
A few years ago, after some changes in my work, I moved to Seville, Spain, where—although with a certain amount of coming and going—I eventually ended up making my base for almost two years of my life. Seville is less than two hours from the Portuguese border, so I also began spending time in Portugal, at first with short weekend escapes and later with longer trips.
I began to get to know people and to spend time in Lisbon, and then in the south of the country, the famous Algarve. Later, over time, I also learned to explore the north, where Portugal fades into Spanish Galicia and sets out towards Santiago and the mists that hang over that singular corner of the European Atlantic coast.
Today, years later, I am putting together the pieces of these memories, which are very special to me. This land is no longer as accessible to me as it once was, first because I returned to Italy, and also because, unfortunately, the speculative phenomenon of overtourism has had a profound impact on the Portuguese experience, which probably no longer offers that sense of quiet—and also the ease of access—that, at the time, represented its greatest attraction for me and for many others.
I think back to the days spent along the Atlantic coast, trying to quietly slip into the rhythm of local life: going down to the harbour at dawn to watch the fishermen at work, wandering through the local markets, simply observing the everyday.
I think of the evenings in Lisbon and the meetings with local filmmakers. We were all busy contemplating the city’s inexhaustible beauty. Sometimes we even wrote the screenplay for a film—one that was never made—on the paper tablecloth of a restaurant in the port.
I remember Atlantic sunsets—perhaps in one of the northern towns—while a freight train loaded with timber crossed an iron bridge into the village, and ships were being moored in the harbour beneath the silent ruins of an old, half-abandoned castle.
An endless sequence of images returns to me, one after another.
Here I have gathered a map of these images, covering “my journey in fragments over time.” I have put it back together as a single journey, and as a tribute to this wonderful land and to the golden time it generously gave me.
