The Monia Torrent Waterfall

Here is a true corner of paradise, the waterfall of the Monia stream, in Lunigiana, reachable in half an hour on a steep path, all downhill, from the village of Irola Bassa, but you can also start from Irola Alta, as I did for mistake ! Only one kilometer more walking. The return will obviously be all uphill. The path is clear and well marked, at times steep and slippery, dotted with various arrows indicating "waterfall", near which there are the fascinating ruins of an ancient mill, now ruined and unsafe. The village of Irola itself, surmounted by a large medieval tower house, is an ancient and curious village, full of steps and underpasses, arches and narrow alleys, which is worth a visit.

For lovers of technicalities, this image is made up of 4 horizontal shots processed in HDR and then superimposed in a vertical panorama, obtained with an Olympus 9mm lens.

conformed to nature.

- Zhuangzi -

Arcane feelings

"It is very probable that once upon a time the Earth appeared as an interrupted expanse of forests, a lush and enormous infinitely varied jungle, rich in plants and animals of all kinds, crossed by vast rivers and roaring streams, bathed by seas, oceans and lakes with crystal clear and pristine waters.

Even in fairly recent times all of Europe, from France to Russia, was covered by a single large forest. The anthropologist James Frazer states that until the first century BC the so-called Selva Ericinia extended from the Rhine towards the East for an immense and unknown distance, to the point that some Germans, questioned by Caesar, claimed to have traveled for two months without find the end.

Northern Italy itself was completely cloaked in thick forests of elms, chestnuts, and especially oaks, and Rome was divided from central Etruria, at least until the sixth century BC. from the Cimino forest, which according to Livy no merchant had ever dared to cross, it was so dense and dangerous.

It is conceivable that in such pristine and unexplored places one could perceive the mystery, power and infinite beauty of the natural world, recognizing in all its manifestations the living and enchanting body of a single Great Mother, from multiple divine forms.

Men and women of archaic times, probably endowed with a particular sensitivity, could perhaps perceive the entire natural world as a single grandiose open-air temple".

from the book The archaic Virgins by Leda Bearné - ed. Middle Earth

... and it is this atmosphere that I seem to breathe when I find myself in certain places, like this one, where the boundaries between myself and nature seem to become liquid, where instincts and sensitivity awaken, where society with all its its noises and its useless complications, it seems to be a distant alien planet. It is in these places, in solitude, that we perceive a dormant memory within us, a fleeting memory of a distant past, a sort of arcane lost world, which echoes within the soul, and which from that distant past calls me, it invites, it reminds me that it is part of me, or I are part of it, of that primordial world, which today we have forgotten and become lost.