The path of the gods

by Wu Ming 2

«Thousands of people crossing those mountains every day, he punched the landscape. At least once a year, newspapers and TV news firing titles on "Italy split in two," referring to a 'tragic accident' between Sasso Marconi and Barberino del Mugello, or a "technical problem" over the rails Direct Railway. In a wide corridor up to twenty kilometers, passing all communication between the North and South. Lovers of the cliches defined that a funnel narrows, the spinal cord. Millions of Italians over the windows of a car or a train, had seen the rivers and torrents flow, without even asking what name they had and what stories they could tell».

In a late-summer morning, Jerome takes his two children in Park Talon, expanse of woods and meadows on the outskirts of Bologna. Tracking a deer, the three end up on a path never seen in front of a sign pointing south and simply says: Florence. Skip a day and in the station square, Jerome contemplates the stele erected to celebrate the opening of the Bologna - Florence High Speed. Thus was born the idea to climb over the Apennines on foot, to discover the world that the new trains will pass through the tunnel without can devote even a glance.

How strange a detective down, Jerome gets to the streets to discover not the culprit, but the victims of a crime foretold. What is lost earning twenty minutes in the path between two cities? What they do not see the millions of Italians who annually pass through this 'funnel' of national transport, an area to service cars and trains? The answer, not at all obvious, comes after five days of traveling five miles an hour between meetings and legends, environmental disasters and quiet beech woods, deer graze under the bridges and ruins of ancient inns that host new pilgrims.

P. 206. Price: Euro 17.50

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