The summer season that is coming to an end has absorbed all energy, but it has allowed us to grow exponentially in experience and awareness.
If I look back, once again, I feel blessed and enriched.
I learned that fatigue is overcome, energy is renewed, security is consolidated, the technique is refined.
Working on the volcano which is currently considered the most active in the world is a source of daily inspiration. The spring treks have given us a knowledge of the territory that is summarized in renewed fluency and safety in the stories we share with those we accompany.
Colleagues give back their esteem and share work, experiences, new discoveries.
The team concept we are so fond of is beginning to take shape. The one that makes you feel safe, that gives you opportunities and that, in the end, always wins.
And in this setting the experiences with those who accompanied us along this hot summer have been innumerable.
Like the time when two guys, after a cloudy Sunset, went back alone to the same places to see the sunrise and sent me photos.
Or when I was lucky enough to be twice in the right place at the right time: trekking at 2500 meters during two of the 51 paroxysms that characterized this incredible year. The amazement and emotion (and not just of the guys who were with me!) Were such as to have sealed the promise of memories that time will not erase.
Someone was moved by listening to me tell, someone else came back for another tour, a French couple chose the craters of Etna inflamed by the colors of the sunset to promise to spend the rest of their lives together. Then there is the group that bonded so much during the tour that they decided to end the holiday together. And there are friends from the north who have come to visit, others who have sent their children, or other friends, or friends of friends.
Summing up, growing means increasing experience and knowledge, which translates into credibility and authority.
The passion we put into it, I understand, is what makes everything special. It is an ingredient that cannot be missing and cannot be overshadowed.
But all this without the great mother who gives everything would be nothing.
She is the real protagonist: that she changes in shape and expression with each passing month. Which represents the most beautiful book ever read that, every day, we try to interpret and tell those who barely leaf through it. So interesting and mysterious that you can’t get enough of it.
Understanding its essence is a beautiful and ever-new challenge that we have been facing for some time, but which this year in particular we will embrace with passion thanks to a new training path that we can’t wait to start.
Always ready to come back to you with new things to show and tell, not to forget that our mission, in the end, is to make you understand and love this wonderful world called Etna.
