It’s 1.15 am, august 18th, a message arrived to my mobile phone: “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! How are u? Tomorrow I thought to…”
It’s from my brother; he is planning to go in mountain with me, in the place that every time I read or heard it produces a smile in my face, especially when I was child.
Without hesitation I replay positively to the message.
It’s from seven months that my grandpa is dead and today is the right day for remember him in the best way.
The road is different now, new and more houses, new and busies streets; I remembered more green during the trip when I was child! That’s made me sad for a while.
But turning a corner, a small street, “the crazy little street”! We use to call like this.
I still keep in mind like was yesterday.
Grandpa, grandma, me and my brother in the van:
Grandpa: “Ready?”
We always wait that funny moment when the street is like a rollercoaster.
My brother and me: “ Yeahhh!!! Wheeeee!!! Faster granpa! Faster!!! ”
I never wanted that moment finish.
From here to the arrived point, where we used to leave the car, it’s the same; it’s like a very fast jump in the past.
We are here, no signs, no cars, just this beautiful mountain in front of me, this pure nature and that smell, that typical smell that always remember you something of your past.
For today that smell was San Gottardo, a small isolate village, only reachable on foot.
No light, no water in houses, no heating, seems like to be in another world. A beautiful world. The paradise.
From the end of the street to the first house it’s forty-five minutes and you have to walk in a very small path with all your stuff, sometimes happens that you’ve got to do it more than one time if you have many things with you. Not many choices.
And here we are. The first house is our. We call it “the yellow house”, the only one with that color in the village; maybe it was an old restaurant in the past, I really don’t know about this.
It is so small now, the big wood door, the rock stairs inside, the rooms, the beds and the balconies, I feel like in a dolls house.
Of course now I am one meter longer from the last time I took a look in here.
I look around, everything is like my brother and me left 20 years ago from that of many before summers we used to come with our grandparents.
Nothing is changed; the cableway, those funny airplanes, the bell tower and many other toys that we used to build with wood are still there in the living room; I can still hear the noise of the saw that my grandpa used down in the cellar cutting woods or outside on that flat stone that usually people used for the roof here in mountain.
I look in the wall, here is the old house made hat stand, up on it two small Alpine hats.
Grandma: “Davide, Diego!!! Put your hats on, there is too much sun outside!!!
My brother and me used to go around the village with our 3 friends, which we always met there for the summer period, playing games in the nature; I still remember the pain of the nettle in my hand and the numerous bees’ sting.
And yes, that sound of little bells, it meant that we were very close to the goats; then the hens and the cock, the cats, the dogs, the birds and that amazing eagle that I saw just one time.
Today a lot of smells came along to me, that smell of grass, that smell of dampness, that smell of wild animals and the smell of that wood that I see everywhere in the cellar right now.
I close the door behind all those memories and me.
I am ready to leave this piece of nature.
Everything will be in my mind, forever!
I put my hat and I am ready to start a new sunny day.
Davide Durjava | 2008
ITALIAN VERSION:
Ecco qua la nostra casa, la “casa gialla” sulle Alpi.
Sembra così piccola adesso, la grande porta di legno, le scale di roccia, le stanze, i letti,
mi sento come in una casa per bambole.
Ogni cosa è come avevo lasciato vent’anni fa, da quelle vacanze estive che passavo con i miei nonni ogni anno.
Niente è cambiato; la teleferica, quei buffi aeroplani, il campanile e molti altri giochi che io e mio nonno costruivamo con il legno. Sono ancora tutti li nel soggiorno.
Guardo il muro, ecco l’appendiabiti, un tronco d’albero, e sopra un piccolo cappello da Alpino.
Nonna: “Davide!!! Metti il cappellino, c’è tantissimo sole fuori!!!
Andavo sempre in giro per il paesino a giocare tra la natura; mi ricordo ancora il dolore di quando, per caso, finivo su un cespuglio d’ortiche.
E quel suono di campanelle che preannunciavano l’arrivo delle caprette, poi le galline con il gallo, i gatti, i cani, gli uccellini che cantavano tutto il giorno e quella fantastica aquila che non ho più rivisto.
Ora sono pronto per lasciare questo “pezzo” di natura.
Ogni cosa resterà per sempre impressa nella mia mente.
Mi metto il cappello, pronto per iniziare una nuova giornata di sole.
Davide Durjava | 2008
