Missing them

 

I lived four years in the Apennines, in central Italy. There was solitude, silence, and a lushy, gorgeous and impressive vegetation there, together with a certain wilderness given by the many animals you could encounter.

At night too.

The suddenly cry of a fox, waking you up while you were deeply sleeping, with that terrible and creepy cry, just down below your bedroom window, was really something that gave me the chills. An intense mixture of deep emotions and awe, together with fear.

And the first time I saw a serpent. Not just the little snakes you do happen to see, hushly trying to hide as soon as they perceive someone approaching. But a long one: at least 1.20/1.50 mt. and 5 cm thick. Completely black, shining his frightening blackness, while sleeping in the sun on a big rock, down below the living room window, overlooking the wild creek, with all the Apennines  framing the spectacular view.

A round badger with the thick fur, calmly crossing the road, busy doing his things. A ferret... All animals I never had any occasion to meet in person, not even in the Alps or in the Us Yellowstone National Park.

But what I liked the most were the different kind of night birds I could hear at night. I never felt alone with them all around, "silently" talking to me in their secret language without words, that one can understand only if listening through the soul!