Wind Mill Diaries

To this November 2020, symbol of the end of my one year experience in Menorca, I dedicate Le Temps de l'Amour by Françoise Hardy, from 1962. "It's time for love/The time of friends/And adventure/When time comes and goes/We don't think about anything/Despite its wounds/Because the time of love/It's long and it's short/It lasts forever/We remember it". C'est le temps de l'amour Le temps des copains Et de l'aventure Quand le temps va et vient On ne pense à rien Malgré ses blessures Car le temps de l'amour C'est long et c'est court Ça dure toujours On s'en souvient

It's a while I'm home again, now. It's been kind of weird to be in Italy again, all of a sudden, after 12 months of Spanish talking, Spanish food and Spanish landscapes. But I got used again very fast to my old life, and now, the whole Menorca expierience feels already like it's very far away. But I was there just over two weeks ago. Odd. It's incredible how fast we adapt to new life condition. I kind of miss the island life, but, given the circumstances of the global pandemic, I prefer to be here with my family. And moreover, I don't miss the Minorcan winter very much. Last November and December were kind of hard for me, because I wasn't used (and still am not) to Menorcan wet cold. It's tricky, because the temperatures are pretty warm, reaching 16°-18°C most of the days. In sunny days you could walk around without jacket and some days just in t-shirt. But. Don't forget the wind. Never forget the wind. When Tramontana blows, the sky fills up with cl...

When I chose to participate in this project I was living a phase of frustration and immobility: I couldn't find a steady job in my field of study, I was struggling to maintain economic independence, I was feeling powerless and hopeless. I chose to leave to "unplug", pause everything, freeze my life as I knew it at that moment and change. Change  country, change house, change friends, change job, change language, change everything. And that was just what I needed. Moving from life in a big city to life on a small island in the Mediterranean Sea really allowed me to change pace and perspective. Getting away from the frenzy of the metropolis to live in Menorca, at its slower rhythms and in connection with nature, allowed me to free myself from a lot of superstructures, conventions and social pressures that oppressed and worried me. Living on an island with agricultural traditions (recently converted to tourism, but not excessively exploited), where distances and social conne...