Il diario di un viandante : $b (Dal deserto al Mar Glaciale)

A flickering oil lamp finally lifts the veil on a yellowed, framed letter that has lingered in a cramped, shadowed room for years. As a child, the narrator watches his mother dust the glass, feeling a quiet reverence for the mysterious paper even before understanding its words. When he finally reads the fading script, a voice from a vanished Napoleonic colonel emerges, speaking of burned Moscow, fleeing crowds, and a world torn by ambition. The revelation sparks a restless curiosity that drives him to trace the paths hinted at in the missive.

Leaving behind the familiar streets of his hometown, the wanderer sets out across deserts, ancient mosques, and crumbling Arab palazzos, following the fragmented clues left by his forebear. Each stop—whether a narrow, nail‑punctured doorway in Tunis or a distant, icy shore—adds a new layer to his personal chronicle, a diary of a soul forever in search of meaning beyond the horizon. The early journey unfolds as a meditation on memory, loss, and the irresistible pull of places once described in a long‑forgotten letter.