Nepal – Dubai – Italy

02 July 2022

It is 2.30 in the morning or at night and I am in transit in Dubai, coming from Kathmandu and bound for Venice.
Here everything is operational, as in broad daylight. People shop at designer stores (by now) and eat hamburgers at McDonalds.
I take a milkshake and pay € 8.00, until yesterday I would have lived a whole day with that money, including overnight stay.
I hear a woman not far from me screaming, I approach to understand what is happening and I see a black child, he must have been three years old, lying on the ground. It is not clear what he has but he is sick, at times he faints, the mother screams, the father and the little sister are petrified. Someone stops to help, he looks like a doctor also in transit. The screams, the help that does not arrive in the great international airport of Dubai, the child always lands with this “volunteer” doctor who does what he can.
My eyes are shining, I feel like crying, I see the desperation of that family, helpless and unable to do anything but beg for help.
21 minutes of panic, 21 endless minutes until the arrival of an emergency team that secures the child and takes him away in an ambulance, together with his mother.
I breathe a sigh of relief, I have the Magone, it is impressive to see the suffering, perhaps death, passing so close to you when you least expect it.
I am looking for a place to stretch out my legs and spend the night, my flight is only tomorrow morning at 9.00. I find it, I place it, I am close to the McDolands, almost as if to recover a bit I order a Double Bacon Cheesburgher with French Fries, ketchup and large Coke. It will cost me 20 euros and a stomach ache all night, but when it takes, it takes.
Come on kid, the worst is over

July 11, 2022

Here I am again, after a few days of rest and finally after retrieving my Vespa that arrived in Milan Malpensa on Monday from Kathmandu.
In two weeks I will be leaving, again on my Vespa, for a trip to discover the beauty of Italy, as well as a fantastic opportunity to meet many friends around Italy.
July 31 I will be at the Stelvio Pass, August 1 in Lecco, August 2/3 Piacenza area at the good Fabio Cofferati , if he is not wandering around with his mythical Vespa, and August 4/5 if I can at the Piaggio Museum in Pontedera.
I would like to go all the way to Gallipoli in Puglia to find my friend Stefano Medvedich, a valuable advisor for a new adventure I am trying to plan, leaving in late October 2022.
Leave it to time and the road to chart the course of my summer journey. I welcome suggestions on places to visit and friends to meet. Considering that I will be traveling in August, I will try to avoid, as much as possible, the most touristy areas, preferring small villages and less frequented locations.
Thanks to Piaggio for the nice article on my Italy-Nepal trip.