A nice discovery

I've started using my new mobile camera just before the end of last Summer break, as the old device battery was exhausted and couldn't help any more. It didn't take me too much to learn that playing with it could be much more pleasant than expected. Quality is still below my (not so high) standards but at least it is always with me, in my backpack or in my bike bag.

I'm used to have a ride on my MTB at least once a week. Sunday mornings are devoted to get wet with sweat, mud and sometimes rain. This was the case of last Sunday. My usual cycling companion dropped me a SMS, early in the morning, saying that he wouldn't afford to push his feet for two hours under the falling rain. So, after few minutes of mumbling about what to do, I put on a fluo-yellow wind jacket and went out of my apartment, whatever the sky promises were.

And it was nice, after all. Even though the sky was overcast, it didn't rain and I could quickly reach a narrow and shallow valley where the Olona river flows southward and rode along the "dirty" roads that surround its banks. To my surprise it was just like going back in a Sunday morning of a century ago, when the valley was full of small water powered textiles industries and a small steam train line connected as a necklace one factory after the other.

Now it's all gone. Only the peeled off walls and the tall brick chimneys of what gave work to thousands of people still stand up. Hopefully, in the coming years, woods will swallow these remains and cover every trace of the de-industrialization process this country underwent.