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Meetings in Iran are the other aspect that will always remain in my memory. Years earlier I had had an affair with an Iranian girl living in Bologna. Talking about her country and telling her about my trivial collection of magnets, she told me that they did not have them in Iran; this goes to show how newly open it is to tourism.
Until the Islamic Revolution it was an extremely modern country and connected to the rest of the world; it is potentially rich and has history and culture thousands of years old. But for a generation it was completely isolated and put as if in limbo. So much so that many Iranians, perhaps the older ones, know nothing or little about what is in the rest of the world. In the middle of an intersection a gentleman asked me if we had ancient cities like them in Italy too.
The most memorable of meetings in Iran
But the most spectacular instance of my encounters in Iran was with a very nice gentleman whose job in the Yazd bus station was to assist waiting passengers. When he heard that I was Italian he was almost moved by telling me that when he was young he was a great fan of our cinema. He had seen so many films and began quoting me a number of directors and actors, asking me for updates on their status.
And how is Bud Spencer?
He died…
Oh no, poor guy…what about Terence Hill?
He is doing well and now in a TV series he is playing a priest
Oh, but how!!! What about Clint Eastwood?
Look he is not Italian, but American, however he is fine as well
A movie buff was stuck on Eastwood’s early career when he was doing spaghetti westerns and had missed the last 50 years. For non-Italian readers, Bud Spencer was a famous actor from my country.
In Yazd I discover Zoroastrianism
I arrived in Yazd in the middle of the night, enjoyed the sunrise coming slowly right into the main square on which my bnb was overlooking.
Also in the city is the Temple of Fire, where there is a flame that has been guarded and burning continuously since 470 and is one of the symbols of Zoroastrianism. It is a religion that is now forgotten but had many adherents for centuries.
Another place of worship for what some consider to be the world’s oldest monotheistic religion that I visited on a tour together with a Japanese girl is that of ChakChak. A spring inside a cave, which legend has it was born at the hands of a runaway princess (miracles more or less similar are present in all religions).
Home travel Ignorance in social media, especially about Iran
Previous stop While traveling in Iran, I hold press conferences
Next stop Missing the plane in Shiraz, Iran.
Trips taken, travel stories divided by continent
Countries visited in my travel stories
Anecdotes, divided by type in travel narratives
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