The central part of the silky way

For thousands of years, the Silk Road, the road linking Beijing to the Mediterranean, was the most important channel of transit of people, ideas and trade between China and the West.
And it is precisely in the center of this historic, unique, unique path that we decided to make a tour to see the places of magical tales of "Thousand and One Nights", these charming jewels that for centuries have marked the fantasies of children and adult ... A journey into the past in the present and looking to the future ...

'It is precisely the possibility
to realize a dream
that makes life interesting "
Paulo Coelho

Special thanks to Don Maurizio Corbetta creator and organizer of this fascinating tour, a gratitude to those who supported me in this work, and pay particular to those who although not involved in the lap I was motivated and encouraged in writing the diary.

Raffaele Banfi

 

The start

Leaving from Rovello to 5.20 after a short ride we arrive at the airport of Linate, fast shipment to Rome. The flight from Rome is at 11.00. Sitting on a chair at the bar the Fiumicino Airport, on the terrace overlooking the slopes, I start to take notes of travel. E 'one landing and taking off of airplanes, whose colors distinguish the nationality.
Arriva the Italian escort that will stay with us throughout the trip is called Stura Mauritius, is the San Donà del Piave, 27 years of experience in the field. It takes advantage of the stopover at the airport to give us brief information about the tour, an intense program, which includes a number of alarms in the morning, many trips.
Depart from Rome with 20 minutes of delay, justified the intensity air traffic. Effects observed in the window planes taking off and landing is to see a row at regular intervals. The aircraft is an A-310, Uzbekistan Airlines, travel well.
We are in flight, I read the program in detail and begin to identify the references in the guide Lonely Planet - Central Asia - Published January 3, 2005 (all references to this journal will be taken from the guide above as: LP page. No).
The tour is challenging and full of movement, well 9 air travel in 12 days, almost a tour de force itself, or by wandering pilgrims by curious tourists like us.
Beginning to read the history of Uzbekistan, as is apparent in the late medieval and early Italian Renaissance of our area was the most culturally advanced. Under the sovereign Tamerlano (sec. XIV) the region has experienced its greatest splendor.
During the flight, compile 2 copies of the form needed to enter and exit the country. The compilation is facilitated by a facsimile, kindly supplied by Mauritius.
We arrive in Tashkent (LP 186), the capital of Uzbekistan. Looking out the window appears off-white desert, seems to snow, but I do not think that is so cold that it snowed, curiosity begins to make its way into my mind ... The arrival at the airport is characterized by the clearance and paperwork. What is striking are the currencies of the people, remnants of Soviet rule, the characteristic hats are still in the pan used by staff monitoring. Proceed fairly quickly, the timing suggests that we could be in Italy, but it is only a matter of luck, the customs officials did not want to be tax, perhaps will be the evening hours, have an escort who speaks English and knows the tricks of the local bureaucracy, there is a great advantage
We head for the withdrawal of the bags and around the airport strikes me that the Uzbek language using Roman characters and the characters such as Russian Cyrillic. Something you can understand and a sense of loss felt in Russia we do not compare. Collect your luggage and proceed for customs clearance. Another row and border guards, slowly and without any hurry, check the visas and the forms we filled in the air.
We know the local guide, named Nurik, a young man, wake up the eyes, the smile, always ready, the feeling is good.
I withdraw any baggage porters and carry them to buses. The impact with the people to understand that we are in Asia. The features are Euro-Asian, is a melting pot of different ethnicities. Are 20.30 when we arrived, but it is dark, as if it was night, the lights only illuminate streets and buildings. We are moving towards the hotel. Tashkent was destroyed by earthquake April 25 1966, then completely rebuilt, is the fourth city of the former Soviet Union, 3,000,000 inhabitants, as appears from a huge expanse of lights, houses and roads are at a loss d 'eye.
Traveling to the hotel place in the city, along wide avenues you. The buildings show the architecture of the Soviet post-earthquake reconstruction. Imposing palaces, rectangular buildings with no balconies, sometimes emerge something Asian art on the side of the buildings that turns to the road there are huge, coarse mosaic made with tiles. You notice the small windows of apartments, in the upper left of the opening, a feature already noticed in Russia.
Continue sliding quickly to the streets, I see buildings built after the earthquake accompanied by recent buildings whose architecture reflects the abandonment of the Soviet style.
Arrival at Le Meridian, a buffet dinner, the recently renovated hotel is very comfortable.
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Bukhara - 3rd part

Lunch is traditional, vegetables, beet soup, chicken, green tea.
Un po 'rest you need to complete the notes, read the guide for store sites and is seen again in the old part of Bukhara.
The afternoon begins at the point where we finished the morning, behind the Madrasa of Mir-i-Arab, there is a brick building with lots of domes of various sizes. Nurik says that the building, the Taqi-Zargaron dates back to the sixteenth century. was the "Dome of jewelers." Originally these buildings were placed at the crossroads of neighborhoods. Taqi is called "open market" and originally each dome bounded space reserved for each individual craftsman. The building has 36 domes over the middle, it means that there were 36 craftsmen who worked and traded in that place, a true melting pot of people, art, culture and traditions. There are a number of shops, small and large items of handicrafts, carpets, silk fabrics, fine knives, handbags, jewelry, hats, spices, drinks. I will stop to enjoy a herbal tea made of six different types of herbs, the flavor I like, I buy a bag.
Taqi and leave the short distance to visit the Madrasa Abul Aziz Khan (LP 234) of the seventeenth century., Decorations are original, a mix of floral and geometric designs, carried out in Persian style. It 'the most beautiful of the whole Uzbekistan. The building is a bit left out, for the Shiites, Islamic strand that here is a few followers. The minbar and the portal of entry and stucco were restored in 1930, the school common room contains art decorations in China.
See you in the courtyard of the cell, is characterized by a loft that divides the space vertically. The students were in, the teacher above.
On entering, to the left of the door, there is a small oven that was used for cooking of foods, the frontal area under the scaffold where they accommodate the students listen to lectures, given by the teacher who sat on it. To the right of the door just wide brick, allow access to the confidential part to teaching. The upper walls are decorated with colored stucco, and in back of the room a number of niches served as the library and keeping of everyday objects.
We go out of the Madrasa Abul Aziz Khan and its front is the Madrasa of Ulugbek, grandson of Tamerlane, built in 1417. The building is one of three Madras in the world made with the acute and decorating the arch of the cornerstones Timurida style. Or columns and the arch has a sharp hanks that rises in a continuous, almost to be a snake that wraps around the entire column. The decorations are in polychrome majolica tiles (blue, green, white). Let the Madrasa and we head towards Tim, the market closed. Just before we stop in a shop of a craftsman who manufactures knives and scissors. The owner proudly tells us that he worked in Italy and Switzerland, he speaks quite Italian. Produces scissors which are used for embroidery, traditional knives and kitchen knives with tungsten blade cut very efficient. Purchase a piece to wear in Italy. We continue and arrive at Tim, the market closed, the external shape is identical to Taqi, the open market previously visited, but the feature is that this type of market in the evening was closed and reopened the following morning. This is currently in a workshop for the production and processing of silk. We stop to see the weaving of carpets made with a wooden frame. The dyeing of silk yarn in the fabric is done by grouping the small wire in coils and in a predetermined color to multiple colors, depending on the design you want to achieve. The coils are so colorful fabrics. The frames are organized into clubs, those manuals are a minimum of 2 sticks at a maximum of 12. That function has in 8th In a day of work will produce about 4 meters of fabric. Before you get out of this craft, we stop for a drink of the kind that we are offered.
The tour continues and we see the second bazaar, the Telpak Furushon-Taqi, the "Dome of Cappellieri" building of the XVI century. then the seat of producing hats Astrakan, now a part is intended for a turkish bath fully functional. The building is brick, is characterized by a long corridor which gave a tip of the Old Town and the other on popular neighborhoods. In shops, the Socialists have concentrated all the craft shops in historic buildings, be they mosques, madrasas, or other caravanserai.
We cross a street and square are, in a pit dug from street level, the oldest mosque of the city known as "store of the idols, built in the tenth century. zorastrano as a temple. The level of entry of the mosque is going back to the twelfth century. The decoration in Majolica blue is the third historic example of colored tiles. The entrance was marked by 4 pillars between which there was a descent that led to the holy fire. Under the Arab domination, the mosque was turned into a souvenir shop, hence the origin of the name. It is now a museum of Uzbek carpet.
We continue the tour and arrive at the third store, the Taqi-Sarrafon the "Cupola currency exchange" was the reference point of all the merchants who arrived in town for the exchange of currency. Today is also used as a place to store products. Next to you is the first local bank built by the Russians in the nineteenth century.
Not far away is the caravanserai, a structure dating from the seventeenth century. The building has a square plan, the size is the standard of the caravanserai of Central Asia. In the center courtyard had to enclose the animals for sale (twenty) with adjoining rooms for their masters. Floor with a walkway allowed the display of goods and slaves, on the upper floor will contract the sale and purchase of all that was present in the caravanserai. Be the first floor and the upper cells are present where the people could stop and rest a few days. With the advent of the Bolsheviks cells have been "converted" into local artisans, and currently are, Embroidery Fabric golden, cabinet makers, miniatures, chisellers, silk embroiderers.
Caravanserai in front there is a "complex around the pool" with the Mosque Nadir Divanbegi (LP 234) of 1622. Built by the Minister of Finance. Mosque at the front of a tank 16 for 20 meters, containing water from the river is turbid, but boys are also the bathroom. Around the giant tub of mulberry trees, the oldest dating back to 1475, the others are in the XV and XVI century. After the bath there is a bronze statue of Hoja Nasruddin, a character that appears in Sufi stories from around the world. On the left of the Mosque Madrasa of Nadir Divanbegi, the sixteenth century. consists of 150 rooms and could hold up to 300 students. Front to the Mosque Khanaka (hostel) Nadir Divanbegi, built in 1622, initially as a caravanserai then converted into hostel. The facade has a polychrome majolica unusual spectacle with the representation of animals from the local mythology. The interior of the complex is formed by cells for the hostel, turned into artisan shops, the courtyard pergola with vines. Under the arbor of the tables are placed, we stop for the "classic" dinner (vegetables, nuts, soup ravioli oriental flavor that recalls the Chinese cuisine).

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Khiva - 1st part

Alarm at 4.45, quick breakfast and departure to the airport, go over a few hours before we have come. The sun has not yet arisen, but the brightness is great. Tashkent seems an industrious city, despite the night hours, workers are working on the excavations on the street, the yards are in full effect. The impression I have is of being in a dimension other than Italian. With the light, the city appears in all its glory, the chromaticity of the buildings and streets reflect the membership of the Soviet regime with a touch of Asian influence. Gardens, statues revive the city and the avenues.
Quickly arrive at the airport. The part devoted to domestic flights appears sober, simple, clean, comfortable, built to last in time "as the guide.
The formalities are embarking Nurik accelerate the employment of that going to stop with all our tickets has a fast transit. One should always check your bags; loading / unloading, transportation, withdrawal, provided the steady and continuous monitoring to determine if there is everything and if we can continue, an optimal control method step by step.
We approach the plane for the transfer, are parked at the huge Tupolef, the legacy of the Soviet fleet. Thank goodness that the air fleet has been integrated with the Boeing 717. It takes off on time, the flight out regularly, the window I see the homes of Tashkent, the gap between the Soviet buildings, modern buildings and houses is truly remarkable. A strong contrast, visible, palpable. Around the city farmlands. During the trip, of about 1 hours, is flying over desert areas, a first impact with the characteristics of this vast territory, a kingdom in the past raids of nomadic people who made history.
As planned, the flight is to Urgench, the new city built according to the Soviet model. In the new town there is nothing to see, and in fact the program provides for the transfer by bus to Khiva, where the tour will begin with a visit to this city.
Cities, such as flowers placed in the middle of a desert that seems endless, they have created the Silk Road, they were to be the reference for those who went from east to west and vice versa. Unique points of reference after so many days and many kilometers in the desert. Precious and amazing to witness un'antichità cultured, refined where the wisdom of the rulers of these warriors and nomadic peoples, has created these masterpieces that the much-vaunted tourist guides.
Having seen pictures, postcards and a few short movie, the curiosity is really strong. I look forward to being able to admire these masterpieces.
During the flight communications are given in Uzbek and Russian, is a total break with the Western world. The features of the passengers and their clothing style with Asian announce that the West is far off. Welcome to the East, in Asia that has made the history of civilization!
Come to Urgench (LP 244), the airport is very small, a row of helicopters in dismantling and a line of biplanes average (once used for internal flights) are on display, yet another legacy of Soviet domination. Retrieve your luggage, leave the airport, go up by bus and after 30 km we arrive at Khiva (LP 247), after some homes feature low houses with bricks made of clay and straw bricks or cement, with a plan and with the roof in eternit or sheet, see the historic and unique walls of Khiva. Walls made of mud mixed with straw, enormous, mighty, very high, the show leaves you breathless, the desire to visit is immense. Malika Khiva enter the hotel, we take the rooms and we quickly start to this fascinating visit.
Khiva, the old town, is 27 hectares, the city was rebuilt during the 2500 anniversary of the foundation occurred in 1997. The walls are of the seventeenth century., The front door, wood and finely engraved, is the eighteenth century. In the tower entrance there are four rooms, two were originally intended for testing, one was designed for carrying out the caravanserai, one was destined all'esattore taxes, now they are all occupied by excluding that of the artisans where you pay taxes the ticket to be able to photograph. To take money for a good photograph is found to increase the revenue, no matter where we pay to take pictures.
To the left of a huge bronze statue is dedicated inventor dell'algebra. A little further on a wall map showing the route of the Silk Road, the route from Beijing to Rome and ended the highlights of Central Asia, one where we are.
The external walls, clay and straw are powerful. Nurik makes a brief account of the history of the Silk Road s'intuisce and the importance of these cities with their trade have advanced society, paradoxically, the Silk Road was the street that did develop the planting of cotton .
The old town is called Kala Itchan, which is accessible by three doors, and inside was a major slave market, the price of a Russian slave healthy and strong (then estimated as the best) was four camels.
We start visiting the city from the map of the same post on a wall nearby are the shops of crafts, we enter in an arc ogive and find the Madrasa of Muhammad Amin Khan (LP 250), converted into a hotel. In Madras, the old Koranic schools, the study consisted of three courses of 7 years each, who finished the full course became an important person, with a privileged role within the community. Those who have not finished their studies, had the opportunity to teach the alphabet in the villages and the first verses of the Koran. Madrasa within the rooms of the students were organized to accommodate one or two people per room.
Near the Madrasa is the Minaret of Kalte Minor (LP 250) which, according to the architect who designed it was to be the highest in Asia, the original plan provided for a development in height of 90 meters, but the building was stop "only" 27 meters, the base has a diameter of 18 meters, outside there are 8 very different decorative majolica.
The minaret had 3 functions
1. Warn the faithful to prayer (5 times a day);
2nd Warning function;
3rd Feature reporting today, the fires lit during the night were the old "lights" for the caravans that traveled in the desert.
Not far away there is access to the fortress of sultans / khan of Khiva, the palace Kukhna Ark (LP 250) on the right are the Zidon, the prisons of Khan. A small building where, in a small space, for three days the prisoners were locked up, after which, went before the sultan and were two possibilities: either were released or were killed in various ways.
The company at the time was very bloody and as public spectacle amava attend executions, which were different in their crime.
• Impaler;
• Throw the Minaret;
• Buried with his feet out (and it seems that this was the preferred mode ...)
There were more executions for specific cases:
• For the lovers: he was hanged, she, having been buried up to life was stoned and the first to hurl the stone was to be the father.
• For the prostitutes, the woman was placed in a bag with 4 cats wild and began to beat the bag, the cats moved inside the bag and they ruin the body of the poor.

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Khiva - 2nd part

We enter into what was the old citadel, the palace of the sultan / khan contained several buildings for the most diversified, highlight the Mosques, and the winter (indoor) and summer (with wooden porch). The Mosque has a summer coat tile designs from the finest earthenware. I understand how the Islamic religion by prohibiting the depiction of animals and men develop decorations made of only geometric patterns and floral.
The colors used comply faithfully the dictates of Islam.
• Blue represents the sky;
• White represents the purity of the soul;
• Green is the Koran.
Mosque summer of the nineteenth century. portico has a wooden ceiling inlaid and decorated, are the cornerstones of elm wood, finely inlaid.
In the courtyard of the Mosque summer there is a low building containing the old mint where the coins were minted and printed the notes, the first on silk fabric.
We go out and see the brand of local pilgrims are dressed in traditional clothes, are bright, women wear showy jewelry in silver, the men dressed in Western clothes, wearing a hat and bring astracan leather boots.
Visit the museum with archaeological finds unearthed in the courtyard of the palace dating back to 2500 years ago. Access to the throne room, where the sultan received under a portico delegations and individuals. Even here the walls are lined with polychrome majolica.
Under the portico, the building's façade has three doors, the right, the highest was reserved for the sultan, the middle of its dignitaries and left to the people. In the courtyard is a circular platform, is the basis for real yurt, the tent which was used for receptions winter, the origin of this nomadic nation has never been forgotten, even when it became sedentary.
Go up to the bastion oq Shihbobo, the highest tower of Khiva, height 24 meters, from where one sees the majesty of the walls, the structure of the old city, the extension of the new town whose houses have inner courtyards full of plants and open spaces.
The building of the mosque contains the winter a small history museum where are exposed the inventor dell'algebra portraits of a great astronomer who first calculated the exact diameter of the earth, of Ihn physician Abu Ali Sina (known in the West as Avicenna ) who wrote a treatise medical reference that has been for over 500 years in the West, portraits of other characters who made the history of the area and of human civilization.
We leave the palace across the square and enter the Madrasa Khan Mohammed Rahkim (LP 251), built in 1850, now a museum. The Madras have a rigid structure, the courtyard with the cells for students, teachers rooms and two large common rooms, the Mosque and right-hand corner of the hall of winter lectures, on the left. We enter the building, the former mosque are visible portraits and photos of the last Khan, woman jewelry, weapons and clothes. In the former hall of lectures, collected objects are characteristic of Uzbekistan.
After visiting the museum, passing near the symbol of Khiva, a camel whose name is Misha that attached to a pole is the subject of photo, we go for lunch in a typical house, the building, protected by UNESCO , has large walls, inside a courtyard, a portico supported by piles of elm wood products. Two tables are set up under the canopy and one in the courtyard outside. The portico of the mosque recalled that summer just visited.
The traditional lunch is organized by the original vegetables, beets, chickpeas, cucumbers, turnips, red, dried fruit (raisins, almonds, toasted seeds, Spagnoletti) of apricot jam, a salami (horse meat), all accompanied by an excellent bread baked in the oven. Bread that arrives hot and fragrant on the table, the shape is round like a bread but Arabic is the size of our piadina, circumference is slightly crispy the inside is soft and tasty.
The first is a broth soup with potatoes, yellow carrot, a piece of boiled beef, and the second consists of rice pilaf with vegetables and a piece of boiled beef. Water and a local wine, slightly acidic, with lunch.
The stop is made pleasant by a slight breeze that manages to exceed even the high walls of the house.
I notice the women's teeth are coated with gold, which is fighting for caries, but also a demonstration of wealth. Sometimes the smile is completely oratio not be accustomed to such "splendor", initially put in embarrassment.
The afternoon begins with a visit to a small ex Madrasa, where a local artisan works of elm wood to make doors, pillars, read, read, sticks. Wood in the desert is difficult to find, so it's fine. Later we visit another ex Madrasa, home of Sikl Carpet, a site where craftsmen are hand woven carpets and where is tinged with old procedures, using only natural products, silk. Even this website is protected by Unesco. The cycle of production of silk that occurs between these walls, in subsequent periods is seasonal full of bugs arising from the manufacture of silk, the color until the carpet.
Continuing the tour of Khiva and between cultivated gardens, turning to the left of the path the city has one of his best performances, a path descends slightly with a staircase and then goes back for another, to the right of the street stands a marketplace, the red tissue stands out among the stalls that wear a variety of craft products.
A half way, turning left and going up a short staircase, access to the Mausoleum of Mohammed Pahlavon and Madrasa / Sherghozi Khan Mosque (LP 251). Inside the mosque there are 3 graves, because the structure is a place of worship of the Sufis. The structure of the Madrasa is simple, the ground floor there are rooms with private entrance from the courtyard and upstairs, where you log on to a steep staircase leading to the gallery are also rooms with rear access. In the courtyard of the Madrasa is a well with water which will quench the pilgrims was deemed miraculous.
Leave the mausoleum and turn right to continue the way that we first partial path, we make the stairs and we saw previously come to the Madrasa of Islom-Huja (LP 251).
During the Soviet period the Madrasa, with heavy structural has been transformed in the museum of applied arts. Interventions and through the closing doors of the courtyard and opening passages of communication between the various cells have enabled the realization of the current route of the museum.
The museum, by using small cells of the students, contains the main arts in the region can be admired, beautiful artefacts of elm wood, woven cotton and silk finely wrought, velvet dresses, sculptures with verses from the Koran.
Next to the Madrasa is the Minaret of Islom-Huja the highest of Khiva. E 'with its imposing 54 mt, with the base of 9 meters, covered with 16 bands decorative majolica with the different reasons, whose summit is only accessible by a steep climb on a scale well inside the 122 steps.
Madrasa front to a building that during the Soviet period was transformed into the School of Translation Uzbek / Russian.

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Khiva - 3rd part

Continuing the tour of Khiva and come to the Mosque of Juma "Mosque Fridays" (LP 250) of the tenth century. Inside the ceiling to the wooden roof is governed by 203 columns of elm wood, all inlaid. The Mosque has a capacity of 8,000 people, the area is one hectare. The amplification system of entry is via ceramic pots placed in the wall, where the mullahs (Islamic religious) talking simply exploits an effect amplified by the echo in the voice spreads throughout the building.
The structure dates back to the tenth century, but was destroyed several times, in the sixteenth century. happened the last reconstruction. The columns are the oldest original, there are of each period to the present day.
Of elm wood, used for columns requires special processing, is dried, place in oil-soaked cotton and then used for the columns. Under the columns there are pedestals of marble or stone, between the pedestal and the column is placed camel wool that is designed to take away the wood from termites (and the system that works by looking at the wood without the characteristic holes. ..).
Mosque at the center of a square building, based on four granite columns reminiscent of a small chapel in the basement at the center of a marble basin and the next two holes. The holes were used to put the lime and water, the chemical reaction produced heat the water used to put the abduction in the central basin.
We continue to Khiva, enter the Madrasa of Dost Alyam (LP 250), the nineteenth century. where he kept the black coach of Khan, the coach was used to abduct the girls in the villages and bring them all'harem of Khan, so the governor was nicknamed "the Black Khan." In an open courtyard of the Hall receptions, the courtyard at the center of the embankment is mounted the actual yurt, the tent which was used for receptions winter. In a side courtyard with a wooden roof and completely covered in polychrome majolica, ready for a show of folklore, there are musicians.
Not far from the Madrasa, we find a building with very high walls and guard towers on either side, is the Palazzo Tosh-Khol (LP 251): the harem. Past the wooden door is a large courtyard where on the left side are five wooden porches, one is slightly bigger the other, is the summer residence of the Khan (the great) and the four wives (small), while the concubines lived in cells located on the right side dell'harem. The life within was regulated by strict rules, such as what the boys could stay with the mother up to 9 years, then had to leave because dall'harem and were assigned to male teachers.
Released dall'harem, we turn to the right and passing an intersection are always on the right, the right of the Madrasa Kutlimurodomok of 1809, (LP 251), hit enter and the fact that in the courtyard there is a well for water but a tank. The tank has a diameter of 13 meters, the walls are 1 meter thick. The construction walls are spanned.
This type of tank was common in the desert, put every 40/42 km were used for the watering of camels and dromedaries, the distance is not random, is the maximum distance that an animal can go without drinking. The opening of the tank is facing north to allow in the fresh air, the great wind of the north, to cool the water constantly. This system of tanks was imported during the reign of Tamerlane by neighboring Persia.
We leave from the front and there is the Madrasa of Alloquoi Khan (LP 251) but is inaccessible, despite the beauty of the facade, the building is abandoned and it is dangerous to come to visit, as it might crumble to pieces.
Holding the left go down a little lane and arrive at the Mosque Ab, the "White Mosque" (LP 251), a building dating back to 1657.
And placed adjacent to the left of the Flies Bianca you are the Heads of Anush Khan (LP 251), the seventeenth century, the only turkish bath yet fully functional.
On the left of the bathroom there is a wooden portal and is the market access of slaves, are still visible inside the cramped cells where slaves were required to be displayed and sold. For those who escaped and was caught, the punishment was exemplary, he was hung and nailed to the doors of the market for the ears, an example for other slaves and to discourage such attempts to escape.
You're doing tonight, we stop at a bar inside of Khiva, we use the traditional sofa, made from a rectangle raised and covered with carpet, where lying and supported a number of cushions, sipping tea and you are chatting.
Return to the Malika, faced the city walls, the room watching the sunset on the walls is unparalleled. The hotel has a rustic, oriental, it's comfortable.
Dinner at the hotel is based on traditional dishes, antipasti vegetables, turnip soup and red onions, meatballs that have a flavor that recalls Chinese cooking (for the presence of garlic and onion).
After dinner, a trip to Khiva, the city is deserted, the few inhabitants are sealed in the home. The city that day is a melting pot of stalls in the evening appears deserted, the lighting is low, allowing traffic only in the main streets of town, but it is difficult to walk steps and ditches, may present hazards of falling. The atmosphere is calm, quiet, gentle breeze from the north cooling temperature after the heat of the day, the coolness brings pleasure.
The sky is starry, the intensity of black and the stars appear unusual as if the sky was different from ours is like a blanket that wraps all of the visible, where there is no light pollution, the stars appear in all their splendor.
Look back at the hotel, in a room, a party could be a wedding, someone in the group, a little more curious about other decides to go and see a few minutes after leaving a little shocked by "the intense Host received.

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Konye Urgench - 1st part

The morning show has received from the vision of the walls of Khiva, the walls are slowly heated and illuminated by the sun.
The breakfast is egg, bread nell'uovo past, sweet crepes, jams, all accompanied by the green or Nescaffe (we are only the second day and the Italian coffee is beginning to fail).
Loaded the luggage on the bus starting to Turkmenistan, cross the new part of Khiva consists of low buildings, each with a piece of land for growing vegetables and outside a wooden frame which is made up the lives (and cool summer production of grapes). On the roofs of the houses are perpetually covers of Eternit. Part of the houses are a legacy of Soviet rule. The area is characterized by many irrigation channels. The desert is sometimes white, finally discovered the reason is that the rock salt from the soil surface, a real problem if it were to build the tanks because they had to dissolve the salt in the soil before it can make drinking water, which was used Only boiled.
The road to the border is 70 km long, all characterized by irrigated and cultivated land, you see rice fields, land cultivated with alfalfa, grain and other newly plowed and used for growing cotton.
We arrive at customs, I see all'inverosimile carts loads of onions or potatoes, are pushed by hand by several people simultaneously. We are in the queue, the leadership has strongly advise getting off the bus to avoid being plundered by the fjord of kids on the ground.
Continue to pass and pushed carts pulled by people, the load is always trasbordante onions or potatoes. After about 1 hours we spend waiting on the border of Uzbekistan, an iron gate makes access to the buffer zone, a long channel of no man's land about 1 km wide with a series of barbed wire fences and roads passable only with internal military means.
We leave the bus, proceed on foot, each with its own baggage, it is absolutely forbidden to make photos or shoot. After a few meters, on a clearing, we see the carts of onions or potatoes still are transhipped hand bags on trucks. We climb on the buses that will ferry across the neutral zone at the border of Turkmenistan along a road being paved.
Slowly the group meets, with an additional bus arrives suitcases. We know that the guide will accompany us for the country, is called Mussah, speak English and must constantly translate Mauritius, the entire visit will be slowed by the translation but I think this will make it possible to have more time to look at the places we visit. He began filling in the sheet input part has already completed Mussah and we have just completed and signed. We deliver the sheets and began waiting in the sun of the desert ventilated. The wait is 2 hours, finally begins to be called, the border guards have our passports with the visas and how to exercise in a pleasant language to enjoy the Italians call by name. Even the Turkmen customs officers wearing uniforms of Russian origin, are the classic pan-fried hair, the attitude is very professional, impassive, it seems that they are looking at who knows what kind of people, we must stay and avoid serious comments, the staff at the border is very likely, but the Italians, with our charm, we at the same ridacchiare a little smile and make them well. In the end we manage to pass the customs, it took 4 hours to travel from Uzbekistan to Turkmenistan.
Released by the customs are the new means of transport, 3 buses, 2 dedicated people, dedicated to a suitcase. Go up and leave for the city of Konya Urgench where to stop for lunch. Vegetables, soup, meat, rice. The cleaning of the local leaves desired. Start toward the archaeological, mail out of the city in the middle of the desert.
The landscape of this part of Turkmenistan is dominated by traditional houses of clay and straw houses surrounded by many plants from cultivated land. I note that the rows of plants set up to serve as Tagliavento against the constant wind of the north.
During the journey, traveling on the first bus we lose sight of the second, there is reversal of running and shortly after the review, is stationary because it has a rubber rear laundry, being twinned, the march continues, but at lower speeds. The air conditioning is not present and the only refreshment is lowered from the window that allows a little air.
After a ten-minute trip to the desert, sighted a building, we arrived at the archaeological zone of a Konya Urgench (LP 486), is what remains of the ancient city developed on the banks of the River Amu-Darya and then dropped to moving the bed of the river that left without water.
We visit the Mausoleum of Turabeg Khanym of XII century. (LP 847). The building is constructed with mud bricks and straw, the interior is decorated with polychrome majolica. Although the Mausoleum name derives from the fact that the tombs were found in the crypt (not accessible to tourists) over the use of the building archaeologists have made many assumptions, including that it was a meeting room with the throne. The entrance is a wooden double door, the room opposite the hexagonal the possible position of the throne. E 'a building with its unique, made of baked bricks placed both vertically and horizontally, under the dome, 2 rows of windows, representing the first 12 months and second windows are 4 seasons. On the walls are written and Sufi verses of the Koran. The adjoining minaret was destroyed by Tamerlane, now remains only the base of 10 meters in diameter.
Currently there is a UNESCO project to completely restore the structure and make it become a heritage of humanity.
With the arrival of the Arabs, who dominated the territory for 150 years, the building was abandoned and the old use is lost in memory, is the patient research of archaeologists and historians to find the original use. A chronicle rigor of the first archaeologists who work on the mosque were Chinese.
Not far away, placed in the middle of the desert like a lonely yard, you see the Minaret of Gutlug Timur (LP 487), the fourteenth century., Whose height of 64 meters places it among the highest in Central Asia, now appears slightly tilted due to the earthquake of 1914, we see all around the perimeter of the mosque destroyed during the various invasions.
Continue among those who today are the graves of the Muslim cemetery and we reach the Mausoleum of Khorezm Shat Tekesh (LP 487), a building of 1172, also here there is a real dilemma about the purpose of construction, as no skeletons have been found and there are many sure (and Koran verses). The building has a double dome, the outer is conoidale. Not far away there is a hill where in the thirteenth century. there was an astronomical observatory, which now remains no trace.
Not far to the Mausoleum of Il-Arslam of XII century. contains the remains of the father of a sultan who wanted his son buried on the spot. The dome is original, is not round but tapered to 12 sides.
During the stop drivers have replaced the tire before washing. Let us go with our buses, the road is paved but the speed is not excessive. On board, with the heat of the sun and the cool air from the windows fell asleep in turn us, sometimes we are awakened by the jolt of the van that takes a few holes.

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Konye Urgench - 2nd part

On board, with the heat of the sun and the cool air from the windows fell asleep in turn us, sometimes we are awakened by the jolt of the van that takes a few holes. The desert landscape is always white. Every now and meet with village houses Soviet conflicts with the traditional houses made of bricks of clay and straw, both with the roofs of Eternit, we approach the city and buildings are of reinforced concrete. Every so often we stop to wait for another bus. Finally after over 2 hours of travel we arrive at Dashuz. We try to get off the bus, but the posture assumed for hours requires a certain effort in joints that are aching, we descend ridacchiando and painful. The bus arrives, stops, passengers go down laughing during the first transfer were washing the rubber during the second transfer lost their muffler. Enjoyed seeing a white smoke with a burst that characterizes the engine shutdown.
We find the van with luggage and retrieve them, we go inside the airport that is modern, clean and well ordered. After the long journey on board buses in the group needs the toilet. 1000 manat are requested to access services (1 Euro = 30,000 manat). Entrando services we understand the demand for money ... had to "taste" the local perfume ... services are the opposite of the airport, small and dirty.
Embark luggage and bags known in an orderly line to be loaded onboard a curious combination, our suitcases from the Western ones, hard, those soft, colorful and different way they approach clash with the baggage of local, single-bound suitcases with twine or strong nylon cloth bags of white and blue with 2 handles, which are also closed for good the better.
Looking around I note that the costumes are characteristic always present, women with their multicolored dresses stopped by jewelry made with an alloy made of silver and copper, more rarely, of pure silver. The men in suits with boots and hat with black astracan constantly on the head.
On the track, parked near the Soviet buildings, are perfectly aligned, two rows of biplanes. As I approach, walking the plane, a Boeing 717, known to have carried our luggage on the chest to open an old military truck.
The sprint takeoff is very, quickly overheated engines above the pilot a little "fast" towards the runway and in men who do not tell you off the ground. Perhaps it is the effect of the air present, the single track.
Second, after a short stretch of desert OSAI appears in all its dimensions, where it is not channeled and cultivated, the dunes take their space, a symbol of ancestral and perennial struggle between nature and man.
Landed in Ashgabad (LP 464), the capital of Turkmenistan, is the impression of being in a dimension different from the capital, Tashkent, the roads are always huge, the lighting is almost daylight. You see the palaces of marble. On the way we see the photos placed in the squares and avenues, we ask who is the character represented in the photos, the guide tells us "is our great president, Niyazov. The streets of the capital of an asphalt are impeccable, not a pit, after the trip in the afternoon to board buses on paved roads not perfectly, still seems to fly on the plane, in the afternoon the feeling that I was to be a traveler 's other times, and now a gentleman quietly carried on board a beautiful tourist coaches. The roadsides are dotted with flower beds planted with flowers and green plants, mainly the individual arnica and artichokes (similar to ours, but with rounded leaves).
After a relatively short journey we arrived at Nyssa, beautiful, comfortable, clean, at a huge photo of the President. Accommodation in the rooms, decorated with oriental style. Go for dinner that comes with the usual vegetables for appetizers, then to a certain extent unexpected surprise, the pizza arrives, first there are the spaghetti with tomato and basil, with the grain, the second to the excellent baked sturgeon grid. All accompanied by a full bodied wine. Truly a beautiful and tasty dinner, after some soup, pasta is a real cure. The secret is that the manager is an Italian Modena, moved to Ashgabad.
After a dinner so, all small vicissitudes of the day are forgotten, take a walk outside the hotel, and shortly after we return to go to rest.

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Asghabad - Nisa - 1st part

The day is sunny, breakfast buffet, on the bus go up and leaving for a visit to the market place outside the city. The market, enclosed, it is very extensive, huge, inside is everything. Bukhara rugs, colorful and valuable quality of all food, both in silk drapes in shawls and scarves, velvet, fur hats, Zucchetti blacks and whites, winter clothes, cotton clothes, jewelry (silver and an alloy copper / silver), modern clothes (cheap cut), audio, video, sometimes in some places where you can eat, the bread is baked with vegetables, soup, boiled meat from skewers of chicken, beef, mutton. Turning to the market, it strikes me that part dell'utensileria, the instruments are modern and Western brand, while the agricultural tools are made with simple folded sheet and roughly sanded, the enormous weight. The hydraulic and electrical parts are sold to individuals, and is also used to grab the line that best.
Looking good on the market, is well known that the split between traditional and modern, the traditional sector is very orderly, well-appointed, modern is untidy and sometimes the objects are exposed so confusing. On one side I see the cut vegetables, seasoned and ready to be inserted in the bread and eat immediately. A short distance of the kebab vendors, dairy products in various preparations, while butter and cheese are sold in bulk wrapped in a cloth of cotton colored spot on the floor of marble. The yogurt is packaged in buckets of iron and is also sold in bulk.
People turning to the market eat sandwiches with vegetables, meat, shelled pumpkin seeds or sunflower.
To exit the market becomes chaotic, it's a way to go people, a relationship between entry and exit (the door is the same), the police is constantly present in the market by working a lot judging by the tone, the expressions and the gestures of some people who stop by force "to the local station.
Out of the ring goes on the market, expands in every direction as the eye can see outside are mainly food, chopped and seasoned vegetables, products, onions, Rapanelli, pumpkins, potatoes, tarragon, salad, spices. E 'fantastico turn among many colors, scents, different ethnic groups. I will make a few photos, always being careful not to arouse the laughter of those who do not want to be photographed.
Climb on the bus and we head towards the main road and in the distance I see the dromedaries, is a market for the animals, ask if you can go see it. The guide agrees and stopping the bus, we can make a short visit to this part of the market. Return by bus and take the fast road to Nyssa.
We leave the city, completed homes remain shocked at the planting of pines, as the eye can see, wherever planted pines, the height they are young, about three years. Walk over 10 km of road along the hills completely planted and irrigated with drip system. Each time the military is engaged in ground maintenance and replacement of dead plants. Amazing ability of the President to beautify their nation, a true strategy for the immense oasis, fragrant pine in the middle of the desert plants that will also have the task of stopping the constant and annoying wind blowing from north permanently.
We arrive at Nyssa, cartels in English like to welcome tourists. Come to a roundabout, do a change of direction, turn right and take a side street that leads quickly to the apron, over a hill is the site that we are about to visit.
Nyssa (LP 474), cities of Greek origin, lies buried with a layer of earth work excavation are given in conjunction with local and Italian archaeologists at the University of Turin and take place for some years in the period May-October. So far they have been brought to light only the part of some buildings. The walls made of bricks of clay and straw, making the difficult work of recovery. To visit these sites, to understand the original structure of the buildings need a bit of imagination, but so far the light is really little, but it's worth it to see it.
The circumference of the wall is pentagonal, dotted with 40 towers. It was the royal residence at the time of the Parties in the period third century BC 22 D.C. Nyssa is famous for the discovery of Rython (horn ivory finely worked) in 1948, and the coincidence wants 2 days before a terrible earthquake.
To date there are the remains of 2 temples, a palace, treasury, reserves of water formed by a series of artesian wells are connected together with pipes of baked clay. The water was collected, channeled and brought from the nearby mountains, using the principle of artesian wells and Peter, so the city was always guaranteed fresh water.
Running between the walls come to what was the audience hall, the walls are made of bricks of clay and straw, while the 4 central columns are made of baked bricks. The roof, made from wooden terrace, is estimated to have a height of 12 meters.
A little ahead there is the reconstruction of some rooms, including the white plaster exterior. The structure was simple, bricks of clay and straw, strullatura of clay and white lime plaster. This sequence building just below the surface of the earth that covers everything. Quanta delicacy archaeologists should use to bring to light everything. At the end of the trail we see the remains of a room for parties or a mausoleum, surveys and studies are underway to discover the exact use. A short walk about the city walls and then back to the coach. Nyssa leave with the knowledge that there is still much to dig, to discover, to know, who knows what great values and treasures are hidden beneath this charming hill, covered by sands of the desert.
In front of Nyssa a curious thing to me, at first I can not understand, I am driving and I understand. Before me, at the foot of the mountain with a yard and parked the bus on the ridge of the mountain a huge, long, interminable stairway. E ' "the walk of health" (LP 464) a staircase that runs completely from a mountain side to side, was built by President Niyazov, the one that seems perpetually on the posters scattered around the city, the streets, in hotels . Looking at the parked buses and people on the stairway, I understand that is one very busy.
Return to the city, heading towards the center to reach a vast park dotted with dozens of fountains and fully planted, its sides rise palaces of marble. At the heart of building a huge park, we approach the coach and the same stop, descend and enter the building. On the ground floor to the first floors there are shops, a shopping mall is not busy, we go up to 12th floor, where there is a panoramic restaurant. You can see the extension of Ashgabad, the stark contrast between the Soviet case, rectangular, gloomy, dark and constraints modern, soaring high, marble, surrounded by tennis courts, swimming pools, fountains, gardens. In the distance we see the planting of pines and then, the desert, infinite, immense.
Lunch is traditional, mixed vegetables, soup, mutton goulash, Nescaffe.
The afternoon is devoted to visiting museums, we start from the National Museum (LP 469), the construction is of red granite, huge, mammoth, in true Soviet style.

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Asghabad - Nisa - 2nd part

To accede to the museum we have to leave cameras and bags a little bulky in custody, an officer with simple elegance and punctuality every object placed in storage submit one aluminum plaque engraved with a number. We have just passed the entrance and immediately a woman, armed with a clean brush runs the imprint of the shoes that we have left on the polished marble. Entering the museum seems to enter into an unreal place, silence, cleanliness, order, brightness reign supreme, it seems more a place than a religious museum.
From a door leaves a distinguished man, is the director of the museum that will guide speaks English and Mauritius translates smoothly.
The visit starts from the ground floor, the first session is dedicated to visit Turkmenistan modern socialism that post, a photo of President Niyazov on the session rule, there are some gifts which he donated to the museum, his books, coins printed products of the domestic industry. Even here the cult of the personality of the President is very visible. Guardo enjoyed driving, I seemed to have read that Turkmenistan is a presidential republic, in fact the guide says: "In 1999 a law was proclaimed president for life" (LP 461).
Upstairs the archeologica is more interesting as the previous one, beginning with exhibits of 4000 BC, the finds are not many, but well exposed and to understand the evolution of this land. A succession of well preserved artefacts and representations of environments from the Neolithic, to later times up to the reconstruction of the hill where stood Nyssa, the best finds unearthed on the spot. Marble statues (which are thought to Greek works), silver jewelry, ceramics, pottery, and in the message boards dedicated Rython; huge horns finely worked ivory is at the top where you opened the glass, is at the end where are mythological figures. Each horn, and those ten are exposed, has a different figure. Seems to be used in some ceremonies, for drinking and also offered the possibility of smoke through the combustion chamber placed near the base and the hole to enjoy the smoke. True masterpieces of art.
This is followed by the Persian rulers of Turkmenistan in the seventeenth century. Are exposed armor, knives, firearms, clothes of the warrior, the musician.
There are bulletin boards devoted to the arts from various masters, the jeweler, with the saddle seat horse and camel, the textile fabric with finely worked.
Valuable is the collection of books on the Koran.
This is followed by message boards dedicated to women's jewelry in silver and semiprecious stones color, are beautiful sight rings, headdresses, necklaces, chest, fringes, bracelets.
Other showcases include clothing in silk and cotton tunics and headdresses. Costumes from different colors and workmanship are the tribes of the nation.
Interesting is the section of carpet that were and are used for many purposes, from the "traditional way" as mats to decorate the tents and houses (used as a tapestry), to contain crockery, cutlery, clothes, children, handbags to decorate horses and camels.
For a wall is exposed a huge carpet, 14.90 meters high, 20.62 meters in length, the weight is 1,000 kg. To achieving 40 people have worked for 8 months, despite the immensity say that is not the largest carpet in the world. Rest appalled in the face of so much majesty.
The tour continues falling on the ground floor in a room where you can see the majesty of the table seen from above. The final session of the museum is dedicated to nature, in the middle of the room is a meteorite weighing 820 kg, cm dimensione72x81x48., Consisting of 44 mineral elements known and unknown 4. In bulletin boards side exposed minerals: quartz and alabaster. Some fossils: ammonites, sea urchins, turtles. Some animal embalmed among which stands out, the mouflon, the tiger, the cheetah, the pelican, seal.
We welcome the Director, who accompanied us to the museum, explaining what is exposed, and how some former Soviet museums even this seems not to have many visitors, but in its simplicity is very clear and propaedeutic.
Before we go out to retrieve our cameras, the cameras and bags. Delivering our aluminum plaque engraved with the number, the employee puts the plate first and then return the merchandise, its expression is satisfied has made good on his work of care and is happy that a group of tourists coming to visit the national museum. We go out and, as we head to the coach, shoot some photos.
The tour includes a visit to the Carpet Museum, a continuous up and down the bus, the time spent quickly and is already mid-afternoon. The sun is hot and the wind is constant, I understand why people work slowly, with continued exposure to the sun and windy, the weakness emerge constantly. On the way, are the numerous, huge fountains that characterize the city, the President wanted to tens, hundreds of fountains in the city with the purpose of the cheer, but above all to cool those hot summer days, the view is breathtaking , fountains of every size, shape, imagination, where the water jets in all directions, creating unique performances.
Known by persons engaged in the arrangement of flower beds and cleaning the streets, wearing fluorescent orange vests to indicate their presence. It 'the first time that, in these countries, I see the personal protection of western style. This president is quickly copying the best the Western world suggests, moreover, the palaces of marble are joint ventures with French multinationals.
We move quickly with the coach sliding along the streets of Ashgabad, in a short time we arrive at the Museum of Carpet (LP 468). It's Sunday, the museum is open, but the internal drive does not appear to be present. To visit the halls of the need to wear slippers as overshoes so as not to ruin the carpet placed on the floor. At some point, as appears from nowhere materializzatasi the guidance of the museum. E 'and a girl in English, translates to Mauritius, explains everything about rugs. Turkmenistan's carpets are known all over the world, so wrong, as carpets of Bukhara. The origins of the carpets are old and in the centuries art has been able to evolve in different ways. The structure of the carpets of Turkmenistan, is divided into 5 types, and each name a different table:
• Balkan;
• Dasugus;
• Abalo;
• Lebap;
• Mary.
The type refers to a region and the carpets are distinguished by colors and designs.
Number five is a constant in Turkmenistan, the flag contains five stars, representing the five regions and the five principles of Islam;
1. the testimony of faith;
2nd prayer 5 times a day;
3rd the support of the poor;
4th observing fasting during Ramadan;
5th the pilgrimage to Mecca.
In Turkmenistan, there are currently less than 17 carpet factories craft where rugs are made by hand. E 'and is a heavy handed down from mother to daughter, the initiation to the art of carpet is done at the age of 5 years.
The carpets are made of wool from sheep. The animal is Tosato twice yearly shearing is sold in the winter, the spring used for carpets. Camel wool used for jackets, blankets or rugs are not valuable.

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Asghabad - Nisa - 3rd part

The guide explains how the processing of wool still only in a craft, the fringes are removed wire wool (head and tail), to make soft carpets using only the central portion that is spun, combed, time spent on until it becomes a single wire. Then it is colored, the color is used only natural dyes, exactly 48 different shades.
The weaving is done on a traditional horizontal chassis, only recently around 1950 were made of vertical frames, but only for small rugs.
The carpet weaving and finishing the preparation is exposed to water for cleaning wool and to revive the color. A Turkmen says that "The carpet is more of a delicate pink, and is more durable stone."
Having understood how to produce carpets, you go to see and use as we saw at the National Museum, carpets made in different forms are used to decorate homes, horses, camels, bears as objects, to preserve clothing, as envelopes for clothes, etc.. etc..
With the arrival of Islam carpets depict only geometric figures. There are carpets on display, such as for funeral, the only ones that depict animals such as turtles and / or birds, and those designed to prayer with a very precise point where to support the head. The processing of the latter is very fine, or up to a million knots per square meter. The preciousness and beauty of carpet is given by the knots per square meter (from 300,000 to 1,200,000).
We see a variety of carpets from ancient to modern, of various shapes, colors warm, those gaudy, not very fine wool camel, in fine wool, in fine silk. The art of rug-one single, continuous, unique new figures and new grounds.
There are examples of complex and sophisticated implementation, with figures in relief, highlighted by the type of cut wool works really unique and in some cases unique.
Let's look at a silk carpet made with 1,200,000 knots per square meter, required a year of work, has a complex symbolism contained in detailed, specific shapes and colors, a real masterpiece of contemporary art.
In 8 hours of work for a medium carpet, craftsmen advance of about 2 cm, the time required to realize a carpet standard is three months.
In one room stands a table made in 1941, width 18 meters, height 10.5 meters Weight 850 kg, size 193 square meters. E 'slightly smaller than that seen in the Museo Nazionale.
Access to a mail room at the bottom of a corridor, on a huge wall hanging is a "masterpiece", 22.50 meters wide, 14 meters height, 1.250 kg weight, 311 square meters, is the carpet largest in the world, attests to the sheet in the "Guinness Book of Records." E 'was built in 2003 and is truly spectacular.
Return to the coach for return to the hotel, through the enormous and long sliding paths, we see some important references of Turkmenistan, the parliament, presidential palace, some ministries. Modern buildings are all covered in marble. Vigilance is always present, always present but never armed. Ubiquitous, is the photo of the president, every square, every crossroads, every public space, present the photo. The people I meet on the street, in markets, shops, and ordinary people, often top of the jacket exposes its depiction. Needless to comment, smile and think ..... also here are a tourist, a visitor.
We arrived at the hotel, shower, relax to recover from so many places, reading the notes on my notes inseparable Moleskine, compared with the LP guide. At 19 Don Mauritius celebrates Mass. Then for an evening in a restaurant.
The local place in town is nice, refined, clean, the walls are hung traditional embroidery (red fabrics embellished with embroidered polychrome) and images from the early'900. Un'orchestrina intones "O sole mio", during the welcome dinner notes the evening. Food is part of "classic", mixed salads, soup, grilled sturgeon seasoned with paprika, it ends with the o Nescaffe. All accompanied by a good white wine from Alsace.
Return to the hotel with an outside program, guidance, kindly asked the driver to take us around the city, fully illuminated, which highlight the white palaces of marble and I discover that modern buildings are designed for employees of different ministries or public facilities, with particular relevance to the ministry of oil and gas. The gardens and the streets are lit, the fountains are turned off, there are few people around here is already night, and dawn comes early. Mussah Turkmenistan teaches us that in water, electricity and gas are completely free. The oil and natural gas exported is the largest source of wealth of the country and allow this type of gifts. I understand why so much light pollution.
At the hotel I dwell for a moment to speak with Mauritius, the Italian escort, has considerable experience and a great culture, visited over 90 countries, 6 languages, a large, pleasantly spend several hours talking.

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Mary - Merv - 1st part

Alarm at 4.30, quick breakfast, departure by coach to go to the airport where there is waiting for the domestic flight to Mary. Have 50 minutes to fly and save 6 / 7 hours on bus routes in the desert, not much sliding.
It always takes off very quickly, the scene is the red desert, mountains, hills, plains, always and only desert. Landed in Mary, where we have three buses that roads full of holes, will take us to visit the archeological center of Merv, the route is fairly short, and in a few tens of minutes to reach the walls of the fortified city of Merv (LP 482) . The city between the fifth and twelfth centuries., Was the most important of the area and whose origins date back to the first century. a.C.. The complex is vast archaeological covers an area of 100 square km. Are 5 cities that at different times have marked the history of the place, destroyed by Turkish and Mongol invasions, were reconstructed at another site nearby. The concept of "mobile city" derives from this fact, the city, with walls of clay and straw, not destroyed was rebuilt, but rebuilt slightly distant. So the area is vast and is subject to numerous excavations.
Access to the EAR by visiting the oldest part built in the vicinity of a river that has characterized the Silk Road, an impressive river whose bed was too large 3 km (Alexander the Great, took three days to cross it with his troops, using a bridge of boats). River that has a curiosity, disappears in the desert and then kicks several kilometers downstream.
The displacement of the cities, in addition to the destruction caused by the invaders, also resulted in the move dell'alveolo river, without water, life becomes impossible. In the vicinity of the bed of the river archaeologists have found items dating back to the Bronze Age (seen in the National Museum of Ashgabad).
The first building we see is the Mausoleum of Sultan Sanja (LP 483), a square, is built of 3 parts, height 37 m, width on each side 27 meters thick at the base of the wall 3 meters, 2 meters high in the dome is double and independent. The dome is supported by external side walls, while the inner dome is supported internally by arches. The outer dome was originally turquoise blue, visible to one day walk in the desert. The drainage system, not to undermine the foundations, is made with 9 wells that reach depths of 6 meters.
We move and we get the remains of the first fortress dating back to the sixth century. a.C. The surface of the fortress is 26 hectares, the excavations began in 1948. Currently everything is covered by earth carried by the wind for centuries. From studies it appears that then made the defensive walls were a pyramid shape. Alexander the Great stopped here, and his death, the empire was divided between general, when the company was multi-religious, and there were Buddhists arrived in the fourth century BC, the Christians came in the third century AD, but in VI / VII century AD Arabs, Islam imposed.
We continue the tour and we will stop near a water tank built in the nineteenth century. which was used for the first abduction of access to the lateral Mosque. During acute input to the tank, there are stucco depicting plants of cotton, while the lateral columns of the facade, there are decorations, made of baked brick which represent the mathematical sign of infinity, place as a sign of protection from evil.
Near the tank, there is a complex religious Askbab's dating back to the fifteenth century., Founded by an Islamic missionary in Damascus, the building was destroyed by the Mongols, but the son of Tamerlane (Emperor of the XIV sec.) Rebuilt it. Subsequently damaged by earthquakes, it is now undergoing restoration. I 2 ogive arches were restructured into several eras and are decorated in the style of Bukhara and Samarkand, unique buildings in the area. The kiosks placed in front arches are places of worship, in fact rests the missionary founder of this structure and another local saint.
We leave this complex religious and not far are in Kyz Kala (LP 483), the remains of a palace / fortress, the VII century., Is the best preserved in a long line of palaces / fortress, built along a canal derived from the river. Within 20 km of the canal, were found the remains of 40 buildings / fortress of various sizes. One about every 500 meters, at the time must have appeared a very impressive city, fortified and who knows who inspires fear in those dawn.
The palace / fortress was the home of a single family. The front is shaped columns dating back to before the Islamic, then this architectural structure was abandoned and replaced with the classic masonry continues. The entire palace is built with clay bricks baked in the sun. The structure of the building providing access from a door, inside the outer wall adjacent rooms and the center column which supported the wooden roof, the archaeologists had assumed a terrace. All around the palace there were walls that were lower in double feature, a first protection in case of attack and to contain the animals.
We leave these castles of clay and we head towards a place of pilgrimage, the Mausoleum of Mohammed ibn Zeid (LP 483) of the twelfth century .. Near the Mausoleum of buildings, houses are used as the fulcrum for the rest and refreshment for the pilgrims. The houses are typical Turkmen, the exterior of the house is square, the side walls supporting a dome that serves as a roof, get to see her. The interior is simple, functional. The furniture is bare, carpets for each use, the center of the room a stove used to cook food and heat during the winter months. The walls are white lime, the dome was blackened by smoke coming out from the oven, the center of the dome has a hole that the function of the chimney. As a first glance I pose the problem of cleanliness and order in the house, then thought of some huts that dot the Alps, I see that the cleaning is much better. On the walls a series of amulets to drive away evil spirits, as this place is frequented by many people the presence of amulets is manifested important. The lady who lives in the house is calm only when the guide tells us that we are good people. Outside, two ovens for baking bread and a series of pots to prepare the soup for the pilgrims. Smiling, I think we tourists "rich" and being "released" from this hospitality.
Within the mosque, the tomb of the manufacturer thereof. The minbar with carpets for prayer, they are facing Mecca. Outside, on a related plant, there are strips of fabric with votive function left by pilgrims, the waving of many stripes, I recalled the Tibet and the waving of the prayers. Moreover we are in Asia .....
Start with the buses, going outside the walls to return to Mary (LP 480). The morning show begins to be felt, you sleep during the journey of more than 30 minutes.
We arrive in town and stop for lunch, the restaurant seems more appropriate housing that transformed a place to rest well organized, there are tables with chairs for 14 people, the others must sit on the sofas. The menu is classic, early vegetables, soup with meatballs, potatoes and carrots. Second coming of the skewers of meat (chicken, mutton, beef and pork) accompanied by fries.

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Mary - Merv - 2nd part

The chips have been successful with little Gabriel, who after a few days of food "traditional" finally managed to eat something like that definitely. At the end of lunch, a glass of vodka helps digestion.
The return to air in Ashgabad is expected only in the evening, we have to fill the afternoon. We begin by visiting the archaeological museum of Mary. Here we understand that the territory of Turkmenistan has been historically characterized by the path of the rivers, and seen as a shift Merv moved their entire city, the combination water / life here is more important than ever.
There is a plastic with the reconstruction of Merv, Mussah made a brief history of the settlement. Inhabited by Greeks who embellished with its mausoleums, fortified with massive walls and a vast as already mentioned, until the Islamic period, was a multiethnic and multireligious. The museum hosts many exhibits are the oldest of the Bronze Age found at Merv, in other rooms are beautiful alabaster pottery, clay pipes for water pipeline with a diameter of 30 cm. Interesting room with pottery worked with drawings then reported on the carpet, over time have become classic designs. Excellent rooms containing jewelry, beautiful Buddhist bells. We see pictures of the last Khan.
Climb upstairs on the museum dedicated to local traditions, cooking, clothes, furnishings for the home, the manufacture of silk, agricultural tools, clothing for children, the jewels and clothes for women , weapons, ornaments for horses and camels, hunting with traps for the animals. I will look at the photos on display, I sip the start of the century, representing a number of hunters with their prey, the appearance of people is not very clean, astracan to wear hats, coats and long boots. Looking at the details of the photos I imagine their "cleansing" and the "smell" after days spent riding a horse or camel.
The last part of the museum is dedicated to Soviet domination with a collection of objects up to the twentieth century., Amongst others are exposed in mechanical sewing machines Singer, dishes, things you can easily find us in some attic or stand some of the antiques markets. Smile for the Soviets' ability to realize museums everywhere. In this, the first few sessions are interesting, while the last is a bit "forced" dall'imperialismo Soviet. Certainly a few years, the third party will have a historic, that the Soviets are the forerunners of a new museum futurism?
Leave the museum and we accept a slight drizzle, we pause a moment and then take a trip to the city market, the market is not well equipped, cheap stuff and also the field of traditional clothing is monotonous. After a few go out and sit on a bench in a park waiting for the rest of the group, and the departure to the airport.
We arrived at the airport and expect to 19.40, the flight take-offs, the regional airport was "typical", with the flight boards in letters written composition to the hand (the electronic boards are not yet arrived). The plane arrives from Ashgabad, passengers fall and is preparing for the return flight, the cleaning company that cleans the air is a elderly lady who armed with iron bucket and mop of sorghum, salt on board and returning a few minutes after the bucket full of trash. While I wait I look at people with us that is waiting to board the plane, there are people dressed in western clothes and people dressed in traditional costume, as a good layman I wonder how it would do to pay for a flight by plane. I see the ticket in my pocket and I see the price: Ticket Ashgabad / Mary A / R cost 123,000 Manen (1 euro = 30,000 Manen), the ticket costs less than 4 euros, I can not believe it, I go to check in and find the Ticket confirmation. A legacy, a legacy of fine Soviet culture, given the distances, the only way to move inside the vast region was and is to use the plane. Speaking with the guide, told me that in times of Soviet republics, some farmers to earn money, came the same day in Moscow to sell eggs from their production, maintaining a distance between the return of more than six hours of flight.
E 'evening when we return to Ashgabad dead tired, the sun and the morning show are felt. After a day of traveling, you want to relax. We arrive at the hotel, shower, and dinner at 21.30. The starter is made from pizza, salad and Russian surprise: prosciutto di Parma. It tasted great pleasure. The whole dinner is a known occurrence of taste, after a few meals, we are a traditional Italian menu; tortelloni or noodles first, chicken or grilled sturgeon Second, gelato or tiramisu. hospitality, the style of the manager, is known. Dinner, unexpected, unforgettable. All accompanied by a very strong wine Turkmen, 14 ° from the intense flavor.
Finished dinner we go out to take a breath of air, the temperature is cool, crisp, a few words with other members of the group and then in the room to prepare bags for moving the next day and retrieve the hours of sleep.

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Going to Bukhara - 1st part

The beautiful restoration sleep is interrupted by the alarm at 7.30, which announced a new solar day. Buffet breakfast, we check that the bags were loaded onto the bus, and then waiting to leave I will speak with the manager. And 'he who has given us to prepare the delicacies that we have tasted. We talk about the political situation in the country and cleanliness in public places, says that in turn must be careful what you eat, take the risk of something is high. In his hotel everything is prepared by them, from the bread, the first, as a main course, desserts. Absolutely does not trust to prepare food outside the structure. We thank the Director for the hospitality which has given us and the fact that it was made with some local authorities so that everyone in the group could come in Turkmenistan (initially there was a veto for three people, and only thanks to his intervention all have been able to visit this beautiful country.)
You load your bags on the bus and leaves for the airport, you retrieve your luggage, check-in, and waiting, c'imbarchiamo on a Boeing 717. Take-off, still very much "sprint" means that the plane gets up immediately on the vertical from Ashgabad that appears in all its urban evolution, is always the most significant conflict between the Soviet buildings and modern. The green is a lot, you see pine trees as the eye can see. You see the river used for irrigation, farmland on the outskirts and then .... the red desert as far as the eye (80% of the territory of Turkmenistan is desert), occasionally plant small lots here and there, a pond, and while it begins a rapid descent through disruption sand, the sand carried by desert wind beat on the wings of the plane. Shortly after the eye rispazia far and sees only red desert dotted with small shrubs that are from small green spots. In 40 minutes of flight we get to Turkmenabat (LP 485).
From above the city shows a house plan with farmland all around, you see many greenhouses, each house has about 1.500/2.000 square meters of farmland. The contrast is very strong desert, river, cultivated fields.
Landed at the airport, along the old track and unused, rusty Soviet radar, which like skeletons of buildings are evidence of a recent past but finished.
You retrieve your luggage and we head towards the 3 buses that lie ahead for the transfer, with a distance of 70 km, towards the border with Uzbekistan. From the indications of Mauritius, we should not take 4 hours as in entering the queue, having already provided with all the visas should be easier, hopefully good.
We approach the buses that seemed new, but when the doors are open seats in vinpelle, air conditioning is on the windows open and the running speed. The streets are full of huge holes at times, the route is a zig zag to avoid them. It is variable speed, once the road is sliding velocity increases, but sometimes the holes are sudden, unavoidable and really blows.
We arrive at a payment of a toll, you must cross a river, the river par excellence "the Amu-Darya (Oxus River), is the famous river alveolo which was three kilometers wide, now no more than one for the substantial removal of 'water to irrigate the fields.
After a brief stop, the drivers communicate with the guide, which teaches us that we can not go on board the buses, we need to get off and cross the bridge on foot, the bridge made of metal barges connected to one another with simple chains could not withstand the weight of buses full of passengers.
On the bridge passes noisily all cars, trucks. When switching between a barge to have to practically stop and start again, sometimes the gap is very high and does not allow a transfer fluid. I understand that our transit walk is the result of one of the usual "belief" Soviet, I always remember that I am a tourist, and continued smiling.
The return trip, the posts of police increases, each intersection is controlled by the same questions: where to go? Who moved? A look at the tourists and then.
Along a channel, diversion of the Amu-Darya river, sometimes with a little of the side of the old, rusty, but that Soviet-functioning pumps are used to pump irrigation water from the main channel to the secondary. The landscape is formed from a cultivated area near the canal and then the desert, the desert everywhere. Characterized by a desert bushes and populated by numerous flocks of sheep.
We arrive at the border just before 13 and, as in every Communist country lunch is a key point throughout the day. Everything stops, and even here, the border is closed from 13 to 13.45 to enable the garrison to lunch.
It 'an opportunity to see a slice of life and costume of Turkmenistan, not far from the border there is a lunch place where customs officers, truck drivers, pastoralists, people in transit. Let us also of the structure and "sample" our baskets travel. The Turkmens have lunch in a traditional, vegetables, soup, rice pilaf with beef which boiled chopped into small pieces, accompanied by baked bread and green tea. The food is cooked in a cauldron a fire fueled by wood, the cooked rice is kept warm by covering with a bowl of metal, the preparation of the dishes takes place on a table outside. I try to photograph the waitress but when you notice that challenged a camera, it evokes laughter, I do not understand the words that I said, but the tone of voice and the look unequivocally invites me to put the machine, with a smile excuse the place in your pocket, but the picture is made.
The structure of the place of rest is made up of three huts of sheets identical to those of our roads, a need for the kitchen, one for lunch and the third serves as a dormitory. The toilets are two cabins located in the desert.
The Turkmens of tranquility is broken dall'orda Italians are pleasant to hear that their presence.
Finished lunch break on Heading in buses, on board of which the first pass through the police, the customs we stop, start the buffer zone, the corridor is bordered by more barbed wire fences. Retrieve the bags and began the wait. Shortly after the customs officer started to call groups of 4, enter the first group, the guards inspect your luggage and found the carpet. A moment of tension, they want to know how many we have the carpet, otherwise the controls are accurate. Comunichiamo how many of us have purchased carpets and all proceeds with relative speed. Here the formalism is always to excess. Withdraw the passports with visas, two additional controls, we salute the leadership Mussah Turkmen and then enter into another part of the neutral zone. Here lies before us a pleasant surprise, Uzbek Nurik driving ahead with the bus. We load the luggage, climb aboard the bus, where the cool air conditioning brings relief. We start the formalities for entry into Uzbekistan, and yet now compiling granted visas, entry and exit.
We pass the border and we are on the way to Bukhara region Olet-Faux Karakul, the landscape seems rich in farmland, irrigation is considerable, provided by the channel that we are coasting hours.

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Going to Bukhara - 2nd part

Suddenly it seems the white desert, the rock salt surface again after a few kilometers will disappear and reappear crops, and 'an uninterrupted succession of the campaign, the cultivation of rice fields prepared for sowing of cotton. The campaign is not sprayed and watered, a huge waste of water that weighs on the water balance of the rivers. Once again, the choices socialist show their limitations.
Farmers are already cutting the first crop of alfalfa and forage for animals.
Arrive in Bukhara (LP 232), the Hotel Bukhara Palace is the modern, large, perhaps the highest building in town. We take possession of the room and find that the decoration is identical to the left we have to Ashgabad, the balcony of the room allows a view of the new town in the distance you can see the old part, but do not see much, just the weak rays of a sunset reflected advanced on blue turquoise domes, the discovery of the enchanting city, is well defined by the guide is postponed until next day, the curiosity remains.
The hotel is frequented by groups of German tourists and for us Italians is a room set aside where we can stay in peace and avoid the chaos brought by the tens of Teutonici present. The dinner is held according to traditional, vegetables, soup, to bring us a second "type" of cutlet Milanese, or the Nescaffe. We decide to make two passes along the paths around the hotel, with many fountains in the evening but inactive. From Italy came the sms, have elected a new pope, Cardinal Josef Ratzingher is the new Pope, Benedict XVI, we comment quickly to the news that seems a joke, but when we return to the hotel, the television announced the election of Pontiff. I fall asleep peacefully.

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Bukhara - 1st part

Alarm at 7.30, breakfast buffet and departure at 8.45. We start visiting the city praised so much. The curiosity is just increasing. With coach quickly walk the boulevards and around the joints in the old part of town c'infiliamo a dirt road, we arrived, and we are down in the middle of a yard, are working for placement of a park, where huge acacia trees make shade. We approach a building made of baked bricks, is the mausoleum of Samani Islmail (LP 237) 892-942 AD The architecture of the mausoleum is unique, a square with a roof that almost s'allarga to form a crown, the upper part consists of a dome. The walls are 180 cm. thick at the top of just under the dome, there is a walkway that has the function of circulating cool air from the north. The entire building is made of baked bricks, pillars and the decorations are made with bricks oriented differently. At the time of construction, decorative colored ceramic was not yet known, will be imported by the Arabs some centuries later. The orientation of the bricks makes the structure very harmonious. Originally the mausoleum was placed in a cemetery but the Bolsheviks in 1922, they destroyed to create an amusement park. Work in progress, which we crossed the yard used to restore the area to its original sanctity eliminating what remains of the amusement park. Currently, the Mausoleum is a place of pilgrimage and many pilgrims who come, they drink water from the well which is located nearby and express their desires. To do that they have heard of three turns of the Mausoleum CCW. It seems strange that in a nation where religion has been repressed for years, some are strong traditions survived him and ask Nurik explains that these traditions have been preserved thanks to Sufism.
Sufism is a derivation of Islam, was born in Arabia and spread a lot in Asia, is very popular in Bukhara. E 'characterized by an ascetic life and its characteristic is to have the people to resist any condition geo / politics. "I am in the midst of the people" is the motto of the Sufis (during the tour, we will find many other references).
Abandon the Ismail Samani Mausoleum and through the park, not far is the Mausoleum of Chashma-Ayub (LP 237) "The eyes of Job", a building of the twelfth century. Here you can see the first examples of pottery with colored decoration. The building has a double dome, there are rows of 6 - 8-12 windows-oriented and positioned in a way proportional to the diameter of the dome. The legend tells that the Prophet Job, through in that place, infested brackish water for the presence of salt in the desert, has identified the source of drinking water. Source and still active today and is the starting point of the pipeline that supplies the water cistern of the city.
Inside the mausoleum a sarcophagus in the legend rests Giobbe but Nurik explains that a saying that referring to "The Book of Islam" (the 1200 of the Prophet Muhammad), the tomb is not the body of Job.
Parerti to have hung a few pictures of tanks of water, placed every 40/42 km in desert camels and allowed the men to be able to quench thirst. Currently in Uzbekistan there are only 2 original tanks.
After visiting the Mausoleum, Nurik, inadvertently takes a word in the following days will be magical: the market!
At the market I see the traditional textiles and some food stalls. A little concerned going in search of something distinctive and I find it, the deck is very good, beginning from the spices, you immediately recognize the scent work, bags of spices are stacked in an orderly, even the eye is satisfied and so ordered by the multitude of colors. The sector covers the following fruits and vegetables, even here the order reigns supreme, the fruit is stacked in an orderly and clean. The bread industry is characterized by the fragrance of freshly baked bread, cakes is that of an explosion of colors. The last area, in a separate part is devoted to the butcher: orderly and clean. Having in mind as seen in other markets, I dwell a few moments to look so much order and cleanliness. Outside is a succession of stalls clothes embellished with golden embroidery, where the stalls selling rice and legumes. Towards the outside there are the sellers of agricultural tools, and poultry (also applies here as seen in the market of Ashgabad), some people on simple mats and expose individual hydraulic tools used. Looking good people I realize that there are different ethnic groups, tend to diminish the traits Mongols and the Turks increased, people have the dark, the lines are beautiful and youthful. Even older people express a unique beauty.
Leave the market and take the bus, walking path and a new stop, we are near the Mosque of Bobo-Hauz (LP 237), construction of 1718. The initial structure was made with a variety of cells and had three entrances. The wooden porch is of 1917, consisting of 18 columns made of elm wood. The decoration of the ceiling have been working craftsmen from three valleys that characterize the region. The decorations, refined, the minbar, beams and ceilings, are attracting attention. We use the binoculars to see the details and we remain truly amazed by such beauty, are the decorations with floral motifs, an unparalleled spectacle.
Around the Mosque, a woman shakes a padellino where smoke comes out with an intense odor, acrid and only appears at the end a slight smell of incense. E 'a gypsy beggar who asks for the charity in exchange of the Exchequer of the evil eye. Nurik, saying something away quickly.
Front to a tank octagonal mosque originally had the function of draining the water of the foundations of the mosque, being a land rich in rock salt, the water was channeled into the pan so as not to affect the structure of the building.
Subsequently, the tank was part of a series of 80 which were used as the sole storage of water for the city, but as water firm it created major problems of health by spreading disease and pestilence different.
In 1922 the Bolsheviks built an aqueduct and underground tanks. Today some have been brought back into operation not only for the use of drinking water, but for the original drainage function.
Not far from the mosque we see the imposing walls of the citadel, the ancient fortress called the Ark (LP 235). The origin of the fortress dates back to the ninth century., Built on an artificial hill to dominate the territory better and raise the walls of defense. The legend says that its perimeter is bordered by cutting into small strips, in a continuous manner, a skin of a ram. The area is 4 hectares. The citadel was destroyed by the Arabs and then rebuilt, is irregularly shaped, because the architect has designed the complex by placing the towers in accordance with the constellation dell'orsa greater. The height of the walls vary from 16 to 24 meters. The last renovation dates back to the seventeenth century .. In 1922 the Bolsheviks had destroyed a cannon, 80% of the citadel. It is currently only open to the restored.
The entrance portal to spread over three floors on the first floor there were the guards, the cooks in the second and third of the musicians who proclaimed with sound of trumpets, the entry and exit from the palace dell'Emiro. Two minarets on the sides with rooms built on several floors.
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Bukhara - 2nd part

The entrance portal to spread over three floors on the first floor there were the guards, the cooks in the second and third of the musicians who proclaimed with sound of trumpets, the entry and exit from the palace dell'Emiro. Two minarets on the sides with rooms built on several floors.
At the beginning of the twentieth century. lived within the citadel 3,000 people. Nell'antistante square stood outside the chancery and the market has now been completely destroyed. Upon a series of photos from the early'900 depict how the market, the last reigning emirs, among some of the customs such as massage, the smoking of opium, the carriers of water.
Entering under the entry arch and across the portal, on the left you can see the prison of the citadel. Also applied the rule here to view Khiva, three days of staying inside and then the prisoner or was released or was executed on the square in front of the citadel. The prison is very narrow, gloomy, dark, above it was the place to stop 28 horses dell'emiro and the sewage of the same flow through the holes in the ceiling placed on those who stopped in the cells. A right of a number of premises housed the artisans and even now are of little shops of local handicrafts.
Along the way up, quickly comes to a clearing where stands the Mosque of the citadel, the Juma Mosque (LP 235) built in 1712, is divided into two areas, winter (indoor) and outside the summer (with wooden porch ). For the first time in art, we used a mirror to the decorations, the effect is substantial, the depth of the cuts is significantly increased. Perhaps the wonder that inspired similar work.
Continuing the tour of the visible part of the citadel and after input from a front door is a wall that we must turn around to enter a courtyard, was the Hall of Receptions, running until 1911, reigned until the last emir. It is destroyed by the cannon of the Bolsheviks, was rebuilt in 1997 at the 2500 anniversary of the founding of the city of Bukhara. Room only remaining original marble columns that support the portico under which the throne was dell'emiro. On the white walls rebuilt, only a few remains of the original majolica, the colors are blue, white and green, yellow was introduced by Arab domination. The rectangular room is the throne, under the wooden portal is the front entrance, but the door is not visible as a wall separating the entrance from the throne itself. Who entered the room, had come on his knees with his head down heading towards the Emir, the Emir when allowed it could raise its head. To exit, had to walk backwards on his knees, head still lowered. Who turned their backs all'emiro, albeit unwittingly, was beheaded.
Currently the hall is an exhibition of crafts, some cheap (see knives) other, high-interest craft, such as cotton fabrics embroidered. The art of embroidery is handed down from mother to daughter. Embroidery expresses the nature of embroidery, when using bright colors, it's imaginative, if the embroidery has a purpose, it is the patient. Embroidered fabrics are used as a bedspread, as decoration of homes, like furniture.
We leave from the reception room, walking safely without fear of being beheaded, and turning left we enter the courtyard of the building of apartments dell'emiro where every day the emir of the window overlooked the house to greet the morning and all the inhabitants of the citadel were present to receive the greeting. Currently, these rooms are for a museum on the day of closing is on Wednesday (today is Wednesday, and museums are not visited). Near the apartments is a small port inserted in the wall, from there onto the emir is to see the executions that took place in the square below.
Continuing the tour of the citadel and arrive in a completely paved courtyard, is slightly inclined, I do not understand why, then I look better, we are of the two minarets at the front door, then we are above the main passage. I look good and I see in the floor tilted holes ending on the ceiling of the cells below.
Dall'Ark leave, pass through the square Registan "sandy place", we follow the walls of the fortress-clockwise and turn on the left, appear as if by magic of the domes of turquoise blue (turquoise blue, the name derives from the fact that it was the Turkey to import the color they invented). The reflection of the sun makes them shiny, a breathtaking and we are still far from great magnificence. We get caught by a great curiosity, only the voice of Nurik who warns us not to give heed to those who ask for money, it distracts, so momentarily wonder.
After a few hundred meters to reach the square, before us on three sides open, grand, the complex of the Mosque and Madrasa of the Minaret.
Minaret of the Kalon (LP 235) dates from 1127, has a height of 47 meters, the foundation has a diameter of 10 meters, inside the circular scale is made of 105 steps. Outside decorations are made with bricks oriented in 12 different bands. Above, at the base of the conical dome, there are 16 windows. The Minaret was spared from the destructive rage of Genghis Khan for her beauty (a legend speaks of an event related to the superstition of the great leader who prevented the destruction).
Access to the Mosque Kalon (LP 235), Great Mosque, whose foundations date back to the tenth century. Originally there was a wooden mosque, but was destroyed by Genghis Khan, they have the current reconstruction. Inside the walls are entirely covered with decorations with colored tiles and written in Arabic (Arabic there are 7 different types of records in addition to Persian). The mosque is currently used as a place of worship, contains up to 12,000 people.
Front to the Mosque, the Madrasa of Mir-i-Arab (LP 235), built in 6 years, was in operation until 1924. Reopened by Stalin in 1948 as a thanksgiving for the cavalry who fought in 1943. Cavalry consists exclusively of Muslims and, as a thanksgiving for the courage shown in battle, Stalin was the "donation" to reopen the Madrasa.
Nurick says that in socialism, the leaders of the party, was forbidden to attend the mosques and madrasas, which of them, for whatever reason he attended was expelled from the party.
Madrasa of visit only the gate and the foyer, as it is running a school is prohibited access to tourists. Currently the school have access to about 100 students, the course of study lasts 4 years. Study, theology, geography Muslim, a foreign language, writing Arabic (one of seven shapes). After the four years we can accede to the university in Tashkent, and then go to other countries Sunnis.
Located close to the old Minaret Madrasa of Amir Khan (LP 235) was constructed with excellent acoustics, the fact being taught under the dome and speaking with normal tone was heard by all students in the room.
The place really suggestive that reveals the deep pride of a great nation, Nurik says that Uzbek means "Lord of himself."
Return to hotel for lunch, I have the blue domes and decoration in the eyes, ripasso mentally as seen during the day, the Mausoleum of Ismail Samani, the Mosque of Bobo-Hauz, all'Ark, the complex of the Grand Mosque, is been a crescendo of emotions. Who knows who we are after lunch .......

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Bukhara - 4th part

And when the sun begins folckoristico the show with traditional music, dance and ballet. It 'nice dinner with the show music interspersed with a fashion show of a local designer who uses traditional fabrics to create clothes for modern. A nice combination, whose pleasure meets the public is men, more interested in models, is fascinated by the women's dresses of fine workmanship. The success is borne out by applause and dall'affluenza for women to shop at the end of the show.
At the end of the evening surface fatigue of the day, the coolness brings a great desire to rest. Even the faces of you artisans capture the signs of fatigue. I fully understand the slow pace that characterizes all its activities. The climate determines the pace of life completely different from ours, the sun and the wind steady sfiancano your body and psyche, is the cool evening of relief and aid.
Return to the hotel and prepare your bags for yet another transfer, we leave tomorrow morning to head to Bukhara Samarkand. The legendary, unique, fantastic Samarkand. The journey so far has been an increasing number of wonders and emotions; Samarkand meet the expectations? At the heart is not beating that fast waiting for new drugs emotions.

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Shakhrisabz - 1st part

Alarm elle 7.30, buffet breakfast, load the bags on the bus and depart 8.30. Leaving the city of Bukhara we stop to see the Mosque of Chor-Minor (LP 238) "the Mosque of the 4 minarets. The building stands in the old city and we get along the inland waterways, not roads and surrounded by homes features a piano solo. Mosque built in 1807, was built by a wealthy local merchant. It 'so called, for the 4 minarets that rise at the corners thereof. Next to the mosque are the cells harboring the students watching the entrance of the building are three from the right side and one on the left side. Near the mosque there is a bathtub.
Let us return to the coach and leave for Shakhrisabz, the town of Tamerlane.
Traveling by bus known as the houses are built with the traditional technique. A wooden frame is the backbone of the house. The frame is divided into squares, and inside it, positioned so oblique at regular intervals are placed in piles of wood. The space is filled with bricks of clay and straw, bound together with clay, the plaster is made of clay and painted with lime.
Leaving the coastal city of initially cultivated fields, then across the desert of white rock salt and then the endless red desert. We cross the railway, located 12 km from Bukhara, built in 1877, the Emir of Bukhara did not wish that the railroad reached the city later decided to construct a secondary line that connects the station to the city. Along an infinite fence in the desert, is the nature of the gazelles of Bukhara, a protected species that later we can see. The journey continues between villages whose houses are traditional with a roof terrace and modern roof with Eternit. After 2 hours of journey we stop for a break. The location is for the traveler, a sort of "motorway of the desert, bread cooked in conventional ovens, the soup is done cooking in cast iron kettles round put in stove and fed by the wood fire below, inside there is water and meat already cooked, next Catini iron enamel contain meat, vegetables and spices to add. There is a fridge counter where they are exposed meat and dairy products to sell. Sample a cake a pleasant taste, seasoned with red pepper and accompany with the local yogurt, drinking green tea.
The return trip. The landscape is characterized by green fields, plantation of apricot and apple trees. The mountains dawn increasingly s'intravedono and the snowy peaks. The desert is the time of flowering, the show is unique and indescribable except as a vast, unique, infinite expanse of greenery and flowers.
Come to Shakhrisabz (LP 228) the city of Tamerlane, the great conqueror of the fourteenth century., Walk down some streets of the city. Being tourists in places unknown means temporarily losing focus and the temporal dimension of the places you visit being transported, as if by magic, in places that have their own history.
The bus stops in a parking space, wide boulevards characterize the area, gardens with fountains. We few tens of meters and I see gardeners who are involved in the maintenance of green and suddenly, to our right is a huge "ruin", which I understand is the archaeological site we visit.
Bounded by a railing which is switched on only for paying the ticket, are impressive in their two huge, bloated columns. After passing the railing, the low-covered structures ondolux seem to protect something important and m'avvicino driven by curiosity, I look good I see the floor: they are mosaics of fine workmanship. A beauty and a taste comparable to the best Roman mosaics in place. An extension that judging from the signs and fencing were to be present wide. Paving the desert! Although close to the royal palace, Tamerlano had to have really great ideas for achieving so much magnificence. More and more curious I approach the group, with Nurik has already come a few meters. We are in the vicinity of the two colossal brick columns covered with fine colored earthenware. E 'la "White Gate" began in 1380 and completed in 1404 (24 years for the building) is the entry of what was the golden palace of Tamerlane, his royal residence, located at the center of his immense kingdom , the symbol of absolute power. The portal has two imposing columns 38 meters high, whose foundation is 22 meters deep well. The arch ogive was 54 meters high. The dimensions are truly impressive and a great king could think of so much magnificence. The building was entirely decorated in various rooms were all styles existing in the fourteenth century. Tamerlano wanted the best architects of all known land to build what would be its enormous, magnificent, unique, luxurious palace.
Of what remains, we can see only part of the columns of the portal with ground spiral, serpentine, with tiles made of earthenware, finely worked. The door of the building Bianca Golden is called so that the portal because there are decorations made with white tiles, finely worked (only partly visible on the inside the arch). The building continued with a first courtyard, for the guests, a courtyard surrounded by buildings covered with tiles decorated majolica and mosaic flooring. A second courtyard facades had (always in majolica) representing all types of animal and plant species known. The third courtyard of the house contained Tamerlano, completely decorated with white and gold tiles.
You can get into one of the porch pillars arc acute, given that I am here I decided to climb. The view from above the garden below, housing, the city and desert grown, just off the imposing mountain range of the Palm with its snowy peaks.
Leave the site and through the huge garden at the center with a huge bronze statue of Tamerlane, the buses arrive. Let us go and pass from the market, buildings that stood at the crossroads of the roads, we see the last remaining buildings in 1907.
Shortly after the bus slows to turn left and see the buildings from the blue dome and other brick. And descend through a port access to the complex Khazrati-Iman (LP 228) currently houses a restored nineteenth century mosque. dedicated to an Iman who lived in the VIII century. The building partially destroyed by Genghis Khan, now has a courtyard with trees of centuries (700, 400 and 200 years).
Adjacent to the mosque is the tomb of Jehangir, son of Tamerlane, the only remaining building and forming part of the "seat of power", which was also destroyed by Genghis Khan, now the place for meditation and prayer.
Slightly apart, there is the crypt of Tamerlane. The crypt was found only in 1963, made of baked bricks, the walls are covered with verses of the Koran. The king wished to be buried here. During a winter expedition against China, because of a cold shot, dies. The body was transported to Samarkand, and since the mountain passes impassable because snow was buried in the second city of the empire.
Abandon the place and after a few hundred meters access to the whole Mosque Kok-Gumbaz (LP 228), the Mosque of the "Blue Dome." The entire complex is under the protection of UNESCO. The Mosque and Madrasa arise in part bounded by a high wall, is accessed by an iron gate.

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Shakhrisabz - 2nd part

The mosque was restored recently, only a small part of the paintings is original, but the calcite present in the walls surface decorations defacement.
Front to the Mosque is the Mausoleum of Sheikh Shamseddin Kulyal, built in 1374, was a former Madrasa, inside there is the sarcophagus of Shay Shamseddin, the first spiritual leader of Tamerlano. The monument was partly reconstructed originally covered in jade green.
Besides there is another building, the Mausoleum Saidon, containing the descendants of Sheikh Saidon. Present place of worship and veneration. The sarcophagus of the sheik was considered miraculous, the cover is made from a black stone and the belief is that this rock is curative. I put water on the faithful stone, leaving them three days and then drink. The stone appears partially smoothed by rubbing perpetuated by the faithful over the centuries (it is scientifically proven that after three days the water absorbs the minerals present in the stone).
For lunch we go to a private home located on the road to Samarkand, have lunch in one huge table, vegetable antipasti (where we find the rhubarb and Giuggiolo), soup, mixed meat stewed with turnips, carrots and potatoes.
Outside the form of children are curious about our presence, get the sweets (taken in abundance on domestic air flights) in exchange for photographs and we start to board the bus. The ribbon of asphalt running between the steppe, the hills are green, some peaks are still snow covered, winter is about to end and the spring bloom makes green and desert hills, a few months to leave the area completely barren landscape. Every so often characterizes some village landscape, the space is truly boundless. At some point stop "plumbing", the toilets are outdoors on a hill. We are surrounded by a horde of children, the sweet ending, it is an excellent opportunity to take photos, features of the children, the colors of their clothes, looking carefully, is a "coveted prey to a photographer."
We continue the journey and arrive in Samarkand (LP 218), and we plunged into the green lanes, Nurik quickly explains the history of the city, the attention is high, so far has been a growing magnificence. Samarkand is situated in an oasis in the bleak, vast red desert in Asia. The greetings of the city we can be a huge blue dome grooved. Shortly after we arrive at Afrosiab is placed near the center of town. Arrange the bags a part of the group decides to make a trip for a first taste of the city. Io salgo Room from the balcony you have a unique view on the blue domes of the buildings, with a number of minarets, I do not know that they could be mosques or madrasas, now curious to know what is left into the background by sunset that dawn with binoculars watching the buildings of brick topped the turquoise tiled dall'azzurro, the sunset colors of red bricks, the sun shines on the blue tiled domes, minarets lights by highlighting the green, white, blue. The show is a unique image, scenery, try not to miss any time from time splendor, with binocular images are magnified and can see the details, nuances, which to the naked eye would be lost. I continue to scrutinize these buildings until the sun peeping behind the hills leaving the city illuminated only by street lamps.
Falls within the group, you go down in the hall for dinner, finally after some traditional meals can build the group eating at will. Looking at the dishes on the buffet, appetizers, first, second, cheeses, cold cuts, the only dish that has a very limited success is that the soup continues to boil on the fire.
After dinner take a walk in the nearby Registan Square, the square appears in all its majesty, three buildings are completely covered in polychrome majolica leave amazed by their elegance, even if it is evening and the lights illuminate part of the context, the performance in progress " Lights and Sounds "is a glimpse of the colors of the buildings. But the real show will do when the sun, illuminate the polychrome majolica. Let Registan square and we head towards a fully enlightened, closer view of such sophistication leaves enchanted, minbar, columns, capitals, arches, facciata all finely decorated majolica. Return but it is difficult to sleep with so much harmony in the eyes. Our thoughts go to those who crossed the desert, along the silk route and arrived, dirty, sunny, thirsty from time in an oasis of enchantment. The blue domes were seen from far away and apart from being a point of reference would also find people, fresh food, water, cool. The dream of "a thousand and one nights" were true, I am in Samarkand, the royal city par excellence, the city destination of any traveler of yesterday and today. Samarkand, a source of inspiration for many stories and some songs. The morning should come to visit it is illuminated by the sun a lot.

Samarkand - 1st part

The city welcomes the sun, I get up with binoculars and watch the buildings that are lit. The day is full of emotions, the alarm rings at 7.30, but are long standing. Quick breakfast, I do not want to waste time to eat, there is much to see, I'm in a hurry, but the group has its time. We know that the guide will accompany us for the city is named Shahla, is 25 years old, mother of a child of 4. Fluent in Italian and its function is to follow the various groups in the city of Samarkand. Tourism is coming and then guides "grass" are complemented with expert guides to learn the art of the trade.
As we head towards the observatory of Ulugbek, Shahla quickly tells the story of Samarkand. Originally located on a hill was destroyed and rebuilt for 11 times. The city has suffered 3 major invasions, Alexander the Great (who enchanted the beauty of the city, saved from destruction), the Arabs, Genghis Khan and finally the completely destroyed and the city erected no longer in the same place, also complicit alveolo of the river that had moved. The ancient Samarkand stood on the hills to the left of the river, Tamerlano had it built right nell'oasi you were creating.
We arrive at the foot of a hill at the top of which stood the observatory of Ulugbek (LP 222), grandson of Tamerlane, who reigned for 40 years. Him the ruler of a people of nomadic fighters and more dedicated to the science that battle was the subject of a conspiracy on the part of ministers and religious, which focus on the action to the study. During a pilgrimage to Mecca, he was apprehended, arrested and beheaded. All with an edict signed by his son, also fell into the trap of caste. In fact, the son who was given the petitioner padricidio for a national law could not govern itself, and was hanged. The dynasty of Tamerlane purposes reign having created a vast empire and developed a considerable scientific knowledge. On the death of Ulugbek, his observatory was completely destroyed, only part of his studies and manuscripts were rescued by some people, secretly brought in Persia, in the centuries translated into Latin and greek, and today after various vicissitudes are visible to the British Museum in London .
The observatory was circular, built on three floors plus underground, it was majestic, all visible from Samarkand. Today is not that the outer circumference and the underground part of the sextant in which granite with Ulugbek identified 1018 stars. The sextant was 40 meters long brick covered with marble, on which marble Ulugbek noted the stars and their positions. The observatory had a diameter of 46.40 meters.
Beside the observatory is a museum sull'astronomia, built by the Russians to remind the scientists of Central Asia. The building is octagonal in the dome, painted blue, the stars are visible with their signs of the zodiac. At the bottom of the museum has reconstructed the story of Tamerlane and the birth of Ulugbek, predicted by visionaries like a great character. There are crops of the artistic masterpieces found in Samarkand and maps of the Silk Road.
Abandon the observatory and retracing the path towards the city turn right we stop around some hills, where stood the ancient city of Samarkand. On a square stands the Museum of Afrosiad (LP 222) that we visit, within a model that reconstructs the imposing structure of the city, defended to the north dall'avvallamento šiach made from the river, the fortified walls s'estendevano south, forming an irregular pentagon. The various walls divide the city into sectors. At the farthest from the river's people lived. In the second were the warriors and stores of food, lived in the third and finally the rich, in the most inaccessible part of the royalty lived. The implementation of the sectors and defensive fortifications were made using the excellent dips and configuration of the natural terrain.
In the various rooms of the museum trace the history of Samarkand, starting with exhibits dating from the Neolithic period, to an oven for firing ceramics of the fourth century., The room dedicated to Alexander the Great containing tiles with the seals of the artisans, coins, weapons , furniture, Greek columns and various models to understand the evolution of the city. The next part is devoted to religion zorastrana with the reconstruction of the sacred fire. It comes to Arab domination, with the introduction of Islam. To spread the new religion the Arabs who converted taxation, this was an easy grip on the people, but not last long, fees were soon restored. In other rooms are preserved coins, silver jewelry, precious stones, finely machined, carved ivory, bone nuts, tools, pottery, ceramics and polychrome brown (typical processing Samarkand).
Access to the most beautiful room of the museum. La Stanza del Re a rectangular shape, the walls (the central and two lateral) frescos made with natural colors, the chromaticity unique, stand out where the shades of white, of blue, red. The beauty and intensity of colors reminiscent of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. The frescoes, depicting animals and men were, on religious grounds, covered by the Arabs, and brought to light only recently.
From left to right, the first fresco representing the Bridal Procession, there are men dressed elegantly among which the prince and the bride who brings the gifts of dowry. The fresco is full of animals, including elephants and horses stand out (from India).
The fresco of the wall is the central reception of ambassadors, there are depicted various local and foreign personalities, each representing sfoggiante clothes or imperial, bringing gifts. Sull'affresco are written narranti various events.
The third wall, the fresco is divided in two currencies, the first is the princess with their maids on a boat and the second is the prince in a hunting scene.
The peculiarity is that the frescoes on the left (the Bridal Procession), and to the right (Hunting and boat), are depicted a prince and a princess, but the figures are posed in such a way that s'intreccino diagonally in the room.
Leave the museum and on the hills adjacent recandoci visit the archaeological excavations of the old city of Samarkand, where it dominates the whole new part built by Tamerlane, and which stands out from the huge blue dome of the Mosque.
We return to town and we head towards the great Mosque, located adjacent to the market to allow traders to pray when was the appropriate time, the mosque stands on a hill but we descend into the valley below and continue on foot, passing a cemetery, a the entry point. We have reached the Shar-I-Zindah (LP 221), the "Tomb of the King alive," a collection of tombs dating from the fifteenth century. Entrance on the left, the Mosque of the XX sex. The place is a religious place of pilgrimage, is full of devout people, three pilgrimages to this place equivalent to one at Mecca. It 'one of the most charming places dell'intersa Asia.
There is a continuous succession of sepulchral buildings with blue turquoise domes, facades decorated with the finest majolica tiles dating from the fifteenth century. The right-hand men were buried in that left women.

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Samarkand - 2nd part

The site is extensive but a huge construction site for years was in a state of total abandonment and is now undergoing major restoration work on all the graves, you see the original facade degraded where the patient work of the restorers Carthusians tries to return the ancient magnificence.
Mosque with a visit inside the remains of polychrome paintings dating from the fifteenth century. In the years of socialism mosques were used as warehouses and the abolition of all religion has done is that people lost all religious symbols, and still find it hard to navigate, this difficulty can be seen in the minaret used as places for the ignition of candles and prayer for Muslims, where the orientation in prayer is not always towards Mecca. We continue the visit of the complex made of a succession of buildings of refined elegance. Falling down stairs and get out before we visit the interior of a courtyard, where the well where legend has it that breaks a local saint who was beheaded, but regardless of the fact he had just cut off his head and went away standing in the bottom of the pit, hence the name of the complex "Tomb of the King alive." Even Genghis Khan was impressed by the story and wanted to send two of his servants to see if it was true that at the bottom of the pit there was holy, the legend says that left blind. Tamerlano also made his servant go upside down. It is said, who stayed for three days of the King living buried in the bottom of the pit, but before returning to the world the king warned him not to say anything otherwise would have become blind. Rose to the surface Tamerlano wanted to know what he had seen, the servant Tamerlano warned that if he had told the visa would become blind and mute. Tamerlano him two or spoke or was killed, but the promise that if you had become blind and mute, he would have dealt with his family. The unfortunate story and everything just finished the story fell a tear from her face; became blind and mute. Tamerlane, held the promise and founded the school for the blind and dumb.
Let the massive complex and quickly we head to the mosque which stands on the hill, the mosque of Bibi-Khanym (LP 220), the fourteenth century. The mosque must have been visible to the huge distance view of the imposing gateway 35 m high. It was built in just 5 years of hard work and articulated. We enter and we stop in the yard for its construction, were made to arrive from India to transport the elephants from the nearby mountains of marble blocks used in the creation of internal columns. Originally all the buildings inside the mosque were linked by arcades with marble columns worked. In 1897 an earthquake destroyed the Mosque and are now rebuilt, but not in the original version of the original columns are still few.
In the center of the courtyard there is a huge granite lectern, here was once placed the Koran oldest in the world, made of sheets of gazelle leather, bound in gold, weighing three hundred kilograms. It was the Koran that Osman, the son of Mohammed and third successor of the prophet was reading when he was assassinated. His blood soaked the book and made him sacred. The book was "led" by the Russians in St. Petersburg, but in recent years Uzbekistan has been restored and is now in the museum of the Koran in Tashkent.
The style of the complex is unique, the façade, very high, shows two tall columns side by side, and historically introduces a new architectural style in Central Asia. From the outside the height of the facade can hide the imposing dome of the Mosque Mail 's courtyard.
Accessible only from inside the courtyard of the mosque was restored only on the outside, the façade is characterized by majolica, the large dome is a beautiful turquoise blue. The interior is in a state of considerable neglect, there are few traces of frescoes and decorations.
On the construction of the mosque all the guides tell a legend: Tamerlano wanted Samarkand became the most beautiful city in the world and before leaving for a new company that he was a mosque built in honor of his wife, the beautiful princess of Mongolian origin, Bibi-Khanym. Party Tamerlano, Bibi-Khanym personally followed the construction of the mosque, but the architect responsible for the construction of the princess fell and threatened not to complete the work if you do not give a kiss. The architect asked the princess, and refused, but was also concerned that the work had not continued. Until one day is left handed and kissing. The kiss was so hot that on the cheek of Bibi-Khanym remained a burning. Tamerlano when he returned to Samarkand, wanted his wife, but she went with the face covered by a veil, he asked for clarification, she invented an excuse, but he did not know they wanted and took away the veil, he saw the burning, churches and explanations went over all the rage. Tamerlano impose that all the women wearing the veil, hence according to legend, the origin of the chador. And the two poor? Here the legend is divided according to the stories, some want the poor-Khanym Bibi was killed and that the architect, instead he escaped, the other party instead wants the architect was murdered and Bibi-Khanym, the survivors thrown from the Minaret. Legend? Opposite the mosque is the mausoleum of Bibi-Khanym (LP 220), we try to come to visit, but the keeper is adamant accessed only by paying the entry and take pictures, as in all the sites are pay-sun 1000 (30 cent.), I do not pay, and I left the mausoleum also photographing the outside.
There is time devoted to shopping, I take this opportunity to visit the adjacent local market, turning the field of fruit, food, textiles explosion of color allows me to take some photos. Finally a place without so many tourists and frequented only by local authorities.
We continue the day with a lunch stop, we stop in a room located outside the center of Samarkand, is a typical "decorated" with psychedelic lights. Now we are accustomed to traditional flavors, vegetable appetizer, soup? No, does not the classic vegetable soup, but soup with ravioli, which look very much to the Chinese. Ravioli in broth, stuffed meat of mutton, with the addition of garlic and onion. Good and acceptable. Local wine tasting asprognolo, second, there are huge skewers of grilled meat (beef, chicken, pork, mutton). The toilets of local hides a real surprise, we find the simple and clean "Turkish." Nell'antibagno huge parrot aviary which contains liven with their cries, the whole room.
Return the visit of the city and through the university sector, known as many adults often wear traditional clothing, men wear long dresses, leather boots with overshoes for mud, the blacks of Astrakan hats, some wearing the black Zuccotti decorated with white, the symbol of Muslims, some white Zuccotti the leading symbol of the pilgrimage to Mecca. The women wear colorful traditional clothing, wear head scarves and wings foot wear slippers. Students dressed in Western Europe.
The show features people whose skin is cooked by the sun, you see well the origin of the Turkmen and Uzbek people. The Uzbeks have almond eyes, the Turkmens have a complexion brown / olive, and the eyes larger. Sometimes old age is early, sometimes the beauty of the lines makes it difficult age.

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Samarkand - 3rd part

Return in the old part of town and stop at the building the night before we visited all enlightened, is the Guri Amir Mausoleum (LP 221), the Tomb of Tamerlane, built in the fifteenth century. Built initially for Ulugbek (grandson of Tamerlane), but the sudden death of the sovereign and the impossibility of transporting the body to Shakhrisabz, where he had built his tomb, he is to be buried in Samarkand. The site was handed down to posterity as "grave dell'emiro".
Inside the Mausoleum sarcophagi, of Tamerlane, his two sons, his teacher, of Ulugbek. What is Tamerlano nephritis in black, the other in gray marble, is this part of the lid of the tomb of Tamerlane, made of jade was removed and then shown here.
A long stick in the head with a ponytail is planted in a niche side, serves to keep away evil spirits.
On the walls, starting from the floor, a coating of onyx has worked as a reflective diffusing a faint light, the walls run with stucco and gilt decorations, including symbolic designs reveal the tree of life Ulugbek and the stars.
The inside of the dome is of paper, the exterior masonry is covered with majolica blue turquoise, with 64 stripes (symbolizing the 63 years of a Tamerlano more of gestation). On the walls are opened 4 enormous niches, where the decorations are continuing. The size of the niche is the maximum feasible not to endanger the maintenance of the facility. A construction adorned with decorations that were plundered in the eighteenth century. the Persians, who scrape all the gold from the wall. Only today, after a careful and meticulous restoration, the beauty has been reported to the source.
During Soviet rule Samarkand was preserved by substantial urban and destructive as in other cities, as had been appointed regional capital. The Russians in the years following independence have been drawn to be done to restore most of the monuments in the city.
Let the Mausoleum of Tamerlane and walking distance bus stops; we Registan Square (LP 220). The square lit by the sun is truly amazing, charming, incredibly beautiful, only good. Three Madras a left, a central and a right bounding the space of the square, leaving one hand free to access and exit. Registan means "sandy place", was originally a commercial center and the fifteenth century. has become a cultural center. Ulugbek was to build the first Madrasa, one to the left post that bears his name. In the seventeenth century. the second was built Madrasa (the Madrasa of Leoni), opposite to that, the same as the previous one, the only difference were the decorations on the facade, that of Ulugbek with the stars (called Madrasa of Stars) and the front for the first time, animal figures are meaningless zorastrano, striped s'intravede a lion symbol of evil struggling with a gazelle symbol of good. Also in the seventeenth century. was built, in place of the existing caravanserai (the largest in the world) that is located between the two Madras closed one side of the square, the third Madrasa (the Madrasa Mosque gold). As between the three Madras there was a mosque, was incorporated in the Madrasa itself. The Mosque, inside, was completely covered with gold, drawn, again, in the eighteenth century by the Persians.
Visit the Madras starting from Madrasa dei Leoni, the cells inside were placed on two floors, architectural feature of Samarkand, entirely decorated with majolica (earlier Madras were partially decorated). The cells have doors with low above verses of the Koran, who had access to the room, had to read the verses and then bend down, in the sense of respect. These Madras were for rich people, then repeat the verses of the Koran every time s'entrava in the rooms, it was an "original" to learn the verses themselves. Who ended their studies within the Madrasa, could accede to the sciences, an ancient form of university.
The cells are processed here in craft shops, and within a cell is a musician who plays traditional instruments. We are listening to the sound of instruments like guitars, one made of mulberry wood (the structure) with the skin of fish (the coverage of the case harmonic), another wholly of mulberry wood (played exclusively by women), another is always of mulberry wood but finely decorated with the bones of lamb (played exclusively by men), another is made of mulberry wood with the harmonic case covered with the pericardium (the skin of the heart) of ox and decorated with mother of pearl, the flute Wood (who, with his distinctive sound, the music evokes the suffering), the tambourine with the wooden structure and the case of ox leather with iron rings inside (for assistance) tool used by dancers. The wood of mulberry trees, part of these instruments, produces a distinctive sound, very nervous. The demonstration continues with stringed instruments and finally the trumpet feature of Asia, with which the walls of Bukhara, was announced the exit and entry by dell'emiro building.
At the end of the demonstration, we buy CDs of traditional music.
We continue the tour in Madrasa with a visit to the room in winter. The bottom is tiled, while the upper part is decorated with paintings recently restored and now houses a craft workshop for carpets.
Emerge from the Madrasa of the Lions, and after a few meters, we enter into the Madrasa Mosque gold. The courtyard has a structure of cells to a floor, also covered with polychrome majolica. Access to the Golden Mosque, the interior was completely rebuilt after the removal of gold. The vision leaves enchanted, gold decorations everywhere. The mosque is a small local museum, you can see photos of the square outside the Madras with the old market, the first restoration work and the various exhibits. There is also an accurate description of the process of majolica and various mineral dyes used for coloring.
Access to the building, the Madrasa of Ulugbek (the Madrasa of Stars), the court as in the first Madrasa has visited two-storey building is also clad entirely of earthenware. Access to a cell called "The Bride of the room, the walls are hung the clothes of the bride, the tradition says that the hang on the walls covered with woven all the clothes that has to show his wealth and the social role held.
We continue to examine the availability of and access to the Madrasa "Stanza of" where to stay and listen to the music teacher. The furniture consists of an armchair, from where tables and chairs enjoy tea as well as a series of beds.
After the classical tour with the guide, the group is free. We stop for three stores in Madras, not so much for the purchase of handicrafts (some really interesting), but to stay immersed in so much harmony multicolored. The walls covered with majolica blue, green, blue the view, the reasons are many, but the eye volendoli see all is lost, the mind struggles to save so many decorative motifs, luckily the camera is a valuable, I try the right light and snap photos. The thought is to students of Islamic schools, who could study and live in peace and so much like magic.

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Samarkand - 4th part

The return to the hotel is fast, a few hundred meters away from the Registan Square. From the balcony of the room a look at the city illuminated by electric light is due, in the sky stood out the figures of the buildings that only the night before I knew not identify, but now I know recognize that name, physiognomy, by position.
Dinner is characterized by the 15th anniversary of marriage of Antonio and Enza. For them it was an organized, without their knowledge, a common table (by Mauritius). The surprise is waiting just entered the room. Finished dinner buffet, Filippo "dressed" all point to two "handmaids" reads a poem composed by him, dedicated to the two celebrated. The poetry is marked by the refrain "that beautiful, that magnificence, that splendor" (reference the exclamations of wonder Don Mauritius). The poem ended by recalling all the spouses in the room. Then came the cake and sweet wine, an unforgettable holiday in a country so far from Rovello. Someone is moved, the spouses can hardly thank the beautiful and unexpected surprise.
The manager, of German origin, is happy and publicly thanked the Italians for the presence and for the pleasant evening that he is spending. Among other things offered cake and sweet wine.
After dinner the group goes out for a walk, I dwell in the hotel to chat. A look to the Mausoleum of Tamarlano illuminated, the light is strange, look at the sky, the moon is hidden by clouds, rain?

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Samarkand - 5th part

The alarm sounds accurate to 8.00, but have long been lifted and I am continuing the writing of the diary and reading the LP guide, the sky is always cloudy and produce another image of the city.
9.00 Breakfast and departure for continuing the tour. Being stopped several days we can see a part that usually the tourists hurried is not visible. In buses, in the journey toward the center of the city passing next to the "labor market", a place where those who are jobless ranks them and expect someone to make an offer, our, craft, impromptu "office of employment" .
Later we pass in front of schools, we see boys intent to clean a garden, ask for clarification and Shahla, explains that every student, every school levels and two Saturdays a canteen are engaged in cleaning the school. Internal and external, including boulevards, and gardens.
We note that women impose on the streets with umbrellas open, the guide explains that there is an Uzbek tradition to protect the skin from the sun so that it remains as clear as possible.
After a few minutes the bus stopped at an iron gate, is open, enter and access to a lawn that seems more a pasture. Within the fenced area stands what was once "the house of pleasure." E 'a building in a state of semi drop off the mail classic tourist circuit, a building to be restored completely. In front are visible remains of majolica decoration, traces of frescoes inside the blue and orange on a white background. And 'the approach to a crypt below the floor center, where sarcophagi were found in women. Historically the house of pleasure, as a result of complaints from neighbors for the noise was too turned into a mausoleum, perhaps the origin of the sarcophagi.
We continue the tour and near a cemetery, we visit the Mosque "within the city", a mosque currently in use, with the daily addition to the big ceremony on Friday. Located in the old part of town is the Mosque of the seventeenth century. restored in the twentieth century. The winter and summer mosques are located in a courtyard where there is a large pool surrounded by centuries-horse chestnuts. Shahla, the leadership of Samarkand, pauses to talk about practices, customs and ways of life of Uzbekistan, describing well the relationship that girls with modern society.
Near the mosque there are women who, as we have already met in Bukhara are Gypsy and armed pot with herbs lit inside, drive the evil eye in exchange for money.
The Mosque is located in an area to the cemetery, Shahla explains the structure and evolution of the tombs of the cemetery. Initially, the dead were buried under a mound of earth, then came to the mound the fences, then appeared slabs of marble with the most recently written and marble slabs with inscriptions and photos. A curiosity on the burial, the Muslims are buried, has always been in the ground naked wrapped in simple cotton sheets or mats. The mound is not the exact point of burial, but the body is lying at the base of the tomb itself.
Continuing the tour of the city, and we arrive at the Mosque "outside the city", understood as a city built by Tamerlane, a building is now being combined in the vastness of the city. The building dates from the eighteenth century. We approach the summer mosque, located at the front and a fountain surrounded by trees. The paving of the square is rebuilding and we're walking in a single yard. An attendant will stop if we are to continue we must pay 1000 sun for "tolls" at the entrance. Explains that the leadership is doing a ticket to visit the Madrasa, but the attendant will be undeterred in the request for money. As the summer mosque, even if recently decorated is clearly visible from the outside, we decide not to pay the sum required, shoot some photos from the yard and go to visit the Madrasa. The facade is completely tiled, blue, green, white and yellow has figures that recall the Madrasa of Lions, through the large entrance door and we find ourselves in a courtyard building with a floor. It was the only religious Madrasa for, here was the complete study of the Koran. The structure is well preserved, being placed outside the city the location logistics has avoided a resulting degradation is neglect, or improper use imposed by the Bolsheviks. Currently, the Madrasa, is undergoing complete renovation, including two years is the real opening to the public and the cells of the courtyard will be dedicated to arts and crafts shops. May consider lucky to have seen this complex still an original, before it becomes, like the others, a point of sale of craft items. The interior of the mosque is all white except minbar.
We leave the Mosque "outside the city" and we head towards the area of the hotel, which is adjacent to the university area. Arise from its border, a short distance two churches, the Christian and Orthodox. The bus stops near the Christian Church, go down to visit. The Church is closed, a sign warns of the Masses. Pause a moment to observe the building of red brick with white statues on the facade when the other side of the road appears to be a Franciscan Father that smiling is heading towards us. In a faltering Italian greets us warmly, is happy that someone makes a visit to his Church. Quickly open the gate and the Church and we can enter. The building was constructed in 1916 by prisoners of war deported Poles who lived in the city. In addition to former prisoners, there were other Poles who, in this region were working for the army of the Tsar and were present with their families. During the czarist the Poles who were protesting were being "transferred" in the lost and desolate plains of Central Asia. This in fact is that the presence of so many Poles lead the construction of Christian churches in major cities (currently there are Christian churches in Samarkand, Ashgabad and Tashkent). The building during the Soviet period was allocated to different uses, before it was a place of recruitment for the soldiers, later became a fitness center, returns to place of worship in 1995. Influence of John Paul II? Currently in the region there are 10 priests and 3 lay people, the bishop has been appointed recently and will begin his apostolic work May 14th 2005 (while I'm writing the diary) is a Polish born in Siberia. The Franciscan father is of Polish origin, it denotes the height, blond-haired and blue-eyed, which features stand out when compared to those Uzbeks or Turkmens.
His father, accommodate us in the Church, gives us mere candles made from it manually. We listen to his story, says that Christians are few, 500. Being Christian to Samarkand is a choice to "high" risk to the social discrimination they are subjected people who change religion, which have serious personal implications (rejected by family members and others).
The Church is dedicated to John the Baptist, was opened for our visit draws to a nearby clinic that people dressed in white coat is to pray. Since we are in a church, say a prayer and Shahla, watching us with a surprised look, disbelief, ecstatic at the way in which to pray and became silent.
Salute your father and we are preparing to visit the Orthodox Church currently deconsecrated, contains an exhibition of paintings and objects characteristic of a nomadic tribe in Afghanistan rifugiatasi hours.
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Samarkand - 6th part

During the wanderings to Samarkand, known the constant presence of concrete channels that are present at the edges of all roads and where water is periodically scrolled to clean the streets.
Return to the hotel and salute Shahla who completed his work as tourist guides of Samarkand and leaves us to return to the family. We go on the panoramic terrace of the hotel, for lunch. The place is charming, open windows with Arab on the city. The air cools the traditional lunch, vegetables, soup, meat with rice, the.
The afternoon is free, dedicated to shopping. Although the group was scattered, a few hours after we meet everyone in Registan Square, shop for those, who to photograph. The shops are attractive to both Western tourists and for local tourists. In the various Madras meets people from all over the world, seems a little insight of what was to be the cosmopolitan beauty of Samarkand.
Within Madras yes it is attacked by sellers who kindly t'invitano to see what in their stores, since they are not interested in making purchases, sometimes becomes difficult to photographs being literally surrounded by any proposed sale. Step several times from a Madrasa in search of the other corners where taking pictures, there are suggestive of special beauty that can not escape the eye closely, you take photos in succession. Using the digital camera I have the advantage of being able to see immediately, and if not I like being able to redo. The afternoon is a fun single run, to observe, photograph.
We leave from Madras and we stop in Registan Square, sitting on wooden benches, the view is priceless and beautiful front of us there is the facade of the Madrasa Mosque gold, right of the Madrasa Leoni, left the Madrasa of stars (the first one built by Ulugbek). The vision is enhanced by the chirping of birds that nest on the plants of the park surrounding the square and across the oasis of Samarkand. Time passes, but like watching magic seems to stand still, we remain them until they appear threatening clouds that seem to charges of water, even rain here? Seems to fall a few drops in the meantime get the "last surviving shopping and decide to return to the hotel.
While we leave Registan square, we can observe well the impressive work of sbancamento in place. The level of Madras and at least two meters below the current street level, and technical workers with machines and equipment are bringing to the original level. Re-emerging old buildings and pavements, in a few years who knows who will show you the tourist. Samarkand will recover the former glory?
For placement of archaeological sites will be moved to homes, markets, bazaars, the inhabitants moved to modern quarters of the seats on the city outskirts. Once again, the modern successor to the traditional buildings.
During the return transit to the hotel in front of a room where you're celebrating a wedding, we pause to observe the lunch table wedding that takes place in a garden; spouses sit at a table placed centrally and high compared to that of Guests will be 400 - 450 people. Return to the hotel, go up in the room and go out on the balcony where he heard the music of the wedding, but I will watch the sunset on Registan Square. The sky is gray, the square seems bleak, but suddenly the sun's rays holes and the clouds are reflected on a turquoise blue dome of the mosque of Bibi-Khanym. I'll take it as a personal greeting of the beautiful princess Mongolian and this fascinating and beautiful city that until the last wanted to amaze with his magic.
It 'time to prepare the bags, is the third night sleeping in Samarkand and the next day's transfer to Tashkent, the dawn hours of departure and return to Italy.
Spend the evening in your hotel, dinner buffet, after dinner characterized by the group that he was sitting on the terrace of the hotel, around a couple of bottles of vodka for a chat.
Return to room and sleep before I thought that the atmosphere of Asian desert is unique, so I see the African desert, I personally prefer the wild beauty of this desert rocky, sandy, with the mountains visible where onto lose, it means not leaving it alive even in our days. I wonder who thought and felt, until 1922, the caravan that came to town, but who knows, especially with that spirit had departed leaving behind all the pomp.

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Tashkent - 1st part

Alarm at 6.00, since it's Sunday Mass, breakfast and then departure to Tashkent. The oasis is Samarkand, with its plants, the green disappears quickly, leaving the view of free space on the expanses of cultivated fields of cotton, the red desert irrigated by the Soviets and turned into a huge, endless, endless fields of cotton. Fields as the eye can see where, say the Uzbeks, find something to eat here is impossible, cotton does not eat!
Nurik explains the relationship between cotton farmers and Uzbeks, as it is divided the wealth of the nation and the economic system that sustains. It describes the remuneration, the farmers, for a ton of cotton, which collect and deliver, in exchange for receiving $ 500, plus the oil that is extracted from cotton, plus the plant processed into feed for animals.
The landscape is green only thanks to constant and continuous irrigation of the fields, we proceed to the mountains and, when the road seems blocked, along a river, passing through "the door of Tamerlane", a natural crack in the rock of the mountain, where he says that the subjects expected the Emperor to accept his return victorious. I continue km from the bus window we continue to see the cotton fields and plantations various trees, every so often appears a few small and remote village.
A stop "to hydraulic problems" allows us to get off to stretch my legs my legs, we have just passed a road junction, there are points of rest, this is an impromptu market vegetables and dairy products. Every so often among the most diverse car, not only by model but by age of registration, direct transit bus in Tashkent, the capital is the same in every state, by acting as indisputably large polarizing point of reference.
The place where you stop to have breakfast drivers and guides, is similar to our booth, the bread oven is cool with some form of local brioches. I will see to the baking of bread. The oven is basically a dome at the top with a metal cover, which serves as passage for the wood and food to cook. The fire is in the center, once the oven temperature is in the bread to be cooked is attached to the inner walls of the oven, the shape reminds our pizza or piadina, being without yeast bread baking is done fairly quickly. Bread cooked, fragrant and perfumed is served hot.
The return journey, despite the way the sliding speed is not excessive, also due to herds of cattle or sheep that suddenly crossing the road, forcing the driver to abrupt and sudden braking.
Proceed between fields, then a long stretch of desert red, reappear in the fields, trees, s'intravedono electricity pylons, the capital is increasingly approaching.
After 340 kilometers in 5 hours of travel we arrive in Tashkent (LP 186), the capital of Uzbekistan. In the city as seen at the beginning of this tour the most modern buildings accentuate the contrast with the crumbling Soviet buildings, and to sunlight, it is much stronger than you saw a few days ago. Huge boulevards crossing the city and make traffic flow. We see the magnificent palace of the new parliament, the senate, which is under construction, the conservatory, the palace of brotherhood preceded by a huge square in the center with the classical statue (in distinctly Soviet) bronze on a marble pedestal red, transit through the memories of the park (which contains a plaque with all the fallen of World War II).
We arrive at the Le Meridian hotel where we just came from the first night stay. The square in front of the hotel, with the sun appears large, in front of the theater.
Take our rooms, and retrieve luggage and put the TV for news from Italy, we see the beginning of the first ceremony Sunday of Pope Benedict XVI. A few minutes and go for lunch. We transfer to Uzbekistan, a local five-star (in Italy would perhaps three). Go up to the 17th floor and have lunch at the restaurant. Vegetables, soup, meat.
From the terrace the view is wide-ranging, plants, and modern Soviet buildings. In the distance, the houses disappear and give way to desert red cultivated. The culmination of the snowy mountains closes the enchanting vision. The eye is a handle to see the details but is lost in the vastness of this immense territory perpetually sunny and beaten by the wind of the north.
Tashkent means "city of stone" of the buildings are constructed using stone and marble. This proximity to the mountains, where there are quarries. The city was destroyed by Genghis Khan and was revived by Tamerlane.
After the lunch we leave the restaurant and begin the tour of the city, known traditional Uzbek houses, always made of bricks of clay and straw, are characterized by high, massive and continuous walls that demarcate the wall, the entrance is from a central door, which often corresponds to step driveway, other times there is a pedestrian gate. The main places in a courtyard where the buildings have a number of windows that give only to the inside of the courtyard. Each house has its own garden, partly cultivated with flowers, some cultivated for vegetables. There are plants whose sheltering shadow of the heat of the sun. The wooden porch is another characteristic, under the porch, huge sofas used to drink coffee, to eat and spend time in the company of friends.
After the earthquake of 1948 was not much to see, the first seismic shock have frightened the population which was able to take refuge outside the house. Interminable and subsequent aftershocks have literally razed to the ground the city leaving only a small part half and is now open to the party as "old town". Leave a main road, turn left, enter the narrow streets of old town, but immediately found another broad boulevard, the party has remained very low. The bus stops, and we go over a few hundred meters you all to visit.
We begin with a visit to the Mausoleum Kaffol Shosbiy of XVI century. dedicated to a local saint. The mausoleum is called "White Dove, peace for the city" according to Russian tradition and, according to Uzbek tradition, is called "Smith who makes the padlocks of Tashkent", the revered saint was a blacksmith and a scholar of Islam, to the end of his life became a teacher. The building was restored after the independence, within the tomb of the saint, children and other people. It is now a place of pilgrimage throughout the middle Asia.
Continuing the tour, crossing the street and arrive at the Madrasa of Barak Khan (LP 192), the sixteenth century. Dedicated to a scholar of Islam. The building is at a piano solo, completely rebuilt and restored, also after independence. He is currently the headquarters office of the Uzbek Islamic before the attacks of 1996 was the seat of Islamic religious leaders of Central Asia. Access inside, but the Madrasa is only open to the courtyard.
Cross the road and enter the courtyard of the Mosque of Telyshayakh (LP 192), summer is the mosque built with a structure of wooden poles and covered in corrugated iron sheet. The mosque had been demolished earlier in the reconstruction, but the lack of funds has stopped the work. As local custom here asking for money to take pictures, but honestly paletteria photograph of your yard I do not care.
... follows.

Tashkent - 2nd part

Inside the courtyard of the mosque there is a Koranic library of books, the purpose is education. Students of Islam are here to gather and read the oldest Korans in the region. Of various forms, some of refined bill, other minefields, many manuscripts, only the most recent copies are printed. The collection starts from the books of 1257 to the present day, is a particularly beautiful Quran minefield of 1430. In a room inside a humidified teca and jealously guarded, there is a book with pages made of gazelle leather, bound in gold and weighing over 300 kilograms is the Qur'an of Bukhara, which was placed about the lectern placed in Mosque of Bibi-Khanym to Samarkand, where Osman was killed, the son of Muhammad.
We leave the mosque, we continue the tour and arrived at the foot of a hill, the ascent to visit the Madrasa Kokaldesc of the XVI century., Also rebuilt after independence, today is a vocational school. Access inside the courtyard and was surprised to find a fresh fruit of the particular arrangement of bricks that allow constant ventilation to avoid excessive heat. In the vicinity there is an old turkish bath still in operation.
The historic buildings of the city is really characterized by the use of marble and stone. This use is known for the steps and the coating of the mosques and Madras. E 'for the free time that I see as the marble stone and replace the bricks that have always characterized the buildings so far seen.
Heading towards the hotel stop in Piazza brotherhood (where we passed the morning), the square is really great as the avenues that form the triangle.
Return to the hotel and the group is divided, most went to see a show of modern ballet in the front seat at the theater, I prefer to return and continue their travel, reading and placing the notes of this intense tour. I will take a few minutes to talk to Nurik and emerge with a great desire to leave the country to wonder why he decided to study Italian, the answer is simple "I had to find a way to leave this country." The tone of voice, the eyes and lips express a strong desire for change and the search for even small, but real possibility of leaving this area in the social and political renaissance.
Dinner at a restaurant and after dinner Nurik delivery to each participant a certificate of a large caravan "a nice idea that will remain a memory of this tour. Nurick salute the morning must riattraversare Uzbekistan to follow another group of 72 Italians. You go to bed early.

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Coming back home

The alarm clock rings at 2.15 inexorably, breakfast and departure to the airport. The loading of the luggage case with some problems for the tax and how "little diplomats" of an employee at the check-in. Proceed to the customs fairly quickly even if the controls are very strict. Once the metal detector sounds, the bags are surely open. Boarding is at B2, the waiting room is shared with the exit B1, where there are persons, serie, compotes, watch the destination of the flight at B1, departure at 4.45, meta London. We arrive and the room suddenly comes alive to talk, laughter, among many smiles and happy people are happy to be Italian.
Our departure is scheduled for 5.40 in the track there are several aircraft with the lights on, trying to guess how aircraft return to Italy. Shortly after 5 starts boarding handsfree informed by a passing through the waiting room B1-B2. Asia is not the end to surprise even in this.
Take place on the plane, an A-310 and 5.40 point to take off when the sun begins to illuminate Tashkent. A turn and the city quickly disappears from view, leaving the place to endless fields of cotton and over the mountains in the distance. Shortly after the desert makes its appearance, the flight to Rome last six hours, it continues to fly over the desert that seems endless. All of a sudden you see a river, follow it with her eyes and suddenly, right below us, the river disappears, as absorbed by the desert, is the Amu-Darya river, which disappeared in the desert in a flowing underground karst system and then kicks a km away. The flight continued to Turkey, there are low clouds, which give rise to the tops of snowy mountains. Shortly after, heading to Europe, a sea of clouds welcomes us every visual lifting, dancing lightly but the flight continues quiet. On board the plane, people begin to awaken, enliven the atmosphere is a bit, someone speaks, others read, others watch TV or listen to music. From the window the view on a sea like white milk, below the clouds, above the blue, the cut is clean, linear, there are no references, it seems to be motionless, not knowing exactly where you are, suddenly the plane cuts the first clouds appear to travel in a sandwich, white / blue top, white / gray below. The pure white below, is turned into a layer that seems sometimes whipped cream, sometimes frothy and grayish.
We lower and rise the clouds, the gray has replaced the white, sometimes a few scattered, white cloud desert. The plane traballo, beyond the clouds and see the Italian soil of Rome. Consider, take your bags, we check in to Linate, consigned luggage for boarding, we are all faced with a very good coffee (the drink which certainly more than we have all felt the absence). At the bar, and spaces of the choice is vast, coffee, cappuccino, pastries, the youngest, crisps and piadine. Italy gives us the bentornato with its flavors.
The airport of Rome suffered from a different than those seen in previous rounds, the car with the airport signs, markings on the runway, the high visibility vests to the employees ...
Leave for Milan, the flight is quiet, it lands, we retrieve the bagnagli and the bus returned to Rovello, the tour is at an end, and we are close to home. From the window I watch the fields are green, has just finished raining, the emerald green I see the memories of the rice fields visas. Here the distances are not infinite, rows of trees bordering the fields, land. The woods are rare and semi-derelict. The illuminated signs along the streets, modern transit vehicles on roads full of traffic.
It was just back in Italy, is fresh, at home I turn on the fireplace, turn on the computer and discharge the photos taken during those days, I begin to place them, then the catalog as long as I still have fresh memories of the places visited, then, using the valuable Moleskine irreplaceable and transcribe the notes, together with historical research and creating my "travel diary" ........
While I'm writing from Tashkent news arrives of a civil revolt culminated in a massacre with hundreds of deaths, is May 14 when the media give the news. Television services in the places I recognize, a picture strikes me particularly, the clashes occurred at the airport. A few days before I was amused them to take notes ...... fight and s'ammazzano hours. While sorry for what happened, I do not dwell much on battles and their reasons (we have a history to understand its true origin of the reasons, but that's posthumous work), I can only say, well come out alive from the Asian renaissance! !
The thought dwells in the diary and the next trip to make: other people, other cultures, other places are waiting for visas and be told ...