“You cannot kill a breeze, a wind, a fragrance; you cannot kill a dream or an ambition.”

Michel Onfray

The birds are singing again, another day is rising. The sunlight slowly penetrates through the window that was accidentally left a bit open yesterday evening.

The cotton sheets caress my skin and I’m not quite sure I want to get up yet…

I finally give in and open the door; a sweet cool breeze feels like a melody playing in the silence of this enchanted and yet so common spot on Earth.

I am in a “Masseria”, a typical rural house in Valle d’Itria the central and inland part of the Apulia region.

The Masserias, or better Masserie (plural in Italian), were estate buildings built between the 16^th and 17^th century. At the time Spain needed cereals and gave the concession to the Barons to build and exploit this land in southern Italy.

I have not grown up in such a place, but I have spent several summers in my uncle’s Masseria and it was a blast. By chance, or maybe driven by a subconscious will of retracing what has been, I booked a few days in a similar place.

It’s only writing this that memories come to mind. I was 5 years old and dreamed of this: I wanted to live in a Masseria by the sea!

P.S.: more pictures on my Instagram profile!