HISTORY. The downy mildew and the ferretti ruined the potatoes. Marseille soap and water, on the other hand, managed to save the beans that had caught the lice and that are now dangling placidly on the plant. For the rest, strawberries, tomatoes, courgettes, salads were at ease in the space that Sara Nitti, 33, and Robin Targon, 34, tilled in Celat di Vallada Agordina to become their first vegetable garden. If this work represents the will of the two young people from Vicenza to take root here a stone’s throw from the provincial road of Passo San Pellegrino, time will tell. In the meantime, a year and a month after landing in Agordino, they can celebrate their “Thanksgiving Day” for a choice that has gradually matured and accelerated by Covid and which has not brought only vegetables as a dowry.
Sara is speaking. “It had been a while that we had been thinking about leaving the city – he says – It’s true, we lived in a nice neighborhood in the center of Vicenza, but it was still a city and it was close to it: too much concrete and lack of a sense of community”. «Down – continues Robin – we entered from the landing and if one of the other inhabitants of the building was at the door, he would return quickly to avoid the meeting by virtue of a sort of discretion which however becomes rudeness. Here in Vallada, on the other hand, it “makes us die” that when we leave the house the neighbor wavers to greet us ». They are aware that in order to find the sense of community they are talking about, it will be necessary to work towards building relationships. Both would like to be able to put their skills at the service of the reality in which they have chosen to live.
The past year, inevitably marked by restrictions for the health emergency, was an interlocutory one, but it still allowed Sara and Robin to get in tune with the nature that surrounds them. A return to that simplicity they had breathed in childhood. «Until I was 10-12 years old – says Sara – I spent half a year in the city and half on a farm in the countryside. I knew cows, rabbits and pigs. I also drove the tractor. When adolescence arrived, the need to be part of the mass prevailed and therefore my rurality was interrupted. Around the age of 22, however, my rural origins resurfaced and I started to make a vegetable garden again ».
As a child, Robin had a passion for animals which represented the first means of approaching the mountains. «With my parents – he remembers – we left Montebello Vicentino and went to various parts of the Alps, in Val d’Aosta, on the Stelvio, to see ibex and other animals. I must say that I responded well to my parents’ requests. For me, who was a bit introverted, the mountains then became a place of refuge, a time to be alone, a gym for experiencing experiences during adolescence. As a self-taught man, in the Little Dolomites I made the adolescent male who does not perceive the dangers, who wants to climb and reach the summit. The relationship with the mountains and nature then waned with the university and with the practice of boxing. Today, however, he is the protagonist of my work ».
As things have changed we will see. First we need to go back to Sara for whom the mountains, up to the age of 25, were not a requirement. “I met her when I was 22 – she says – in Cortina, on a camping trip: an experience that made me fall in love with her and that pushed me to ever more frequent visits and it was during an excursion that I met Robin”. He, meanwhile, had become a character in his Montebello. Not by choice, actually. «While I was a researcher in molecular biology at the University of Padua – he says – I practiced boxing in a gym in the city. My instructor, who for me was like a sister, wanted to go back to competition. We were training and I was sparring. At one point one of my blows knocked her unconscious. She was in a coma for two months and never returned the person she was before. For me, a depressive phase began that led me to leave my job at university and that I faced by starting to walk in the places I dreamed of as a boy, from the Scottish Highlands to Lapland. I would go, go home a few days and then leave again ».
A way of life that aroused so much curiosity that at a class dinner the friends demanded that Robin lead them on an excursion. Sara also showed up with an old school friend of hers. «I thought I was unpleasant – reveals Robin – and instead. .. It is she who pushed me to become a guide, who made me understand that the activity that had restored my well-being could become something more ».
A few days ago Robin returned from Lapland where, as an environmental and hiking guide, he accompanied a group of people on a demanding expedition. «I mainly propose trekking abroad even if Covid has led me to offer trips to Italy as well – he says – long activities are very popular among the fifties and women who want to test themselves in situations that require autonomy and a spirit of adaptation. Based on my advice, they bring food and clothing. The rest, a 3-kilo backpack, with sleeping bag and tent, I provide. These are experiences that help you to understand when a little is enough for you to feel good ».
Sara, graduated from art school and a master in business communication, awaits him in the house in Vallada in front of the pc. It deals with everything that has to do with the “visual part of communication”: websites, advertising campaigns. Half a day works for a communication agency, the other half on his own with clients from all over Italy: tourist agencies, restaurants, big data companies, yoga courses. «I have a network of colleagues with whom I collaborate scattered throughout the peninsula – he says – I really like this continuous relationship that allows comparison and professional growth. In the last year I have worked a lot, often twelve hours a day. The wood, reachable in five minutes on foot, has been redeeming, while for Robin it is the ideal setting to shoot some videos to promote his activities ». Vallada therefore responded to their needs. When they choseto the house, they were going to Val Rendena to see another one.
«It had just been placed in the ads – says Sara – I called immediately and it took me twenty minutes to convince the owner of our intentions. She rightly presented us with all sides of living in the mountains, but we had already fallen in love. We had been thinking about leaving Vicenza for a long time and we must say that Covid has given us that extra boost. When I realized that I could do my work from home and I verified that there was an internet connection in Vallada, we no longer had any doubts ».
They come back to Vicenza. Down there are families, Sara has a beautiful network of friendships, while Robin’s are scattered around the world. “When we go down – they say – we feel good together with our friends and with our loved ones, but in the face of noises, smells, chaos, the memory of a social context that bothered us, we can’t wait to go home to Vallada ».
.