One day in spring, the ocean liner I had worked and lived on for so long sailed back to Genoa without me.

I got off at New York. I had enough money to let myself be a tourist for a few days, so I went to discover the “new world”. Days went by quickly. Quite soon, I found a job at an industrial carpentry shop which made it possible for me to live.

So the monotonous days in New York slipped through my fingers like wood through my hands: always the same, and waiting to be modelled and to colour my thoughts and dreams.

The days I had spent on the ocean liner allowed me to draw up my dream in every detail: to build furniture in old navy style to decorate homes and to make them in a space of my own, a carpentry shop of my own, my own business!

My mind went back to many years before, to Antonio the fisherman and to my decision to leave the village I was born in and to sail to America. I realized that once again, where I was, I was going through the same feelings as I had felt so many years before, curiosity for something new and restlessness at the idea of living too long in the same place doing the same things.

So I again took the decision to leave: a decision which it took me many years to realise, changed the course of my life and enriched me with experience and wisdom. I had no intention of going back to work on an ocean liner; mine would be personal trip.

During my youth, I visited many countries around the world, and on my path, I met people belonging to many different cultures. I tasted exotic lifestyles, extreme climates and everywhere I decided to stop for longer periods, I always found very good reasons to stay forever and never leave again.

But every night the dream repeated itself, and sometimes started out from the point where I had left it the evening before. Whether in Africa or in Asia, in the Middle East or in Latin America, for years I would dream of the fate which awaited me: to go back to the country where I had been born, and build my furniture, designed by me and with my name, Caroti furniture in old navy style!

I wanted to surround myself with many capable people who could help me to launch this project, and to whom I could transfer my art and passion for wood, just as had happened with me, with the people I had met along my path.

I wanted to leave a tangible mark of my art of woodworking which could also house in itself all the beauty and uniqueness which I had seen around the world, travelling by sea! And I wanted to create well being and prosperity for myself, for those who together with me had contributed to this project, and to those who after me would carry forward this dream!

It was a day in early summer, in a completely blue sky, the sun shined and far away, the seagulls were flying. It was warm, and I drank at the little fountain which was still working in the small square in front  of the church; the bar, they told me, had moved elsewhere ten years before.

I went down to the port, and sat down on the little wall. Suddenly, I wanted to see whether I still had the eyes of a lynx. So I tried to count how many sails I could see on the horizon. Decades had gone by since the last time.

I looked at my watch. It was ten to five. I hurried back to the village. Two men were waiting for me, to propose selling me a little property where, at last, I could finally create my Caroti furniture, in old navy style.

[To be continued…]