An Italian heart in Egypt

I feel like I left a piece of my heart here in Egypt. And maybe is exatly what I’m doing. I’m going to miss my Egyptian family who pampered me every moment; I’m going to miss the food, so tasty and spicy to make dance my taste buds; I’m going to miss the fantastic scenery of the pyramids; I’m going to miss the profile of the Sphinx; I’m going to miss the Nile and the city that mirrored in it; I’m going to miss the alleys that shine like gems; I’m going to miss the profiles of the mosques and their high spiers; I’m going to miss to be amazed by Egyptian habits; I’m going to miss not having a scheduled time life and living the night; I’m going to miss be welcomed always and everywhere; I’m going to miss Arab music, that I don’t understand but I know it always speaks about love; I’m going to miss the attention Egyptian people have towards foreign people and how important is for them that you are happy; I’m going to miss yours smiles; I’m going miss your devotion and love for your country;

I’m going to miss your desire to share; I’m going to miss the madness of the traffic and its horns; I’m going to miss to know what time is it in base of the adhan, the call to prayers; I’m going to miss riding an horse; I’m going to miss smoking sheesha sipping mint tea, I’m going to miss everything.

I’m grateful to have had the chance to know Egypt in all its nuances and to have seen it through your eyes, with your passion that made me fall in love with it. Thank you from the deep of my heart.

Egypt now is part of my heart. I feel strongly tied to this country. I learned to know it, to understand it and to love it.

All started exactly 4 years ago: I was in England for improving my English and I met an Egyptian girl, Shahenda Abdelrahim Ali, and I was astonished to the way how she always talked about her nation, in every word I could feel her passion and this made me feel inquiring. I felt the desire to see with my eyes this place for having my own opinion. After 6 months I did my first trip in Egypt, but only for a short time, and this increase my desire to deepen this knowing.

I decided to start 2018 with a trip in this country, because I felt like to have a pending situation there, and as well, because I really missed my friend and his family who greeted me like a daughter since the first time that I met themselves.

I landed on 2^nd of January at 21.25 ready to start my adventure. Immediately I was seized with the Egyptian rhythm, so my scheduled life time was totally overturned. In Egypt the night is not for sleeping, the night in Egypt is to live! I love how you can feel the life here and how you can enjoy it to the fullest.

The following days I made every kind of experiences and every one touched my heart in the deep. I saw the routine of a working day in the office, I went in the throbbing heart of El Gamaleya neighbourhood, I filled in my eyes of colours in the alleys that shine like gems, I rode an horse in the desert with the sunrise, the sunset and in the night, I had mint tea with Bedouins, I felt out of time admiring the colossal Pyramids, I looked at the city from high with the Sphinx, I danced belly dance all night long, I saw the snow in the Mall of Egypt, I went sailing the Nile with the Faluca kissed by the sun’s rays, I fell in love with Tutankamon in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo – I love his perfect lips and his eyes so alive, I had the chance to get in touch with the daily habits in the district of Al Nasria and in places which only simple folk frequent, I have travelled in the past with the magic of the “Sound and Light show” in Giza looking Pyramid and Sphinx came alive, I felt an archaeologist going inside the Pharaohs tombs.

The experience didn’t satisfy only my eyes, it satiated also my belly. I am Italian and for me the eat well is one of the most important things in the life! Well I tried every dish, from the Egyptian version of “aperitivo” the hummus sham, the beef cooked in the tajin, mahshi of courgette and cabbage, the tasty mombar, camel liver, the smoking and the brine herring, koshari, molokhia served in the most choreographic way ever, akawii, sausages… And then, the desserts, so sweet to make me feel a child again: the delicate sobia, koskosy and the kombola, a real explosion!

The days run so fast and the moment to leave arrived too quickly. Every day I have spent in Egypt was intense, rich in positive vibes. I always got the feeling to be the welcome always and everywhere, I appreciated the kindness of Egyptian people, their attention towards foreigners and how important is for them that you are happy. I esteemed their devotion and love for their country and their desire to share their traditions and history. I would like to highlight that I never felt the perception to be in a dangerous country, actually, I was pampered in every place.