Fair Winds! End of the Journey
Station 6
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Fair Winds! End of the Journey(Buon vento! Conclusione del percorso )
One question that still has no certain answer is when Neptune’s Cave was actually discovered. Some say it was first noticed in the fifteenth century by fishermen from Alghero; others attribute its discovery to a sailor named Ferrandino, who lived at the end of the eighteenth century; still others believe that the ancient Romans must surely have known this stretch of coastline, and perhaps even the peoples who came before them.
But perhaps the question that truly matters is not so much when the Cave was discovered, but how many times. And then, perhaps, an answer is possible: every time someone entered here for the first time, they made their own discovery of the Cave. Whether it happened in the age of bows and arrows, in the time of waltzes and cannons, or even in the era of the internet and artificial intelligence.
The Cave is an island within an island, a hidden and enclosed world that, by its very nature, preserves and maintains, destroys and creates, without caring about what happens outside. If there is one thing all human beings come to understand at some point in their lives, it is the value of time: and for this very reason, the value of the Cave cannot be measured. Because in the darkness of the Cave there is neither day nor night, there are no seasons and there are no years. In the darkness of the Cave, time itself cannot be measured, because it is impossible to measure eternity — a place where time has always worked, and always continues to work, without ever stopping.
For this reason too, the countless visitors who have arrived — and still arrive today — at Neptune’s Cave have always found it difficult to describe, through words or images, the feeling experienced while passing through this place. Because every attempt to carry outside the Cave what the Cave itself holds within is destined to fail. And this is how Neptune’s Cave protects and preserves itself: by making every visit, every experience unique, impossible to fully recount or recreate.
Even a gifted writer such as Enrico Costa was forced to surrender:
“The Cave of Alghero can be embraced through the senses and the soul, but its beauty cannot be conveyed to others. What impression did it leave upon me? I do not know. I feel it, but I cannot express it.”
In any case, if you wish to try, you will still have time to think about it: the climb back toward the world outside is about to begin — there are still 654 steps remaining, remember? But do not worry: some say that, during a journey, the return always feels shorter than the way there (although rules always have their exceptions). And if instead you leave by sea, may it be as calm as the sea at midnight. And let us hope that the Sirens are still — or already — asleep.
One question that still has no certain answer is when Neptune’s Cave was actually discovered. Some say it was first noticed in the fifteenth century by fishermen from Alghero; others attribute its discovery to a sailor named Ferrandino, who lived at the end of the eighteenth century; still others believe that the ancient Romans must surely have known this stretch of coastline, and perhaps even the peoples who came before them.
But perhaps the question that truly matters is not so much when the Cave was discovered, but how many times. And then, perhaps, an answer is possible: every time someone entered here for the first time, they made their own discovery of the Cave. Whether it happened in the age of bows and arrows, in the time of waltzes and cannons, or even in the era of the internet and artificial intelligence.
The Cave is an island within an island, a hidden and enclosed world that, by its very nature, preserves and maintains, destroys and creates, without caring about what happens outside. If there is one thing all human beings come to understand at some point in their lives, it is the value of time: and for this very reason, the value of the Cave cannot be measured. Because in the darkness of the Cave there is neither day nor night, there are no seasons and there are no years. In the darkness of the Cave, time itself cannot be measured, because it is impossible to measure eternity — a place where time has always worked, and always continues to work, without ever stopping.
For this reason too, the countless visitors who have arrived — and still arrive today — at Neptune’s Cave have always found it difficult to describe, through words or images, the feeling experienced while passing through this place. Because every attempt to carry outside the Cave what the Cave itself holds within is destined to fail. And this is how Neptune’s Cave protects and preserves itself: by making every visit, every experience unique, impossible to fully recount or recreate.
Even a gifted writer such as Enrico Costa was forced to surrender:
“The Cave of Alghero can be embraced through the senses and the soul, but its beauty cannot be conveyed to others. What impression did it leave upon me? I do not know. I feel it, but I cannot express it.”
In any case, if you wish to try, you will still have time to think about it: the climb back toward the world outside is about to begin — there are still 654 steps remaining, remember? But do not worry: some say that, during a journey, the return always feels shorter than the way there (although rules always have their exceptions). And if instead you leave by sea, may it be as calm as the sea at midnight. And let us hope that the Sirens are still — or already — asleep.
