Why is it that I feel so content when I'm in Italy? Is it the antiquity, the ancient Etruscan and Roman culture that, together with ancient Greece, forms the cradle of my European identity? Or is it simply the landscape, which, at least down to Umbria, unmistakably benefits from the favorable weather conditions?

 

The country is surrounded by the sea. And across the land, there is the invisible threat of the fault line in the Earth's crust due to the tectonics of the plates.

 

Could it be this threat that makes the Azzuro so special? Living day by day. Passionate.

 

For about 20 years now, I've been traveling through Italy in the summer, capturing my impressions along its famous roads. The 'Via's'. Via Aurelia, Via Flaminia, the oldest roads in the world, built by the Romans.Just doing their job. Carrying stories and history.

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I see antiquity fighting for its existence; I see the sun illuminating the landscape and sometimes seeming to scorch it; the heat, the fertility, but also the transient nature of it all...

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Erik van Cuyk