Monte Cristo:  blue, clear sky,  sea – brilliant and crystalline, but above all- a silence that I’ve never heard before. It almost seems illogical to use the verb “to hear” when you speak of silence, but it is accurate.  By now our ears are used to continuous sounds from the frantic life of the city and for me to be able to listen to total silence, interrupted only by the crashing of the waves in the distance and the songs of the seagulls, was a unique and unforgettable experience… exactly what has been demonstrated during this entire voyage.  In fact, we don’t have technology or books  that can teach us about other cultures in the same way that we discovered them during this trip. Besides the happiness to have had the opportunity to be here to help make a concrete change in the world,  I have enriched myself culturally  as well as personally during this journey.  This voyage is more than a trip in a sailboat.  It represents something more profound:  a trip inside myself that makes me understand I don’t need a life of constant stimulation in order to find the little moments of happiness. Above all, I see that with hard work and a good feelings toward everyone – despite nationality or race - we can reach brilliant results as a group.  Perhaps it is this that we should write at the end of the document that we’ll share with the leaders of our society and to the world. 

Melissa (center) with George & Anna

Hi my name is George.  I am from the UK. Montecristo seems a long way from home, which to me is a city called St Albans, about half an hour north of London, but not so far away from the idyllic islands image captured in countless novels and movies. First impressions centred around the scenic base of the TV programme ‘Lost’ mixed with a spark of recognition from ‘Muppet Treasure island’. To step onto the untouched white sand was for the first, and likely the only time, cannot be summarised in words; pictures can’t absorb the extraordinary smells that flared through our nostrils as we walked to a peak above the villa once owned by the Savoy royal family. This upward journey, of supposedly half an hour, was prolonged by constant photography and for good reason. To call the natural and isolated beauty of Montecristo moving can in only a small way summarise my experience of the day. It felt almost surreal to paddle in the clear waters the island after a long game of ‘Schiacciasette’ (volleyball for us non Romans), in which I won some small victory for Britain amongst stiff competition from the Italians and appalling history in the sport. Perhaps tainting the image of the shore was rubbish (garbage for Americans) strewn across the beach which bringing an element of realism to discussions from earlier in the week. The issue of the environment as a whole, although vital, has never really impassioned me in the way it does many people. Some of my YPG8 colleagues feel this passion and through discussion it became readily apparent that some people’s views on the environment and in particular its relationship to the economy at large differed from mine. Being a neo-classicist and a free marketer it really challenged me to try to justify my staunchly held opinions when faced with the issues of climate change and waste. To bring morality into the pursuit of happiness and profit is something that is important in a global society and now more than ever in Britain. Compromise between capitalist economics and the environment combined with asserted morality is not an easy issue but one which we have begun to discuss. The different opinions and ideological standpoints brought together on the ship are so vast that I am sure this discussion is by no means finished, and I look forward to its proliferation in the next few days.

Pasta is the main hit! Thank you Bruno and Gabriele.