The Umbra Forest pond

Inside the Gargano is the Foresta Umbra and-trust me-you put the phone there on the table, turn off the computer and go there.

You get there by car, coming up from the coast: as you go along, bigger and bigger and denser trees take the place of... everything. From nothing, to forest, to actual forest. At a certain point, the shadow becomes tangible and you slam into it: you are reminded of when you were a child and a wave of cold washed over you when you opened the door of your grandmother's fridge in summer.

The area of the pond in the photo is often overcrowded: you move on, there are deer, a small museum and a kind forester who tells you about the time he raised an owl, about the time he raised a litter of foxes. And how he had to raise his voice to send them away once they had grown up, because they got so attached.

You take one of the paths through the forest: there is powerful nature all around, an ancient fountain lost in the woods, the distant sound of woodpeckers digging out logs.