Having a "moment"...

Oh, joshie, I don't know if you will read this one, but I sure had a "moment" yesterday.  I chose the Lipari/ Salina excursion because I knew it would be going to the "white beaches"  Although we had seen them from the top, too much had changed for me to remember exactly where I had once jumped from the road down into the soft white powdery pumice.  It was with this same crew that, from the water I had first seen the remains of the once beautiful beach, and lacking understanding, had assumed that they had simply mined the pumice and then left.  I was traumatized to see that where I had gone as a kid was simply gone.

So when we rounded the bend to the white beaches, tears welled up in my eyes, while I had seen it from afar, now I had a chance to see it up close.  Tears welled up in my eyes as I began to take in the entire sight.  I could now see what was once the beach where I had gone.  The water still a light turquoise, had the remnants of  a white bottom sandy bottom.  The former soft billows of pumice powder now hard, now allowed plants to begin to flourish while still showing a hint of what was.

I envisioned myself at 17 standing there, on this strange beach, completely unaware of why or how this beach even existed, and even less aware of how this simple moment in time would transform me as an adult.  The beach of that day only existed because the soft white powder used in toothpaste, makeup and medicine was the refuse of the larger pumice stone mines. As they ground down the stones into shippable pieces, the remaining fine grain was shoved over the cliffs where it piled up and eventually rolled gently into the sea. This was the travesty that UNESCO saw.  These stones that can be found all over the world and as far back as the heyday of the Roman empire,  destroyed the mountainside and probablysea life   below.   Stones found in the cupolas of the Roman churches, in the region of Tuscany and eventually as far north as England, tell us of the power of this region and of the importance of this stone to the rest of Europe.


Now only the remains of the factories, abandoned and  deteriorating  remain.  Huge tubes stick out of the mountainside, these are the remains of the system by which they dumped the pumice  powder onto the beach.  Now, in the ruins of the the mines beach clubs and late night discos surface  giving an odd sense of rejuvenation and exploitation.  out with mining....and in with tourism.

while my good camera has all the good photos, you can still get a small sense, as I clicked away at what my eyes took in, I didn't think to switch to my phone...