Collection: glass balls

Do you know those little habits that you get good or bad on every trip you take? There are those who take two toothbrushes instead of one as a reserve, those who set the time the day before departure to prepare their suitcase,... I could list thousands of them. I have one of my own, one that has lasted for seven years now and that I constantly repeat every single trip (as much as possible): buying a glass ball with the name of the place I visited. I collect balls of all types, from small to large ones. There are some that are more distinctive than others. There is the one with the Taj Mahal that reminds me of Agra, the one with the lighthouses that reminds me of Brittany,... Each

of them has a particularity that cannot be compared in the slightest. And even though snowballs are perhaps the most common souvenir there is, for me they always have a unique charm. There are also many stories that can be told about each snowball, some of them I don't remember anymore... I know there was that time when it was hard to understand what I was looking for We are looking for a snowball, do you have some?”. And this is what happened, for example, this year in Serifos, a secluded island in the Cyclades. I remember the little shop in the village near the port. The owner was an elderly lady who probably due to her age did not understand a word of English. So she didn't understand anything of what I was asking

her. But I had found the ball. Time to pay it and leave. I would have liked to exchange a few words with her to understand where she came from but as I already said it wasn't possible... So I took the ball home and with me a new encounter that I will remember.

But I wasn't able to take some balls home. “In fact, if it has a water bubble it means that sooner or later it will break…” This has happened a few times… the most recent was the one in Ephesus which broke when I took it out of my backpack once we returned to Italy.

I now have more than 150 balls collected for years and years. Some I lost, others I didn't take at all, but of those I have I keep and will keep a very precious testimony that can never be lost and will remain forever.