We touched the sky - Trip to Val D'Aosta academic year 2023/24 Thanks to the Isili Unitre, we members were lucky enough to visit a large part of our beautiful Italy. This time we flew to the north, to a region that offers its visitors unique and immense beauty. Suffice it to say that it is home to the highest mountain in Europe: Mont Blanc. And it is precisely to Mont Blanc that we are headed after visiting Aosta, which offers Savoy masterpieces, and reaching Courmayeur. From there, with the Skyway cable car, armed with windproof jackets, shoes with non-slip soles and a backpack, we fly upwards. We immerse ourselves in a fantastic landscape: mountain peaks with snow-capped crests, the mountain complex presents itself to our eyes in all its splendor, illuminated by a clear day and a blue sky that makes its snow shine, creating a fairy-tale landscape. It goes without saying that having reached 4,000 meters above sea level excites and exalts us; our cell phones take photos continuously, everyone wants to take with them the image of a masterpiece of nature on which they have the privilege of resting. We are surprised not to feel the cold we had imagined we would find and, cheerful and smiling, we climb the last ladder that brings us closer to the sky. Another stop, with a short "hit and run", is Switzerland. We reach Montreux, where we visit Chillon Castle, a fortress overlooking the shore of Lake Geneva, also linked to the Savoys. The castle is full of numerous rooms and its famous prisons, which leave visitors amazed by their majesty. Having moved to Turin, we couldn't help but visit the symbolic monument of the city: the Mole Antonelliana. Designed and begun by the architect Alessandro Antonelli in 1863, it was only completed in 1889. At 167 and a half meters high, it was, at the time, the tallest masonry building in Europe. In 1961, on the occasion of the celebrations for the Centenary of the Unification of Italy, the panoramic lift was inaugurated which, renovated in 1999, still allows you to go up to the small temple, 85 meters high, and admire the extraordinary view on the city and the Alps that surround it. The Mole houses the National Cinema Museum, which, starting from 1992, became the Maria Adriana Prolo Foundation with the aim of promoting study, research and documentation activities in the field of cinema, photography and image. Finally, we couldn't help but visit the Royal Palace in its sumptuous surroundings. Ceilings and canvases are illustrated to us by a guide in love with his palace: a small, thin man of indefinite age who, despite the fragility of his body, manages with strength and energy to tell a story that fascinates and excites him. The group follows him carefully and shares his observations, which go beyond the description of the environments and make references to current problems. Last but not least, the Egyptian Museum of Turin is the oldest museum in the world entirely dedicated to the Nilotic civilization and is considered, due to the value and quantity of the finds, the most important in the world after that of Cairo. In 2004, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage entrusted its management to the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities Foundation of Turin. We walked through the corridors full of 37,000 finds that aroused admiration and amazement: sarcophagi, mummies, long papyrus, monumental and splendid statues. In addition to enriching our minds, they immersed us in an atmosphere of magic, the same magic that colored a fantastic and unforgettable journey. Before reaching Caselle, we stop to visit the Sacra di San Michele, an ancient abbey built between 983 and 987 on the top of Mount Pirchiriano, 40 km from Turin. From the top of its towers you can admire the Piedmontese capital and a breathtaking panorama of the Val di Susa. For over 185 years it has been administered and looked after by the Rosminian Fathers, who with their presence have contributed to its growth and maintenance through the implementation of conservation projects, strengthening the religious and spiritual identity of the place. In 1980, the writer Umberto Eco was partially inspired by this evocative abbey, originally Benedictine, to set his most famous novel, 'The Name of the Rose'. Rich in emotions and culture, we are about to reach our Sardinia, sure that this time too we have had an unforgettable experience.