19 November 2018

Fun, freedom, astonishmentand nature go hand in hand in the Fall in an amazing outdoor museum of oaks, hazel and chestnut trees. A truly special atmosphere filled with the warm colours of this season.

In October, the ground is a sea of shells covered with prickly spikes, that look like clusters of little yellow hedgehogs, while the landscape and colours change! Yet we often lose the magic of this wonderful season: we buy chestnuts at the market or even bags of roasted chestnuts, when we could be out having fun gathering them ourselves in the woods with our children.

Going out of town into the countryside helps us reduce our stress levels and feel at peace with ourselves.
An outing in the countryside is so much more than just taking a walk through the woods! Gathering chestnuts is also about socializing; it’s so much fun to see who gathersthe best and biggest chestnuts.
And those who gather more baskets heaped with chestnuts than anyone else, not only bring home the richest haul of chestnuts, but also lots of enthusiasm.

A place that has always had a very special place in our hearts is Oasis Zegna, a nature park, to which admission is free, in the Biella Alps: the woods here remind us that wonder is not a point of view, but something very real and tangible. Even if you decide to visitthis Park when the chestnut season is over, you will in any case have the opportunity to enjoy the views when they are at their poetic best.

As the kids ran around having fun… looking, touching and experimenting, it took them very little time to draw the perfect picture. They flushed out the chestnuts from the under bush, moving the prickly chestnuts with their boots, as though every chestnut they found was magical. And they were magical; what a pity that we adults can no longer see the magic and no longer find these games special.

They loved dancing in a meadow of hazelnuts, acting as though they were marbles and laughing all the time. We even spent a few moments in silence together. It was a good silence though; the sort of silence that feels like a hug and keeps you company, interrupted only by the shouts of a child claiming to have found the biggest chestnut.

Can we blame our children for having so much fun; with very little they found a way to shut off the rest of the world?

As we leave, we promise the woods that we will come back soon, because only by letting our children experience and learn about nature, will they become adults who respect nature. Besides giving us the chestnuts that we will soon be roasting, the woods also allowed to experience a slow and mutedworld, far from the interminable pace of the city, to which we are so accustomed.

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