Geneva - "There on the mountains..." We are in the village of Heidi! Arèches is a wonderful alpine small country, where the smell of the cows and the hay wake you up in the morning and mix to the taste of the local cheeses. We stay at a holiday house of Orly: a very folk complex of mountain chalets. After breakfast, we equip ourselves to leave, but the bad luck falls on us: one of the group feels ill and a lost mobile phone lets us lose important minutes. However we can leave quite soon with the vans to go down under Arèches, in Albertville, from where we leave by bicycles. Since one of ours today doesn't pedal Ettore has a great advantage: he can use another better bicycle, pending of repairing his own. From Albertville to Annecy, along a huge and magnificent lake, a very long cycle path that has let us do half way in safety stretches. At Annecy we have stopped for a break. It has been a heavy mistake: the crystalline waters of the lake were very convincing to let us leave the bicycles and the path to Geneva. Unwillingly, with the purpose of coming back there, we have left the banks of the lake and we have gone again along our way. The view has changed very fast: high hills have taken place of the wide plain. But with the strenght of the legs, and especially with that one of the will, we could get over the obstacles and reach Geneva. At the gates of the town we have called our deputy head, the Teacher Elisabetta Vani, to give her information about us. After her congratulations and reassurances we have come into Geneva. To arrive at the High Commissariat of the Political Refugees of the United Nations (UNHCR) it has been more difficult than expected, but thanks to the indications of the inhabitants we arrived at the expected place in time. We needed half an hour to get ready after the great effort, we entered the Commissariat ONU. Here we have been received enthusiastically by Annalura Sacco, person in charge and coordinator of the Commissariat of Geneva, who has explained us the function of the UNHCR and her role within it. Then she has answered our questions about the condition of the political refugees in Italy and has showed us a video that illustrates the work of the UNCHR during the last year. After having thanked, we have gone again by minibus along the way of Arèches, having the only aim to go back to the lake and a rest.
Niccolò Salvatori
Ettore Vannacci