Meneghina Express’ numbers:

12379 Kilometers in 44 days

350 hours riding

297 batteries recharged

12 countries

4500Kg Co2 reduced vs. gas

Day 39 - Romania flag - July 18

ROMANIA

Text by Flavio Allegretti

It's the thirty-ninth day of our adventure: today we are leaving at the discovery of Romania.We aim to reach Transylvania and, in particular, we choose to cut this country perfectly in a half, from Brasov to the city of Sibiu.

Have you ever been to Romania? We have never been here before. We are crossing the Carpathians and the villages, towns and cities from the east to the west, and how do you know what's new? Well, Romania - that seen by our twelve eyes and six brains, travelling for almost four hundred kilometers, after stopping and visiting - looks like ...something that I do not know, but the question is simple: either we had a collective hallucination, or this portion of the country could be described with the following words. Perfectly paved roads, clean, not a piece of garbage around. Crops, plantations, maintained and managed with extra-care.

Excellent services, food and especially ... (How wonderful!) the natural environment: the Carpathians, the hills and the irregular lower valleys, where people either use modern cars or small carts pulled by donkeys and horses. The storks live in dozens of nests built above the roofs and the streetlights. In groups of three, four or more, they lie together and seem to think about the passage on hundreds of men. And the architectural marvel: castles that recall Dracula's fame at the opposite of hermitages built in the highest mountains.

Brasov has a square, called Sfatului - one of the three most beautiful squares in the whole Romania, they say - and it is surrounded by beds of multicolored flowers, perfectly arranged in geometric patterns, dominated by Gothic and medieval buildings, palaces built by the Saxons and the fabulous Black Church, built in the fifteenth century, became of that color due to a fire in 1689 that has darkened the walls. And then an even bigger surprise, about two hundred kilometers later.

Sibiu, elected in 2007 as the “Capital of Culture" by the European Union, it is simply a shining pearl in an unknown sea. All around fortified churches erected starting from the Twelfth Century onwards; Gothic palaces and beautiful buildings that are a Nineteenth Century's architecture, dominates two squares: the Major and the Minor, virtually adjacent. Most of the people we met speak English very well (and also Italian, because they have relatives or friends who emigrated in our country); everyone is friendly and, when at work, in an hotel or restaurant, they are very professional and on timely. Romania, as it already happened with the other Countries we have visited so far, has left us really happy and satisfied. In other words: everything is beautiful.

Path traveled today