Cercare / Searching, by Lorenzo Terranera

Introduction by Ascanio Celestini

“How many times?... your keys, the smartphone, where you parked your car, your bag, the street or the square. Or the right phrase, a purpose, a person. How much of our lives have we spent looking for something? How many times have we resigned ourselves and abandoned the search? And how many times have we taken it up again much later, by will or by chance? How many times have we felt searched for and found, how many times would we have liked to be part of a search, how many times did we not even know what to look for and then, for some reason, discover it? The fact is that humans are still the most powerful search engines, with all our ultra-complicated paths, interruptions, obsessions and distractions. Who has never had to retrace in their minds their recent movements, searching for the moment when they probably lost something? This book was sparked off several years ago. On my way home, in autumn, surrounded by a swirl of falling leaves and a light rain, I passed an elderly couple standing at a corner, completely absorbed in reading a map. What were they looking for? Their hotel? The home of one of their children? Or grandchildren? A restaurant recommended by their daughter? The church of Santa Maria in Trastevere? That was how the book began. Here you will find things, emotions, people and memories that you probably found yourself looking for, that you have possibly lost forever or that have perhaps become your life’s obsession. This book is for all searchers, the stubborn ones who never stop until they find, the distracted ones who let themselves be led by chance, the ones who don’t know what they’re looking for but always find it, and those who are lost and hope that one day someone will search for and find them." Lorenzo Terranera