Slow Steps | Book Review

«Walking together to break down fear and prejudice»: that is the thread binding five reportages collected in this book, published by La Meridiana for the Centro Documentazione Handicap in Bologna. Two writers, Antonella Patete and Nicola Rabbi, take us to places far from the usual tourist paths, traveling with uncommon companions. Users of a mental health center in Rome, a community serving Italian and foreign youth, people with visual and motor disabilities—they trek together across trails and desert dunes, discovering how every landscape offers new perspectives—outer and inner alike—especially when seen alongside those who walk with us. These are journeys where there are no guides and no guided, only people cycling (or walking, or being transported in a joëlette) side by side. Experiences of profound richness, moments of discovery and dignity for people and places marked by their own fragility and vulnerability.