425. BALLOONS...BALLOONS! di Liliana Angheluta

I've always been attracted by the coloured balloons that fly on the blue sky. It's magic, it's simply happiness! They seem to be over only human limitation, they give a sensation of freedom especially because they have no instrument that could change the “road”. Only the wind moves them and a good flier knows to find the better altitudes for being transported where he wants. The small balloons were used in antic times by chinese people for sending messages but the first balloon that transported human beings flied in 1738, in Francia.  Jacques – Etienne Montgolfier was the creator of this airstatic machine. It functions like this: it is fulfilled with cold aria at first...then a huge gas flame push into the balloon hot aria. As the hot aria tries to arrive up, into the high parts of the atmosphere...the balloon flies! At Todi, a small and old Italian city, from 13 at 27 July, those who love balloons (and who doesn't?) could be spectators at a  great event, an international competition. This year it's for the 26 th time. There are 33 teams of fliers with the balloons, all of them from England, Germany, Australia and other parts of the World. Every morning, at 6 o'clock, they start to fly from Todi to Perugia and Amelia, other Italian cities. The best team will be the one that succeed to land at destination, even if, as I told before, the machine has nothing that could change the direction.  At the end...we all win! Because the sky full of colours makes us smile. The balloons are connected with our inner child, the one that has no problems, no preoccupations, the one that feels free to fly just for pleasure. LILIANA ANGHELUTA