And there goes the little red backpack again. Perhaps it was because of the rush of winning the most important literary award of Italy, the Premio Strega, just days before. Whatever the cause, during the long mountain hikes we made with the Italian author Paolo Cognetti, we almost had to run to keep up with him. Like an izard he climbed up and down the rocks as if the terrain was as flat as Holland. This exhilarating journey through an overwhelming mountain landscape resulted in a vibrant story for the literary supplement of the Belgian newspaper De Standaard and magazine Zin.