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one of the most famous islands in the world , Miami Beach .
And even if the incredible layer of white skyscrapers that serve as offices , houses and hotels that form the backdrop to the long strip of sand that was trodden by a good part of our teenage heroes , from the athletic lifeguards of Baywatch to the cops of Miami Vice , could force you to turn up your nose , the atmosphere you ’ ll breathe along Ocean Drive is one that makes you say , “ ok it ' s not just a movie , it ' s really like that !”
In the suffocating heat of South Beach , the art deco styled beach guard turrets , the girls playing beach volleyball and the bodybuilders training on the sands make the picture so realistic that it made us believe that it is the television series that chases reality , not the other way around .
Although ' Life is better in Miami ' two days were enough for us to feel the desire to return to nature .
The Everglades cannot be compared to anything you can see in America . They are not just a swamp or a wetland but a river of water that flows incessantly towards the Atlantic Ocean . In the park that protects 6100 square kilometres of nature we observed alligators basking in the sun , herons waiting for prey in the ponds , and we walked along the few paths available during the humid season , immersing ourselves in this unique nature .
If Florida were a separate state in the USA , the Keys would be islands separated from Florida . The 113 islands covered with mangroves and sandbanks and lapped by turquoise waters are inhabited by a varied and sometimes bizarre , but always pleasant , population , and are the favourite escape destination for continental inhabitants .
A further reason that had driven us to this point was to travel the 205 kilometre of the highway that connects the major islands to Key
West , and which ends at the most southwestern point of the States just 140 kilometres from Cuba . Built on the route of the railway that was destroyed by a hurricane in 1935 today it represents the final part of US1 that connects the Canadian border with southern Florida . We rode its dozens of bridges crossing islands surrounded by the Caribbean sea . The temperature was beyond all limits , and we treated ourselves to swimming at some of its beautiful beaches . In Key West we were accompanied to the coral reef where we dived into an aquarium made up of corals and fish that we had never previously observed . On the coast , dozens of iguanas seem to be awaiting our return , creatures that have remained unchanged since prehistoric times .
When we reached ' Mile Zero ' we understood that it was time to go back north and that the journey into this fantastic world was over .
The stop in Siesta Key allowed us to take a dip in the west coast of Florida and the one in Tallahassee to break the journey towards Louisiana .
New Orleans is the most European city in all of America , something different from all the other big cities . The city that loves to celebrate life was born French and still today does not seem to care about the frenzy with which people live in the rest of the country . Only here can voodoo , a
complicated mix of Catholic tradition and African esotericism , Mardi Gras Indians and neighbourhood parades coexist . And only here could the genre that has most marked the history of music in the last century have been born , Jazz .
In the French Quarter it is possible to observe the beautiful and the ugly of all the contradictions of American society . Beggars and alcoholics pleading for alms contrast the beauty of 18th century French palaces , inside which some of the city ' s historic premises reside . On Bourbon Street there was so much music of all kinds that surrounded us that we could no longer even understand from where it was coming . We let ourselves be moved by the mass between a clarinet solo Jazz and a pressing funk rhythm on the drums . But music was also on the streets with dozens of bands playing on the sidewalks of this incredible city . The houses enriched with wrought iron balconies and the steamboat that runs along the Mississippi took us back to atmospheres of times gone by . I parked the motorbike under the graffiti with the greatest in the history of jazz : ' one time in New Orleans ', I closed my eyes , and it seemed like we could still hear them playing . And even if the roads to travel ended here , we continued to travel listening to their notes … FC
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