BEFORE THE ROADS

When the first people arrived in these valleys, porphyry was already here waiting for them.

Not that it was really waiting for anyone. It was simply stone, as it had been for thousands of years. Stone in the forests, stone on the slopes, stone beneath the snow and beneath the sun.

People did what people have always done. They began to dig. To build. To move what seemed immovable. With porphyry they paved roads, raised walls, and gave shape to villages.

Generations have passed since then. Trades have changed, borders have changed, and so have the ways people travel through these valleys. But porphyry remained where it had always been. Beneath wheels, beneath boots, along the edges of houses and fields. So present that it became almost invisible.

And perhaps, without even noticing it, people ended up resembling it a little.