Alice had gone to the theatre that afternoon with her sister. After having shown their tickets at the entrance they found their seats and settled down. They had brought a tin of sweets with them to sweeten the performance even further. The lights of the theatre dimmed, and the curtain opened.
Alice heard a knocking noise near her. Maybe it was a row or two behind her. She leant back and saw a dog coming towards her, hitting his tail against the seats. The dog came down towards them and with a nudge of her snout she tipped the tin of sweets onto the floor.

 “Oh goodness me, what a naughty little dog you are!” Alice whispered so as not to disturb the other people. The tin was immediately emptied of all its sweets. 

“You’re such a greedy little dog!” Alice remarked, talking to the dog in a hushed voice. She hardly had time to turn around when the dog darted off madly – she knew not where or to whom – with the tin in its mouth. Alice leapt up from her seat and started to chase after it. “Wait! Don’t run away!”Alice said, pulling aside the curtain that led towards the foyer.

She kept seeing the dog ahead of her as it frantically ran away and she glimpsed a garden with the most splendid tulips, a pool filled with water and a little green door that had been left ajar. Alice hesitated for a short while, recalling that she couldn’t remember a garden so close to the theatre. However, she realised that the dog was getting further away from her and any amount of doubt that she had had soon disappeared and she decided to follow the dog once more.
Alice approached a fountain that was gushing with water in front of her. It was surrounded by golden arches. Alice heard a noise of branches rustling and so off she went in that direction. Then, silence.
Looking down below her she saw that beyond the grassy lawn there was a little lake upon which there was the reflection of a boat-shaped house. “What a strange house” – she thought – “Maybe a sailor lives there”.

Alice saw that the trees were very much bent over and close together. She thought, therefore, that she would be able to cling onto them to get into the boat-cum-house. And that’s exactly what she did, managing to rest her feet onto the boat’s prow. “Now, all aboard!!” She murmured to herself, with a little smile on her lips. The dog was nowhere to be seen. Alice went into the boat and saw, hung up on the walls, lots and lots of empty tins, of all shapes and sizes. “A collecting sailor,” Alice thought.
Suddenly, she heard someone coming, someone in a rush. She went out of the door and, in total silence, she leant over to see who it was. “Goodness me, it’s the White Rabbit! Him again!” Alice whispered.

“A cart without its load,
An ear of wheat without any corn,
An almond without a seed,
I am the set of natural odd numbers that can be divided into two parts,” the White Rabbit repeated to himself. 

Alice made an appearance and said: “My dear White Rabbit, don’t you recognise me? I’m Alice!” He looked at her for a while and it seemed like he had recognised her. He rushed up and hugged her and then went on going over the riddle to himself. Alice couldn’t hold back her curiosity and asked him: “What are all those tins you have in your home?”

The White Rabbit answered: “They are my greatest treasures. They are looking after the secret of existence for me.”

“But they’re empty tins,” Alice couldn’t stop herself from saying.

 “Quite! So happy to have met you again, Adelaide,” he said, bringing their encounter to an end before moving off once more.

“I thought that he had recognised me,” Alice said, a little confused. 

“Savoia!” she heard someone cry. 

Then again, “Savoia!” and she heard it a second time, too. “Come here!”

Alice rushed down the steps and there Savoia was, awaiting her, on a little stone slab upon which the image of the moon was depicted. “What a strange little place”, Alice thought. 

 “So, then, you’re called Savoia; what an important name!” Alice said, picking up and hugging the dog that was smiling at her and barking in appreciation, looking around itself all of the time. Alice looked around, too, and soon began to notice that she had ended up in the strangest of places. There was another little area in stone, just like the one where she had found herself, but instead of being depicted with a moon, it had an image of the sun. Beneath them there were green terraces that looked like a sort of tribunal, or maybe even a theatre. And then, at that point, the person whose voice that had been calling out Savoia arrived.

 “You’ve come here from the Great Mother? Or have you arrived from the Temple of Diana?” Then there was a loud burst of mad laughter. A golden figure arrived, in a long dress and a masked face.  The figure standing before Alice was holding a ribbon, golden too, upon which the following motto was inscribed: “Pulsate et aperietur vobis”. Knock and the door will open. In the figure’s other hand, Alice saw a wide-open door inside which she noticed a sequence of strange architectural depictions.

 “I was chasing after Savoia because she made me drop my sweets” ….Alice started to say as she beheld, inquisitively, this golden figure before her.

 “She does that often,” the figure said, pensively, placing an index finger and a thumb on her face. 

“I am so sorry, but would you mind telling me where I am?” Alice asked in the most interrogative of fashions.

“My dear, you are at the Scarzuola, obviously! A dream made out of stone, made for ants, for lizards bathing in the sun. A place where snails make silvery trails all over the stone surfaces and where silkworms seek respite in their cocoons and where bees store their honey in their architecturally grandiose beehives. A place for butterflies, for crickets, for cicadas and all those other sun-loving insects.” 

“A city for little animals, then,” said Alice, a little confused.

“Absolutely not! It’s not for everyone, but only for those who come here with open minds and hearts,” exclaimed the golden figure with a resounding bout of laughter. “You don’t believe me? You see, this is a path that has been punctuated with a whole sequence of little tests. If you’ve arrived at this point it is because you have listened to the universal music that guides all of us sensitive souls along our journeys. From the amphitheatre that gives us the oyster with its pearl to the figurehead of the Great Mother – passing through the mouth of Jonah and on towards the twelve Labours of Hercules. And then, of course, you arrive at the door of the amor vincit omnia before the cypress tree that had been struck by Jupiter and the crystal pyramid protected within the Tower of Babel.

“This is merely a taste of what the Scarzuola is,” the golden figure joyfully explained.

Alice was rather confused but fascinated, too. She asked: “If I have come all this way, directly to the Moon, what does that mean?”

 “This place is nocturnal. It’s not a place for the day. At night the Dionysian prevails upon the Apollonian, disarray over order, the non-finite over the finite. This place has been built and it has been destroyed, over and over again, because creation implies construction and destruction,” the golden figure continued.

 “Constructed and destroyed? Pure folly!” Alice, quite vexed at this point, exclaimed. 

“Of course. You’re right. Pure folly! This place has been created out of ideas that had once been turned down, unaccepted! No foundation and no roof. It’s a theatrical set. There are seven theatres with seven entrances that all lead, by boat, to an initiation within ourselves. 

“May I ask who you are?” Alice decided to ask, a little timidly, noticing the ribbon and the door that her interlocutor was holding in their hand. 

“I am the guardian of the Scarzuola, obviously.”

“Listen to the place. It’ll whisper to you the next steps you have to take.” And then, afterwards, the figure went away. 

Savoia stayed with Alice and then they went towards the Acropolis, guided by a musical melody, coming from somewhere not very far away. “It’s bound to be the high C!” Alice thought.
Little steps, uneven steps, an orchestra conductor made of iron, pomegranates with crowns, Alice and Savoia soon reached the top of the Acropolis. “This little city is so absurd. It feels like I have already been here or, even, not actually yet been here. Time appears to be working somewhat strangely here!” Alice said, looking at Savoia.

 “Come here young lady!” We are trying to understand the melody!” the two Golden Twins said. Alice had seen them a mere second before, their bodies made of hedges.

“How do you play this game?” asked Alice excitedly.

“It’s so simple! It only takes a gust of wind, and a musical note is heard. With each gust of wind there is a different note. The one who recognises the melody first wins!”  

And so, Alice went down onto the checkerboard floor upon which, as it turned out, there was the image of a large violin, a trumpet, and other musical instruments. And there, she stopped and listened.
Savoia looked down inquisitively from the Acropolis.

“It’s coming, my dear!” 

“I can’t hear anything,” said Alice.

“Now!” the two Golden Twins said in unison.

A long, vibrating note, brought by the gusts of wind, reaches Alice’s ears.

“Claire de lune, Debussy!” exclaimed one of the twins.

“You can’t tell at the very first note,” the second twin answered, a little bit annoyed.

Another gust of wind and another note. “Dance of the Hours, Ponchielli,” said the other. “No, you’re wrong,” the other twin answered.

A further note and.… 

“The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night,” Alice suggested. And then, the twins disappeared. From this simple fact, Alice deduced that her answer was the correct one.

Descending the stairs, Alice discovered the twins immersed in the greenery, beside the Great Eye that sees all with Great Ears that hear all.
Once in the labyrinthine garden / theatre, Alice thought: “Why don’t we play a game of croquet, as a tribute to the old days?”

 “You’re as beautiful as a little rosebud, my dear!” Alice heard this description of herself coming from a voice that was quite unknown to her. Then, suddenly, a rose-shaped bonnet appeared upon her head. She looked around her and all she could hear was a hum and a buzz.

 The little hat that had materialised on her head was a white rose and she thought: “If I don’t want them to cut off my head, I’d be wise to paint this rose red. At that very moment, the rose turned red and, so, there was no more any need to find a paintbrush or call the Playing Cards.

 Alice began playing croquet on her own with an imaginary croquet mallet, inviting Savoia to run and pick up the non-existent ball. Savoia carefully brought the ball back after each and every throw. A golden fly annoyingly buzzed around her and so Alice attempted to hit it with her imaginary mallet. The fly said: “So, I’m the little pest, then? Is this the way to thank me for the gift I have presented you with?”

 Alice paused awhile and asked: “What gift?”

 “The big rose,” the fly answered, slightly irritated.

 “I didn’t know it was you! I apologise and I thank you,” she said in sorry tones.

 “Sit down beside me here, my little girl next to the Great Eye and I’ll tell you about another terribly hard test that you are going to have to face,” said the golden fly.

Alice was a little tired and so she was pleased for the opportunity to sit down and catch her breath once more. She listened to the fly’s instructions.

 A sense of fear and tension caught hold of her and she heard a voice hailing from the Great Eye that told her: “If you want to beat the monsters inside you, you have to let them eat you so then, afterwards, you can re-emerge in a wholly purified state.” 

In front of her, Alice saw the large mouth of a horrifying monster. As reluctant as she was, she approached the monster so she could climb into its mouth. “I am frightened of being frightened. How stupid of me,” Alice thought. So, at that point, she went into its mouth and was eaten. She came out a few seconds after, open-eyed and unbelieving, at the point where the two flights of steps cross. She looked around her to try to understand where she had ended up and she saw a portico and an area of water below her. “Savoia,” she exclaimed.

 After having climbed the steps, she saw that she was outside of the walls, she bumped into the Tower of Time, with a clock that was going the wrong way round, and arrived at the Great Mother.

A golden flying horse was gently flying towards Alice, telling her:

 “This is the ship’s figurehead. Here the path crosses three parts:

A heart inflamed
An all-creating vagina
Love.
Let’s dance, gather up the three parts within you and carry on along your way.”

 Alice heard a twittering of little birds and danced upon their notes. The pegasus then flew away.
Savoia called Alice to order and accompanied her towards the mouth of Jonah’s Whale. Alice no longer felt distraught at the sight of all of these picturesque figures. “Good day, Jonah’s Whale! I am delighted to meet you! Where are you going to take me?” She went down the steps, went through the Whale’s mouth, and leant outside so she could see the world beyond. She went along a short path which took her to a tower with odd-shaped embrasures. Alice went inside and heard the Whale say to her:

 “Above as well as below, below as well as above. Inside as well as outside, outside as well as inside. Big as well as small. What happens inside all of us influences the reality outside of us, and vice versa. If we want to understand the outside we have to look inside, to understand the inside we have to understand the outside.
Savoia took Alice back to the Acropolis, up to the Temple of Diana. “I feel so happy here. It all feels so beautiful, so peaceful. I felt inside me so many different personalities, along this path that I have trodden. Yet, now, I feel that they have all been reconciled into one whole one.” The winged eye observed everything as unmoved as it was unperturbed.
Alice still wanted to go up the glass cone where the seven notes were kept, hidden by the Tower of Babel, and then to go onwards, beyond the frequencies so she could reach a state of harmony. 

 Alice was thankful for this adventure and took Savoia into her arms. She kneeled down beside the great Queen Bee and implored her. “My dear Queen Bee, light up the hearts of all of those beings who see only darkness.” 

Alice heard a slight coughing sound and a hand that was tugging at her sleeve. She opened her eyes and saw her sister who was looking at her with a smile: “Have you slept the whole time? Haven’t you even seen one tiny bit of it?”

Alice stretched and looked for Savoia in the stalls, but she couldn’t see her. “What a strange dream! I would so like to go back to the Scarzuola and bring you with me next time! If only the place truly existed!”

 Coming out of the theatre, the man who was selling the tickets called Alice. He gave her a little tin box and told her: “You’ve forgotten this, young lady! Please, please, never fill it up again.” He winked at her and Alice noticed that he had a brooch with a winged eye on his waistcoat.