Although a large statue located in Recess depicts Connemara as a thoughtful bearded giant, in my opinion, it resembles more a wild horse, a beautiful and indomitable thoroughbred, changeable in its moods and its state of mind. The reason lies in the extreme variability of the landscape, the sky, and the colour tones. In a moment you switch from the sweet melancholy of a gray misty drizzle to the glory of a multicoloured sky, almost Mediterranean in its clarity. The rounded summits of the mountains, cloaked in darkness a few minutes ago, are now the background for a pictorial rainbow; the leaden lakes suddenly become bright stages for the performances of the swans.

If you are in Connemara, alert your senses, making them ready to fully enjoy the changing, indefinable color of the sky, the smell of turf, the moist contact with the flowers of the gorse, the sound of a thousand streams flowing down from the mountain slopes and creeping in the bog, just to die on some beach along the rugged coast or among the reeds of some pond.

If possible, try to avoid the months of July and August for your visit: the extraordinary sense of peace, the feeling of being out of the world will not be spoilt by the usual bus loaded with tourists, all armed with technologically advanced cameras, mobile phones, and other gadgets, absolutely out of place in such an authentic and still intact corner.

The best way to explore Connemara is walking, stopping to observe the blackface sheep quietly lying in the middle of the street which will look back at you with bored and wise superiority, or strolling along the beaches dotted with shells, accompanied by the shrill song of seagulls or by some happy local dog wagging its tail in its eager search for a playmate.

Are you tired? Sit down on a dry stone wall, one of many that cut out the properties, and look around you: the lambs scattered on the flanks of the mountain, the bees buzzing among the bushes of heather, the call of the lark back to its nest or the cows mooing at their calf will keep you company, helping you to regain your strength in a pleasant and natural way, but most of all you will experience the wonders and rhythms of an ancient world that is now disappearing, a system of rural, bucolic life which unfortunately is always more and more difficult to find and enjoy in today's technological civilization.