The special correspondent is trained to stay behind the scenes, to be skeptical and ungrateful, not to trust anyone but always to get back home with a bone in his mouth. These pages, written by a long-time reporter, are the accounting of a way of doing journalism very different from today.

North Korea is probably the most feared and the least known state in the world. The name of the Great Leader Kim Jong-un echoes in the news' titles about conflicts with U.S.A and nuclear threats.

"Riccardo, the West is sick, it's lost its will to fight, it opposes Islamic fundamentalism with empty values. Europe has become spineless. I'm near the end, Riccardo, and I want to die in Florence. I told you that in New York. And now the time has come. But I'll die standing on both my feet, like Emily Brontë.

Riccardo, lOccidente è malato, ha perso la voglia di lottare, oppone valori vacui di fronte allintegralismo islamico. LEuropa è rammollita Sono alla fine, Riccardo, e voglio morire a Firenze. Ed ora ci siamo. Ma morirò in piedi, come Emily Brontë Oriana Fallaci ebbe pochi amici.