Summer 1959. Pier Paolo Pasolini, driving a Fiat Millecento, trav - elled along the Italian coastline, to carry out La lunga strada di sab - bia [The Long Sandy Road]: a wide report commissioned by the magazine Successo on Italy between tra - dition and transfor - mation, middle-class holidays and remains of a difficult post-war period. An intense text that continues to strike for its depth and poetic sensitivity. After forty years, the photographer Philippe Séclier has travelled again along the same route, finding traces, images and memories of the great writer and of his unforgettable portrait of Italy. Now, Contrasto publishes for the first time the complete text of The long sandy road , together with the original manuscript by Pier Paolo Pasolini and the photographs by Philippe Séclier. A unique document to get to know again, forty years after his death, the skill of a great writer and intellectual, and rediscover his strong bond with our country.