Wanting the children to see polar bears, we set off for the archipelago, a few hours’ flight from northern Norway towards the pole. Svalbard is home to 2,400 inhabitants and 3,000 polar bears, which are protected here. Longerbyen, the capital, full of snowmobiles, where most people shiver from the cold, is a quiet, to European eyes deserted little town with one wider street, where a few shops and an inn are open, selling food as well as reindeer, wolf and bear skins that appeal to tourists; these are in fact imported from Canada, where the Inuit are still allowed to hunt. A few tourist companies offer excursions around and across the archipelago, which is almost the only way to wander around, because you need protection from bears, provided only by armed guides. Huntingrutten, a company with a three-hundred-year tradition, offered us the most beautiful and as warm as possible boat journey to Mofen Island, inside the polar circle (the 80th parallel). We visited breathtaking icy fjords, walrus colonies, abandoned whaling settlements, the northernmost town in the world (Ny Alesund), a Russian-owned ghost mining town, modest hunting shelters, and came across a mother bear with her cub, which we were able to watch for a good hour. The journey is difficult to compare with others because it is unique, expensive and logistically difficult to organize, as it requires booking far in advance; it is suitable for the patient, those untroubled by the weather, and lovers of low temperatures.