I saw the Dunhuang cave paintings for the first time in a beautiful album in Geneva .... "He bawled his eyes out in the Rome airport at the end of his trip, distraught at the prospect of returning to a Taiwan then still under martial law.
在日內瓦，我看到一本美麗的畫冊，那是我第一次認識敦煌壁畫… …」，林懷民日後曾如此描述此趟旅程給他的衝擊。回程時，他在羅馬機場忍不住失聲痛哭，為即將返回當時尚在戒嚴中的窒息台灣而難過。