Costa Rica December 2004

This is probably the best trip I had in my whole life, and from its beginning started just the way it was meant to be. Three months roaming in Central America, without patterns and open to anything was gonna happen along the way. Even when I was sitting on the plane to San Jose, I still didn't know where I was gonna go once landed. For sure the first night was gonna be in the capital, to rest just a bit and gather informations from the locals. No guides, no internet researches done before...all I wanted was to be led by the indigenous and by the map (that's where I spotted my first destination on the plane....Montezuma). And so I did! After arriving late at night at a hostel (I asked the taxi driver to take me to a hostel downtown S.J.) and resting for the night, the day after I went talking to this beautiful girl at the desk and asked her if she knew anything about Montezuma. And there it was!!! The first great tip of the journey. Once off the bus, she said, head to the beach and walk for about a kilometer on it...on your left you'll see a camp site in a house garden. That's Pato! For $ 1.5 you'll be able to pinch your tent! Paquera was the port where I docked and where I took the classic "Otto bus", from the Simpsons school bus driver, that did drop me off in THE PLACE!!!...And those were the best 10 days I could start my vacation with. The camp was full of local artists that during the day used to hang out with and create their handcrafts they'd sell at night on the streets of Montezuma. Sweet guys mixed with other tourists, living in harmony and trying to communicate even with great language barriers. At once I became friend with everyone and during the day we use to have soo much fun playing soccer on the beach, or taking little trips and swim in the "Cataratas", the waterfalls next to the area, or visiting other secluded beaches (like Playa Grande). There was especially this place I remember, a little river with fresh waters where we use to go refresh ourselves when the weather was too hot. Our favorite game was searching for shrimps to cook at our camp kitchen, probably the most colorful area of the site. When lunch time was coming up, everyone would start looking for woods to start the fire and get on line to wait for their moment to cook. Everyday was a party, sitting around the table right on the beach, with tropical trees above us giving us the proper shade for the time. And when you were done with your meal, there was a bunch of hammocks shattered around the campsite waiting for you, lulled by the wind and hypnotized by the sound of the waves.
At night it was just a matter of waiting for the right thing to come up. Hangin' out on the main street (the only one) playing some drums, sipping on a cold Pilsen and smocking a rough Derby was the plan to start up. The many bars over there would do the rest. You could enjoy a refreshing drink next to the shore, or head to "Luz de mOnO" where the night would go of. I don't know how it is now, if like everywhere else the greed has overcome anything else, but I can assure you the little town has it's own magic!
Ad after that...Santa Teresa
Other ten days, chillin' out, and surfing, and enjoying the quietness before the storm, at night, of feelings goin' on around you!
Pura Vida Locos!

India 2008

The time I had to get an idea of this amazing country was not enough and when I started getting used to the many contradictions this culture encloses I had to leave and go back to my home country. By the time I did this tour among Delhi, Jaipur, Agra and Varanasi, I was coming back from the Himalayan region, where everything was quite, peaceful, mystic and totally natural. The shock I had visiting with Delhi was nothing compared to what I was gonna see in the other cities, since being the capital and the headquarter of the political power everything is relatively in a better condition, more organized, more...similar to a western city. But what totally caught my attention at first sight was the strength of the cultural identity this people have. Any other place on earth, after decades of colonialism (in their case English) would have lost most of their habits, such as the food or the way of dressing...but not the Indians! Walking among them is just like walking in the middle of a storm of colors, smells and noises and by the time you get back to your room you'll have your head blowing up for the huge amount of inputs you received walking around. At the end of the day, beside being physically destroyed, I was above all mentally tested, trying to understand what I saw, trying to find an answer to all the questions I usually don't even ask to myself living in a country such as Italy. My traveling experiences brought close to many realities, I came in contact with lots of moving situations, but this was like way beyond everything I could expect. The beautiful was laying next to the awful, the bright next to the dark, the humble next to the majesty...and all this coexists like nowhere else in the world, making possible to this huge mass of people to live next to each other almost ignoring what is happening to the others, being everyone too busy trying to survive in the temple of life. And I didn't use the word temple by chance, but once you'll be deepen in the everyday life in India, you'll notice how religion is fundamental; all the religions delegate special settings for their holy places...not here in India! You can run into a tiny temple just in the middle of a crowded street (and if you've been to India you now what I mean by crowded), you'll be astonished by a cow crossing a highway and watching the drivers almost killing themselves just to avoid them because they are untouchables.
Too bad I didn't have so many chances to get in touch with the locals and get an explanations of all I was seeing happening around me. Every once in a while I tried to get closer to their reality, talking to people from the street,but once again...their cultural identity was sooo strong that the majority of the people didn't speak English even after being for soo long in contact with the English.
But I'll be back...and I'll do my best to have a clear picture of this fabulous world!!!

Philippines 2008

From Philippines_08

It's always hard to write about something that happened more than a year ago, but the Philippines were such an amazing experience, that the words come out of my mind in such a spontaneous way, and by the time you finished reading this, I'm sure you'll run to the closest travel agency (if you're still that kind of traveler) to book a flight and arrange the time of your life. This is about my second trip to the Philippines, because the first time I was there I couldn't believe my eyes. This time I went with a crew of 18 people, 18 friends that wanted to live the time of their life. But let's talk about it!!!
Where to start from? Manila.
When we landed in Manila after an endless flight that saw us hostages of the Abu Dhabi airport for more then 4 hrs (maybe one of the most boring airports I've ever seen), and before we could enjoy the beauties of the wild Philippines, we jumped on a wreck that took us to Batangas (a 2 hrs drive...just in case we weren't exhausted enough), where we had a typical boat waiting for us. It was the perfect introduction to what we were gonna experience. The sun, indeed, was going down by the time we started floating on those amazing waters, and just when we were realizing where we were and where we were going to, it was all dark and the sky was filled with thousands of stars. Just us, the humid breeze of the ocean, and a lot of expectations. Giuseppe and his stuff was waiting for us in the dark, on the Fisherman's Cove peer, and we immediately felt their hospitality and felt comfortable in that hidden corner of the world. We left our luggage right away in the rooms, had dinner and then only had to wait for the day after.

Each day was different from the other, even if our schedule was moving from one secluded place to another, on board of a wonderful boat. This was actually our second home, 'cause we use to do almost everything on it, from jumping into the crystal waters, to having delicious lunches with fresh fish cooked on a grill or just relax while sunbathing! The world was passing by us, and all we had to do was feeling and taking every single gift it was giving us.
Beside the amazing secluded beaches the area around Puerto Galera could offer, there was plenty of things to do if we were tired of relaxing and chillin' out. We only had to ask Giuseppe for the right tip and he would have had the answer!!!

- "Giuseppe, we'd like to rent some motorbikes to have a ride in the palm trees forests around here, and maybe climb up on the mountains to visit some village".
- "No worries. Just go out here the resort, take a left and after 300 meters you'll find what you're looking for...just tell them you're my friend and they'll give you all the bikes you need".

That's what we did a couple of days, in which we pushed ourselves over the limits riding on tricky dirty roads and reached places otherwise we would have never seen. Passing through those landscapes was like heaven! There was blinding green everywhere, bulls on the way, little rivers to overcome, and every once in while small villages with a bunch of kids either playing or coming back from school in their cute blue uniforms. It was heartbreaking watching them waving at us and smiling with those sweet faces. But as soon as we would stop to socialize with them, they would turn incredibly shy and almost scared. Only after taking them some pictures and showing them the screen of the camera, they'd start laughing and screaming and would pose to have more pics to watch...like an endless game!!!
But if you're not a bike rider you can still have fun doing some tracking!!! With a couple of hours walk (after an hour drive on the groovy jeepny) we reached the beginning of a path that took as to an amazing waterfall where we refreshed ourselves and had the rest we deserved....and step to the next level: paddle the canoes we rented across a quiet and lush river back to where we started our jouney. No dangerous situations, no nasty animals on our way...just some kids jumping from the high banks or some giant bull refreshing in the waters.
And to close the circle, one of the last days we went visiting some indigenous tribe (one of the many), people that always lived there and resisted to the invasions of the many countries that ruled over the Philippines. It was an extremely touching experience! Facing their poverty, their rural lifestyle and their simplicity was something I'll never forget. We also had a little basketball game with the kids on their local playground...they were sooo excited to share their time with us and showing us how good they were.
Well, that's about it. I don't think my words are enough to describe the beauty of this country and the hospitality of its people, but for sure it's a place to go and live it in its single wonders.

l'Aperitivo

This is the next project I'm working on.
It's gonna be a TV format on typical food and beverages from different regions of Italy.
As we all know, my country is worldwide popular for its huge amount of monuments, its deep culture, its fashion...but above all the cuisine!!! The formant wants to link all these features together with the help of local people and the city halls, collecting during the day, on board of a APE vehicle, all the necessary to set up an APEritivo in the middle of the main square of the town I'm visiting each time, and have a chat with as many persons as possible.
Hopefully it's gonna be on air soon , but since I'm the only one doing the production and all the rest, it's gonna take time. But be patient and you'll have a blast watchin' it.
Stay tuned.

National Geographic

Last year I was so lucky to join the "Ride the Van" project with National Geographic.
It was my very first time in the Indian subcontinent, and as a start I had the chance to begin with a very mystical and quite region up on the Himalayan mountains. For three days I visited as many schools as I could, in an area called Sitla, with a crew trying to open a window on my country, Italy, to many sweet little kids studying in humble schools and walking tremendous distances to achieve the knowledge they'll need in their lives. My approach was to teach them something about Italy playing with them games that kids play in my country, but also showing them some pictures I took personally for them about our everyday life, things that are obvious for us but not for them. It was amazing watching their astonished eyes in front of a picture of a building's intercom, or of a water fountain.
Each place we would arrive to, did welcome us as heroes and seemed like the children couldn't wait to ask us questions in their very polite and almost whispering way. At the end of each session we gave the kids who asked smart questions some gifts we brought from our country, to stimulate them to be open minded and hold their attention during the whole session.
They filled my heart with joy and pure sentiments, and all this happened in an environment blessed by a immense spirituality.
Beside all this, for National Geographic is also a great opportunity to provide school structures with desks and all the equipment they need to allow the kids to study in better conditions and make their days better. The classrooms I visited where filled with presents from "The Society", and environments that were once naked today have maps on the walls, blackboards and cozy desks to study on top.
I wish one day I'll be able to live such an experience again...and I wish everyone else could as well, in order to understand how lucky we are and how much we can do for countries such India.
Thanx NatGeo.

Espresso Yourself...the movie.

Espresso Yourself in Prague from flamingshoe on Vimeo.

I developed the project with the only goal to demonstrate how people are open minded and want to exchange ideas and communicate in front of a friendly person and an original idea. Since the first moment I tried to involve people, giving them the camera to shoot, realizing “the graphic” for my sign, and letting them talk about whatever they wanted in the interviews. I used coffee as the linking element among the different cultures I was gonna visit, taking advantage of the big socializing effect this product has in the everyday life, and, to tell you the truth, I was surprised by the success of it. People stopped by not only to have a coffee with me, but just to take a picture of this crazy dude serving hot coffee in the middle of the main square in Praha. Unfortunately my camera broke before I could get to the second of the three cities I wanted to visit (Berlin and Oslo were the other two), but I'm still satisfied for the result, and I can only imagine how beautiful would have been to see it all done...but I self produced the project and I was running out of money! What can I say about my video?! It was hard, but I made it! I had a lot of bad luck while shooting my film, but I was paid back with a lot of enthusiasm from each one participating to the project, and super good mood! Thanx to everyone that has been the main character for a day of an unforgettable experience that will fill my heart for ever! What else?! I love life! I love people! I just love!!!!

P.S.
I've just signed a contract with National Geographic to produce 10 episodes...stay tuned.