CURRENT MISSION

Going to bed happy and find a way to keep doing what I love doing.

ABOUT ME

I was born in Bologna and grew up there, which includes also the whole educational journey from primary school to university. After my Erasmus year I realized that Bologna and Italy in general were and, despite everything, still are beautiful places but I didn’t want to live there. Things are often complicated in life, so I managed to accomplish my wish only many years later. After a soul-revealing trip in Australia, I moved to Madrid at the beginning of 2005 and I lived there for more than 4 years, during which I got my PhD (nanotechnology stuff). Academic life gave me the chance to travel quite a lot (Germany, USA, Netherlands, Slovakia...) and since April 2010 I moved to Glasgow. However, I’m leaving soon as I found a new job in USA (Purdue University).
Life for a researcher can be rather unstable and it’s tough leaving one place and all friends (or even a girlfriend, it happened) behind and starts all over again. One gets tired after a while, but I cannot imagine myself doing anything else than research. I worked for several years in private companies after I got my master degree and it’s not my thing. Nope.
In the meantime, my mom cries as she doesn’t see any chance to have a nephew soon but luckily those friends of mine who stayed in Bologna are heavily procreating and she has always a chance to babysitter some of these kids. Thanks guys to take some pressure off!

PHILOSOPHY

I’m trying to preserve that child in me who’s still surprised of life.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I recently discovered CS community and it was kind of great. I met many interesting people and some of them became close friends.

Interests

Beside travels, music, movies and books (feel free to get bored with the lists I wrote in the corresponding sections), I really like cooking (Italian food in its endless variations) and talking about food as well. Last year I also started playing classic guitar and attending acting classes. Ah, it’s been four years now since I started my hata yoga activity. Ooooooooommmmmhhhhh, oooooooommmmhhhh. Well, I have to admit that my yoga involvement ends in the physical activity, so no philosophical reasons behind.
I like going out and dancing some good groovy tunes, from funk to reggae, but I mostly like spending time chatting with interesting people around a table, possibly with a good meal to share.

• books
• acting
• dancing
• dining
• italian food
• cooking
• recipes
• yoga
• movies
• traveling
• music
• guitar
• scuba diving
• study abroad

Music, Movies, and Books

Music has an important place in my life. My music tastes span over a wide range from early Brazilian stuff (Jorge Ben, Tim Maia, Vinicius de Moraes...) to 70ies soul and funk (Betty Davis, Cymande, Esther Phillips, Marlena Shaw, Stevie Wonder, Isley Brothers...), from hip-hop (Slum Village, Panacea, Little Brother, J Dilla, Dilated Peoples, Blue Scholars...) to reggae (Israel Vibration, Gladiators, King Tubby, Jacob Miller, Bob Marley, Dennis Brown...), from indie & folk (Built to Spill, Mark Kozelek, Pixies, Smiths, Morphine...) to Italian songwriters (Capossela, De André, Gaetano...) and more.

Some of my favorite movies: The Big Lebowski (Coen), La Haine (Kassovitz), Underground (Kusturica), L'Ora di Religione (Bellocchio), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Anderson), La Grande Guerra (Monicelli). Up! (Pixar), Mulholland Drive (Lynch), In The Mood for Love (Wong), Los Lunes al Sol (León de Aranoa), Memento (Nolan), The Nightmare Before Christmas (Burton), Shining (Kubrick), 25th Hour (Lee), Pulp Fiction (Tarantino), Welcome to the Dollhouse (Solondz), City of God (Meirelles), The Usual Suspects (Singer). Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (Kubrick), Rushmore (Anderson), Ed Wood (Burton) and may more!

Books. By contrast to music and movies, I have terrible memory for books plus I borrow and lend them, so I

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

If I have to look back, I see that little or random decisions became life-changing choices. But if I have to stick with some amazing things that I was aware of when I did them at the time, well, sky-diving and proper diving in the Great Barrier Reef are worth to mention.

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach to foreign people, especially English speakers, how to pronounce every words with the Italian accent. I’m quite good at that. I can teach some recipes as well, maybe this last thing is more useful. Learn... well, there are plenty of things to learn out there.

Countries I’ve Visited

Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Slovakia, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Spain, United Kingdom