ITALY

One word is too much and two words are too less. Talking about your own country  can be challenging, since you can be you can be pervaded by mixed feelings thinking about it, especially if you travel a lot: when you live in your motheland it’s easy to hate cultural traits you don’t recognize yourself with, however when you are abroad you start appreciating good values you cannot find in other cultures. For sure you know your motherland like a family member: you can describe it more objectively and better then it would. I was born in the countryside in a small town called Potenza. Like all small realities life is slow and very simple, sometimes it’s so simple that people prefer to focus themselves on other people’s lives just to have something to talk about rather than using their energy to grow and improve theirselves. Despite this issue, I was blessed to experiment things lost in time like making wine, preparing the tomato sauce, or grazing the sheep. All the most beautiful memories about my childhood are endeed connected to the land and to the unconditional love my grandparents gave me. No matter where I go I miss the green and the forests of my land, Lucania and the beautiful view on the Appennino Chain from the window of my room. When I was young I was full of anger because the poverty of my department made me become an immigrant. On the contrary, now I feel grateful because this happening made of me a free woman and allowed me to see the world even if everything started out of necessity. Luck or bad luck are just different perspectives on the same happening. I also have to mention another city to which I will be forever grateful. This city has always bee very generous with me and endeed adopted me with the loving care of a mother: this city is Naples. Naples stole my heart at the very first sight. For the very first time in my life I found a place where I didn’t need to explain myself because people could understand me without even talking, I have never found a stronger connection with a place like it happened with Naples. Thanks to this city I understood what inclusion means, thanks to the Neapolitan people I started to know myself better and I realize I fall in love with a place not because of its beauty but because of its people. For me the people make the places not the other way around. Everytime I need to recharge myself I escape to Naples, and I will always do it. Naples, my comfort zone, my safe place.