It is hard to remember where this all began, but even before starting to travel outside my country, I always had this natural afflatus pushing towards the adventurous peregrination.
The spirit is all gathered in Baudelaire’s Le Voyage:
“But the true voyagers are only those who leave
Just to be leaving; hearts light, like balloons,
They never turn aside from their fatality
And without knowing why they always say: “Let’s go!”
Those whose desires have the form of the clouds,
And who, as a raw recruit dreams of the cannon,
Dream of vast voluptuousness, changing and strange,
Whose name the human mind has never known!”
Books like On the road and Motorcycle diaries shaped my investigative mind and set the early myths.
The first trips were random skyrockets through the European planetarium: sudden departures by economy cars with a budget enough only for beers and gasoline. Trip duration 1-2 weeks. A proper viking invasion. Or even only visiting the places where our friends were living, getting cheapest accommodation and discovering the local places with the best company and host.
Finally, a third option was what in Italian we call Zingarata, literally a random “gypsy expedition” by car towards a European capital in the middle of the night.
After the academic studies, the approach changed and I started to constantly work and live abroad, experiencing a new form of privileged awareness: Spain, Sweden, UK and Ireland were my new homecountries, year after year.
I was part of the new Schengen economy trying to provide better opportunities for the youth and create a more competitive and efficient Pan-European job market.
On the one hand, it was a unique chance to learn new languages, build up an international CV in multinational companies, earn good money, etc. On the other, however, I started to feel more and more the looming sense of the inevitable globalization and depersonalization of the working experience.
Result: countries with less and less natives and big American groups linked to the new economy and taking control of the overflowing job force from all the European countries.
At the beginning it was really enticing to be part of this new, international system. You felt so in line with the core values of these worldly-recognized brands. After several years spent inside, however, you realize you are just one of their 100 000 global workers performing meaningless tiny tasks for careless and purposeless bosses.
And here we are !!
In order to rediscover more authentic values, I have just quit my well-paid, permanent job for the 5th time in the last 8 years !
After my first intercontinental mission in South America (2013 – 4 months – solo-travel); a really bold project in 2016 along the Silk Road (10 months – 23 countries); a likewise daring, solo-travel in 2018 across 15 countries (from Lebanon to Malaysia); and a short, hybrid (travel + work) expedition between 2019 and 2020 in South (Chile, Uruguay, Colombia) and Central (Mexico) America, I am now ready for my fifth world trip.
Regrettably the Covid-19 pandemic forced me to get back from the paradisiacal Riviera Maya (Mexico) on May 2020 and spend a “quiet” transient year in my homeland Italy, while working again to support my future challenges. But now, with widespread vaccins and positive thinking, the worst period seems to be eventually over, even though with a dramatic aftermath. If ever so, it will take still much time to recover the pristine lightheartedness in travels.
Medical requirements, quarantines, vaccinations, face masks, green passes, overwhelming sanitary rules, fixed-number entries, social mistrust, last-minute tickets cancellations or modifications, fewer services (with price increase) and wide political ineptitude will be all inextricably part of our lives for many more years I am afraid. Briefly, travelling might not to be that pleasant as before.
That being said, I cannot powerlessly linger any more. I am turning 39 soon and 40 are just behind the corner, with my stunning 30ies over shortly, to my deepest regret. It is then time to quickly act to celebrate and properly seal this splendid, unique decade! Among other targets (see below), it would be also gratifying to hit the 100 visited countries in the world in the next year or so.
It’s time again to escape from this apathetic environment to focus on myself, on how I may change my future life and undertake self-employed business, which hopefully and ideally can offer social benefits also to the local communities.
So, again I need time off to erase the ancient bond and re-think in a new perspective my inmost desires and purposes.
Among them, I would like to achieve through and after this trip:
- A solid awareness of my regained creative skills and potential;
- An instrument (the blog) to fully express this awareness and assist aspiring travellers;
- The freedom to be able to organize my own activities in a more pleasurable way;
- The project of a future, personal business not exclusively tied to the corporate profit logic;
- The financial support to my trip helping the local communities.
Let’s see what will happen this time : )
