I’m Italian, I grew up by the sea and as long as I can remember I loved it.

My sea is the Jonium Sea, in Southern Italy, on the eastern side of Calabria Region ( the tip of the Italian boot). The sea of the Odyssey and of the heroes of ancient Greek legends and myths.

As a kid, I would stay in the salty water to shiver from cold rather than to allow my mum to get me out. I was a good swimmer coming and going quite far from the shore, for a teenager.

Once, I saved my mum. I was a teenager. Maybe 16 years old, maybe younger.

She was on an inflatable mat and the current led her away in a few minutes from the coast. I swimmed all the way to her, fetched the inflatable and brought her back.

I remember very well that she shouted that I had to stop because it was dangerous for me.

She did not believe I could make it.

But I was able to bring my mum back because I knew I could do it.

Since then, I’m searching all over the world that teenager that knows she can make it as becoming an adult, I lost that part of myself, not sure when and where.

Then, in 2014, during one of my trips to Oman, I understood I have to take my diving license.

The fishermen of Ras-al-Hadd used to take us out to the sea with their boats early in the morning, so that we could see the dolphins. It was on one of those rides that I understood: If I start diving, I will enjoy the sea more. I recalled that my friend Francesco Annis was – among other – a diving instructor and I contacted him. He arranged the training for me and for a few months I commuted from Switzerland to Milan (in the pool) and Liguria (in the sea) to do my course, my dives and qualify. It was quite exhausting driving Friday night, training on Saturday and drive back on Sunday, but I really wanted to take my open water diving license.

From that moment on, I started diving around the world each time I had an occasion.

I deeply love the sea and all that it contains.

Having a diving license does not prevent me from enjoying snorkeling, swimming, floating on the surface, let the waves cover my body on the beach or walk with my ankles in the water.

MY INFLUENCERS

Of course I was impacted by influencers, thought at that time when I was developing, there was no internet, no social media and therefore the word « influencer » did not exist. ( I turned 20 in 1998)

Among them, I would like to mention Piero Angela and Folco Quilici. I could sit mesmerized in front on the TV screen watching the documentaries of « Quark » emission led by Piero Angela or spending hours reading the (big and heavy) books of Folco Quilici, with one only wish and feeling: I WANT TO GO THERE AND SEE THAT WITH MY EYES. That would be the sardines run, the great whites, the hammerhead, turtles nesting, a leaf sea dragon, a pigmey sea horse or an Arlechin shrimp. I want to go there and sea.

Another big influencer was Homer with his Ulysses trips and adventures across the Mediterranean. My love for the Odyssey (and the Iliad) was so strong that when I was 13th I enrolled to humanistic high school to learn Ancient Greek, Homer language.

Jules Vernes also played his role, with 20 000 leghe sotto I mari e I figli del Capitano Grant.

All this boiled in the pot for quite a few years.

I was waiting the right occasion and the right moment to do it.

One day, I realised that I could spend my whole life waiting for something that would never come and just waste time in the waiting room, missing my life and the beautiful world out there.

That was the point when I started booking travel tickets and went to see the world.