Milano; the necessary stop

I always have to visit Italy. Sooner or later, I do believe that this country will offer me a warm home and a lovely life into one of its amazing cities. This time I had the chance to spend a few days (4 actually) in Milan. The capital of fashion. My arrival there has been a bit unpredictable since I was initially on my way home for Christmas. This means that I was carrying 40kg of luggage and had to stroll around the city like a nomad. Fortunately, people were extremely friendly to help me with the weight, especially when there were no lifts or electric stairs around. 

I do not know why, but this time Milan was extremely sunny. Maybe I was in desperate need of sun. I walked around Navigli and let the sun kiss me for so many hours that I almost got lost. But a great espresso can wake up even the most disoriented person. Yes, i was disoriented by the beauty of this city, by the smells and the tastes around, by the smiles of the locals who were spreading "buongiornos" around! The luxurious via Montenapoleone was crowded. From the China town neighborhood until the corso Como I found amazing little stores providing flavors to the curious visitors and cocktails with style. I had one or two. ;)

It might not be a city famous for its art and architecture but its an italian city. Every single one has its own artistic identity. And with all those parks breathing around, the city creates a mixture of environments where one can find it all. At least I did.   

This has been a perfect ending to a strange 2015. The year was just a huge disappointment until the moment I moved to France, early in August. I had the chance to travel around, more than usually. Met some amazing people and counted down numbers of new experiences. For 2016 I have a huge list of things I feel I own to myself. I will share many of these with you, some of them with my closest friends and some will be my personal projects. The last ones will be dreams coming true. And I cannot wait to live them. In fact, i had postponed them for so long. Now its just the time to go wild for a while. Or more...    

Which kind of Love is the higher law?

It is a well known song but I hadn't listen to music for long time. At least the music that cures the soul. One morning it just hit me and now it simply cannot find its way out of my mind. Through the messy, stressful and abstract ideas that I have gathered inside my head during the last days this song is just the solution. It truly is. Because I had plans and life turned them upside down. But its ok, cause there are people that had worst experiences recently. And I respect that, I feel grateful for still having the ability to make plans, as much as i feel sorry for the human beings that have never felt love and those that have never understood it.
Then I thought of all the time I have spent trying to explain love, to rationalize it, to make it work. Instead I realized how much love I had coming my way but I was too busy chasing reasons and weak excuses and then I felt that I had to love myself again. My plans were forced to change but still I had the need to make a long list, with the things I haven't done for a long time now, with the places I wanted to be, with the priorities I had to set, with needs and obligations. No sentiments included, no feelings, no emotions. A long, cold list of duties. But I thought again. When you are forced to change your life all over again and you feel no pain or sadness for that, are you really ok? How many changes are enough to make you focus on a plan based on a long list?
What if you had a rebellion against your own self? What if you had no plans and just lived tomorrow as it comes? What if you just gave yourself the present of life in its most primitive form? The present of setting everything back for a while in order to hunt adventures and possibilities you have never thought of? Yep, possibilities. Like the possibility to laugh, to cry, to get disappointed, to get lost, to get stronger. And all of these amazing possibilities might happen in places where the rain never stops to soak your skin, where the sun kidnaps you on a lonely beach, with people you have never talked to before or with others that you had forgotten you knew once.. Like an old and beloved song. Cause there are people like that. People that can cure the bleeding soul of yours. You just have to explore the possibilities of meeting them, again or for the very first time.
And then you will have the greatest adventure of life. The adventure of Love; Of that one, valuable and difficult, fucken love for yourself. -myself..  







https://youtu.be/ZpDQJnI4OhU

Let me tell you, how houses get haunted..

 Do you know the feeling when you rent your very first apartment? That's a unique moment, a moment you feel strong enough to pull it through life and responsibilities, a moment you feel so sure about your decisions or a moment you just can't help yourself but find a beautiful place to settle.

It's a place where you love to be, a space you decorate over and over again in your mind and it ends up to be better than you imagined it cause probably it is already filled with the prettiest things you have. Or human beings. Or animals.

It is a place you will always remember. Sometimes more than it's socially or sentimentally accepted. Other times you will search for a similar place to live but nothing will fulfill your expectations. Nothing will be as equal as the first place you have chosen to mark you as an adult, a place in which you loved and laughed, a place where you've cried and a place in which you grew wiser. 

Eventually, you will move on. You will have more than one places and maybe some of them will make you feel better than the very first one. In few cases though, some hearts are left behind. To the place they felt happy. There's nothing wrong with that. A heart can always have its own place to live.

Maybe that's why houses get haunted. Because a heart has been left there on purpose.

A.

The Love Speech

This week I had the chance to attend an interesting and almost "strange" two-days, international conference. The major discussion was about the hate speech and the liberty of expression. I enjoyed the sessions even though this is neither my field of studies nor my professional background. But since social media have intervened so much into our lifestyle, i suppose that this is nowadays everyone's field and background. You see, there is no one around us without a single social media account. I have almost 30 and I am using them depending on my mood. If i assume that everyone else is doing the same, i expect to detect some hate speech and too much liberty of expression. 

Considering that our world has become more advanced and globalized hate of speech seems to be more of a left over. But no. This is not the case. Hate speech is everywhere around us. In our everyday life, shopping or hopping on a bus, watching a tv show or reading a newspaper, talking to a stranger or talking to a loved one. But i started wondering...Where has the love speech gone?

Are we really so busy of finding some minutes to express ourselves or we have just forgotten how to talk to each other? Are we incapable of talking with kindness to other human beings or it is just a phase where symbols and emoticons do the job? Why did we became so vulgar?What changes so significantly within us that we cannot talk freely to the people we used to share our deepest thoughts with? Is it the perception we have about them or the perception they have about us that shifts our speech from the one side to the other? And if it is none of the above, will we ever be able to speak to each other freely again? 

Mind the gaps: liberty of expression does not mean absolute truth or honesty. Love speech is not always based on feelings of love too.   

A.

People with dreams are scary.

It has been a full week for me. Full of sentiments, changes and obligations. Usually this type of week is never a good period for thinking. But still, the human brain is so multitasking that fits it all inside. And that is so annoying. Especially when all you want to do is close your eyes and dream. 

Dreams, a favorite habit. Most people do that but the ones that are seriously dreaming are the scariest people alive. It must be the easiness with which they plan everything or the ability to walk through nightmares totally safe and sound. These little scenes of imagination are a piece of personal confessions never said and never written. Silent needs that demand their realization and we try so hard to make them go away, so hard that we make ourselves wake up in the middle of the night. That's why most of the dreams never have an ending, eternally hanging on to be continued during the next sleep or remaining a faint memory that no one can list in the real life or the subconscious part of us.  

People with dreams are not worried. They can see their dreams falling apart and at the same time they can make them work again or create new ones from scratch. They can share their dreams, they can mingle them, they can change them or they can offer them to someone who needs it more. In any case they are creating their own world and they settle inside until the real one is safe for them. People with dreams are afraid to meet the truth. They dare to jump in fiction and walk through streets of the unknown but they are threatened by the darkness of the world. The darkness that fills the human brain, that multitasking brain that never stops finding ways to ruin a dream. People with dreams are afraid that they might lose their ability to dream. Too much blood comes out of the great dreams that died.

People with dreams, glorious and amazing dreams are usually the ones to be laughed at. People with dreams are the ones that still search for the perfect piece that will fill their puzzled life and make everything work out magically. People with dreams do not need to close their eyes, they do not feel sorry for missing something ordinary, they do not hesitate. People with dreams chase the things that we cannot imagine. They are the people that we are feeling jealous of and yet we do not applause them because it is too romantic, to vain, to pointless to dream in a world like ours. 

People with dreams are never alone. They have friends in their little universe, friends that are caring and are always present. They have perfect houses and huge families. They have careers and they have "eaten" the world. Many things to do in the everyday life and no hurt feelings at all. 

The people that have dreams have also happiness. Lot of happiness. Because they know that they have something to search for. They know that they have still something to hope for. They have still faith in life. People with dreams are never alone. 

But that's the scariest thing about them; Happiness is always pending.

A.

He and her sunlight...

She strolled around like Nancy was her own home. She has always dreamt of a parisian apartment with high ceilings and huge, white windows that will let the sun rays to wake her up gently. She loved the sun. But this day in Nancy was not the sunniest she could have. She walked around for some minutes and the buildings reminded her some Ionian islands and the summers she had spent there. It was not the sea she missed so much but the sense of carelessness each summer carries with its arrival.

She found a place to sit before the rain and thought a while about her apartment. It would be full of paintings laying on the wooden, dark floor. The books she reads would form a library on their own being spread around just like her ideas, her projects and her drawings. Nothing had his final form yet. Like waiting for a last touch and like this touch is the most important one. Her apartment would be filled with colors but not on the textiles or the walls. The colors would come from the flowers in the vases, Freesias that she liked a lot. And with this thought she ordered a hot coffee until the last drop of rain. 

That day in Nancy when her company arrived became sunnier than she imagined it to be. She had her coffee, they chatted pointlessly for an hour and then they walked again to find what is hidden in the narrow streets of that city. Lorraine had its myths and so did she. 

The day was over and the engine of the car made her realize how fast time can slip through your hands when you are day dreaming. The road was long before getting back home. The music of the unknown french radio station was leaving no space for talking. So she thought again of her apartment and suddenly a question bothered her.

Would he like the sunlight to wake him up as well? 

A.

The need to stand

on your own feet. How can you become the person you want to unless you don't manage to stand on your own two feet? Difficulties will appear, fears will keep you company, many times you will feel lonely but in the end you will be proud of your little self that managed to become independent, fearless and so strong. You will meet people that will hurt you, you will lose friends and you will feel disappointed by others that you have trusted and supported. But it's ok, cause its your own feet you need to stand.

Sometimes you will find the ones that will be willing to stand by you. These will be other independent and fearless people who will not be scared by your freedom, who will share their experiences with you waiting to hear yours as well. These will be amazing people who survived the same disappointment and loneliness. They wont be willing to stand by you, they will be meant to do so. You will keep these people.

You will be forced to stand in front of your fears too. You will not be able to avoid this. It is not as difficult as it sounds. Usually we realize how easy things are when we already try them. And you have to try a lot of exciting things. 

And when the years pass, and you are able to consider yourself an adult, you will need to stand for what you believe in. That's a virtue not many people share. But in the end it is the only thing that you need in order to stand on your feet proudly and with no shame, to stand by the people you love without any guilt or hypocrisy and to stand in front of your fears without feeling threaten or weak. Stand for what you believe. Especially when it makes you extremely happy.     

Enjoy your weekend

A.

Never skip a cup of coffee...

It is sociologically proven that coffee is not only a beverage we enjoy. Besides the benefits (some say the opposite) it is a habit that makes people gather around it's blend and share love stories or professional details. It is a way of communicating, socializing and of course de-stressing. I know, i know..There is nothing like a nice cup of tea to soothe any type of pain! But this is another story, one a true coffee lover would not share at this point.

You know, usually coffee wakes us up but what it really does is to give us a sense of potentiality. The belief that we can do everything and that something amazing is going to happen to us. Each brand new day starts with a coffee. Most of the love affairs start with a coffee date. Friends are meeting upon a coffee mug. We hold up an espresso before opening a newspaper or a book. We post or tweet with a cup of cappuccino next to us. We like it macchiato or corretto or even cortadito for intense flavor!Coffee is a minor habit that brings us together. We wait in cafeterias for our friends, we have coffees and share the news, the secrets, the pain together. 

These minor details can make our greatest relations ever stronger. The need to create a way of communication, the need to have a place full of memories we shape with our people, the desire to have a social presence and participation, the wish to share something from our life and receive a sentiment, a feeling or a smile. All in a sip of coffee. So, never skip a cup!Especially one that is enjoyed with a great friend.

A.

A month away..

 Apparently, a month away from your friends, your routine and your home is a month that passes either extremely exciting or exhaustively boring. It depends on several parameters but i can definitely  say that company is the most important one. Even if you live in an amazing, culturally alive city. Those are the cities that demand the proper company to stroll around. There are so many beautiful cafes, too many deliciously smelling bistros and restaurants, eye-catching patisseries and so many bars where international students or local couples enjoy their drinks under the still sunny Strasbourg's sky.

If you find yourself alone in a cosmopolitan city of small population but full of great traditions and many various visitors, one thing you should do to mingle or socialize. Follow the locals, they know better and they are usually kind enough to share secret places in the city.

That's what i did during the last weeks. Following the river that runs the city is also another key-point. I managed to get lost in this small city a few times and each time i search for the river and find my way back home. Architecture and artistic expressions are more than obvious and breathtaking. Walking around or cycling allows you to enjoy each little detail in a cocktail of materials and an endless blending of rhythms.     

 You can feed yourself after hours of walking in the city at numerous places, offering a wide variety of tastes. Even if you are a vegetarian or vegan or you prefer to try different cuisines of the world you will have no troubles finding many alternatives.

 Once you feed your belly, you can visit some of the many museums in the city to feed also eyes and soul. Contemporary art, history, archaeology, beaux arts, everything is available depending on your preferences. This weekend is devoted in the European Patrimony so most of the museums and cultural spaces are free to enter. It was the first time i saw a crowd in the city. 

 A crowd is also seen in the city's most famous bakeries and the mouthwatering specialties are a good way to end a Saturday evening, don't you think so?

 The city has also many religious monuments like the Cathedral that offers panoramic view of the whole city if you have the stamina to climb up the 330 narrow stairs.  

 Bridges and flowers are another romantic feature of the Alsatian city. Wherever you look your eyes can rest. Colorful and full of life, this city urges you to take your loneliness out for a walk.

At least, i have to be ready to welcome my friends and show them my new discoveries.  

Enjoy your weekend,

A.

She could easily get lost...

Her name was not Alice and she had not found her Wonderland yet. But one thing was always there in her mind, adventure. She was always planning her next trip, imagined the places where she could be photographed and the minor details she could capture in her lens. She thought of the seas and the sand. She thought of the air. Sometimes it smelled like tea from China, or spices from India, coffee from Italy or just the smell of an old sweaters which reminded her of something. Something that she used to love a lot. 

No one could read the maps she had filled in with so many plans, notes and places to visit. No one could read her need to disappear, to get lost for a while, to see what else this world is hiding. It was not the need to have fun or visit some monuments. No. It was a new breath she wanted to gasp for. 

She packed her things enough times as to be able to say that she has seen part of the world. But it was not her thing to settle down and browse nostalgically into memories. Whatever kept her static so long, eventually became her inner motivational voice. And she packed for one more time. Not anything could fit in her small bag, but everything she had added was fitting perfectly to her new life. 

The walking was endless and her home started to fade away with all the people and the things she left behind. There was no time in the places she has been, there were no worries and no familiar faces. It was a layover between her lives. 

But she couldn't stay for more. Change became her main habit and her eyes were still searching for a new sky beyond her own window. She started thinking of herself and her inability to stop wandering. Could this mean that she was erratic and unreliable or maybe a free spirit seeking for a soul to match with? She could not find her answer and her spirit missed a beat.

One day, she found herself close to some coordinates she never visited before and then it hit her. It was not the adventure she was really looking for, but the Wonderland. A place where she could have all she ever asked for. A place where she could settle, or a pair of arms, or even some eyes that she could stare at and count stars popping out them. A wonderland with no borders and tickets, where one could be free and happy. 

After all, she knew that she could easily get lost if it wasn't for those stars popping out of some eyes..  

A.