I can say it out loud after a week spent at Campo Globo as volunteer of the civil protection and member of ANA of Como.
Campo Globo was one of the 170 tent camps built for the earthquake emergency in Abruzzo and took its name from the nearby store in the Coppito zone.
Once there I worked at the camp office, the place where the Alpini managed the camp and thus where I could see both positive and negative sides of the situation.
Together with three volunteers of La Spezia’s ANA, Enrico, Attilio and camp-chief Alberto, we worked all day long from August 29th to September 5th, trying to respond to all the requests coming from the 930 residents and from Italian Navy and Army officers who excellently managed the two camp kitchens.
The human side of the experience has been the most important one: talking to people from L’Aquila and listening to their unfortunate stories and wishes to start over gave a precise meaning to the feeling of solidarity that made me leave for Abruzzo.
However, being able to see the ruins of the city center left a sense of sadness deep inside me. It wasn’t as watching them in photos or on TV at all: it will really take a lot of time for the reconstruction..
The photos of my personal gallery have been mostly shot at the camp, since you can find those with the ruins pretty anywhere and they do not really deliver the actual dimension of the destruction of the buildings.
My best wishes to all the people I met during that week: the Scuola del Genio and San Marco officers, the great Alpini, and the camp residents with a soul stronger than any earthquake!
As San Marco officers wrote on the sail in the picture: The lion wants it, L’Aquila in his heart.

On my Vespa, from Como to Santa Maria di Leuca, to discover a land unknown to me: the Salento!
After 3200km riding my Vespa GTS I can say that such a long journey during the two central weeks of August was really worth it.
After a stop in Bologna and Bisceglie, guest of relatives who took care of their favourite mad vespa fan , my Vespa flawlessly accompanied me on the visit to the most beautiful places in Puglia: from Ostuni to Gallipoli, Nardò, Santa Maria di Leuca, to the spectacular Ciolo Bridge, Castro, Otranto, Lecce, and to Melpignano, where I attended the final concert of the Notte della Taranta, an incredible example of territorial marketing!
150.000 people compressed in the small town danced the pizzica, an entertaining and sensual popular ballet, all night long.
They say Salento has peculiar curing properties, mainly due to three factors: colors as in chromotherapy, purifying substances spread through air by olive plants and the different iodine concentration of the two seas, Jonio and Adriatic, help to improve blood values just after a week of stay.
Body and soul restored, also thanks to old and new friends met, I published a gallery with the best photos of the journey.
Enjoy it and… intra lu salentu tocca torni! (You have to come back to Salento!)

i-muse became a registered trademark at last, it grows and evolves both as a product and entrepreneurial adventure!
From the work of the last months comes the new website, designed by Luca and launched in italian and english, our first newsletter, and a series of activities which had a strong acceleration thanks to the effort of Guido’s new marketing assistant, Francesca, a brilliant girl who gets things done, with whom I daily share our headquarters in Como, together with Paolo and Samantha in the nearby room.
At the same time the development of the i-muse platform is going to reach another important target: soon we’ll launch i-muse Creator, the content management system of i-muse, the tool that allows to visually create tours for the video guide by assembling and synchronizing audio-visual contents. A software that reserved for me a number of technical challenges during its construction.
Happy for the challenges won and the positive climate inside the team, after the summer stop I think an intense time is waiting for us and it will bring new satisfactions.
It’s really difficult to explain how hard startupping is, especially in Italy and in a time of crisis: loaded with good will and patience it’s the right time to build and hope for a better future.
In the meantime we enjoy ourselves an healthy summer stop to recharge batteries, physical and mental ones!
See you soon for other news about i-muse!

500 Vespas charging on the streets of Como, the third edition of a great show, organized by the Vespa Club of Como on June 29.
It was an intense day: from the “Vespinta - throwing the Vespa” quiz game, to the parade on the streets of Como, to the aperitif in Brunate, to the lunch at the restaurant Gnocchetto in Tavernerio and to the award ceremony with prizes for the numerous Vespa clubs and the Vespazza, the hottest Vespa-girl!
For me it was the second meeting organized by the club I’m a member of, and just as two years ago, my duty was to take photos.
This year however, Chiara, a friend of mine, took care of it, while I was driving my Vespa and stopping in places where she could take the best shots.
Here there are the four most significant photos for me, the rest is in the dedicated gallery.
Long live to the Vespa Club of Como!

As the last year, I’ve been invited to present i-muse to the students of the Master in Brand of the Territorial Systems organized by POLI.design.
This year I went together with Francesca, our new marketing assistant and, as she said, we come back angry!
In a positive sense I mean: students were enthusiastic to try firsthand an easy to use tool that potentially represents the missing ring between modern mobile technologies and the fruition of multimedia contents made by professionals.
Sending this message to the people who have the power to decide whether to start an innovative project at their own exhibition is another challenge.
From this sort of contrast comes our angryness, so to say.. something that will stimulate us to work harder and try to communicate better with potential customers.
Accessibility was another matter of discussion with students: i-muse offers a number of options that make the application accessible to hearing and sight impaired people.
After this presentation we went back to work to get ready to launch the news on which we’re working in the background since some time: the first one is the new i-muse website, now online in italian!

After 20 galleries for a total of 1004 photos, the Vespatour 2006 went even live on the radio!
On Tuesday, April 30, together with Melly and Marti, speakers of the feature New Generation on Radio Codogno, and DJ Giancarlo, we talked about the solo journey around Italy I did on August 2006 riding my Vespa.
I love the radio as a communication medium, since it leaves a lot to the listener’s imagination, and in this case the challenge was making interesting an experience that I mainly reported through photos until now.
I think the number of questions and answers about the most curious elements of the journey, as well as the phone calls with Marco and Valentina, two friends I met during the stops in Tuscany, made the show pretty dynamic and interactive.
There were even some funny moments, thanks to the two brilliant speakers, and special touches such as broadcasting songs best suited to the main stops of the journey.
It was my first time on the radio, and that didn’t make things too easy for me, but I won’t tell you anything else, download the recording of the 1-hour show and enjoy listening it, ooh-yeah!

What’s beyond the hedge of the infinity?
The hedge “that excludes the greater part of my view of the farthest horizon“, as wrote Leopardi in his immortal poem, The Infinity.
The end of a journey? The beginning of another one?
For me it was just like that: on August 31, 2006, in Recanati, the last stop of the journey on my Vespa that reserved for me never ending emotions and surprises, I climbed the hill of the infinity, where is located the native house of Leopardi, and accompanied by a kind guide from the Centro Nazionale di Studi Leopardiani, I reached the hedge and… looked beyond it!
The quiet panorama beyond the hedge, with Monti Sibillini in the background, mixed with what eyes couldn’t see: the avalanche of sensations I felt along the journey and the uncertainty of the future that was waiting for me once back in Como.
Three years later I almost feel like being there again, thanks to the photo of the hedge I always keep on my desk.
The 52 photos of the twentieth gallery are dedicated to the last stop of the journey, between Loreto and Recanati, with the last one shot in Rimini before going back to Como.
I hope that through the report of the Vespatour 2006 I managed to give back a bit of the pleasure of traveling while discovering new people and things.
It’s also my Thank You to whom recommended me where to go before leaving, whom welcomed and helped me during the journey and whom, after reading the report on the blog, is willing to visit the wonderful places I described.
Bon Voyage!

My relatives from Bisceglie are deeply devoted to Padre Pio and they told me a lot about San Giovanni Rotondo.
So, on August 28, 2006, I went there with my Vespa to visit that holy place so important for all the devoted to the brother from Pietrelcina.
It was an important stop even for me, especially after having been in Assisi and at the Eremo delle Carceri of San Francesco a few days earlier, the other brother great example of humility.
Deep thinking and meditation are the words I could associate with my visit to the places where Padre Pio lived and received the stigmates, now valorized by the modern church designed by Renzo Piano.
After the visit to San Giovanni Rotondo, before going back to Bisceglie, I went to the beach in Vieste on the splendid Gargano coast.
When I was a kid I used to spend the summer holidays there, in a camping with my family, and there I learned to swim!
The 53 photos of the nineteen gallery describe the last two days in Apulia.
On August 30 I was going to leave from Bisceglie to the last stop of the Vespatour: Recanati, searching for the hedge of the infinity!

To the seaside, at last!
After 21 days of traveling at close stops, riding my Vespa for a total of 3000 kilometers, a week to the seaside in Apulia was the closing panacea of the Vespatour 2006.
I needed to rest not only physically, but also mentally, since during those 21 days I stared for the first time at some of the artistic marvels that Italy preserves, and for each one of them the emotion was deeply intense.
Using an effective metaphor: I got drunk with culture!
The welcome of my relatives in Bisceglie, in the province of Bari, has been special to say the least: for a few days they made me feel like a member of their family, they accompanied me on my visit to the town and its surroundings, and most of all they made me taste their culinary specialities. One day meat and the other fish: nothing was missing on our table at all!
During those days of relax at seaside, together with Nicola, I visited the misterious Castel del Monte, a strategic observation point of Frederick II, now depicted even on the 1 cent italian Euro coins.
To the castle, the welcome of my relatives and the seaside of Bisceglie, are dedicated the 41 photos of the eighteen gallery of the journey.

A garden extending for 3 kilometers, with an incredible sight both towards the hill and the royal palace!
The Royal Palace of Caserta really surprised me and I think that I definitely did a good choice stopping there in the morning of 23 August 2006, while I was traveling from Rome to Bisceglie, in Puglia, where I was going to spend a few days at the seaside to rest a bit after the long journey around Italy riding my Vespa.
The 54 photos of the seventeenth gallery are entirely dedicated to the Royal Palace of Caserta, to the sumptuousness of the royal apartments, visited while listening to an audioguide, and most of all to the marvellous garden and its fountains, a complex built by Carlo III di Borbone with the aim to rival with the magnificence of the Royal Palace of Versailles.
I’ve never had the chance to visit Versailles yet, but I think the astonishment I felt in Caserta will stand steady in my memories when I’ll do that. Who knows, maybe in the next Vespatour…