"You open your laptop, you get your emails, you get friends around and cook them a meal. And especially if you make music in the room with your friends, that sort of becomes home."

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

As much as I've always been quite an introverted, reflective and cautious person, since childhood I've also felt a burning need for discovery, wilderness and reckless adventure.

I love new places, I love stories, I love discovering people to resonate with - from all around the globe.
I truly believe hospitality is and remains one of the core values of humankind and it should be pursued with every means possible, Couchsurfing being the most efficient of all at present!

Interests

I started out as a creative kid, who became a geeky teen, and then a nerdy adult.
I've always struggled with juggling all my various passions and interests: from science to cinema, from history to theater, from linguistics to drawing, and so on.

At some point in my life, I decided that I wanted to focus on becoming a professional musician, and so I devoted my time and energies to music and practicing. Since my livelihood depended in a big part also on teaching, I developed a strong interest in pedagogy, which eventually led me to undertake a PhD around matters of musical instrumental practice and movement expertise. Since then, my interests have expanded to include also more philosophy, anthropology and cognitive sciences.

Besides this quite academic side of me, I love exploring cities and discovering their people. Also, one of the things I enjoy most in life is being in nature and having the chance to get as far away as I can from civilization. I believe I have been my best self when hiking up a mountain, singing songs with my travelling companions, looking for the best spot where to pitch our tent.

• arts
• literature
• theater
• performing arts
• architecture
• contemporary art
• photography
• music festivals
• folk dancing
• politics
• movies
• drawing
• music
• classical music
• folk music
• electronic music
• hiking
• languages
• physics
• political science
• science
• sociology
• hitchhiking
• cinema
• linguistics
• tv shows
• ancient history
• improv
• comedy
• cinematography
• wild camping
• roleplaying games
• mindfullness
• contemporary music
• sport psychology

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: all art music (also contemporary), folk music, jazz, Björk, Flying Lotus, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Genesis, The Velvet Underground, Amon Tobin, Joni Mitchell, Sufjan Stevens, Lauryn Hill, Janelle Monáe, Kendrick Lamar, Frank Ocean, SZA, Jamiroquai, Radiohead, Muse, Elio e Le Storie Tese, Lúnasa... (http://www.lastfm.it/user/Hesperios)

Movies: wayyyyy too many! Movies are my inherent vice.

TV series: Twin Peaks, Mr Robot, Mad Men, Parks and Recreation, The Good Place, Arrested Development, Blackish, Veep, Community, Bojack Horseman, Killing Eve, Fleabag, Boris, Master of None, Breaking Bad, Fargo, The Handmaid's Tale, Orange is the New Black, Orphan Black, most MCU stuff, Game of Thrones... should I even go on?
Speaking of TV, huge Saturday Night Live enthusiast also!

Books & Co, randomly: "To the Lighthouse" (V. Woolf), "Ficciones" (J. L Borges), "Les fleurs bleues" (R. Queneau), "Cien años de soledad" (G. G. Márquez), "To Kill a Mockingbird" (H. Lee), "Kassandra" (C. Wolf), "Antigone" (Sophocles), "La Peste" (A. Camus), "Chesil Beach" (I. McEwan), "The Rotters' Club" (J. Coe), "Brave New World" (A. Huxley), "Le città invisibili" (I. Calvino), "Il nome della rosa" (U. Eco), "The Inner Game of Tennis" (W. Timothy Gallwey), "The Rest is Noise" (A. Ross), "The Open Society and Its Enemies" (K. Popper), "Briefe an einen jungen Dichter" (R. M. Rilke), "An Actor Prepares" (K. Stanislavskij), "The White Steamboat" (C. Aitmatov), etc.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I really don't know about "incredible", because sometimes very subtle details turn out to be life-changing for me.

However, I have:
- slept under the most magnificent starry sky on the slopes of a volcano, in Nisyros
- survived the most violent thunderstorm while hiking the Greater Caucasus by night, taking shelter in an abandoned church
- sung some beloved vocal repertoire from the Renaissance, with people very dear to me, in the other-worldly Monastery of Geghard in Armenia
- attended a performance of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound in the ancient theater in Pompeii
- performed with fire in a huge street-art festival in southern Italy
- played at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam
- hiked the Caucasus (again) on horseback for a week

Teach, Learn, Share

Let me cook for you. In the meanwhile, I'm all ears!

What I Can Share with Hosts

I am a quiet person who knows how to have a good conversation.
I have a very broad concept of having fun.
I consider myself quite knowledgeable and very curious.

... I can also just cook stuff for you, though!

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Armenia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, England, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria, Germany, Italy