CURRENT MISSION

The world is so huge and the life is so short..I want to see,to taste and live as much as I can,learning and understanding as much as possible,experience the world with my eyes,ears,fingers and all my senses,always respecting who/what I meet on my path.

ABOUT ME

Hello, I'm Enrico, from Italy.
As lot people use to say it's difficult do describe yourself in a few words: there is a whole world behind every human being ..that's why it would be much much better to meet ourselves in person, but a short description is necessary if this is usefull for understanding who you are going to meet soon..so let me introduce myself.
Since when I was young I think friends are one of the most important things in people's life, they are something make you richer!!! Probably much richer if there is also a cultural exchange. I always tried to be sorrounded by friends. The day I'm gonna have friends all around the world..well..that day I will be a virtual multimillionaire.One of my big passions is the ecology, the environment or anything can make this world a better place to live.I finished the Univesity in 2006, I studyed Environmental Science that helped me to see this world from another point of view and gave to me some tool for trying to change something.
In the main time I discovered that I love to share ideas on group living and community building and have visited several ecovillages and traditional settlements in Italy and around the world: I decided it was a good idea for learning how to project something like that but local, how to live in and work for.
After a short period working I realized that "life is like a big book: if you have not travelled, you have only read one page". For this reason I left for discovering new borders and I followed one of my big dreams. I decided that Latin America was the place for my adventures. From Mexico I started moving down until I reached the southern point of America! After 14 months I needed a rest and I decided that was the moment for coming back to Italy.
At the moment I'm teaching chemistry and biology in a profesional school for chefs...ok, I'm not a chef, but I'm trying to steal some secret from the school..haha! At the same time I'm working in an NGO for the conversion of our national energy system, based on fossil fuel resources, to a 100% renewable energy system, trying to make this country more environmental friendly!
However, I came to the conclusion that what makes me feel alive, part of mankind, is to Travel: at the moment that's a kind of religion for me, my way of living. That's why I never stopped travelling and dreaming. Actually I am a big dreamer! I like this:"All men dream; but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous, for they may act out their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.

...AND NOW, JUST AN INFORMATION FOR YOU: I DON'T LIVE IN VENICE...NO..I DON'T! I KNOW..IT'S SAD BUT DON'T CRY PLEASE AND DON'T WORRY, WE WILL FIND A SOLUTION: THERE ARE MANY THINGS YOU CAN DO EVEN IF THIS IT'S NOT A FLOATING TOWN, AND..JUST IN CASE HERE IT'S NOT SO FAR FROM VENICE, SO YOU SHOULD MAKE A GONDOLA TOUR ANYWAY, :-) ...

PHILOSOPHY

Try to learn as much as possible, specially from the people that surrounds you.
There is no better culture or nation, there are just different ways to do the same things.
Traveling should be compulsory for everyone. It opens the mind and makes you grow up as a tolerant person.
Another world is possible! ..try to make the world the place you want to live in!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I host and I surf. I like both!
I participate by being enriched by the lives of others and soaking up the goodness of all the very nice fellow travelers I've met along the way. Hopefully I give people a smile and just a slice of happyness.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I belong to CS project since 2007, when I met two backpakers in the navel of the world, on a boat sailing down all the Amazon River: they suggested me to try it... when I set foot on the ground I started immediately and so, here I am!
Nowadays, I host a lot of people and I have a lot of new friend around the world!
CS has helped me finding brothers and sisters around the world.
I think each person is unique, so I lived a different experience with every one.
I try keep in touch with most of them!
I think CS project is brilliant, ingenious and exciting ...just amazing!!! ...but I have to say nowadays some people is trying to change it in a bad way using this page with other goals and considering Couchsurfing as a dating website more than a travel website. For sure couchsurfing offers the chance even to meet your love, "LOVE" can happen .. and I apreciate it also for this, but if you are looking for a dating website and nothing else is better checking somewhere else...there is plenty of websites with this purpose...just let travellers moving around the world with any fear, doubt or perplexity...because this is Couchsurfing purpose and this is what make couchsurfing a super idea! More Couchsurfing..less War!!!

Interests

I am really interested to know other cultures.
I like meeting foreing people because I think the cultural exchange is very exciting...and maybe it's the only way to know something about your "strange" neighbor.
At the moment, travelling for me is very important. Everywhere you go you can learn something.
YES..I love travelling, and if I can choose I prefer those trips where you are so hungry of new experiences, so hungry of new places to see or things to do that you are always in movement and sometimes you forget to sleep. YES..If I can choose I prefer adventure travels, better if far away from big cities, even better if is difficult to arrive there and you need to find alternative ways along the trail!
For this reason I like legends, archeology, geography, maps and whatever is hiding misteries. I love NATURE in all its forms and I respect who respetc it! I like taking pictures because it's the way you show your perspective of life. I love photography and original pictures. I like good food, red red wine, Spring, perfumes, fragrances, cycling in a sunny day, driving my pretty "Vespa Teresa" in the middle of golden hills. I love music and the special atmosphere that good music is able to create wherever you are!
I like art..especially Land Art, which is able to transform simple pieces of wood, stones, leafs, sand, ect. in amazing creations, perfectly in harmony with the landscape and the nature around it. I love it!
I have a dream: living in a better world, and I have a recipe for that: living in an ecovillage, a model of sustainability where people and nature can find the right harmony ...maybe I'm just a stupid dreamer, maybe not!

• arts
• culture
• books
• photography
• perfumes
• environment
• dining
• cooking
• chocolate
• wine
• red wine
• modeling
• gardening
• boating
• flowers
• traveling
• music
• cycling
• camping
• sailing
• archeology
• biology
• cartography
• chemistry
• ecology
• geography
• religion
• science
• tourism
• adventure travel
• beaches
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Honestly...REGGAE Music is the original sound track of my life but "MUSIC" is great, powerfull and full of emotions so I use to listen many others rhythms (R&B,rock,electronic,pachanga,balkanic,folk,cumbia,samba,bossa nova,electro swing,jazz,pizzica,etc...)and in the specific Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals, The Gladiators, The Culture, Steel Pulse, Gregory Isaac, Groundation, Buena Vista Social Club, Cesaria Evora, Calle 13, Manu Chao, Jack Johnson, The Beatles, Sublime, Kevin Johansen, Jorge Drexler, Ben Harper, Nouvelle Vague, Radiohead, Adele, Martina Topley-Bird, Morcheeba, Massive Attack, De Andrè, Rino Gaetano, Vinicio Capossela,... and many many more!
I don't know if I have a favorite book... Mmmm let me see... I love: "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer"... I don't know why, maybe because I think is very smart describing a novel just using the sense of olfaction, and the result is great!!! Bytheway..I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez books, and Tiziano Terzani, Pino Cacucci, Giorgio Bettinelli, Paco Taibo Ignacio II, Khaled Hosseini, ...
I don't use to watch TV: it makes a strange and dangerous effect!
Nevertheless I love cinema. I like movies like In to the Wild, The Constant Gardener, Amores Perro, Cidade de Deus, Fitzcarraldo, Fight Club, The Snatch, Inception, Baraka, Soul Kitchen, Frida, I 100 passi, Gran Torino, Amelie, American Beauty, Lost in Traslation, The Millionaire... and of course all the Miyazaki crazy cartoons.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

WHEN TRAVELLING.. you can find adventures and surprises behind every corner, you never know what is going to happen!
People, places and situations you don't aspect are there waiting for you.
I love travelling because I'm curious to know wich is my next adventure...
This is a true story:

>I swam with a whale shark near the coral reef(HONDURAS-2007)
>I swam in the Sandoval lake, in the Amazon jungle, populated by piraña fishes...perhaps they weren't so hungry, perhaps they had already eaten. I don't know...but I remember one of those ended up on our plate for dinner (PERU'-2003)
>I foiled a robbery in Panama City (PANAMA-2007)
>I escaped from a robbery in Colon (PANAMA-2007)
>I was almost dying in Atacama desert, completely alone, under the strong sun, trying to take a picture, and following down from the mountain... luckly I'm still here!!! (CHILE-2007)
>I followed the Amazon river by boat from the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean,it took 20 days and 4 different boats..so big! (PERU'-COLOMBIA-BRAZIL-2007)
>I was immersed in a hammer sharks'sea in the Pacific Ocean (COSTA RICA-2007)
>I was searching the pirates'tresure in the "Coco Island" (COSTA RICA-2007)
>I walked for 900 km in the "Camino de Santiago" ...two times!!!(SPAIN-2004/2011)
>During the Santiago Trail I prepared a tresure hunt for a girl, lasted 10 days, I was totally in love for her!!! (SPAIN-2004)
>I slept under a gentle rain in a wonderfull night in the Sahara desert (MOROCCO-2004)
>I've been hypnotized several times by the mistic effect of the nature, especially in front of the "Salto Angel", the highest waterfall in the world, where a river of water seems to jump down directly from the clouds, falling down for 1 km...amazing!!! (VENEZUELA-2007)
> I swam in a hidden lake full of harmless and colorful jellyfish (Togean islands, INDONESIA-2017)
>I surfed the still active Izalco volcan down hill just with my strong shoes, moving down big rolling stones, with a slalom between sharp rocks (EL SALVADOR-2007)
>I fought with an "alpaca" in Patagonia (ARGENTINA-2008)
> I climbed in the middle of the night the Ijen crater for discovering inside a river of blue lava (Java, INDONESIA-2017)
>I camped in "Las dunas de Corrubedo" just with a sleepingbag in a desert beach full of sandy dunes under a roof of stars, during the night an unexpected sandstorm reached me when I was sleeping, in the morning I found myself completely covered by a little dune...I was already part of the landscape (ESPANA-2004)
> in one of the most isolated national parks (Maliau Basin NP), surrounded by mountains and wrapped by dense jungle, I discovered the nepenthes garden, a forest where big strange colorful carnivorous plants are growing in the middle of nowhere... (Sabah, BORNEO-2018)
>I hitchhiked for hours and hours in the middle of the Pantanal's marshes (BRAZIL-2007)
>I climbed the Cotopaxi mountain: almost dead in the freezing night at 6.000 mt, but at the sunrise I was reborn thanks to the Nature and its amazing landscape..(ECUADOR-2007)
>On the top of Cotopaxi I saw the explosion of a distant volcan... wow, so beautifull!!! (ECUADOR-2007).
>I was searching gold and diamonds with "garimpeiros" in the jungle, moving a large sieve in the river's waters... but nothing:I found just some little ounce of gold. It wasn't my lucky day.(VENEZUELA-2007)
>I organized an expedition searching for the mayan ruins of "El Mirador", we got it!(GUATEMALA-2007)
>I was trapped for 16 days in a real tropical paradise: "San Blas Islands" (PANAMA-2007)
>I discovered the "Banisteriopsis caapi" effect and its legend thanks to a good shaman (PERU'-2003/2007)
>I reached the top of Roraima, where I discovered a different planet, with unique plants and strange forms of life... for sure this was the reason why Arthur Conan Doyle has set here his novel "The Lost World" (VENEZUELA-2007)
> I climbed the hard and expensive Mt Kinabalu, the highest peak in Borneo, a place more similar to lunar landscapes than to terrestrial ones (Sabah, BORNEO-2018)
>I've been for hours in front of tons of water falling down in the middle of its foggy turbolence, admiring the huge "Iguaçu Waterfalls" (BRAZIL-ARGENTINA-2007)
>I lived for a short period with "EZLN" community in Chiapas for a cooperation project,I knew wonderful and lovely people there(MEXICO-2007)
>I visited the Pacaya active volcan,staying 3 mt from a warming lava river...while my shoes where slowly melting (GUATEMALA-2007)
>I visited a labirinth of close tunnels in some hidden cave in the middle of the jungle, I had the impression to be trapped in the belly of the Earth, in the darkness, but fortunally two very young guides helped me and my friends to see the light again (LAOS-2013)
>I crossed the dense jungle and climbed the mount Api to discover the pinnacles, sharp rock formations wrapped by foggy clouds in the middle of one of the most isolated national parks of Malaysia (Sarawak, BORNEO-2018)
>I I reached the peace of mind in a "onsen" in the middle of the snowy mountains, relaxed and boiled by the hot waters coming from the center of the Earth (JAPAN-2012)
> In 2017 I tryed to find a rafflesia, the biggest and probably the most spectacular tropical flower ever, exploring the jungle in Sumatra... that time I couldn't find it but one year later I found two big rafflesia in 2018 in the forest of Borneo (Malaysia).. one measured in almost 1 meter diameter.... Woooow (INDONESIA-2017/BORNEO-2018)
>I had the oportunity to discover some secret chamber wrapped by big tree roots in Ta Phrom Temple (Angkor) thanks to a kind and young archaeologist, I felt like in a Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider movie (CAMBODIA-2013)
>I suffered a monkeys attack early in the morning when I was camping in Khao Yai National Park..fortnually they just destroyed some book I was carrying with me (THAILAND-2013)
>I was searching for a secret and wonderfull island in South East Asia like in "The Beach" movie...I didn't find it in Ko Phi Phi but in Angthong Nationa Park where a tiny white-sandy beach looking to a blue pristine lake is protected and sorrounded by high cliffs covered by jungle (THAILAND-2013)
>I crossed the Deer Cave, considered the biggest cave chamber in the world, a huge tunnel in Gunung Mulu National Park where inside live milion of bats...here you walk around inner mountains full of insects made literally by SHIT!!!! (Sarawak, BORNEO-2018)
>I've met a lot of special travelers or local people who always helped me when I needed, even if we didn't know each other, even if poor people, even if that would be the last time we would see each...what can I say? thanks thanks and thanks to everybody (EARTH).
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visited 48 states (21.3%)Create your own visited map of The World or Amsterdam travel guide for Android

Teach, Learn, Share

I could teach you to cook some italian meal, some tasty food from Friuli, maybe a delicious tajine or a thai green curry.. lot of gorgeous different pastas are waiting to be discovered exactly as spicy salad or some sweet chocolate cake and mousse ..and of course: I would like to try some meal you can cook for me!!!
I can show and teach you growing the carnicorous plants, some of the most beautiful and curious plants our planet invented.
I will be happy to show you how to grow vegetables, plants, fruit, flowers together following the permaculture suggestions in our vegetable garden.
I can teach you about Permaculture and Ecovillage living, otherwise (in case all these things are boring for you) I can explane how to reach the tresure island in the Pacific Ocean where tons of precious jewels are still hidden, waiting for you!!!

What I Can Share with Hosts

I'm not a chef but I'm working in a school for chefs...I like cooking, so I can teach some good recipe I stole in the school ;-)
I can teach italian and even if italian is not really a common language around the world it can help you to survive in my country when you come to visit it!
I can tell many stories I learned from all around the world, they still make me dream about some trip!!!

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Laos, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Ireland, Italy, Spain

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