Travel
Traveling has been a great passion of mine ever since my parents took our family for month-long trips to different parts of Europe in our summer holidays: England-Scotland (1990), Scandinavia (1991), Czechoslovakia-Hungary-Poland (1992), France (1993). We traveled with a VW Bus, slept in B&Bs or tents, and saw a lot of places I found terribly adventurous at the time. These trips infected me with an insatiable curiosity to discover places I hadn’t seen, and to hit the road whenever and wherever possible.
I signed up for driving school a few weeks before my 18th birthday and as soon as I passed my last exam went on a trip around Southern Italy in an old VW Golf. Since then I toured pretty much all of Central, Western and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Greece, but also Morocco (2005-2006, 2014) and South Africa (2011-2012). In 2012-2013 I blogged for the first time on a trip through Thailand. I began to write to keep friends and family posted, then started to actually like it. I tended to write at the end of a day on the road, when the impressions of the day were still fresh. Sometimes orthography and style were imperfect. I wrote in simple english, so that everybody can more or less understand me, although it’s not my native language.
2013 was the year of Eurasia2013. This journey took me from Madrid to Vladivostok and back, with an encore to Cabo da Roca in Portugal. My life has not been the same since that trip.
The desire to get back to the road has stayed strong ever since I came back. During Easter 2014 I did a quick raid to Morocco. Oman was another wonderful discovery in 2014-15. And a trip to Dakar was in preparation for some time, but ultimately didn’t happen. Same for a few other destinations. In 2018 I spent time in Indonesia, not on 4 wheels though.
In 2019 I finally hit the road again for a 90-day tour through Europe, Russia and Central Asia in my Mini, as a farewell trip with my road companion for over 15 years.
in 2021 I tested the limits of EV driving in Europe, touring 20 countries in 3 weeks in my Tesla. From Madrid to the Nordkap, the Balkans and back home I clocked 16.000 km without range anxiety, and a silent feel-good drive like never before.
Let’s see where the next trips take me to. For sure it will be electric.
Private: Music
Since my childhood I got addicted to electronic dance music, in various forms. I DJ’ed in Rome while still at school and kept going during my student time in Berlin. Music genres varied from straightforward Techno, to harder and faster stuff I stopped liking at some point, to breakbeat, Jungle and Drum and Bass, and finally Electro. With time, my music slowed down, got more electronic, and broadened it’s palette of styles. Business stole most of the time I used to dedicate to music, that’s why a lot of my stuff dates back to earlier days. The advent of podcasts and streaming changed my consumption from active vinyl buying and mixing to more passive listening – unfortunately.
I enjoy Mendeleev Radio Show (a souvenir from nights clubbing in Moscow in another time), De:Bug (defunct), DJ Broadcast (defunct). You can listen to some of my mixes on Mixcloud. Enjoy!
Business & social views
Professionally I’m an entrepreneur, advisor and investor in the consumer tech space. At the moment I’m focussed on growing Robinsun.com to put my experience to use in the fight against climate change. Past companies I (co)founded include CityDeal/Groupon, GoReadyMade, MiMask, Blissbooker, Tarifas24 and Alpha Internet Ventures. I was a venture partner with Global Founders Capital, and also worked at Jamba/Jamster and other tech companies in their early stages. I grew up in my parents’ publishing company in Rome (Italy). You can find me on LinkedIn.
Sometimes I write about business & social issues:
A letter to The Economist: Your subscriber event “Ukraine at war: two years on”, 24.02.2024
A letter to The Economist: on migration, 16.03.2023
A letter to The Economist: Your article “Russia and NATO – How to talk to Mr Putin”, 16.01.2022
Nobody has the Intention to Raise a Wall around Catalonia, 09.11.2014
A letter to The Economist: Your article “The European Union – Europe goes to the polls”, 17.05.2014
A letter to The Economist: Your article “A slow climb – Business creation in Germany”, 05.10.2013
