INSTAGRAM:anghelosraw📸
Welcome to Genova🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿the perfect mix of architecture, art and sea! Are you keen on enjoying art🏛️,historic buildings🕍,sea🌊sunsets☀️?LEAVE NO STONE🪨UNTURNED
I like to get knowing someone,strolling around the city or going to the sea,discovering new things together because:❝We do not remember days, we remember moments.The richness of life lies in memories we have forgotten❞C.Pavese.
So get caught up in the deepest feeling of wonder towards the world🌍

⬇️𝘼𝘾𝙃𝙏𝙐𝙉𝙂/𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆⚠️
DON'T SEND ME ANY REQUEST:
1)if you are NOT FUN and TALKATIVE!Nothing worst than hosting a MONOSILLABIC🤐COLD🥶SCARED/AFRAID😱NERVOUS/UPTIGHT🤬GUEST who use Couchsurfing just only to save money, thinking to stay in a free hotel and have a personal tour guide/driver:SO B😤RING
2)if you wanna be hosted by me but you are not TRUSTWORTHY or are gonna go out alone all night long, vanishing/disappearing, leaving your luggage🛅at my home and come back to my place the morning after, when you want🕛,just only to take out your stuff and go away.
In this case don't forget to take out from my house🏠your luggage with yourself when you go out in the evening, because I'm not willing to wait for you and I don't want to have any problem with you and your stuff.I had a really awful experience in the past.I'M A COUCHSURFER NOT A GUARDIAN:❝You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.❞W.Rogers
Ancient Greek,Latin,Philosophy, History, Art🏛️,Literature, Classics✒️📖lover➡️Into Classical culture!
θαλάσσης🌊ψυχή🌬️
Sunsets☀️addicted📸
Deepest🌊S(ea)oul🔱
I'm a kind of loner, I deal with things by myself. I like living and acting without any expectations because THE UNEXPECTED IS MY GOAL:“The future is not set anymore. No fate but what we make for ourselves.”(Terminator 2)
REASONS TO TRAVEL:
1.TO LEARN NEW THINGS
2.TO HAVE ADVENTURES
3.TO BE ANONYMOUS
4.BECAUSE LIFE IS SHORT
5.TO MEET PEOPLE
6.TO FEEL ALIVE AND A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD
7.TO DISCOVER THE WORLD, KNOWING AND CHALLENGING YOURSELF
8.TO EXPERIENCE CULTURES AND HABITS OF ALL THE WORLD
9.TO EXPLORE NEW PLACES
10.TO TRUST YOURSELF
11.TO FORGET YOUR PAIN IN THE PAST AND NOT TO LOOK BACK
12.TO BELIEVE IN YOUR FUTURE
13.TO COLLECT UNFORGETTABLE MOMENTS IN YOUR HEART
14.TO GO BEYOND THE LIMITS IN YOUR MIND
15.TO NOT LOOK BACK AND WONDER “WHAT IF?”
❝The sense of research lies in the journey made and not in the destination; the purpose of traveling is traveling itself and not arriving.❞T. Terzani
ABOUT GENOVA
The name derives from the Latin word meaning "knee" (genu; plural, genua) but there are other theories. It could derive from the god Janus, because Genoa, like him, has two faces: a face that looks at the sea and another turned to the mountains.
Or it could come from the Latin word “ianua”, also related to the name of the God Janus, and meaning "door", or "passage." Besides that, it may refer to its geographical position at the centre of the Ligurian coastal arch. Infact in ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus (in Latin: Ianus) is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. In particular Janus presided over the beginning and ending of conflict, and hence war and peace so he is usually depicted as having two faces. Genova (Genoa) is a staggering city by the sea to be discovered with a mild climate, much sun, rich of history and art to admire, enjoy and live. Its museums, villas, churches and buildings contain unexpected treasures. Powerful Maritime Republic, for many centuries heart of the maritime traffic in the Mediterranean Sea, Genoa is now also a city of art and culture. From the Porto Antico, surrounded by the “caruggi” of the old town, one of the largest in Europe of medieval origins, to the beautiful streets of renaissance with its precious Churches and Palaces, like Palazzi dei Rolli, UNESCO World Heritage. The Aquarium of Genoa, set in a splendid position in the harbor, offers a wonderful opportunity to get close to the underwater world, with an extraordinary variety of species and giant tanks.
A visit of Genoa represents a fantastic journey through time, that impresses and fascinates.
Talking about Genoa in the past it was called “The Sea Lady" or “la Superba” ("the Proud one") due to its glories on the seas and impressive landmarks.
"You'll see a royal city, leaning against an alpine hill, superb for men and for walls, whose only aspect indicates she is the Lady of the Sea ".
This is a Francesco Petrarca's sentence (Arezzo, 20 July 1304 – Arquà, 18/19 July 1374) in “Itinerarium breve de Ianua usque ad Ierusalem et Terram Sanctam”. He was an Italian scholar and poet in Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism".
Infact Genoa was the capital of one of the most powerful maritime republics for over seven centuries, from the 11th century to 1797.
Particularly from the 12th century to the 15th century, the city played a leading role in the commercial trade in Europe, becoming one of the largest naval powers of the continent and considered among the wealthiest cities in the world.
The city has hosted massive shipyards and steelworks since the 19th century, and its solid financial sector dates back to the Middle Ages. The Bank of Saint George, founded in 1407, is the oldest known state deposit bank in the world and has played an important role in the city's prosperity since the middle of the 15th century.
The historical center, also known as old town, of Genoa is one of the largest and most-densely populated in Europe.
Part of it was also inscribed on the World Heritage List (UNESCO) in 2006 as Genoa:
Le Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi dei Rolli.
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WHAT SHOULD YOU VISIT IN GENOVA? Take note 🧐 📝and visit:
1) De Ferrari square
2) Ducal palace - Jesus church
3) Porta Soprana (Saint Andrew’s Door)
4) Cristoforo Colombo’s house - Chiostro Sant’Andrea
5) San Lorenzo cathedral
6) Diocesan museum
7) San Matteo square
8) Santa Maria delle vigne church - Piazza delle Oche: here during 1895 Albert Einstein, when he was sixteen, lived for some months with his uncle Jacob Koch, a wholesale grain merchant, who had an office in this square: “I remember very well the historic center of Genoa, which I know very well has not changed. I was staying in a small square. I think it's still called “piazza delle Oche”, where my uncle, a wholesale grain merchant, had his office. For some months I have visited the historical monuments of Genoa.
The fantastic New road (now it’s called Via Garibaldi). A stone's throw from home there was an amazing pastry shop with a marble cornucopia as a sign (It’s Romanengo pastry shop, where you can taste delicious sweets still now!), I had unforgettable feasts. And then San Lorenzo, the cathedral, the people of what you call “caruggi”(the Genoese name given to the narrow alleys in the historical centre of Genoa).
I’m just sorry because I never came back. My life - I have to be honest - has given me great satisfaction and I have also become famous. But, even now, looking at the world with a certain detachment, I don't forget that holiday in Genoa ... "
(Albert Einstein - Letter to a friend in Genova, Ernestina Marangoni, with whom he had maintained an epistolary correspondence.)
9) National gallery of Spinola palace
10) The Old Port (Touristic port - “Porto antico”) - the Bigo - Aquarium
11) San Giorgio palace
12) Garibaldi street - White palace and Red palace - Tursi palace and the old part of Genova, it’s the historical centre of Genoa. Here there are many narrow alleys. Originally these roads were very narrow and the houses were in close proximity for military reasons. The road slowed down the invading attack, especially that of the Moors, who frequently attacked the city. In the area of Sottoripa there are many craftshops.
13) Loggia della Mercanzia: also known as Loggia di Banchi or Loggia dei Mercanti is located in Piazza Banchi, at the corner of Via San Luca, in the ancient sestiere of La Maddalena: its construction was commissioned by the Padri del Comune, administrators of the city in the context of the urban planning of Piazza Banchi (Banchi square so called because here were the banks of currency exchange.).
14) Sarzano square: one of the most important squares in the historic centre, it perhaps takes its name from “Arx Jani” or “Roccia di Giano”: here the legendary founder of the city, according to legend. built the first nucleus of Genova. In the Middle Ages it was the only real public square within the city walls rich of markets and shops.
15) Castelletto: from this district you can admire the panoramic view of Genova from the top and it’s very suggestive during the sunset.
Problably the mainest and most fascinating viewpoint in Genoa.
It’s located on the hills (the ancient Monte Albano) and you can still see, in the urban layout, the 3 valleys crossed by as many streams (Rio Carbonara, Rio Torbido and Rio Sant’Anna) then covered and drained. The area became part of the city within the walls only in the seventeenth century, but the most massive urbanization came in the second half of the nineteenth century: previously there was a fortress here fundamental for the control of the port and city, then razed to the ground in 1849.
This panoramic view, advertised by historical photos of the early twentieth century, is now one of the most popular and authentic images of Genova.
From Castelletto you can admire the roofs of the old town, the basin of the old port, the buildings of Strada Nuova (The New road - Via Garibaldi) and the underlying buildings with hanging gardens that house the municipal offices. This place is connected to Piazza Portello (Portello square) by a public elevator which was put into service in 1910, whose arrival station is housed in a characteristic glass kiosk in Art Nouveu style.
Close to Castelletto in Corso Dogali there is the house where Eugenio Montale was born. He was one of the most important lyric poets of the Italian literature in the 19th century, prose writer, editor, translator and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Literature.
16)St. Augustine church
17) Santa Maria Maddalena church
18) San Filippo Neri church
19) Santissima Annunziata church
20) Royal palace
21) Prince palace

22) The Lighthouse
SEA PLACES:
1) Boccadasse: it’s a fascinating old fishing district by the sea. It’s interesting to know that Genoese immigrants from this place at the beginning of the 1900 went to Argentina and established in Buenos Aires the district called La Boca (in memory of Boccadasse) and the football team Club Atlético Boca Juniors as well.
2) Quarto dei Mille: Originally the area was inhabited by peasants, fishermen and was home to holiday villas. Inserted in the territories of the republic of Genoa, the village of Quarto was submitted ti the Podesta Office of the Bisagno and, in 1606 to the subsequent Captaincy. On the night between 5 and 6 May 1860 the expedition of the Mille to unify Italy, led by Giuseppe Garibaldi and directed to Marsala, left from this place.
3) Nervi: It’s a small town that offers some beautiful pathways over the rock and along the sea. Located on the extreme eastern outskirts of Genoa, Nervi has a marina, a long cliff on which was built the long promenade named after Anita Garibaldi. There is also an important botanical complex formed by a set of several parks that once belonged to private villas. Inside there are many botanical species including several tall evergreens as well as an important rose garden. ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️
ABSOLUTELY RECOMMENDED!!!
Liguria is a wonderful region, located between the mountains and sea, that wants to be discovered and the best way to do it is to sail along its coast by observing its landscapes and panoramas.
From Porto Antico there are two boat trips:
-from Genoa to Portofino, passing through Nervi, Recco, Camogli, Punta Chiappa and San Fruttuoso. I have been on this trip and, even if I have visited so many times these places, it’s always a pleasant experience to admire the blue of the sea (so don’t forget the swim suit, because you will have the opportunity to swim and enjoy the sea), the green of the vegetation overlooking the water and the elegance of the houses of different colours along the coast.
-from Genoa to the Cinque Terre: a full day dedicated to discover the Ligurian lands, wonderful with their colors and their traditions,
During this boat trip you can visit Monterosso: place that together with Vernazza,
Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore form the Cinque Terre has been declared a
World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
During this trip there are good chances to watch the dolphins in Ligurian Sea that
is their natural habitat! So don’t forget your camera📸🎞, because you can take
beautiful pics of them and collect amazing, unforgettable memories!
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WHAT FOOD OR DISHES SHOULD YOU TASTE/EAT IN GENOVA? ALL THAT YOU HAVE TO KNOW...
1) FOCACCIA: It’s a typical kind of bread made in Genoa.
Focaccia in Genoa is a real institution, a myth, almost a holy food!
Genoveses are proud of it, love it and are also a bit jealous of it. It’s an important part of the day and still maintains a strong relationship with the story of the city.
The real origins of the Genovese fugassa are still a mystery. Historical testaments proved that this focaccia was used already in 1300, but we don’t know if this was the ancestor of the modern focaccia. We know for sure that during the Renaissance the focaccia was a famous food and it was also eaten in the churches during weddings.
In 1500 the bishop Matteo Gambaro was obliged to threaten the excommunication of monks and believer if they didn’t stop eating it during all the functions: people ate it also during funerals!
The modern focaccia arrived during the 1800 when there were recipes and dictionaries, the Genoveses recipe books.
The way focaccia is prepared in Genoa has changed during the centuries, but what remains is the dedication of Genoveses towards this food.
Today the real focaccia, the one you can find in the best bakeries of the town, is prepared with flour, extra virgin olive oil, yeast, marine salt, water, malt extract.
2) FARINATA: it’s the favourite dish served up and down the coast of seaside Liguria. The rustic recipe features chickpea flour, extra virgin olive oil, and herbs, then blistered into a pancake, and finally showered with fresh black pepper.
3) TROFIE WITH PESTO: “Pesto” derives from the Italian verb “pestare”, to grind or crush. Created in the port city Genova, true pesto is comprised of freshly-ground basil under the certification genovese DOP (Protected designation of origin), Ligurian extra virgin olive oil, pine nuts, sea salt, and garlic.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Genoa is a small city and there is not often the opportunity to meet new and different people from all the world, so I’m on Couchsurfing because I like meeting and knowing foreign people, discovering something new together.
There's always a interesting story to hear and learn when you meet a new person, as reading book or traveling...❝Once you stop learning, you start dying.❞ (Albert Einstein).
One of the most important Greek philosophers in Athens was used to say
❝I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.❝ Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC).
I always like thinking that we live under the same sky, breath the same air, walk along the same land...We are born from same nature of things and principles and we can imagine our future watching the same sun at the horizon!
❝The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.❞ Saint Augustine said...So read me your “book”, I’ll read you back mine and let’s share our experiences and the different lens through which we view the world!
❝Sometimes which choice you make is not as important as making a choice and committing to it.❞ Matthew McConaughey - Greenlights (2020)
❝The arrow doesn't seek the target, the target draws the arrow. We must be aware of what we attract in life because it is no accident or coincidence. The spider waits in his web for dinner to come. Yes, we must choose what we want, seek it out, cast our lines in the water, but sometimes we don't need to make things happen. Our souls are infinitely magnetic.❞ Matthew McConaughey - Greenlights (2020)
As someone longing for a relationship after enjoying some independent, single years, this quote brought me so much peace. Instead of being constantly on the search for something or someone, I'm ready to let the target draw the arrow.
When my soul finds its force, the magnets will collide, no doubt about it.
It's something that will happen when I stop trying to make it happen.
I do love how the autor mentions that we must still put in effort, still work hard, in our lives.
We can't sit around and expect the world to wait on us hand and foot, but we also must accept that some things (like love, job or anything else is important for us) aren’t totally under our control. It's something we can't just make happen. It's something that will fall into place at the right time.
❝It is not about win or lose, it is about do you accept the challenge.
When you did that, you already won.❞ Matthew McConaughey - Greenlights (2020)
I loved this story, and I especially loved this quote from one of the men McConaughey was traveling around Africa with. As a competitive perfectionist at heart, I always want to win. It runs through my blood, but unfortunately, it makes failure much harder. This quote has inspired me to shift my mindset, to feel like a winner for simply taking the challenge on, no matter the outcome.

Interests

Studying at Classical lyceum Latin, ancient Greek, art, history, philosophy, poetry and literature, it's natural that I like reading books about art, ancient philosophy, history but also motivational and travel books:
❝Stop every now and then. Stop and get caught up in the feeling of wonder towards the world.❞ Tiziano Terzani - The end is my beginning (2006)
❝Ron, […] I’d like to repeat the advice I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty. […]. You think that I am stubborn, but you are even more stubborn than me. [….]. But for some reason incomprehensible to me you wanted nothing but to bolt for home as quickly as possible, right back to the same situation which you see day after day after day. I fear you will follow this same inclination in the future and thus fail to discover all the wonderful things that God has placed around us to discover. Don’t settle down and sit in one place. Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon. You are still going to live a long time, Ron, and it would be a shame if you did not take the opportunity to revolutionize your life and move into an entirely new realm of experience. You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living. My point is that you do not need me or anyone else around to bring this new kind of light in your life. It is simply waiting out there for you to grasp it, and all you have to do is reach for it. The only person you are fighting is yourself and your stubbornness to engage in new circumstances. Ron, I really hope that as soon as you can you will get out of Salton City, put a little camper on the back of your pickup, and start seeing some of the great work that God has done here in the American West. You will see things and meet people and there is much to learn from them. And you must do it economy style, no motels, do your own cooking, as a general rule spend as little as possible and you will enjoy it much more immensely. I hope that the next time I see you, you will be a new man with a vast array of new adventures and experiences behind you. Don’t hesitate or allow yourself to make excuses. Just get out and do it. Just get out and do it. You will be very, very glad that you did. TAKE CARE RON, ALEX.❞
(Christopher Johnson McCandless/ Alexander Supertramp)
Jon Krakauer - Into the wild (1996)
❝...What about the miracles? They can happen...of course...but I absolutely think that everyone must be the creator of his own miracle...I have no doubt: the closer to our soul we are, the happier we become. At any age. It is needed to know "who we are". In the end all must be checked: our ideas, what we think and do, the progress that we suppose to have made. And there is only a way to do that: examining them in our life. We have to stop, if we want to know "who we are" inside and be ourself...Without prejudice and fear of what could be new or being ridiculous, search...There aren't shortcuts to anything: for sure...not to health, happiness or wisdom. Nothing is ready. Everyone has to search those things alone. Everybody must make their personal journey, because a same place can have a different meaning for every traveller.
That's the point, because if you know what are you looking for, you always stay in the same "known" place and you never discover anything new...
It not useful to travel, if a person doesn't feel anything inside, he/she will never found anything outside. It is wasted time looking for something in all the world when we can't find it inside. We have to die. The point is only and simply to enjoy the journey. Have a life where you can know yourself! I "invented" my life. Everyone can do that, you need only courage and determination...❞
Tiziano Terzani - One Last Ride on the"Merry-Go-Round" (2004)
❝Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.❞ ❝Life is a journey, not a destination.❞ Ralph Waldo Emerson.
❝...TRAHIT SUA QUEMQUE VOLUPTAS: each to his own bent; likewise each to his aim or his ambition, if you will, or his most secret desire and his highest ideal. My ideal was contained within the word beauty, so difficult to define despite all the evidence of our senses. I felt responsible for sustaining and increasing the beauty of the world. I wanted the cities to be splendid, spacious and airy, their streets sprayed with clean water, their inhabitants all human beings whose bodies were neither degraded by marks of misery and servitude nor bloated by vulgar riches; I desired that the schoolboys should recite correctly some useful lessons; that the women presiding in their households should move with maternal dignity, expressing both vigor and calm; that the gymnasiums should be used by youths not unversed in arts and in sports; that the orchards should bear the finest fruits and fields the richest harvest. I desired that the might and majesty of the Roman Peace should extend to all, insensibly present like the music of the revolving skies; that the most humble traveller might wander from one country, or one continent, to another without vexatious formalities, and without danger, assured everywhere of a minimum of legal protection and culture; ...❞
Marguerite Yourcenar - Memoirs of Hadrian (Roman Emperor - d.C. 117/138) (Mémoires d'Hadrien) - 1951

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

❝Τοῦτο ἔχει ἡ τελειότης τοῦ ἤθους, τὸ πᾶσαν ἡμέραν ὡς τελευταίαν διεξάγειν καὶ μήτε σφύζειν μήτε ναρκᾶν μήτεὑποκρίνεσθαι.❞
❝The man meets the perfection of character, living each day as thought one's last, never flustered, never apathetic, never attitudinizing.❞
Μάρκος Αυρήλιος - Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν

Teach, Learn, Share

My own philosophy of life...
❝Ἦθος, ἀνθρώπῳ δαίμων❞
❝A man's character is his fate❞
Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος
❝Γίγνωσκε καιρόν❞
❝Choose the right time❞
Ο Πιττακός ο Μυτιληναίος

❝Ὅμοιον εἶναι τῇ ἄκρᾳ, ᾗ διηνεκῶς τὰ κύματα προσρήσσεται˙ἡ δὲ ἕστηκε καὶ περὶ αὐτὴν κοιμίζεται τὰ φλεγμήναντα τοῦ ὕδατος....μέμνησο λοιπὸν ἐπὶ παντὸς τοῦ εἰς λύπην σε προαγομένου τούτῳ χρῆσθαι τῷ δόγματι˙ ὅτι οὐχὶ τοῦτο ἀτύχημα, ἀλλὰ τὸ φέρειν αὐτὸ γενναίως εὐτύχημα. ❞
❝Be like the headland against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it...So here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not “This is a misfortune” but “To bear to this worthily is a good fortune”.❞
Μάρκος Αυρήλιος - Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν
"Dum loquimur, fugerit invida aetas: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero."
Horace
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." Aristotle
“Good things don't happen by coincidence. Every dream carries with it certain risks, especially the risk of failure. But I am not stopped by risks. Suppose a great person takes the risk and fails. Then the person must try again. You cannot fail forever. If you try ten times, you have a better chance of making it on the eleventh try than if you didn’t try at all.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
Waine Gretzky
"It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.”
W. Somerset Maugham
“Life is trying things to see if they work.”
Ray Bradbury
“Leave no stone unturned”
"Ever failed. No Matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
Samuel Beckett
"When you are able to maintain your own highest standards of integrity - regardless of what others may do - you are destined for greatness.”
Napoleon Hill,
“You are the master of your destiny. You can influence, direct and control your own environment. You can make your life what you want it to be.”
Napoleon Hill
“When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.”
Napoleon Hill
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak, carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
Napoleon Hill
“When your desires are strong enough, you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve.”
Napoleon Hill
“Action is the real measure of intelligence.”
Napoleon Hill
“Don't wait. The time will never be just right. Start where you stand, and work whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along.”
Napoleon Hill
“A quitter never wins and a winner never quits.”
Napoleon Hill
“The starting point of all achievement is DESIRE. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.”
Napoleon Hill
“Opinions are the cheapest commodities on earth. Everyone has a flock of opinions ready to be wished upon anyone who will accept them. If you are influenced by “opinions” when you reach DECISIONS, you will not succeed in any undertaking.”
Napoleon Hill
"It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”
Anthony Robbins
“Live life fully while you're here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You're going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don't try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human.”
Anthony Robbins
“Every problem is a gift - without problems we would not grow.”
Anthony Robbins
“The path to success is to take massive, determined action.”
Anthony Robbins
“If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten. ” Anthony Robbins
“It is your decisions, and not your conditions, that determine your destiny.”
Anthony Robbins
“It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It's what we do consistently.”
Anthony Robbins
“Focus on where you want to go, not on what you fear.”
Anthony Robbins
“You can’t have a plan for your day, ‘til you have a plan for your life.”
Anthony Robbins

Arnold’s 6 Rules to Success:
1. Trust yourself
Many young people are getting so much advice from their parents and from their teachers and from everyone. But what is most important is that you have to dig deep down, dig deep down and ask yourselves, who do you want to be? Not what, but who. Figure out for yourselves what makes you happy, no matter how crazy it may sound to other people.

2. Break the Rules
Break the rules, not the law, but break the rules. It is impossible to be a maverick or a true original if you’re too well behaved and don’t want to break the rules. You have to think outside the box. That’s what I believe. After all, what is the point of being on this earth if all you want to do is be liked by everyone and avoid trouble?

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Fail
Anything I’ve ever attempted, I was always willing to fail. So you can’t always win, but don’t afraid of making decisions. You can’t be paralyzed by fear of failure or you will never push yourself. You keep pushing because you believe in yourself and in your vision and you know that it is the right thing to do, and success will come. So don’t be afraid to fail.

4. Don’t Listen to the Naysayers
How many times have you heard that you can’t do this and you can’t do that and it’s never been done before? I love it when someone says that no one has ever done this before, because then when I do it that means that I’m the first one that has done it. So pay no attention to the people that say it can’t be done. I never listen to, “You can’t.” I always listen to myself and say, “Yes, you can.”

5. Work Your Butt Off
You never want to fail because you didn’t work hard enough. Mohammed Ali, one of my great heroes, had a great line in the ’70s when he was asked, “How many sit-ups do you do?” He said, “I don’t count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting. When I feel pain, that’s when I start counting, because that’s when it really counts.” That’s what makes you a champion. No pain, no gain.
But when you’re out there partying, horsing around, someone out there at the same time is working hard. Someone is getting smarter and someone is winning. Just remember that. Now, if you want to coast through life, don’t pay attention to any of those rules. But if you want to win, there is absolutely no way around hard, hard work. Just remember, you can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.

6. Give Back
Whatever path that you take in your lives, you must always find time to give something back, something back to your community, give something back to your state or to your country.

Remember these 6 rules.
1)Trust yourself
2)Break some rules
3)Don’t be afraid to fail
4)Ignore the naysayers
5)Work like hell
6)Give something back.

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Commencement Address
University of Southern California
May 15, 2009

What I Can Share with Hosts

Some famous poets, writers and artists visited Genova in the past...
Francesco Petrarca, Napoleon, Montesquieu, Donatien Alphonse Francois De Sade, Richard Wagner, Stendhal, Gustave Flaubert, Henri James, Honorè de Balzac, Charles Dickens, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Oscar Wilde, George Gordon Byron, Arthur Rimbaud, Friedrich Nietzsche, Joseph Conrad, Percy and Mary Shelley, Heinrich Heine, Herman Hesse, Franz Werfel, Mark Twain, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Muhammed Ali, Alfred Nobel, Paul Valéry (he said: "je suis malade de Gênes" and wrote “La nuit de Gènes” [5 October 1892]) and others as well.
In Genoa on October 27th in 1782 was born the violinist, composer and guitarist Niccolò Paganini, one of the most relevant musician of the Italian 19th century.
He is considered of the greatest violin ever, both for his technical skills and for the innovations he introduced, especially the staccato and the pizzicato. He came from a humble family originating Carro, in Val di Vara (SP); he was directed towards music by his father, he started with mandolin and then he began to study violin.
At the age of 12 he was already performing in Genoese churches and theatres.
When he was 14 his father brought him to Parma; while he was there, he was gifted with the Guarneri violin (now preserved in Palazzo Tursi).
When he was 20 years old, he also became a guitarist viruoso and composer.
Thanks to his extraordinary skills, he performed in many Italian cities and had clamorous success everywhere, becoming a real legend.
In 1828 he performed in Vienna, where the Emperor Francis II elected him “Virtuoso di camera”. His concerts brought him in the main city of Northern Europe.
He was in poor health for most of his life and in 1834 he became sick with a severe form of tubercolosis, which brought him great suffering for years. He died in Nice on May 27th in 1840.
In Genoa, inside Palazzo Tursi, the well-known violin created by Guarneri del Gesù in 1743 is displayed in the Sala Paganiniana.
The musician named it “my cannon violin” for its powerful sound. In his will, Paganini stated that he wanted his violin to be given to his hometown, Genoa “where it must be perpetually preserved”.
Liguria is a virtual arch and a calamity for sensitive souls.
Its incredible landscape, suspended between sea and sky, the wonderful facades and magnificent interiors of its noble residences, rich museums, mysterious alleyways buzzing with life and its incredible history stretching back over thousands of years, which art in all its forms - from painting to sculpture, poestry, music, architecture and photography - has ably depicted through the talent of celebrated artist. The sea is another color in Genova. Genoa and the sea are an example of cultural and historic symbiosis dating back to ancient times and have always been inextricably linked.
Infact Genoa traded with the Phoenicians and Greeks, became Roman, was conquered by the Byzantines, Longobards, and Franks and suffered attacks and incursions by the Saracens and Normans. Genoa became a Mediterranean power from the 11th century, developing its trade realtions as far as China and extending its sphere of political influence throughout Liguria and Corsica. In the 16th century, called Genoa’s Golden Age, the city become an European power. It came under French rule again in 1684 and became an aristocratic republic in 1797.
Just another curiosity...Genoa is grey within and blue on the outside, just like a pair of jeans. It’s not a coincidence the Blue Jeans means Genoa Blue.
So usually when I host a foreign person who wants to visit Genoa, I say to myself...    
❝Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are.❞ (Theodore Roosevelt) and I show to my guest around all what is possible and he/she desires!
I think if you want to be happy in your life, you have to collect moments not things.
Then I like having good conversation about everything, sharing with foreign people enjoyable moments and doing anything else they want to give them a good impression and memory of me in the future.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belarus, Central African Republic, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Russian Federation, Spain, Sweden, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine

Countries I’ve Lived In

England, Italy