Hello there!
I'm Antonio. I'm a 30 years old Italian expat.

I am originally from Naples, a beautiful city in the South of Italy, but I moved to Dublin in 2014. I currently live and study in the Emerald Island as a PhD student. My focus is machine learning, and no, I'm not teaching Skynet how to take over humankind.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

There are several reasons why I'm using Couchsurfing, I won't lie about that.

I am a sociable person, I like the idea of meet people from different realities and cultures, make connections, listen to stories and tell stories myself. That's one thing.

HOWEVER, I don't consider Couchsurfing to be just a platform to make new friends around the world.

Couchsurfing allows people to travel virtually everywhere on a very low budget, on the assumption of mutual trust and respect. This is quite important.

Interests

TL;DR
When it comes to interests, I have a serious problem, as my attention span is sometime too short. I like a number of things, it's quite hard to make a synthetic list.

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I know that interests should be narrowed down, but when it comes to interesting things, well... I feel interested. Here are some examples:

- I love reading, that's something I've been doing since I was a kid. I am paranoid about books, so I have to finish whatever I start reading, even the worst book ever written. I read a bit of everything, mainly novels or science fiction (Asimov does the trick perfectly, but he's not the only one).
- I am a programmer. That's my job, but it is also a passion. Whenever I have time, I contribute to open source projects, or just work on personal stuff. My ADD extends to this as well, so I use a lot of technologies, programming languages, frameworks... so many options out there!
- During the last 3 years, I discovered foosball. I'm a greedy player, I would always grab the chance to play a game during a night out or maybe during my lunch break at work.
- I used to play guitar when I was in Italy, and sometime I still play. I'm not very good at it, but the enjoyment is not affected by the skills.
- I like juggling! Balls, only 3 or 4. I knew how to use rings too, don't know if I still remember it.
- I strongly believe that the adrenaline rush given by Paintball is not comparable to anything else. I played for some years, and still I dream about it.
- I love series and movies. Right now, I'm on track with Gomorrah, GoT, Stranger Things, Shameless US, Rick and Morty, Peaky Blinders, TBBT. Ah, I know, it's a lot of time spent in front of the TV, but for most of these shows it's totally worth it!
- To wipe the stress away or better focus on a task, I fumble with Rubik's cubes. I used to be addicted to them, now I can barely score less than one minute for the 3x3 (not bragging here, any regular cuber would solve a 3x3 in under 20 seconds). Still, they're my Dr. House's red ball.
- Board games are a great way of spending time with people. Some would include Risk, Carcassonne, Cards Against Humanity, Exploding Kittens, Dobble...
- My father taught me to play chess when I was a kid, and I spent years trying to beat him. I managed to do it only a few years ago. I'm not great at chess, but I wouldn't say no to a evening game!
- I bike to work every day. I love biking! If I get the time, I bike around Dublin, to catch spectacular views and landscapes (under the rain, of course).
- Always green light to parties, travels, hanging out with people. Assuming I'm not wasted from the day, count on me for a pint.
- If I get the time, I sleep too. A bit.

• books
• cooking
• running
• movies
• chess
• table tennis
• engineering
• tv series
• programming
• computers
• foosball

Music, Movies, and Books

Ah, this section is lovely. I used to ask such questions to girls when I was in high school, to check how compatible they were with me. The same went for guys, of course. Cannot be friend with a guy that listens to techno music and doesn't know who Nirvana are!
It took me a few years to realize that people with different tastes are the most interesting, as I get to learn something from them.

Aaaanyway.

** Favorite Music **
There's plenty. I'll just drop a few names, with no ordering.

- International groups: Pearl Jam, Oasis, Metallica, Nirvana, Incubus, Placebo, RHCP, Grandaddy, Pixies, Ice Cube, Screaming Trees, Manu Chao, Bob Marley and The Wailers, Pink Floyd, Temple of The Dog, Tool, A Perfect Circle, ACDC, Audioslave, Radiohead, REM, OK Go!, Gorillaz, Die Antwoord...

- Italian / local groups: Afterhours, Gazebo Penguins, The Zen Circus, Fast Animals and Slow Kids, Meganoidi, 99 Posse, Le Strisce, Quintorigo, Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti, Lo Stato Sociale, Verdena, Marlene Kuntz, Nobraino, Linea 77, I Cani, TheRivati, Clementino, Calcutta, Cosang, Liberato, Baustelle, Modena City Ramblers, Sick Tamburo...

** Favorite Movies **
Again, a list without any specific ordering. Just wiping some dust off my brain to fetch awesome titles I've seen.

- International / non Italian movies: Braveheart, Save Private Ryan, Pulp Fiction, Terminator (the first and the second), Shutter Island, Last Action Hero, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Amores Perros, La Haine, The Godfather (all of them), Requiem For a Dream, Fight Club, Indiana Jones (all of them!), Back to the Future (OMG, marathon triggered!), Seven, Full Metal Jacket, Clockwork Orange, Into the Wild, Independence Day, Leon...

- Italian movies: La Scuola, Auguri Professore, Mediterraneo, Marrakesh Express, La vita e' bella, E allora mambo!, Smetto quando voglio, Ladri di biciclette, La meglio gioventu', Non ci resta che piangere, Ricomincio da tre, Novecento, Lo chiamavano Trinita', Continuavano a chiamarlo Trinita', anything starring both Bud Spencer and Terence Hill...

** Favorite books **
Fight Club, The Dice man, Flowers for Algernon (I might cry at the end of it), The minds of Billy Milligan, anything from Wu Ming* and Daniel Pennac, Flatland, Demian, I Robot, Robot Dreams, Q, Bar Sport, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Siddhartha, The Shining, The Pillars of the Earth, Narziß und Goldmund, Porci con le ali, Deep Blue, Rule of the bone, IT (soon to be a favorite)...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Once, when I was a kid, I puked.

Countries I’ve Visited

England, France, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Ireland, Italy