CURRENT MISSION
Travel, travel, travel, travel...be curious...definitely enjoy life. Don't take life too seriously!

ABOUT
Well, it's hard to define ourselves...but just few words on what I know about me. My name's Cristina, but my friends call me Spina (you can also call me so). I was born and I live in Rome, an amazing city which I love and, as every Roman person does, sometimes hate too. I grew up in the Eternal City by Romanian mother and Italian father with far Corsican roots, so actually I feel myself in the middle of two cultures. I inherited the love for trips from my parents who travel by camper, so that's maybe why I can't remain in the same place for too much time. I'm a travel addicted, I need to move, experience something new, explore and...I have a serious problem with the routine! I love meeting people and different cultures, enjoying the big and the small things that life offers. In the morning I need 2 cups of tea (or yerba mate...yes, I'm a mate addicted!) to understand where I am 😄

PHILOSOPHY
If you want something you never had, you have to do something you've never done. Stop saying I wish, start saying I will. If you are afraid of fail, then you won’t succeed. The prettiest thing you can wear is a smile. Be stronger than your strongest excuse! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I never lose, I either win or learn

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I'm on couchsurfing because I think the best way to travel is meeting people: I experienced that the most beautiful memories of a journey are about persons.
Couchsurfing is a great way of traveling: an oportunity to get into the culture of a place. You live with the locals, talk with them, so you have the opportunity to understand better the country you're travelling through.
And also there is this beautiful thing: making new friends.
Helping other travellers just for the pleasure to do it is a wonderful idea!

Interests

Travelling 🗺
Photography 📷
Reading 📚
Walking
Yoga
Climbing 🧗🏻‍♀️
Ride bycicle 🚴🏻‍♀️
Trekking: I love trekking, camping ⛺️ staying in the nature and lost myself in the silence and the landscapes.
I'm a kind of tea addicted. I would like to be a "tea expert" and in my own small way I am.
I love writing, it's something I need: it makes me feel better.
I collect beer bottles (of course empty: I couldn't look at them without be tempted 😅) and bookmarks.

• writing
• photography
• oktoberfest
• wine
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• camping
• trekking
• bycicling

Music, Movies, and Books

I love reading. I couldn't live without books.
My favourite writers are Philip Roth, Oscar Wilde and Isabel Allende. But I like very much also Mo Yan, Vikram Chandra (his book "Sacred games" is a masterpiece), Petros Markaris, Tiziano Terzani, Orhan Pamuk, Isaac Singer, Francisco Coloane...
Just some books to understand my taste: Shantaram, The road to Oxiana, American pastoral, The Moskat family, Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (I don't know the translation of the title in English 😬) The alchimist...and the book I wrote, obviously 😄
The best book I have ever read? "The unbearable lightness of being" by Milan Kundera.

I like many kinds of music, from classical to jazz, but let's say that my favorite music is classic rock, which means first of all the Queen, the Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. I also like the Aerosmith, the Guns and roses, '70&'80's music and traditional Irish music (I LOVE it ❤️) . Of course the ABBA. The best song ever? Mmmm...Starway to heaven (Led Zeppelin).

About films: I grew up watching Indiana Jones movies...it means he’s a myth for me 🤠😉
I love "The wolf of Wall Street", "Boris" (an Italian genial movie! 😂), "300" and in general all Gabriele Salvatores' movies. My favourite film is "Mediterraneo". As actors I love Jean Reno and Meryl Streep.
When I can I go to the theatre 🎭 I love it.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

One incredibile thing I have done was living with Bedouins in Jordan. The following are wonderful experiences, but more credible:
I listened the jungle sounds during a dawn in Cambodia.
Spent four months in wonderful Japan 🗾...totally lost in translation ⛩.
Survived at several editions of the Oktoberfest 🍻.
I've made Russia coast to coast (alone): the whole Transiberian 🚂 from St Petersburg to Vladivostok, both ways by train (it took almost two months)...I wrote a book about it!
Bathing in the Siberian sea.
I've travelled on the Carretera Austral (Ruta 7, Chilean Patagonia) and crossed the Argentinian border from Candelario Mancilla helping a cyclist (one of the most amazing experiences in my life, becoming a kind of legend in El Chaltén 😄...meet me to know more 😉). I've met Girolamo Panzetta...japanese know what I'm talking about...

Teach, Learn, Share

TEACH: I can teach Italian 🇮🇹, it's my mother tongue and I studied to become teacher of Italian as foreign language.
Photography 📷: techniques, tips about equipment and image composition (how to make good photos).
Cooking pasta! 🍝 I warn you: the real one...so forget overcooked pasta, olive oil in the boiling water, ketchup on spaghetti, pasta as side dish and other oddities 😉 and please don't throw pasta on the kitchen tiles: that's not the way to verify if pasta is cooked enough 😂

LEARN: Everything you can teach me, especially Spanish or Arabic if you speak it.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Smiles, stories, positive energy, enthusiasm, Roman sense of humor :-)

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macao, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Scotland, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Vatican City State, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Italy, Japan, Jordan