I was born in the south of Italy in 1990, daughter of a housewife and a workman . All my grandparents were poor peasants. I lived in a small village in Calabria, Verbicaro, ( http://www.comune.verbicaro.cs.it/index.php?action=index&p=91) untill 1998. That year I moved to South Tyrol, an ex Austrian region which was conquered by Italy after the victory of the first world war. I started to live in Latsch, a little village in the Vinschgau valley, not far from the border between my country and Swiss and Austria . The region is german-speaking, but there are also lots of people who speak Italian. The first Italian speaking people moved here during the fascist dictatorship to get a job in the new factories built in this area to improve the development of the country. We were also economic immigrants. I attended a very little school in my valley. There were only 5 scholars in my class and I was the only girl. Than I attended a secondary school in a little town, Meran, to start to study social work and education sciences. Finally I decided to move to Verona, were I lived for 4 years, to attend the Education Sciences university course. I had a really good time there, I learned lots of things and I met people from all over the world. At the end of my second university year I did an internship in Kolkata (ex Calcutta) in a ONG called CINI, which works for vulnerable women, children and young people to assure them health, protection and education (http://www.cini-india.org/). Then I travelled for 1 mounth trough the north of India, discovering the difficulties and the power of the people who lived in that country. When I came back I started to be more involved in working for charity. Since 2013 I also started to fight for animal rights (my first experience was the STOP VIVISECTION european citizen's initiative) and I went vegan (I already was vegetarian since my trip in India). More than one year ago I moved back to South Tyrol were I started to collaborate with the biggest italian animal rights association, LAV (Lega Anti Vivisezione ) which means league against vivisection, ruling a group of volunteers and organizing different activities.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I'm on Couchsurfing to meet people travelling trough South Tyrol and to find a place to stay when I decide to travel around the world. Unfortunately, since for the moment I'm living again with my parents, I only can host people when they are away from home. Untill now I never used Couchsurfing but I really would love to try to be hosted and to meet travellers, to gain new experience and to get involved in exciting challenges. Since I was always very interested in learning other cultures. I made a lot of friends from Asia, Africa and Europe (Togo, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Morocco, Moldova, Greece ecc.) It would be great to learn more about other countries. Apart from this, I like very much to share opinions and talk about your interests.

Interests

I'm very interested in gender studies and feminism. Since more than 1 year I started to be active to fight for animal rights, organizing fund-raising dinners, demonstrations and managing a Facebook page about animal rights books (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Biblioteca-Antispecista/553924984697053).
Cooking is not my passion, but since I'm vegan I like to try new recipes. I also like to do cosmetics and detergents by myself with natural ingredients and to recycle waste to create new useful stuff. I'm not an environmental activist, but I try to do my best to have an ecologically footprint (for example I just buy second-hand clothes and I decided to stop smoking for this reason). This year I also helped my 14 years old sister to prepare a little project to make people aware about the real price of aluminium for human rights and for the environment (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alu-creative-recycling/1535661330007508).

• animals
• books
• make up
• education
• environment
• human rights
• womens rights
• dining
• cooking
• recipes
• vegetarian
• vegan
• clothing
• traveling
• socializing
• teaching
• gender studies
• social work

Music, Movies, and Books

Italian singers: Caparezza, Modena City Ramblers, Il teatro degli orrori, Pino Daniele...
African singers/genre: Tiken Jah Fakoly (reggae), Rokia Traorè, Salif Keita, Serge Beynaud (coupè decalè), Amadou e Mariam, some songs of P Square, Iyanya, Toofan, Dj Arafat (western Africa pop music), highlife, ghanian Blues
Others: Gogol bordello (gypsy punk) , Le Tigre, Bikini kill (riot grrrl), Manu Chao...
Book authors: Roberto Saviano (Gomorra) , Barbara X (Resistenze...), Virginia Wolf (A room of One's Own), Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis)
Movies/Documentaries : I cento passi, I fiori di Kirkuk, Il riccio, Fire-Hearth- Water (trilogy of Deepa Mehta), Schindler's List, Moolaadé, La terra vista dal cielo (Jean-Louis Remilleux)...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

At the age of 19 I had to write a little dissertation to graduate. I decided to write it about the sexually transmitted diseases prevention, focusing on the female condom. During my presentation I showed the "Femidom" to the professors and than I gave them - as an example - the adresses of hospitals were you can do HIV tests for free and I donate them some condoms. In a country in which there is no national sexual health education program , and in which adults are influenced by the moral values of the catholic church, it is not easy for young people to get good information about these themes . For me was very important to denounce the lack of sex education in the italian society. My professors - as I could expect - were ashamed and they felt like accused by my dissertation and looked at me as I were a demon. :)

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach you my language and how to recycle things! ;) I would love to have information about alternative places that I can visit in your town and about the every day habits of local people. :)

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can cook Italian vegan food for you! :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, England, Germany, India, Moldova

Countries I’ve Lived In

Italy