BORING VERSION:
Coherent, Adventurous, Crazy curious, No bells and whistles, Never with a preset wishlist, Grateful for being presented with 24 gems every day alongside with the chance to turn them into jewels, Aware that when I think I've fully mastered smtg it means that I've just grown fool enough to believe so, And also... frank (yeah, "in nomen omen").
I love sharing a good wine while having a good conversation (ice cream + walk work great as well).
Exploring whatever's next and treasuring it all: experience is the currency.

ZEN-STORY VERSION:
Ask a snake how is that he’s able to proceed forward. He won’t answer, he can’t really tell, especially to a… non-snake. Now have the snake get inside a bamboo branch and go through it, then ask the same question again. Now he knows. :)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

SHORT VERSION:
I've been measuring out my life with journeys, not with coffee spoons. :)

LONG VERSION:
And after years of traveling (and living abroad) I believe that meeting locals and living the place with/through them is one of the necessary ingredients to get “synchronicity” with a different reality, which can be yours too, if you’re smart enough not to waste the chance: Food, People, Attitude (*), Language (even its sound, just try to stand in a conversation, it’s… music.). What we call "the locals", they would simply be YOU if you were born there. And they can make you instant-grab the true “here and now” of the place. For a moment, just let go of all your travel checklists (*), and just stay alongside them. You’ll discover unpredictable treasures (in them, but especially in yourself).
(*) this is what I mean for Attitude

DISCLAIMER:
To wanna-be free-roof-riders: I’ll not even consider your request if you don’t ask me at least one "relevant question" about any of all the stuff I have put in here (+ read further, there's more).

Interests

TWO THINGS I GENERALLY DON'T SAY NO TO (but the list is longer...):
- I used to practice Competitive Swimming for more than one decade, it's always a joy when I get to swim.
- I love hiking, I sometimes organize a hike with friends/surfers for trails in the mountains near Rome. Wanna join?

A QUICKLIST:
Photography, Cooking, Fitness, Nutrition, Meditation | Design, Architecture, Fine Arts, Cinema, Music, Literature | Philosophy, Psychology, Anthropology, Pedagogy | Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Organizational Learning. And possibly experiencing ANY of them when I’m on a journey!

• cats
• dogs
• arts
• literature
• architecture
• design
• photography
• cooking
• wine
• coffee
• fitness
• yoga
• running
• meditation
• movies
• traveling
• electronic music
• jazz
• hiking
• sports
• swimming
• anthropology
• economics
• teaching
• engineering
• entrepreneurship
• philosophy
• psychology
• cinema
• tea
• nutrition
• pedagogy
• leadership
• street photography
• organizational learning

Music, Movies, and Books

MY MUSIC PLAYLIST:
Jazz Music, Electronic Music, Yann Tiersen, Leonard Cohen, Mogwai, Keith Jarrett, Ludovico Einaudi, The Police, Beethoven, The Cure, Joy Division, Chopin, Pink Floyd, REM, David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Placebo, Vivaldi (but NOT because of the 4 Seasons..), Michael Nyman, Hans Zimmer, Sigur Ros, Nina Simone, Fabrizio De André, etc. and... climax music in movies. (in the process of populating a Spotify profile)

MY MOVIE SHUFFLE:
David Lynch, Christopher Nolan, Old Boy, “Le conseguenze dell'amore”, Jean Pierre Jeunet, “There will be blood”, “Kill Bill”, Wong Kar Wai, Ridley Scott, Tim Burton, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, Charlie Chaplin, Wes Anderson, Darren Aronofsky, Miyazaki, Makoto Shinkai, Zack Snyder, Guy Ritchie, “The Game”, etc. (Ok, I have an IMDB profile)

ON MY BOOKSHELF:
M.Houellebecq, Sandor Marai, Sun Tzu, N.Hikmet, W.Blake, D.Thomas, T.S.Eliot, W.B.Yates, Aldous Huxley, Dostoevskij, Kafka, The Iliad, O.Wilde (the picture of DG, especially), C.Baudelaire, Socrates, Nikola Tesla, W.Heisenberg, F.Capra, P.Feyerabend, A.Makarenko, H.Takeuchi, Beckett's Waiting For Godot, etc. (Ok, I have an Goodreads profile)

ARTS/ARTISTS I LOVE:
E.Hopper, Photography, August Sander, Walker Evans, Eugene Atget, Andre Kertesz, Vivian Maier, Auguste Rodin, A.Kiefer, Impressionists, Surrealism, and... SO-many-others.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I’ve survived. :)

The day I arrived to Japan for my research project, the professor said: “Frank-san, I urge to go abroad now, I'll be back in 3 weeks”. “Ok prof, I’ll take it from here”: the morning after I left Tokyo and interrailed throughout Japan for 3 weeks (that’s when I started CSing!). One of the best things I’ve done in my life, EVER.

Hitchhiking through Ireland, been picked up by unforgettable people: a gang of musicians/actors on their Volkswagen T2 (forever thank you guys, it was SO incredibly fun), a druid (yep, the weirdos that make potions and stuff), farmers (like Jimmy, the wisest person I met on planet earth).

Getting lost in Scotland with an ex-girlfriend, and discovering an entire world of breathtaking nature.

Every time I go hiking and at the end of the trail I've “deserved the view” from above.

Every time I say: “No, don’t do that”, to my cat. And every time he understands: “Yes, simply later, when you don’t see me”. He’ll never cease to surprise me. :)

Meditating: it’s a game changer (and I must thank a past surfer of mine for introducing me to practicing).

Teach, Learn, Share

“When the apprentice is ready the master will appear”. :)
Teaching and Learning are done simultaneously: the two roles endlessly interchange.

1) "My" cooking. Which is not Italian, nor French, nor Japanese, nor Indian, nor Whatever. It's a mood-based mélange of all of my experiences and knowledge. It's simply it. I want to make it better through exchange! [I'm looking for new ingredients, new techniques, new flavors, new masters/apprentices. Cooking is such a life-metaphor]
2) “out-of-the-box” thinking, leadership development, entrepreneurship, business ideas etc.
3) Public speaking, body language, storytelling
4) Nutrition and fitness
5) Photography

What I Can Share with Hosts

CONCEPTUAL LEVEL:
- "Small minds discuss people, average minds discuss events, great minds discuss ideas” (Eleanor Roosevelt)
- The “momentum”
- The one hell of a story that we could have told

PRAGMATIC LEVEL:
My couch (in the living room), kitchen, bathroom, food, wine, wifi, but most of all: my time. CS is not a dating app. It’s, however, all about meeting other human beings (and their lovely pets sometimes) and their unique stories: getting to know amazing persons that you couldn’t possibly meet otherwise, and exchanging (what/how/why? This is exactly what I’m here to discover: it depends, every human connection is different, thank God!). But 100% CS is NOT getting out in the morning, doing your own business and then coming back “home” at night to sleep for free. Are we clear? (or go check: www.hostelworld.com)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, China, Denmark, England, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Italy, Japan, United States

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