Hello world, here’s Alex!

I was born in Parma, a quiet city in the north of Italy, but I spent most of my life on the road. While i was travelling throughout Asia, I became obsessed with the history of the Caucasus and the Ancient Silk Road.

Nowadays I’m 30 years old and I’m still a nomad. I’m based in Tbilisi, the beautiful capital of Georgia, but I’m on the road most of the year.

As a profession I’m historical guide in Georgia, Armenia and Turkey.

During my trip, i met the beautiful Salome, a Georgian girl which became my business mate. With her precious help, I created a huge project of documentaries named Barbaristan. Here's Salome https://www.couchsurfing.com/people/salome-pataraia

The purpose of Barbaristan is to use the web to teach to Italians the history of Middle East, Caucasus, Central Asia and Silk Road.

Our team is also composed by:
Yari, a talented director and film maker https://www.couchsurfing.com/people/yari-favaro
Debora, co-writer of the blog and Barbaristan’s website

Right now we are mainly focused on the western Georgia and the northern Turkey ‘till January. Here we’re producing some documentaries and some chapter for our travel guides.

During our trips, we also like to challenge the wild nature. In springtime, we will try to RUN from Mongolia to China crossing the Gobi desert. You can follow our extreme challenges here: https://www.instagram.com/barbarirun/

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

CS is a good way to meet locals, save money, build a community and taste the daily life of a country. We’re here in CS to ask hospitaly and friendship. We can pay back sharing our crazy traveling stories and cooking some tasty food.

Interests

The thing i love the most is to dive deeply into the history of the nations. Is by far my biggest interest and became my job in the last 2 years.

Another thing i love to do is running. You can follow my competitions and my crazy challenges here: https://www.instagram.com/barbarirun/

• photography
• running
• movies
• traveling
• blogging
• music
• backpacking
• sports
• geopolitics
• history
• journalism
• volunteering
• bike
• bicycle
• athletics
• bikepacking

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies:
2001 a space odyssey, Pulp Fiction, Into the wild, A clocwork orange, Trainspotting, Taxi driver, The deer hunter, Game of Thrones.

Music:
Pink Floyd, Tom Waits, King Crimson, The Beatles, Genesis, Guns'n'Roses, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix Experience, The White Stripes, Radiohead.

Books:
Pahlaniuk, Tolstoj, Kapuscinski, Dostoevsky, Bulgakov, Tolkien, Orwell.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

- I crossed 2 continents by bicycle (from Italy to Mongolia)
- I spent months living as a nomad in Gobi desert and steppes of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Xinjiang, Mongolia). Just me, my bicycle, my tent, Gobi desert, few camels and many dreams.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can share a warm hug, some incredible travel stories, good knowledges in history and geopolitics and a friendly smile. And a very good pasta, of course. Don't forget I'm Italian!

Countries I’ve Visited

Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, England, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Mongolia, Morocco, Palestine, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Vatican City State, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, Georgia, Italy, Mongolia, South Korea, Thailand