www.rodolfo-maggio.com

CURRENT MISSION

Learning. Knowledge feeds my curiosity, wisdom quenches my soul, while experience keeps me busy between a meal and the other.

ABOUT ME

Hi everyone!

I can start by saying that I began my travel when I was 15 years old, riding an old mountain bike from my hometown to Calais, in France, visiting Genova, Barcelone, Lyon, Paris, London.

From that moment I never stopped going around. My destiny has always been very generous. I spent some time in an Indian ashram when I was 15. I lived in Rome, during the years of my bachelor in Cultural Anthropology. I was garcon au pair for one year in Chambery, a beautiful city in Savoy, surrounded by mountains, lakes and rivers. I acted in a short movie which was later selected by the committee of the Cine Pobre Festival, and went to Cuba for the screening. I did my first anthropological study with a group of charismatic Christians, and I ended up in one of their international gatherings in Prague. This experience led me to understand that I wanted to keep studying anthropology.

I continued my education in Anthropology at the London School of Economics, where I got a MSc in Anthropology and Development. Later, I was offered a scholarship by a research project in anthropology based at the University of Manchester. As part of my contribution to this project, I went to Solomon Islands to do fieldwork and lived there for 13 months.

I completed my Ph.D. in December 2014, and since then I have been travelling an lot. In May 2015 I went to Japan for a month and half, visiting cities like Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Kagoshima and Hiroshima, and islands such as Miyako, Amami, Ishigaki and Tokunoshima. Upon my return to Italy, I got married and went on honeymoon: Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay... wow!

During my life I devoleped a lot of intrests. I have been a juggler (especially Diabolo) in a circus in Milan. This passion introduced me to European Juggling Conventions, which I attended in many different countries.
As my hometown is very polluted, I always had a passion for bicycles. I learnt to build bicycles with old pieces, sometimes as a work, sometimes as a hobby.
I love music and singing, and I find that this is the best method to learn a language.
However the activity that I always loved and love the most is writing. Writing gives me the possibility to tide myself up, to create beauty and wonder, and to keep a record of the interesting things I see. I like to practice any kind of writing, ranging from poems to academic essays, from short novels to philosophy, from diaries to aphorisms.

Coming into contact with other cultures and other ways of seeing the world helps me to find the words to name what I see, think and feel. So, this is me: a life in a backpack, piles of notebooks, and an unquenchable curiosity!

PHILOSOPHY

Live every moment as if it was the last.

Love is the answer when you have no answer.

Nobody needs a smile more than the one who cannot give it.

Being egoistical is not doing what we want, but expecting the others to do what we want. (O.Wilde)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I would like that this way of sharing our proprietes was accepted all over the world. It's so sad to know how much greed fills the heart of man. I would like to participate as much as possible, as a guest. That is relatively easy, as I am on constantly travelling. More difficult is to host. In my home town, I do not have my own house, as I always lived with my grandparents. As a consequence, I can't reciprocate the CS hospitality with a couch. Sorry. This is also the reason why I cannot be Verified yet.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

So far, my couchsurfing experiences have been really good. People really helped me out and I made very nice friendships. Even when they could not host me, they always sent kind replies and encouraged me to keep searching.So, beside the fact of being a great service, CS is also and especially a network of really good people. Thank you all!

Interests

As I said in my description: Anthropology, Juggling with Diabolo, Music (I play guitar and flute), reading, making bicycles, sometimes visual arts. I love to read novels and philosophy books, especially those centred on political economy, morality and the social contract. However, above everything: writing.

• arts
• writing
• books
• poetry
• singing
• beauty
• festivals
• education
• wine
• working out
• meditation
• partying
• reading
• traveling
• juggling
• music
• guitar
• cycling
• backpacking
• christian
• anthropology
• economics
• teaching
• religion
• visual arts
• au-pair
• lakes
• rivers
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: The silence of the lambs, Dead poets society, El metodo, Alien I,II and III, Matrix I,II, and III, Ghost, La vita è bella

Music: Fabrizio De André, Giorgio Gaber, Georges Brassens, Bonobo, Chinese Man Manuel Garcia, Andres Calamaro, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen.

Books: Mémoires d'Hadrien by Marguerite Yourcenar, Crime and Punishment by Fedor Dostoevsky,Das Kapital by Karl Marx, the Sherlock Holmes saga, One hundred years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Silence of the Lambs... oh so many others.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I organized a party where all the guests were dressed like ancient Greeks, i.e. with the linens of our bedrooms. We had a lot of wine with honey, fruits and strawberries with Chantilly cream!

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach juggling (two diabolos, five balls, two nun-chucks, fire stick).
I can teach the basics of anthropology (kinship studies, ethnographic methods, anthropology of religion, anthropology of Christianity, structural analysis of myths and legends...).
I would like to learn to speak Japanese (I have the basics for a funny conversation).
I also would like to learn a way to switch my mind off. She does not like to rest, and because of that I seldom enjoy a good night of sleep.
I am working out a philosophy of love, friendship and work, hoping that one day I will know the secret of happiness. I would like to share my views, in order to compare my thoughts and advance the meditation.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Greece, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Russian Federation, Slovenia, Spain, Turks and Caicos Islands, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay

Countries I’ve Lived In

France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Solomon Islands, United Kingdom