Building friendships All Around the World

Prioritize Human Connections in any Destination

I ended up opening my blog to share with you the stories of human connections I managed to create so far, during my travels. Then I realized that this blog is also a bridge between me and people all around the world who want to visit my country. Yes, a bridge that connects potential visitors and me, because I am very happy to welcome anyone who is desirous to discover Tuscia and get to know new people here. If you have never come to Tuscia (central Italy) and you don’t have friends here, you can be sure you already have a bunch of new contacts just because you landed up on my blog. I am the bridge between you and the local people.

But let’s go in order and let me explain why it’s so important to me to prioritize human connections in any destination. So important that I have decided to become a kind of human destination myself for the people who contact me before visiting central Italy. I mean, I love to be the first contact and help travelers to design their tours here, building together occasions to meet local people and discover the heart of my culture. Actually, I would like to be the kind of person or figure that I myself would feel blessed to come across before visiting a new destination 🙂

Because again, if you are a very open-minded person and like meeting new people, it shouldn’t be so hard to get to know someone in your destinations and make friends. But most of the time these friendships can be superficial and not lasting. It’s instead different if you start creating your human contacts before your departure and during your travel planning. Well, this makes all the difference!

The human connections I created over the years made a huge impact on my social life and helped me to grow as a person. But how did I managed to create human connections?

In this article, I want to reveal to you some of the ways by which I created solid human relationships that are so important to me to consider them my personal treasure.

I am used to saying that my second family is in Ireland, and that’s because almost 20 years ago I went to Dublin to study English. That year I was part of the Skelly family for one month and I got so fond of them that I returned to Dublin the next year, just to stay with them. Since then, I have been to Ireland many times, but also Paul and Kay came many times to my home. In November 2019 they came for a few days just to stay with me and meet again my parents and family. I love them with all my heart! They are my treasure.

I also traveled toward human destinations any time I was invited by people I met in Italy. Yes, because the best way to create human connections is just to show your area around to people who are spending a little time in your country. This is something I did for passion and for a long time, before turning it into my profession. Most of the people I met in Tuscia (the area between Rome and Tuscany where I live) were Americans, and this is the reason why I mainly traveled to the USA, so far. As an example, Adela and Larry Jackson are a wonderful American couple I met by chance during an excursion in Viterbo (see the article The Walk on the Way of Saint Rosa’s Exile). I offered to show them around my area and spend an evening at the thermal bath. We created a wonderful connection and a few months later I was in Fairbanks (Alaska) with them. It is impossible to describe in this article what my time spent with them (in their wonderful cottage in the woods) meant to me. I was part of their family, church community, friendships, and much more. It was one of the most uplifting experiences of my life! Now I am waiting for the end of this crazy pandemic situation to create together beautiful human connections in Italy. I love them with all my heart! They are my treasure.

*With Larry and Adela Jackson driving to Denali Park (Alaska)*

Another way I managed to create marvelous friendships all around the world is due to my favorite travel style which is not very common: swapping houses.

This travel style began more than ten years ago, and you can imagine how many homes I had the fortune to live in and how many generous people I met. Everywhere I was a temporary resident, experiencing a new life in another country, a new city, a new neighborhood, plunged into a new amazing dimension. This is a kind of life I really love because it gives me the true power to connect with other people and develop lifelong friendships.

I met Susan and Todd in San Francisco and I had the good fortune to live for many days in their lovely condo just in the center of the city. Then they came to Tuscia more times and could meet my friends and my family. One year they brought here also their lovely nephew Scott and, on another occasion, Susan told me she wanted her brother George with his wife Ann to come to Tuscia and visit me. It was a beautiful encounter, and I was delighted to organize their tours and show them around, spending an entire day in Orvieto, in the Umbria region.

But my adventures with Susan and Todd went further so that we even met in Berlin. The city was excited about the football match between German and Italy for the European Championship. That night Italy won the cup, and I celebrated at Brandenburg Gate wearing the German flag that some German guys lent me. That was a supreme experience of human connection!

I love Susan and Todd with all my heart! They are my treasure.

I could go on further and further, telling you about all the amazing people I met through home exchange not just in the USA but in Mexico, Australia, Indonesia, Fiji Island, and so on.

But the real purpose of this short article is to invite you to think to prioritize human connections in any destination. A journey so planned will take you where your soul belongs to. Because in any destination your eyes will be delighted by beauty, your brain by discovery, your palate by new tastes but all these senses will be disconnected as soon as you get back home. Only your soul will be connected lifelong because it is delighted by human connections, and anytime you can develop them strongly, you can be sure that a little piece of your heart will belong to your destination forever.