Where I am / or where I was

After 4 months in Asia and a quick stop in Istanbul and Italy… back to home base.

A flight to Vientiane with no idea where the trip will take me. I end up in Thailand. Then in India. And India changes me!

Like the year before, same season, off again on a one-way ticket: Malaysia, Vietnam…

After a season in Southeast Asia, back to my little home.

Lots of Vietnam, mostly Da Nang, plus a hop to Hong Kong and Shenzhen (China).

After 10 years orbiting around Las Palmas… I have 3 rooms: come and visit! 😀

No photos from that period… so here’s one of my works instead: the clairvoyant cat!

A month on Lanzarote (Arrecife, in a “Nomad Cave”!)

Every now and then I go back to Italy too…

Home base!

In a small coliving in Essaouira.

It’s becoming clear that Las Palmas is my home base.

…head back to the Canaries (Las Palmas, home base) on 14 July.

Between Mexico City and the Oaxaca coast (4+ months in Mexico).

The last Canary island I hadn’t visited yet!

A couple of months in the desert that is Fuerteventura.

A wonderful experience in Bansko (coliving and more).

I organise a coliving for digital nomads on Lanzarote!

Because of the 2020 pandemic, I stay more than 5 months in beautiful Vietnam!

Among trulli and the little towers of Ostuni.

Another Canary island!

Another long season on El Hierro (the smallest of the Canaries).

Beyond the usual tourist stuff… Athens, unexpectedly beautiful!

Easily one of my favourite places!

Between Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat.

El Hierro (Canaries) is kind of “home base” these days.

Between coworking (photo) and headhunters.

At last I give at least a month to one of my favourite places.

Every 2 years I’m back in the capital of digital nomads.

Another 3 months on the most remote of the Canary Islands.

A short stop in Spain before heading back to Las Palmas.

From the Casentino forests to the north of Tuscany.

A month between Catania and Syracuse (Ortigia), ending up in the west.

The smallest and most beautiful of the Canary Islands.

Back home in the Canaries… for at least 6 months.

3 weeks in Bali, working from the most famous coworking space of all.

Back to northern Thailand for a couple of months.

In Corralejo I decide to set up my business in the Canary Islands, but Fuerteventura ends up not being the place for me after all. Luckily, the archipelago has seven main islands. Second stop: Gran Canaria, and its biggest city, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. I like it so much I register as a resident here. I still want to see the other islands, so I plan Tenerife for September. But as the saying goes, “When men plan, gods laugh”. Long story short: I stay in Las Palmas until I take a break from the Canaries… in Southeast Asia.

I land in Corralejo, Fuerteventura, to explore new business and lifestyle opportunities. I’ve seen nicer places in the world, but it’s a pleasant town, and its relaxed atmosphere grows on me. The Canaries are Spain (even if, geographically, we’re in Africa), so as an EU citizen I can stay as long as I like: a real relief after 4 years of visas in Australia.

After 3 months in Thailand, I’m back in Italy, a year after I last left, to see my family and old friends. My business is still based in Australia, but Sydney is one of the most expensive cities in the world, and I can work from anywhere. So I start looking for a new base in Europe. The shortlist: Italy, Malta… or the Canary Islands.

After 2 months in the cafés of Nimmanhaemin, Chiang Mai’s digital nomad district, I go back to Koh Phangan to finish the intensive yoga course I started a year before. A month in a tropical paradise, still serving my online clients, from a small bungalow 30 metres from the beach. Honestly, not the most comfortable office setup… but it works!

I leave Sydney on 4 February and land in Phuket the next day. Two days later I head north to Chiang Mai, the capital of digital nomads: cafés with great wifi, full of people running their businesses online. Not just web designers, developers, bloggers and SEOs, but real location-independent entrepreneurs. I spend 2 months here, learning a thing or two from them.

After a few months in Italy (and 7 weeks in Thailand), I land in Sydney for the third time and go back to the advertising agency I found with those $30 of AdWords. But the agency work is slowing down, while my international clients keep growing. After 9 months, by now working almost entirely remotely, I decide to give the digital nomad lifestyle a try…

7 weeks in Thailand, and my first trip with my laptop: not quite a holiday, since a few online clients still need help with their SEO. A few days in Bangkok (messy), a few on Koh Samui (nice, but too touristy), then Koh Phangan, where my plan to tour the whole country stops. I stay over a month, and do my first intensive yoga course.

I turn down a permanent SEO position in Italy to move to Australia, learn English and test myself in the international industry. After a full-time 12-week English course, it’s time to find a job. Not so easy when your English still has room to improve. So I use what I know: a free blog with my CV and portfolio, plus a small AdWords campaign targeting employers with keywords like “SEO cv” and “SEO resume”. Less than $30 later, I’m talking to an advertising agency…

I start working in SEO at a web agency in Florence. Actually, I’m hired as a web copywriter (see in the beginning was the word), but I’m soon given SEO tasks of growing complexity. After 9 months I get a short taste of the freelance lifestyle, then a great opportunity comes up: working with a well-known Italian online marketer. So I decide to give web agencies one more try… for another year.