Two girls, one desire: to roam the world in search of the unknown. Addicted to the adventure of discovering new lands, we were each other’s protecting angel, fierce guardian, and muse.
My Story
I was born in Zimbabwe to Italian parents, who went back to Rome when I was five years old. There I studied, and had a terrible scooter accident which almost cost me my leg and still gives me immense trouble. Seeking the help of a renowned South African orthopedic surgeon I ended up living in Johannesburg, where I studied interior design and joined a studio decorating the houses and offices of the über rich.
I won a national competition, became slightly famous, but the relative routine bored me, and I started working on film sets. As set decorator/art director I helped produce three feature films, over 100 commercials, and several educational videos.
Then I discovered long-term overland travel, and gave it all up. It wasn’t an intentional decision; it all started because of a mistake. I was on a short holiday in Zimbabwe with my small dog Afrika, and met someone who offered us a lift to Beira in Mozambique. The country was engulfed in a bitter war, but I was led to believe that the main cities were safe and there were regular planes between them. My idea was to catch one from Beira to Maputo, the capital, and fly to Johannesburg from there. I accepted the lift offer hoping to meet the legendary figures of the anti-apartheid struggle, who were then living in Maputo under government protection.
However, shortly after our arrival the Beira airport was bombed, as was the road linking the city with Zimbabwe. Now stranded, I tried to reach the capital by using local transport, and in so doing discovered the thrill of moving into the unknown. By the time Afrika and I managed to leave the country five months later, I was so hooked on extreme adventure that instead of returning to South Africa I tried to cross the continent on my own.
When we returned to South Africa more than two years later, instead of resuscitating my old career I studied to become a pilot with the intention of joining the Red Cross. In the meantime, I landed a few lucrative short-term job offers from the Italian Trade Office, thereby discovering I could make money without long-term commitments. My lust for the unknown continued to drive me, and soon after obtaining my commercial flying license I took Afrika on a one-year journey to India, Thailand, and Cambodia.
On our return I decided to abandon the piloting dream, which would have bound me to one location. Instead, I accepted more offers from the Trade Office, worked as a private assistant to a world-renowned artist, and landed an extremely interesting and well-paid job at the Independent Electoral Commission overseeing the first democratic election in South Africa, for which I received a Merit Award. I then left South Africa for good, hoping i’d find a way to make money while living a nomadic life. The start of this new plan was the journey i describe in my series ‘A Love Affair with the Unknown’.
Afrika died three years later in India.
My nomadic dream did come true and since then I have lived in London, India, Berlin, Bali, and Thailand, all the while managing to visit twenty-two more countries. To finance this lifestyle I continued to source short-term offers from the Trade Office, worked as temporary secretary for a subscription-only British magazine dedicated to film production, provided organizational support to an Italian film distributor attending the Cannes Film Festival, and taught a style of massage designed to address postural problems. In between I traded goods from one country to the other, though I was never a good hawker and seldom made a large profit.
I also worked free of charge, setting up art workshops catering to war afflicted children in both Mozambique and Bosnia.
My hobbies have been equally eclectic: scuba diving, flying single-engine planes, horse riding, archeology, history, fire dancing, and reading about a wide variety of non-fiction subjects. I now chain myself to a chair trying to write books and short stories.
Apart from attending a two-year course on autobiographical fiction, and working on this project for the last eight years, I have no prior experience in writing. Moreover, English is not my mother tongue.
For these reasons, the development of A Love Affair with the Unknown was excessively difficult, and many times I came close to giving up. However, I was moved by the same mysterious urge which made me try to cross the African continent on my own, and persevered.
I’m glad I did. The process facilitated a deeper understanding of myself and the choices I made in the past, while helping me to finally overcome the grief of losing Afrika.
Her Story
The heroine of my best stories was undoubtedly Afrika, a small, silver-colored, long-haired dog I picked up in a Johannesburg shelter. Intelligent, coquettish, submissive yet independent, streetwise and courageous, she was able to make anybody fall in love with her at first sight.
Afrika came into my life still young yet fully grown, and I never really knew her age. She had obviously been maltreated, and arrived as a deeply hurt dog. It took time and effort, but she eventually learned to trust me and understand the language of my commands, which was a mix of Italian and English words spoken calmly without emotional overtones. Her trust, however, didn’t mean complete dependency, and she grew up to be a fiercely independent dog with a mind of her own.
Afrika loved to travel, expressing her joy as soon as she saw me pack. I always tried to get the proper papers for her to cross borders legally, but since this was not always possible stories about her illegal crossings are many, some pretty daring. However, her veterinary booklet was always up to date, displaying an impressive number of different languages next to her vaccination stamps. Of course, she got sick many times, and sometimes badly enough for me to fear for her life. Travelling in places where pet dogs were unknown and veterinaries unable to help, I carried large amounts of veterinary medications and became an expert at deciphering her health issues.
Afrika died in India on Christmas day 1999, after a night of breathing problems. We both knew when the time came, and had the time to exchange a last meaningful look. I kissed her on the head, and she was gone.
She was the greatest friend I ever had. Just looking at her put a smile on my face, keeping me motivated and emotionally healthy. Without that smile in my heart at all times, her licking my face in the morning, and her warm furry body to snuggle up to when I was in despair, I would have never been able to make it through any of the long adventures we shared.
With her by my side I could be who I really wanted to be, go wherever I wanted to go. She gave me freedom, and with it, I expanded beyond the limits of my upbringing. Without her I wouldn’t be who I am today, and the mandala of my life would be very different.
Her death was so difficult for me to accept that I wasn’t able to write my books for over fifteen years, scared of the pain I felt while remembering our life together. I was wrong. Writing about her was a healing experience, during which she returned in my dreams. Caring, protective, funny, never causing me to feel lonely or sad.
