CIAO PRAGA

Great collaborations take shape when like-minded people meet.

I met Stefania Del Monte in Hong Kong, where she had an active role in the Executive Council of the charity association I was leading at the time, and of which I am still the Vice-President, The Italian Women's Association. Since the very beginning, we realised we were sharing similar interests, like charity, writing, and the discovery of the many cultural aspects of the city. From Hong Kong, Stefania moved to London and then Prague, where she developed the idea of creating a bimonthly magazine in Italian language that she named 'Ciao Praga'. The aim of the magazine was to showcase, in a clear format and through beautiful pictures, relevant news in the field of culture, history, literature, cinema and lifestyle, related to the Czech Republic and - for each issue - to a particular region of Italy. The magazine also introduced the many Italian expatriates all over the world, who had managed to achieve something meaningful in the country that hosted them also by taking advantage of their unique Italian heritage. Stefania asked me if I was interested in collaborating with her on this project and, after interviewing me for the second issue (page 92), I started being part of the 'team'. My experience with 'Ciao Praga' was absolutely fascinating, because I had the chance to interview many interesting Italians who gave important contributions to the countries they lived in also thanks to their being 'Italian'.

Here are the links to the issues I cooperated in: 5 (page 132), 6 (p.134) and 8 (p. 108).

Stefania now lives in Madrid and she has been working to another project, together with her husband Danilo, a photographer. The result is an e-book called 'Perpetual Nothingness', dedicated to the city and the people of Hong Kong. It is a combination of B/W pictures shot by Danilo and poems written by Stefania. I am particularly proud of having written the Foreword for this e-book. Due to their common interest in charity, Stefania and Danilo decided to sell the e-book online and all proceeds from the sale will be donated to the Italian Women's Association, which in turn will help support many needy charity associations.

Eventually, ‘Ciao Praga’ ‘merged’ into ‘Ciao Magazine’. The scope has widened, the articles cover a bigger range of topics related to Italy, Italians abroad and interesting activities and cultural happenings taking place in different part of the world. Here is my dedicated space in ‘Ciao Magazine’.