In 2008 Stef and Nico (both male and happily married, to each other fortunately) made the big leap forwards and move to Italy. Permanently! They had no choice, as they had sold their house in The Netherlands to buy the Italian one. But they were also eager to start a new life, encounter new possibil...

On August 16th 2005 our plane touched down at Madeira International Airport and our new life on a volcanic rock situated in the North Atlantic began. Madeira is situated six hundred kilometres from North Africa and one thousand kilometres from mainland Portugal. It is not big, stretching to sixty ki...

For much of my life I lived in Hawaii and worked in the real estate business. One evening my wife and I were talking and she mentioned that she wanted to move back home, life just seemed too hectic in Honolulu, Hawaii and I was ready for a change as well.  I wanted to quit my job and enjoy...

This was an interview I was thrilled to be invited to do. I made a business trip to Bogota in 2004, slightly concerned about security issues on departure my fears were quickly assuaged on arrival. We were welcomed as family by my father-in-laws long standing business contacts, and found people in ge...

"...Twelve hours past the scheduled arrival of our four-day vacation, we were finally landing in Puerto Vallarta.After couple hours of sleep, we were lounging by the turquoise swimming pools on manicured tropical grounds , as I wished, doing nothing. I read for a while, then turned my eyes towa...

 Pio Marasco, 40, neapolitan, fled Italy in search of the right location: one with sea and wind, infinite spaces, vast expanses of beach, and of the kind of waves the ‘beautiful country’, Italy, can’t offer. He found almost everything on Maui, the second largest island in Hawa...

“Once work, commitments and stress are a thing of the past, many foreigners find peace in the area of Marche in Italy, just as older Americans do in Florida,” says Monica Bruni, who runs an estate agency in Amandola in the province of Fermo. “Its not just the elderly, there are lot...

“Looking back makes it possible to move ahead, because looking back revives the imagination of the archetypical child, fons et origo, either in a state of complete helplessness or facing the future that lies ahead. Rebirth would be a word without sense if not for the implicit dissolution, deat...

 Why I escaped to New Zealand "My poor country!" I seem to hear Franco Battiato’s song when Gianpaolo Grazioli explains why he left Italy. Thirty-one, from Torre del Greco in the province of Naples, Gianpaolo has been in New Zealand for the last five. He couldn’t bear to l...

Some years ago, at the tender age of 34 “I found myself within that forest dark” that's share by many and that gives you a lot (in terms of money and personal satisfaction), but demands a lot more in return.At a certain point the vicious circle “I earn and I decide, therefore I...

KENYA: WHERE TIME DRIFTS BYThere’s a saying that I’ll never forget, a saying which has helped make sense of many of the choices in my lifeWhen I heard it for the first time, in the shade of an enormous mango tree sheltering me from the equatorial heat, it sounded like a precept disguised...

 “Great chocolate and great coffee, as with great wine, needs the right soil, perfectly ripe, healthy fruit, immense care and a great deal of experience.”A welcome from the site of Claudio Corallo (www.claudiocorallo.com/), and a deterrent to those who speak superficially about choc...

The Colours of MarrakeshI have always loved Naples. Genoa too. The endless narrow streets, allegorical, dirty; I wondered why I loved them so much. The answer eluded me, and my life continued on its course. Then one September, for some reason, I bought a flight to Marrakesh. The sweet sun embraced m...