Ciao, I am Ali
A thirty-something Italian by passport, a Eurasian nomad of the steppes by soul.
I published my first travel book in 2013, drove 15-ton trucks in the Andes and around India, traveled overland from Canada to Chile, led tours along the Silk Route and the Trans Mongolian railway route, and cycled while leading in Europe.
I have been Overlanding since I was a baby and Tour-leading since 2016.
I try to inspire by going a bit deeper, beyond stereotypes, by supporting a slow, responsible, ethical way of getting to know the world and its people.
Now concentrate my enthusiasm and passion on the countries between India and the Caucasus. I design and run my tours/experiences with responsible, ethical travel as a guideline.
I am a loud introvert who goes on 20 km long walks. I can’t stop talking about food, I am a cold water dips lover and I am obsessed with anthropology.
I am In love with places in ‘between’, near countries’ borders. Mad about Mountains, chickpeas, art books, textiles, and handicrafts.
I am ‘best’ above 2000 meters altitude, I own three T-shirts and thirty pairs of earrings. I like to learn languages with pretty alphabets, and I never pick up hot mugs by the handle.
I grew up traveling, and spending time in what it is the nicest playground I could dream of: the Northeast of Italy is a fertile land of colorful, ‘postcards like’ hills and mountains to trek, climb, run and just look at! Wherever I turned my sight there was beauty and history and passion and enthusiasm. That’s what I have been chasing since then.
I felt like I had to know more about all of that beauty, so I went to Art school and then to photography school to learn how to capture it.
Then I went working and living abroad to see if there was enough beauty there as well…
It was 2016. By that time my ‘life-changing trip’ to Ladakh already happened followed by a 9 and a half months from Canada to Santiago ‘on everything but planes’ adventure.
It was 2016 when Randomly I found a job announcement. The best known overland Company was recruiting Tour leaders, a professional figure I did not know anything about. In a few months, I went through the longest, hardest recruitment process ever, got a bus license and learn how to be a mechanic and lead people around the world.
Since then I never stopped.
‘’So, How many countries have you visited so far?’’ I get this question a lot and I have no answer because I don’t care!
Mine is not a race to fill a map, I love to go back to the same places, again and again, book the same apartments, going to my favorite cafes and buy the veggies from the same people who remember my name. I like to talk, learn the languages, see the same trees in different seasons, meeting the same friends. I like to build relationships, to go deeper. There are many places I like to call home now and I like to show those places to others, share with them my favorite Georgian wine, the best Biriani place in Delhi and go to the coziest homestay in the hills of Arunachal Pradesh.
Where I have been and where I keep on going back
Europe
France- Germany- Spain- Portugal- Greece- Croatia- Austria- Hungary- UK- Holland- Belgium- Luxembourg- Czechia- Slovenia- Slovakia- Romania- Moldova- Albania- Montenegro- Serbia- Bosnia & Herzegovina- Moldova- Bulgaria- Denmark- Norway- Finland- Sweden
When I was born my parents thought it was easier and cooler to fit a little cradle in their camper van rather than changing their lifestyle! We overland extensively around the old continent from the Most Northern point of Norway to the sunny beaches of Greece, from the windy coast of Atlantic France to the green lands of Hungary.
Americas
Canada- USA- Mexico- Belize- Guatemala- Nicaragua- Honduras- EL Salvador- Costa Rica- Panama- Colombia- Ecuador- Perù- Bolivia- Chile- Argentina- Brasil
During my journey on the road from Canada to Santiago de Chile, I crossed the entire Canada on a train, drove down along the West Coast of the USA, traveled on public transport across Mexico, and made my way to the Southern continent through Central America and the West side of South America on a 300 days long trip. I also worked as a Tour leader extensively in the Andes area from Perù to Brasil.
In the ‘Middle’
Iran- Azerbaijan- Armenia- Georgia- Turkey - Morocco, Egypt
My last new crush:
Iran and its never-ending richness of History, culture, traditions, art, beauty, and food, all mix and ‘serve’ us with some of the most welcoming and friendly populations on earth. The Caucasus has the same friendliness and beauty just with more cheese, wine, scenic mountains, small villages, and unique tunes and stories from the oldest Christian lands.
Asia
India- Sri Lanka-Laos- Thailand- Malaysia- Singapore Kyrgyzstan- Kazakhstan- Uzbekistan- Turkmenistan- China- Mongolia- Russia
The place where I feel at home:
India, my long-term love story, started in 2012 and is where I go back to every year. I extensively worked in the country as a Tour leader, driving the full loop of the subcontinent. The ‘Stans’, the heart of the Silk Road, my obsession and never-ending passion. From the remote mountains of Kyrgyzstan to the blue domes of Uzbekistan, from the cosmopolitan, European-looking cities of Kazakhstan to the holes of flames in the desert of Turkmenistan.
But Also the lands along the Trans Mongolian train journeys.