

Homeless in Italy
You know that saying, “No man is an island”?
I never really believed it.
Forty-one years old, and more than half of them spent completely on my own. No friends, no family, no relationships...
Work, home, and then do it all over again the next day.
I felt pretty much like an island. And honestly, I was fine with being an island.
Then I lost my job.
And that was when I realized that, if you’re an island, all you’ve got around you is water, and very few things to hold on to.
And somehow I ended up living on the streets.
With a backpack that was way too big, carrying everything I needed to survive that too, alone, like an island.
At first I was even sleeping out in the woods, along the Ticino River.
Then I realized that being an island wasn’t getting me very far, so I ended up in Milan.
And now I’m just trying to figure out where the sea ends, survive, build a few bridges, and get back on my feet. There are a lot of challenges, and they come in all sorts of shapes.
In Milan, you can eat without money, just so we’re clear.
You can wash yourself without money too.
And, more or less, you can survive on a bench, with very little to live for.
But that would still mean being an island.
So I’m trying to do something else. I’m working with social workers and all that, trying to find a way forward. But a few extra resources certainly wouldn’t hurt.
No hypocrisy, no pretending this is some other story: you can almost live without a penny.
Almost.
Like an island.
This is the text I wrote for my GoFundMe campaign when I set it up, translated into English. I hope I didn’t make any mistakes.
I hope it speaks for itself.
The old backpack has bene too heavy for the city, i changed with a smallest one.