📖 Excerpt from Chapter 1
“The first home is never just a place. It's a voice you carry inside. It's the smell of grandma's kitchen. It's the sound of the church bells. It's the feeling of belonging to something bigger than yourself — even when you don't yet know what that is.”
— Chapter 1: Italy
📖 Excerpt
“Abbiategrasso wasn't just my town. It was my universe. The narrow streets, the Saturday market, the oratory where we played football until evening. I didn't know that one day I would leave all of this. I didn't know that the smell of my mother's pizza would become my invisible thread — the one that would always bring me back, even when I was on the other side of the world.”
— Chapter 1: Italy
📖 More from Chapter 1
Italy taught me what roots feel like. Not the abstract concept of roots — the real, physical, sensory experience of belonging. The way a language sounds when it's your mother tongue. The way food tastes when it's cooked by someone who loves you. The way a place feels when every corner holds a memory.
I grew up in a family where love was shown through action, not words. My father worked. My mother cooked. My grandparents were always there. Nobody said “I love you” very often — but the love was everywhere. In the food. In the presence. In the sacrifice.
When I left Italy at 25, I thought I was leaving behind a limitation. A small town, a small life. What I didn't understand then — what took me six countries and fifteen years to understand — is that I was carrying Italy with me. In my gestures. In my values. In the way I cook pasta. In the way I love my daughter.
You can leave a place. But a place never fully leaves you.
🌱 Theme
Roots
The foundations that shape us — family, language, traditions.
💬 Question
“What smell instantly brings you back to childhood?”
🔑 Secret Word
ROOTS