Bio

I’m a Tokyo-based Italian journalist and book author, always digging for new interesting, thought-provoking stories.

   I Remember

(more or less)

1964 – My first important trip: I’m only eight months old when my family leaves the mountains for good and we begin our new life by the sea > 1968 – I get acquainted with my first atlas; before long I learn the names of all the Asian capital cities (a sign of fate, as I will later find out) > 1977 – My first trip abroad: I visit Austria with my sister (Vienna, Innsbruck, Salzburg); I fall in love with a Viennese blond and the Sacher Torte > 1978 – I enroll in high school and promptly fail Math; on the other hand I excel in Italian, History and Geography > 1982 – My first vacation without my family: camping in Riccione with my friends; I fall hard for a Dutch girl > 1983 – I sit my high school finals. In English, I write a paper on African American author Ralph Waldo Ellison (Invisible Man), whom neither my teacher nor the other members of the board seem to know > 1983 – My first English pen pal is a Japanese girl > 1984 – University: Somehow I decide to major in Japanese History > 1986 – First trip to Paris; it’s love at first sight and first nose (the smell of the Metrò…) > 1987 – Second and third trip to Paris; as Hemingway said, it’s a veritable “moveable feast” > 1988 – Long weekend in England: Eastbourne and London; I get acquainted with the infamous British cuisine (vegetable lasagna anyone?) > 1989 – I graduate magna cum laude with a dissertation on the Japanese school system in the Meiji period (1868-1912); in July I fly for the first time to Japan, where I spend two months > 1990 – I contribute to the Dizionario di storia (Bruno Mondadori, 1993) > 1992 – second trip to Japan to improve my Japanese; I soon find a job as an Italian teacher; my graduation thesis wins the Paolo Beonio-Brocchieri Prize for works about Japan; my university teacher points out that the Association of the Italian Friends of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which organizes the competition, mistakenly thought I was a Jew > 1994 – I start collaborating with the Italian language TV programs of the NHK, the Japanese national broadcaster> 1997 – I start teaching at Wako University; I discover the international mail art network > 2000 – I make KAIRAN: Mail Art Forum, a zine devoted to the discussion of mail art’s theory and practice (I publish 18 issues, the last one in 2014) > 2002 – My second college gig: Japan Women’s University > 2004 – I launch two more zines: Call & Response and Orga{ni}sm, the latter one devoted to all things Japan > 2006 – I contribute to Mondo Japan, an Italian magazine devoted to Japanese pop culture > 2007 – I start my collaboration with Vogue Italia and the Japanese monthly The Tokyo Advocate > 2008 – I write for a number of Italian, English and French newspapers and magazines including left, Playboy Italia, The Japan Times, Zoom Japon, etc. > 2010 – Together with Randy Osborne, I write Made of This, a compilation of 999 memories inspired by Joe Brainard’s I Remember > 2017 – I publish my first book, Tokyo Geek’s Guide, an otaku guide to Tokyo > 2019 - I contribute to a couple of DK Travel's guides: Be More Japan and Eyewitness Tokyo > 2021 - I publish my second book, Otaku Japan.