Since the time when this project was last updated (2014), many things have changed in the world and we are assisting to a dramatic increase in the number of the refugees trying to get through Europe doors, that meanwhile are becoming smaller and smaller.
I'm very well aware that our european society is faced with new, difficult challenges but with this project I would still like to dream about Europe as an open land that can be home for those who are looking for a better life as well as for those who are running away from the war.
Dario
deutsch
"Berlin is currently the only city in Europe where you can really live.
It’s in Germany for better or for worse: we are in the most promising country under economical, social, cultural and environmental point of view; but, on the other side, it has a harsh climate and sometimes it is culturally very far from south-European and, generally speaking, from Latin countries."
"If I hadn’t moved , I can imagine myself being a writer or a blogger, making his living out of micro-farming somewhere on the Umbria hills; or, more probably, I would be an interior designer in Milan.
Other plausible option: I would be a sailor seeking a harbor."
Why did you move abroad? Why Berlin?
In 2010, going back to Italy after a two-year journey, I had no job and was therefore forced, after 13 years, to move back to my parents in the Paduan countryside where, for several reasons the circumstances were unbearable.
After a failed attempt to move to London for working for an art gallery, I grabbed the chance to go to Berlin for a friend’s birthday. And it was Berlin. Like this, without much plans or thoughts: I was driven by the need of change, of moving, of keeping on my path.
The first positive impressions and the feeling I arrived in a lively city, where it is still possible to live with limited resources and to start again from the beginning, persuaded me to stop-off, to look for an apartment, to start studying the language. And then, to stay. Without knowing when and where my next step will take place.
Is there any characteristic, you can identify as peculiar of your country, you miss?
The intensity.
Moreover, the possibility to have so many different landscapes in a few kilometers. From the sea to the mountain, from the lake to the hills, sometimes it’s a just a matter of some dozens kilometers: this means a high concentration of culinary, artistic, behavioral and climatic differences.
If you look back at your life in your country, do you see improvement that justify your moving abroad? Or, do you see improvement chances?
Yes, I do. I’m independent not only under a financial perspective but also under the mobility one, that for me is crucial. Moreover, I can live with less money.
I could try to integrate myself more in the German community as now I am not at all. And I would like to have a greater job security.
Do you feel integrated in the German society? In the Berliner one?
This question places an interesting distinction, as I do feel largely integrated in the Berliner community but not in the German one. I live in Pankow, district that has an extremely scarce presence of foreigners, and I barely have contacts with it, I can’t say I belong to it; however, Berlin is so much ethnologically variegated that even when I go out with German friends we end up speaking Spanish or English.
Berlin is the German capital city, of course, but I like to think about it as it was the European one, its geographical and cultural center.
What does work represent and mean to you?
The opportunity to earn a living doing something that makes you so excited about it to consider the working hours as an essential part of your life.
What does this specific job mean to you?
First, it has been a way to make a living. Then it became a satisfying way to feel financially secure in order to devote some of my energies to my interests and social life. With time it represents now the possibility to take up a career I did not plan.
Has anything changed of your approach to work since you work in a Call Center?
Yes, for certain aspects it is a job where you can be replaced. However, I have also come to understand that the difference depends on me and my personal approach.
Dario was born on June 13th 1978 in Piove di Sacco, Italy.
He studied Interior Design in Milan where he worked for some years before he started a long travel that brought him around the world giving him material for the two books he has written. Since 2011 he is in Berlin where he has his own house and currently works as Senior Customer Care Executive. Dario is visually and hearing impaired and on May 6-13th 2013 has hold in Berlin “The Visionary Europe”, workshop for the European Community about low vision.
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