“I left Italy during the darkest and the coldest moment of the year, January, and I didn’t know yet that the experience in Portugal would have brought so much happiness in my life. All the people that I met, from my flatmates to the associations’ members, gave me the best present: they open themselves, talking, discussing, teaching, understanding each other both in the moment of sadness and fun.

Working in the field was a balm for the body and for the soul, waking up with the sun in front of the livingrooms’ window, having time to dedicate myself to nature and to the purpose of protecting biodiversity and looking closer the universe hidden in the soil. The days spent uprooting, debarking, digging, planting, observing gave me the opportunity to understand the importance of time and of how we spend our energies and time’s value.

The little neighborhood of São Pedro, the village of Sintra and the Natural Park of Sintra-Cascais, with the beautiful sight of the ocean and the sweet smell of soil, are places that I will always call home, and all the people participating in Plantar Uma Árvore’s project, family.”