03 — The Adventurous Spirit
To live is to explore. Between my home in the Caribbean and the thousand destinations the world has to offer, every journey is a chapter in a story that never stops surprising me.
Who I Am
My story of travel begins in the Mediterranean, but the most important chapter — and the most recent — I wrote elsewhere: the permanent move to the Dominican Republic, where I now live full-time.
I don't travel to collect places, but to let them change me. Every destination, every trail, every encounter is a chance to learn something I couldn't have discovered at home.
The starting point · January 1997
It all began earlier than I thought. Venezuela was the trip that changed the course of my life: the first time I breathed the air of South America, walked through its contradictions — Caracas, Puerto La Cruz, the Orinoco Delta, Los Roques — and felt that this world, so different from Italy, belonged to me.
From that trip came the quiet certainty that one day I would move to Latin America. I didn't yet know where, or when — but I knew it would happen. What follows is the diary written day by day, from January 4 to 22, 1997: nineteen days that changed the direction of a life.
📓 Travel diary · 1997
The full account of the trip: Caracas, Puerto La Cruz, the Orinoco Delta with the Guaraho tribe, piranha fishing, sailing through Los Roques, and the airline's collapse on the way home.
Read the full diary →The project comes to life
What Venezuela had planted, the Dominican Republic made grow. In Rio San Juan I built a house that is today also a B&B overlooking the Caribbean: CasaMia Rd. It wasn't a trip like the others — it was the decision that rewrote how I live, work and welcome people.
From the desire born between the Orinoco Delta and Los Roques to everyday life in Rio San Juan: the distance between a dream and its realization is measured in years of patience, courage and — in the end — a one-way ticket.
🏝️ CasaMia Rd · Rio San Juan
The story of the house, the B&B, Caribbean life and the permanent move — told in full across six chapters.
Discover CasaMia Rd →Chapters
Four ways of living exploration, from putting down roots to constant discovery.
The house I built in Rio San Juan, today also a B&B overlooking the Caribbean: here I brought the hospitality experience born in Italy to the place I now call home.
Born and raised among the mountains of Trentino: the places that shaped my character, my sensibility and my outlook on the world.
The trip that changed everything: Venezuela, 1997. The travel diary of an adventure that planted the seed of a permanent move to Latin America.
Beyond adventure and creativity, there are other worlds I inhabit intensely: the eye that captures light, and the ear that seeks harmony.
Gallery
A mosaic of places and experiences, to be filled out with your own photographs.
* Sample gallery — replace it with your own travel photos.
Diary in motion
Short video stories from the places I pass through, from the Caribbean to mountain trails.
Between crystal-clear waters and fiery sunsets.
Mountain trails and the thrill of discovery.
* Upload your mp4 files to a "video/" folder next to this file, using these names: caraibi.mp4, escursioni.mp4 (or update the paths in the code).
For advice on destinations, shared experiences, or just a chat about travel.
casamiard@aol.com