Hello, that’s me
I was born in Sesto San Giovanni, a post-industrial city right outside Milan, Italy, in 1991. It didn’t start too well, as I was born at 13:17. 17 is the Italian equivalent of 13 in the English-speaking world, so I got unlucky numbers in both cultures. But hey, in some culture somewhere those must be lucky numbers, right? I went through the usual niceties of growing up, though I did so in the ’90s which wasn’t too bad overall (whoop whoop for overly colourful clothes!). I loved trains and dinosaurs when I was a child but, despite that promising beginning, after finishing high school I studied Computer Science at Università degli Studi di Milano. Computer chips won over fossils.
The elementary school I went to. It was less colourful at the time.
While busy trying to wrap my head around calculus and C, I started writing for TuttoAndroid, one of the largest blogs about Android in Italy which soon became a full-blown publication. I also founded TuttoWindowsPhone, which then morphed into TuttoWindows. I was doing a bit of everything: writing articles, going to events, reviewing devices and applications, managing the team, recruiting new people and selling advertising space. And I didn’t even have Hermione’s time turner! This was a great experience, from which I learned a lot from both a personal and a professional standpoint; it gave me the opportunity to start writing professionally and to fall in love with the fine art of being a journalist.
In 2016 I decided it was time for something new and I left TuttoAndroid, founding my blog about audio, Soundphile Review, at the same time. It has given me a lot of joy ever since, and I’m really proud about some results I achieved – including getting some top-of-the-line products before the big names of the audio journalism industry. Although I was still living in Italy at the time, I decided to write Soundphile Review in English to improve my mastery of the language.
In 2017 I started working for Hardware Upgrade, Italy’s leading tech publication. At first I focused on consumer electronics and science, and in 2019 I joined their newly-founded B2B vertical, Edge9. I’ve since specialised in writing about B2B themes as well as the very bleeding edge of technology, including quantum computers, cryptography, supercomputing and 5G networks. My pieces have consistently ranked among the most-read ones not only among those of Edge9, but of those of Hardware Upgrade in general (which, being a consumer-facing publication, has an audience that’s an order of magnitude larger).
I also started working as a freelance system administrator in 2017. I have been working for W4Y, a system integrator based just a few hundred metres from my parents’ home in Sesto San Giovanni (the commute was horrible). I have helped them with both their internal system administration needs, as well as their customers’, dealing with both Windows and Linux systems (though mainly Windows, which has given me the opportunity to learn about it, as my skills were lying more in the land of the Penguin).
This has been a very interesting combination, as I have often found myself applying my practical knowledge from the sysadmin job to the journalism side, which has allowed me to provide more in-depth and more technically correct reporting. On the other hand, writing about the latest technologies has the advantage of making you aware of what’s going on out there, which sometimes is just what you need for your sysadmin job.
In 2020 I moved to Glasgow, Scotland, where I have been ever since. In 2022 I joined the Scottish Orchid Society and I have been a member of the managing committee since 2024, as well as helping them with their online presence and demonstrations at the Glasgow Orchid Show.
In my spare time, when I’m not watering my orchids or looking at them or talking to them, I like going to the gym, speaking Polish and Scottish Gaelic, as well as watching and reading sci-fi. I also like tea (and I candidate this as the understatement of the century), and I have taken part to multiple tea ceremonies in the traditional Chinese style as tea master.