“I had a difficult family situation. I had a bad time in Italy, but I’m not going into details… I needed to find a way out. Lots of people trying to create a business moved away. I worked in the Ceramics industry, so I decided to sell the chairs of the company I used to work for in Italy. With this capital I took the business here. I just needed to imagine a brighter future, to take a new start.

I’m Italian, and you know, the situation in Italy is not so good. Anyway, I decided to move to Istambul in the 90’/95’. I think it’s the most interesting time of my life, because now the city is bigger than it was 12 years ago. But there are big differences if you compare to small town like Modena. You know, learning a new language, learning how to move up, find solutions, escape things like that.

At the beginning it was really difficult, it’s not that immediate to get used to a new city, and it isn’t really easy to get out. You have to force yourself to stay in the same place at the beginning and then, when you go out, the feeling is nice. You can find what you were looking for, you learn how to take the best from a big town like this, you learn about the culture.

It’s a kind of chain-reaction, you can’t stop it. At the beginning, I planned to stay between 7 to 10 years. I had one long-time-turn business plan, and I said to myself the date I will go back. Then I met my wife, and then this, and that, and so on. Things happens one after the other: we built the factory, we bought equipment, we hired people with experience for ceramics. Not to be pretentious, but in Italy it is all very complicated, and I fight a little bit every day hoping that through what I do, I can give the Italians the desire to try, dare, and make their own experiences.”