Travel Tips

When I created my new homepage at the end of 2007, I wrote a paragraph to express my gratitude to VT for letting me meet some people who have changed my life, even only a little bit. Some people who are there when I am happy, but also when I am sad or need advice. A friend in need is a friend in deed, as the proverb say.
However, that paragraph said: "I have found here the friendship and the warmness I had rarely had in my real life, thanks to some great people whom I won't mention here in order to avoid the jealousy of the others."
After seeing other VT members' homepages, where they thank some VTers who marked their life, at least their virtual life, I removed the last part of that sentence, as I thought it was unfair to treat all the people in my friends' list the same way.
These people can actually be divided in three groups:
1) contacts: people I rarely get in touch with;
2) acquaintances: people I regularly get in touch with;
3) friends: people I talk to about almost anything.
In this album, I will talk about my VT acquaintances and friends. All my other contacts can be seen in the "Friends" page. Of course, contacts and acquaintances can become friends some day...

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When I started writing on VT in 2004, I didn't think I would make friends here. You know: someone you talk to about anything, from silly matters to big problems. I was wrong. I did find people whom I could now hardly imagine to live without.
Here they are (not necessarily in order of importance!):

Cristian (Cristian_Uluru) was one of my first VT-friends. We became VT-friends with me on 10th July 2005, when I wished him happy birthday. Since then we have got to know each other better and now we keep in touch at least once a week. Unlike most of my VT-friends, he is of the same age as me, so we experience similar problems and situations; that can be why we have become real friends. He is so far the only VT-member I have met in the real life (in March 2008 in Milano).

Nat (b1bob) is one of my most recent friends, but he has already become one of the best. Being older than me, he helps me cope with the problems of my age (at least, he tries to). He has been the first to invite me to his place in Virginia and I hope I can visit him one day, maybe next year.

Jean-Louis (JLBG) is kind of a (young) grandpa for me. He is a reliable source for my doubts about French, as well as a great traveller. I'd love to be able to travel so much when I am 70!

Arianne (Astene) has always supported me when I have been sad or worried. She has a wonderful smile and a great soul.

Jelena (Aurorae) was one of my first friends. Unfortunately, she has not been on VT very much lately...

Nicola (freya_heaven) was one of my very first friends. She is a great person and I've been missing her since she has become inactive on VT due to her duties as a mum.

Joanie (micajo) is a very recent friend, even if I had been in touch with her for some time before. She is a lovely young woman and her Italian is rather good!

Annamaria (PALLINA) is my best Italian friend apart from Cristian. She always wants to be informed about my studies, readings, hobbies, etc. She is kind of an elder sister!

Patricia (pattypoo) has always worried a lot about my problems and has tried to make me feel better. She has a great heart!

Michele (jadedmuse) is a namesake of mine, even if she is a woman! She has always had good words for me during difficult moments.

... more to come, hopefully...

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I have found many other great people whom I enjoy to stay in touch with, even if we cannot do it very often. A (not exhaustive) list of these VT-friends includes (again, not in order of importance):

Lilia (Childish)

Rita (rita_simoes)

Ozlem (ozalp)

Karlie (Karlie85)

Sergey (Kuznetsov_Sergey)

Anna (Anjutka)

Christina (ChristinaNest)

Marko (Vanity666)

... more to be added...

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I have been in touch with some people who are not (yet) on my friends' list. Some of them haven't add me back to their list, maybe because they think we don't know each other well enough. Some others have explained to me that they don't add anyone.
Anyway, here are some worth meeting VT-people from outside my list:

Romina (Roalera26)

Schnaider

Janet (sol_morena)

Elisa (Elisabcn)

Lara Mia (nixca316)

Xuess (xuessium)

... more to come...

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Like several other VT people, I don't use VT only to plan my journeys, but also, or should I say mainly, as a way to meet new people.
I enjoy wishing happy birthday or saying hello to other VTers, even when I don't know them, because every VT member discloses a world in his/her pages.
When I meet someone interesting, I take note of their name, so that I can contact them again in the future. Sometimes, they become friends with me, sometimes this doesn't happen.
Here is a list of interesting people I hope I'll get in touch with:

Biljana

Bill (bliss7)

Nicoletta (nicolettart)

... many more to be added...

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I'd like to point out again that the aim of this album is not to class my VT friends or other VT people in order of importance, but only to give the deserved prominence to those who have played an important role in my life in the latest years.

Someone may find it useless or superfluous for me to have built such an album but if you have grown up with no friends due to your physical appearance, then you attach more importance to contacts and friendship.

Someone else has probably remarked that my friends' list and this album include a lot of girls or women. It's true, but I'm certainly not like those Arabs who, shortly after joining VT, have a list of 50 unreciprocated female friends. Since I was younger, I have often found it easier to talk to girls and women. When I had penpals, all of them were girls because they could write long letters and understand me better than the average boys could.
It's true, I would love to have a girlfriend (never had one at 25!) and it would be great if I could find my soulmate on VT, as have others already done. But, ladies, if I add you to my friends' list, it's not because you are pretty, or not only for that! It's because you look interesting from other points of view.