I am Luca, 30 years old, from Biella – Italy🇮🇹, currently in Europe living in Amsterdam – Netherlands🇳🇱 to set up my next international experience.

Those are very basic info that you can find everywhere, but if you really want to know more about me, this is my recent story ⬇️

I left Italy at the age of 20 years old, straight after high school (yes, I repeated one year 🙃), but not before achieving my dream job position as the lifeguard at my favourite hometown’s swimming pool, named Alba Marina. I had the last great Italian summer ever!

My first destination was Brisbane – Australia in 2011, I moved there with two old friends, but we all took separated paths within a few weeks. A couple of months later I moved to Melbourne with a Japanese friend that I met during an English course. Once there I voluntary got stuck with a girlfriend for nearly six months until I decided to just leave to travel the rest of the country.

I traveled all centre of Australia by train and four-wheel drive, sleeping under millions of stars, seeing unbelievable sights and meeting wonderful people along the way. I spent last four months of my visa in the very north of Australia, in a tropical city called Darwin, where I partied seven days per week (whilst leaving in a tent)  and realizing what sort of lifestyle suited me the best.

After the memorable – one year long – Australian experience I traveled to Asia for the first time. I chose to visit Singapore first and after that, I spent a whole month in one of my favourite countries on Earth, Thailand. The experience was so overwhelming that it nearly deleted the Australian year out of my memory.

I moved back to Italy after nearly 14 months in November 2012, spending a cold winter in my hometown. But that wasn’t me anymore, I had to leave again. So, one night, when I was about to go out with a girl I was seeing, a just half hour prior the appointment, I bought a one-way ticket to Tokyo – Japan for January 2013.

I was lucky enough to have a great Italian-Japanese friend to own a place in one of the coolest areas in Tokyo, so I lived and partied with him. The Japanese experience was very intense and particular, but it was time for me to go back to Oceania, this time in New Zealand.

Before moving to New Zealand, I had a trip to South Korea without a cell phone. I traveled from city to city to catch up with friends met during my time in Australia. It was one of the nicest journeys I’ve ever had.

Once I arrived in New Zealand, I started to work in 4 and 5-star hotels, building friendships that are still strong today. It didn’t take me long to work in entertainment in Auckland, I was noticed by a few managers and in a very short period of time, I was working seven days a week between my day job and entertainment gigs. My party life was extreme, but I managed to prepare for a couple of bodybuilding competitions as well as some courses to improve my English. The time in New Zealand truly taught me how to manage my time wisely.

In May 2014, I tried my fortune in Hong Kong, and it worked very well. I ended up being a showman for a company at 22 years old, just within 10 days from my arrival. My time in Hong Kong was a turning point in my life, I started to look at the world in a different way and from that point on I lived in a more “money-oriented” way.

Right before my family reunion, I bungee jumped off the Macau Tower, just to feel even more adrenaline. I met my parents and my brother at Bangkok airport for a family trip around Thailand. The first part of the trip was with the whole family, partying at night and sightseeing during the day; but the last couple of weeks were with my brother only. That trip, with my brother being 19 years old, made us as close as never before.

In September 2014, I decided to move back to Australia, heading to Sydney for the very first time. I had one goal, and one goal only, I wanted to be a fully booked showman and talent model. My focus towards my goal was quite intense, and I achieved it within a few months, with countless gigs and more experiences I could have even imagined before.

After two years and a half away from Italy, I went to Biella for a short trip to celebrate my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary. I had a great time catching up with family and friends who changed so much in the last two years. Or was it me the one who had changed so much?🤔

On the way back to Sydney I brought my brother with me, and we started to work together in several events having, even more, fun than I had had before on my own. Once in Australia, I spread my connection, which enabled me to travel for work back to Hong Kong, Singapore and visit Indonesia and Philippines for the first time.

In November 2015 in Sydney, I had everything I wished; extended networking, a woman I loved, and a few good friends (those kinds of friendships for life) as well as my brother living nearby. Everything was going well, maybe too well, so one night I just decided to leave for good without any solid reason. One of those decisions that still keep me awake at night sometime… what if I would have stayed there longer?

My next “home” was going to be Bangkok – Thailand; but just before it, I had one last great Bonafede-Brothers show in Darwin, having probably one of the best family memories possible. Straight after the show, I promised myself I was not going to come back to Australia anytime soon. – A promise to myself that I didn’t keep –

My time as a “local” in Bangkok was interesting, but nothing even close to the memories I had of the previous two trips; but it was the beginning of my crazy 2016 plan. My 2016 started with a backpacker trip with a longtime Italian friend to Vietnam and Cambodia, the memorable experience ended with a horrible food poisoning – that was just part of the experience – 🙃

For the next couple of months, I traveled up and down between Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand waiting for my special 25th bday plan. I wanted to do something special, so I spent the morning of my bday in Bangkok – Thailand and the evening in a place 3977 Kms away, Almaty – Kazakhstan.

After an exciting trip full of surprises around Kazakhstan, I headed to the very pretty Switzerland to catch up with a few friends before heading back to Italy to enjoy a summer that unfortunately, never arrived.

Whilst my time in Italy, I had the opportunity to travel to a few cities around my home country, which I found fascinating and so different from the locations I lived in for the last five years in the Asia – Pacific area.

I decided to move to Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia, where I waited for my family to join me for our second South East Asian trip. This time it was a total mess, 😱 we also lost some of our luggage on the way to Singapore.  Besides a few bad memories,  I believe these kind of things just makes a family even more united.

Once at Changi airport, I said goodbye to my parents who were going back to Italy (without any luggage), and to my brother who was going to live in Auckland – New Zealand. So, I decided to stay in Singapore for a while. And it was a smart decision indeed, it helped me to understand what I wanted to do for the following couple of years.

In September 2016 I moved back to Sydney – Australia, but it didn’t feel right already from the very beginning. I wanted to study in Australia, but I knew that I couldn’t stay there in Sydney any longer. So one Tuesday while swimming, the idea to go back to Brisbane and study there shaped my mind.

In January 2017, after an amazing December in Sydney, I moved to Brisbane after over five years time. The first thing I did was to apply for my dream apartment and join a school that worked as the pathway to the university.

After a whole year in Brisbane, a series of events led me to leave Australia once again. Before the sad goodbye I decided to do build the best memories possible, so I rented a car and traveled for over 6000 Km, leaving Australia with a very big smile

Nobody knew my following destination, and a really few people knew that I was going to leave Australia. It was my strategy to fully surprise my family and friends… it worked amazingly. My return to Italy late January 2018 was one of the nicest.

I found myself in Italy for way too long, I saw the months pass by without many exciting events, so I decided to leave straight after another great season as a lifeguard in my hometown to head to Amsterdam – Netherlands

I thought I was an “expert” in moving from city to city, but this time was the hardest ever… I would not say I liked anything here. I was not able to find the right job for me, the right place to live, and not even the right gym to workout at. It seemed that everything was horrible here in Amsterdam

I spent more months than I can remember moaning, complaining, finding every excuse in the book to not even wake up in the morning. I thought everything was wrong around me, – and it probably was – I desperately felt the need to feel something or at least less miserable. So I had the brilliant idea to introduce some alcohol into my daily diet, which was followed by junk food and, of course, countless numbing hours watching whatever mind-numbing show. I eventually became very moody, and somehow introverted with a massive “fuck off” written on my forehead. My list of brilliant ideas did not end up there, I could go on for hours, but I will spare you that. However, one thing was sure – I became the person I have never thought I would have ever become – a lazy broken complainer!

Many months went by till through a series of events, I finally stared myself back in the mirror and I said: “if this is my life it is better to be dead”. I did not like my reflection in the mirror, and nothing else I saw around me. The only thing I owned was my memories and my dreams. I knew I could not change my Life instantaneously, but I knew I could change the direction of it immediately. It took me many tries and a lot of failures before I finally asked myself “what could I do NOW to improve my present and pull me towards the future? What will make me proud of my actions five years, ten years from now? What will help me to make sense of my time on earth?”. The answer arrived pretty quickly – or it was always there – I applied for the Faculty of Humanities at Amsterdam University. A few months later, I was accepted, and I finally began my bachelor in European Studies. But just before that I had a nice motorbike trip from Italy  to the Netherlands  crossing the beautiful Alps through Switzerland, Austria  and eventually riding across all Germany . Sometimes, being alone on the road is the best medicine.

Once back in Amsterdam, things began to change, the university was online-only, and I started to work full-time. I do not know how I managed, but I worked full time six-seven days per week, and I passed my first year of university. I felt blessed to be in the Netherlands, the only country without a strict lockdown, which meant that I could keep my tradition of spending my birthday in a different location each year ✅✅✅ Done that year too!

In the middle of the unprecedented world’s mess, restrictions, pandemics, gym closure, and working in a shitty job, I managed to have a good time. I upgraded my living situation by moving to one of the newest areas of Amsterdam across the IJ canal. Last but not least, after several years of amazing freedom, I decided to change something, and within a few weeks, I was in a relationship with a beautiful woman. It is still bizarre for me to see myself in a relationship, but in life it is essential to evolve.

I lived with my girlfriend while studying online, the life in Amsterdam was driving me crazy. Only work, laptop, and home. No gym, not even a nice meal in a restaurant. I then began to collect movies, DVDs and Blu-rays, I started with only three, and within a few weeks, they were hundreds that kept me “sane” for a while. Or was I just getting crazier? One day, I drove to Bruges-Belgium to spend my girlfriend’s birthday somewhere nice and on the way back, we talked about how it would have been nice to leave the Netherlands for some time.

Since we got along well, we agreed. So we did! We moved to Finland by the end of March, a much nicer place to be during a pandemic. We ended up in Rauma, a small city on the country’s West coast. I managed to spend another birthday in a different location. The very feared 30th birthday! I was very happy about that ✅✅✅However, not as happy as when I discovered that I was going to work in the well-known nuclear power plant reactor in Olkiluoto. The experience was extremely fascinating, even though I had to get most things translated because I could not speak Suomi. The environment, the people, the salary, the Finnish system. It all worked as it should work in any country that is considered civilized.

We were meant to stay in Finland for a couple of months only. However, the beauty of the country and the hospitality of the people I met there led us to stay for much longer.

The idea was to “take” my girlfriend to South Korea since she managed to be invited for an internship there. But it did not matter how hard we tried; I was not able to obtain a visa to get there. I thought about driving there, but the only way in was via North Korea and, at that moment, I did not have much connection to drive safely 🥲😅

So I said: “you know what? I will take you to Italy. But on one condition: we will drive the long way there“. We departed from Rauma on the West coast of Finland, drove to Helsinki, got a ferry to Estonia, crossed that country, then Latvia and Lithuania through an unprecedented storm. We crossed Poland from East to West the following day with a fantastic stop in Warsaw. The last day was the least exciting; was it probably because I was driving towards the Netherlands? I am not 100% sure, but we managed to visit Berlin and arrive back “home” in Amsterdam to reorganize our luggage. 36 hours later, we were on the road again via Belgium first and France after. I was over-caffeinated, but I managed to cross the Mont Blanc and reach Biella just in time for dinner as planned. A lovely 16 hours drive across 4 countries.

The trip did not end up there. How sad would it have been to just travel to one location? So we went to see a friend of mine in the North East of Italy, we visited yet another country – Slovenia. After a few more locations as a double couple, my girlfriend and I began our three days 1-year anniversary celebration between Venice, Firenze and Siena. What a fantastic time we had. The locations, the weather and the food, helped a lot!

The time was just right to say goodbye. Every sound relationship that has to “stop” for a reason or another must be “paused” only when it is the best time of the relationship. So we did. Off she went to South Korea for several months with the glorious memory of our 5987.6 km road trip across Europe from Finland to Italy. The 12 countries visited together in 12 months. 

The time to leave Italy arrived for me as well, so I managed to organize another road trip to visit a friend I had met in Auckland, New Zealand, 8 years ago. Wow, what a nice solo road trip through the Alps, via Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, and eventually the Netherlands.

Here I am once again, in Amsterdam, studying what I genuinely like and doing my best to expand my knowledge in as many ways as I can grasp. But life doesn’t end there. There is so much more that I want to do, and this website is one project that I have been dragging with me for the last 7 years or so.

This ⬆is where I come from and where I am now. As you can imagine, it has never been a straight line but rather a muddy path that, just now, started to make sense.

Fortunately, and unfortunately, when I travel or experience something unique, I hardly (very rarely) share it straightaway. And once I make the time to do it, I think it is already an old memory, and I eventually end up sharing little or no stories.

TheLucaBonafede.com was created to fulfil all those requests I have received over the last 10 years in telling my stories of my multiple lives, careers, ups and downs.

TheLucaBonafede.com may help me appreciate my life, but ultimately it is for you! I want you to understand that what you see, shown to you over social media, is just a note of a song, a fragment of a whole building, a split second of a movie of what we call LIFE.

My promise to you is to be as honest as I can be in telling you what it means to do well in something, destroy everything and rebuild it again. The mental process, the insecurities, and all the rest needed to create that illusion of perfection that we all seek.