Updates

I wasn’t planning on getting a new car anytime soon… but on January 3rd, some reckless driver totaled my beloved Panda while it was parked on the street, leaving me with no choice 🙄

After a few weeks of searching and sweating — because finding a car with the configuration I wanted on stock was not easy at all — as of today, I am the happy owner of a Toyota Rav4 ✌️

In loving memory of my Panda, I wish it many thousands of kilometres and many adventures together 🙏

New country 'unlocked' for most members of the team — in fact, for this winter 2025 event we chose Mexico!

It has been an amazing week where, between a dish of tacos and a trip to the playa (we can't be productive all the time now, can we 😎), we launched our new website and kicked off an exciting roadmap for the year ahead.

My Spanish learning hasn’t been the most focused or consistent (as the next update will explain 🤦‍♀️), but I still managed to communicate with locals — airport security, hotel staff, and all. So… no está mal!

As a New Year's project, I decided to learn Spanish 🇪🇸

I've been wanting to do it for a while — also because as a native Italian speaker it should be easy — and the location of the next team offsite (no spoilers yet 👀) was the perfect excuse to spur me on to finally get into it.

The strategy for now is to follow the lessons in the grammar book I bought, to increase vocabulary with Anki (spaced repetition worked well while I was learning German), and to start soon to train listening and comprehension e.g. with videos and podcasts.

¡Adelante!

It's that time of the year again! I'll be doing this year's Advent of Code challenges in TypeScript and posting my solutions in the blog.

This year's target is 500 stars, so I'm looking forward to helping the elves once again and hopefully reach my shiny reward! 🤩

Big news: the Feline Registry (that's a thing) officially recognized Drusy and Lino as our "children" today!

Their weird "You're my best friend, play with me! 😽 / Marta gave you one extra croquette, I'm gonna murder you! 😾" dynamic continues, but they're starting to tolerate each other's presence, which is the important thing…

Yes, Drusy's bossy personality (apparently it was the same at the colony… boys will be boys 🙄) has emerged and he keeps looking at Lino in a scowl, smacking him when he steals his kennel — but shy, submissive Lino is learning to fight back and assert himself.

Basically, they’re being cats, lol. 😁

Feels strange to post an update so soon (has it even been 3 weeks, including my trip across the ocean? 🫠), but here we are—another cat has joined the family! 🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

Meet Draculino, named for his cutest protruding teeth 🧛. He’s from the same colony as Drusy, a half-abandoned house now under construction, making it unsafe for the cats to stay.

The association caring for them is seeking adopters, and my partner thought Drusy seemed bored while I was away, so… welcome, Lino!

A bit of an adventure awaits me this week… I'll fly to Toronto via Copenhagen 🇩🇰, have a trip at the Canadian side of the Niagara Falls 🇨🇦, then fly to Boston and join my colleagues for the Fall 2024 Appetize Offsite - this time in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts.

Can't wait to visit new places, take amazing pictures, and plan the next months of work! 🤩

I've wanted to adopt a cat for ages but kept putting it off — either I was in a flat that didn’t allow pets, or travelling too much, or both. Finally, I’m in a stable place, so... welcome home, Drusy! 🐈‍⬛

Drusy is an adorable 8-year-old former colony cat cared for by a local volunteer group. After recovering from a dental infection, they decided he deserved a safe, loving home.

I’m nervous (caring for a living being is no joke!) but so excited to spend years with this cuddly little guy. ❤️

We finally scheduled masonry work to install the kitchen, and since we have to leave the flat for a couple of weeks, we thought of organising a touring holiday between France (where my partner's relatives live) and Switzerland - all by train.

We'll visit Lausanne, Paris, Dijon and Basel - can't wait! 😀

After the amazing offsite in Austin, I certainly deserve to have a little holiday!

Since my journey back to Italy involves a layover in Atlanta, I decided to make the most of it by spending a few days exploring the city. I’m especially excited to visit the world-famous zoo and aquarium, and of course, the iconic Centennial Olympic Park! 🤩

Fun fact: I recently found out Atlanta’s public transport system is called MARTA. Coincidence, or was it named after me? 😂

It's time for my first offsite event with Appetize - this time the location is Austin, Texas 🤠

I'm very excited to meet the rest of the team in person for the first time after joining the company and to plan together the next few months of work!

Super excited to start a new gig at Appetize.io!

I sent an application a couple of months back, and after a challenging round of interviews I was offered a job as a Full-stack engineer 👩‍💻

They're a small company developing a webapp for streaming iOS and Android app directly in the browser - which I found quite cool, and I look forward to being able to contribute!

Also, they're based in the US but everybody is working fully remotely from both America and Europe… so happy to be part of an dynamic and international team!

Big day for us — we bought a flat! 🎉

It’s in a little mountain village near my hometown, Reggio Emilia; it needs some work before we can fully move in (there’s no kitchen yet, for starters), but we’re excited to make it our home 🏠

Getting through all the bureaucracy of buying a house in Italy was no joke, so just signing the papers feels like a win!

(For context, “rogito” is the Italian word for the final deed you sign at the notary.)

A couple of friends is getting married near Glasgow, so this week we fly over to Scotland, and come back by train (yes, it's possible, although I don't recommend it 😵) so that we can work / visit family on the way.

Unfortunately we can't come back via Paris as we normally do thanks to the lovely landslide that damaged the train line, we'll take the chance to stop in Strasbourg and have a little holiday 🇫🇷

I'm meeting my colleagues in Berlin this week - we are at an important stage of the project where we have to make key decisions and work closely with customers and stakeholders, so we decided to get everyone together and work for a couple of days on the next step.

Also very excited to be back in Berlin! 🇩🇪

Time for a quick Easter trip to Rome - my partner needs the French embassy, so we turned it into a mini holiday 😎

Unfortunately, I ended up catching Covid along the way (lesson learned: always wear a mask when walking in a crowd 🙄), so we had to cut the trip short by a day. Still, it was a lovely time in the city — Rome never disappoints!