…an eternal girl in love with her homeland …
I was born on March 23, 1972, and grew up in a small village in the hills of the Oltrepò Pavese… or rather… to tell the truth, CALGHERA isn’t even a village—it’s actually a hamlet in the Valverde district of the municipality of Colli Verdi in the province of Pavia.
I’m proud of my roots and have wonderful memories of the years I spent playing cowboys and Indians in the woods with my sister Chiara, helping my grandfather Arturo, my dad Luigi, and my uncle Enrico as we gathered hay in the fields, growing tomatoes and competing with my sister, picking primroses and daisies to make flower crowns, or picking blackberries to bring to my mom Rosanna to make jam.
I remember the time my grandfather let me try milking the cow and we made cheese with the milk, and the time Chiara and I (still just little girls) picked up the cigarette butt my grandfather had thrown on the ground and tried to smoke it… my throat burned so much!!
I remember the years I spent in the multigrade class at the elementary school in Valverde with our teacher, Letizia Montagna—there were five of us students in total; I was in first grade and the other four boys were in fourth—and the car rides home, during which we sat on our father’s lap because we were still too small to reach the pedals.
As a child, I loved to draw with colored pencils or chalk. Later, I moved on to painting ceramics using the soft-oil technique. I would have loved to attend an art school and learn how to restore frescoes, but for various reasons, I took a different path.
Since the high schools were far away and difficult to reach by public transportation, my parents moved to Pavia to make it easier for us to attend school. My educational path was shaped less by conscious decisions and more by the attitude that “Life is what happens to you while you’re making other plans.”
After graduating from a science-focused high school, earning a bachelor’s degree in Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures, and completing a master’s degree in Media Science and Technology—which included an internship at the IBM training center in Novedrate—I won a competitive position at the University of Pavia as a technician at the Computing Center for the computer labs in the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy. Thanks to Prof. Anthony Baldry, I was able to participate in research projects and international conferences that provided me with opportunities for professional growth in the academic setting. After completing specialization courses for Distance Learning Tutors at the Universities of Siena and Florence, and six months of professional training in Edinburgh and Hanover thanks to the “Ivano Becchi” scholarship from the Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lombardia, I earned my Ph.D. from Leibniz University Hannover and was hired at the L3S research center (www.L3S.de), where I work as an expert in educational technologies and a project manager.
As a member of the Langenhagen Nature Association (NVL, https://www.nvl-langenhagen.de/) and the Advisory Board of the Italian-German Cultural Association of Hanover (DIK e.V. Hanover, https://dik-hannover.de/), I strive to stay informed about issues related to sustainability and help promote Italian culture abroad, particularly that of my home region: the Oltrepò Pavese.
I never miss an opportunity to foster collaboration between Italy and Germany, as is the case, for example, with the “Rete del Gusto” promoted by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the ConnActions project.
…..I dream of returning as soon as possible to the hills of my beloved Oltrepò and thus coming full circle …
