Interview with @faber_88 22.03.2026
Thank you very much Francesco that i can interview you!!! 🙏😊 I have 20 questions but in each part i will ask 5. And only answer the questions that you like of course!! 😛 Molto grazie and thank you very much!!! 🌸🌈⭐
⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀ ⠀⠀ ⠀ PART I
1: How long have you been a member of PPG? What are things that you like the most on PPG and do you maybe think that some things can be better? Do you perhaps have tips for @Etienne?
I’ve apparently been a member of this website for more than nine years, but I hadn’t been active at all until about last month. Back then, I was joining every language exchange platform I could find because I was preparing for the IELTS test and my English wasn’t very good. I mainly needed it for work.
After a while, I lost track of all the websites and chats I had joined. Then I created a new email address, and the memory of PPG completely disappeared. It wasn’t until last month, when I was checking my old email, that I saw a message from someone from a source I didn’t immediately recognize. I could read part of the message though; it was from someone suggesting a language exchange. That’s when I realized it was PPG.
I won’t tag the person because I am not sure she would agree. Unfortunately, the exchange didn’t take place because it was supposed to be in French, and my French is quite rusty after many years of neglect.
I like PPG because I can keep practicing English and other languages in a friendly and enjoyable community. I’ve already met incredible people, each with their own story and goals, but all driven by a genuine desire to help each other.
I don’t really have any complaints or suggestions to improve the website, just a sincere thank you to Etienne for the effort and time he has put into making all of this possible.
2: Do you like where you live in Italy? Did you always live there and do you want to stay there in the future or maybe also live in a different place? And what is the nicest for visitors if they come to your city?
It’s a difficult question. Of course, I like where I live because it’s my hometown, where I grew up and where my relatives live, but I don’t like the direction my city is evolving in.
It is a small city situated on the west coast of Sardinia, which is the second-largest island in Italy. The entire island is mostly known for its beautiful beaches, and my city has the most important airport and harbor in the northern part of it.
Summers, as far as I can remember, have always been chaotic, but not excessively so, and they were followed by calm winters. However, in the past few years, I’ve noticed a shift, mainly caused by the stubborn idea of focusing the regional economy entirely on the seasonal tourism sector.
This has led to a spike in rents, the price of goods, and speculation. My city is becoming so expensive that ordinary people are struggling to live here and are moving outside the city. Soon, the entire place risks becoming a tourists’ trap in summer and an empty, soulless shell in winter.
This phenomenon is not endemic to my island it can be seen everywhere seasonal tourism is the main and almost only driver of wealth.
Of course, I will try to keep living here, but if necessary, I would leave, as I did in the past. So far, I’ve lived in my hometown, another city during university, Rome, and Germany for a few years.
To visitors, I would say: don’t come to Sardinia only in the summer, and not just for the beaches, there is much more to discover inland: genuine people, food, and history. Coming in the summer is extremely expensive and often frustrating because of the millions of people trying to do the same thing, and it doesn’t offer anything you couldn’t experience elsewhere. You will simply be surrounded by other tourists, and nothing more.
As someone wiser than me once said: a tourist visits a location; a traveler visits a population. Be the latter it will change your experience and yourself.
3: Do you play music or sport? And what kind of new instrument would you like to learn to play in the future or a different sport?
I used to play guitar, mostly acoustic and classical, and also the ukulele. It is one of the many hobbies I am struggling to keep alive. I would have loved to learn how to play the piano, but I don’t think that is going to be possible. It would take just too much effort and time that I don’t have. As far as sports, I like hiking, if that can be considered a sport. Every time I have some free weekend, I organize with friends to go hiking somewhere wild. I also go to the gym frequently, and that’s it. I am not interested in learning new sports.
4: Can you cook very well? And if somebody comes to visit you and you have to make a nice dinner: what do you make? And what kind of food do you like the most?
I can cook decently. I love to make almost any type of pasta. I also love in winter to make soups and meet stews. For dinner I would probably make a risotto with fish brot, shrimps, mussels, squids and clams. I am addicted to a dish called “pollo coi peperoni” is a typical Roman dish and is basically chicken thighs or drums with Bell peppers in tomato sauce.
5: What are the best things of Italy now and what the worst? If you can change 3 things in Italy and it would work: what would you choose?
The best thing about Italy is the diversity of culture and food you can find when traveling from north to south. Italy is one of the few countries in Europe that extends this way into the Mediterranean Sea, so it has been influenced a lot in the past.
Culturally, the north is more influenced by Central Europe, and as you slowly go south, you can see people’s attitudes and food changing a lot, becoming more and more Mediterranean.
I don’t have the presumption of knowing what is best for an entire country, but if I could change something—let’s say in a virtual machine identical to reality, just to see if things would work without consequences, I would change how some people think nowadays. I constantly see people sacrificing the future for the present, not able to take responsibility because it’s too demanding, but instead craving more instant gratification.
This impacts not only their lives (leading to dissatisfaction and frustration) but also their communities, and therefore the entire country. I would gladly enjoy watching a reality where people are more responsible, thinking not only about themselves but also about their community.
Thank you very much for the first part of this interview Francesco!! 🙏🙏😊😊 If anybody wants to ask a question or post a comment you can do that below ⬇️⬇️ or write Francesco a message!! 😊😊 More interviews of PPG members are on this page: overview of interviews.
