I remember the walks with friends from the center of Rimini to the old fair. I was young and always “saving”, but the wide choice of apartments, hostels and hotels that Rimini and its surroundings offered, made you find accommodation for all budgets!

A friend from Brianza once said to me: “But why don’t you become a hostess? You know a bit of English and it’s a beautiful experience!” I had never thought about it and, straight on, I proposed myself on 1984 edition.

Since 1984 I have returned several times as a chaperone becoming more and more passionate about this type of activity very close to my sensitivity as a nurse (serving and helping others) and to different features I used in my work also in the organizational field. I really enjoyed meeting guests and personalities and doing everything to make them feel good, meeting their most concrete needs and, at the same time, making known the soul of the Meeting, the spirit that moved everyone: it was really exciting! I used in my work also in the organizational field. I really enjoyed meeting guests and characters and doing everything to make them feel good, meeting their most concrete needs and, at the same time, making them known the soul of the Meeting, the spirit that moved everyone: it was really exciting!

Age was advancing and it was no longer the case to be a Hostess: make way for beautiful young girls! So I helped as a guide to the Exhibition, at the request of my monk friends of the Cascinazza, With our hands, but with Your strength. The works in the Benedictine monastic tradition,in 2006. This was also a wonderful experience! The last time as a volunteer was in 2013, since 2014, in addition to my work commitments, the health of my increasingly older parents did not allow me to stay away from for the whole week so I participated for a day or two as a visitor

And the 2020 Special Edition came. It was supposed to be the International Year of Nurses and Midwives and... it was the year of the beginning of the SARS CoV-2 pandemic. With my parents in heaven, I was able to return to be an “ambassador” volunteer, taking care of the English translations from home and then finally I participated all week with the legendary group “Dona ora” in 2021.

The Meeting for me is the most shining example of how faith becomes culture. And what a culture! It is able to meet anyone, to dialogue with everyone and to enhance even the smallest aspect of the other, whatever the history, belief, ethnicity, religion, etc. This is precisely the Catholic Church, the Church of the “Fratelli tutti”. This is the Meeting, which truly becomes a school of peace, “for friendship among peoples”. For me it was so at work as in all the international meetings I made, with people known even on the other side of the world.

Who knows what the future holds for me! The resumption of volunteer work for the whole week was not a walk in the park, after all I am now 63 years old.