Some interviews stay with you, and this is one of them.

In this episode I sit down with Alessandra, the founder of a ceramics studio in Italy who has just been awarded €150,000 in European Union funding to build the business — and the community — she's dreamed about for over ten years. After a life in teaching, she's finally stepping into the art and ceramics work she always wanted, and doing it at 50, the year after losing her mum.

There's a bit of a backstory to how we met. I'd left the UK with £1,500 and a decision hanging over me: go back into a "normal" life, or go all-in on full-time travel. I chose freedom. That choice led me to a volunteer exchange program (Worldpackers), and to Italy — a country that means everything to me, because my own mum passed away in 2022 with a dream of celebrating her 60th in Venice. I try to do one  ...