YARI GHIDONE

Yari Ghidone Need for freedom

BY MARTA MANZONI PHOTOS YARI GHIDONE

Yari Ghidone is a modern nomad. He is hungry for real, natural, primordial things. He lives outside social conventions, far from those metropolises and contemporary prisons where bourgeois conformism becomes a single thought, an ontology of homologation. Where it counts to appear, rather than to be.

Yari Ghidone is a stray by nature, a wanderer by choice. His story it is the story of those who experienced new balances, at peace with themselves. His passion for photography was born in the second year of high school, in 2008, when he also started cycling in Turin. In 2014 he travelled to Corsica for the first time: there his love for freedom was born and he decided the life he wanted to live. In 2016 he rented his first van and, after two days, realized he wanted to live in that same van. So, the following year, he bought a van, sorry, his house. More than 1400 days have passed since then, strictly into the wild.

Where does this need for freedom come from? Having my home everywhere: by the sea, on the mountains. Being in contact with nature, every day, not just on weekends. Working on the edge of a frozen lake is simply priceless.

Why do you do that? Just to encourage people to do something simple and beautiful. Travel does not have to be expensive or in luxury hotels, you can experience important emotions being in contact with nature, spending little. At first I was not prepared, I didn't really know what awaited me, but it was what I wanted, and I went for it. There must be a reason why I'm still here after four years: evidently I had clear ideas. I learned many things along the way, how to face the winter and manage certain situations that are a bit extreme. From the outside it all looks beautiful while in reality there are many shades. This is why I also show when I drain the toilet or stay for a week in the flood and the solar panels do not work. At first I didn't have the money to buy the van: thirty thousand euros is an important amount of money. But I had been renting a house in the mountains for years, so I thought about everything I had spent on rent and that it hadn't left anything in my hand, and I decided. I wanted to be able to move my house where I wanted. I bought a third of the van immediately, with little savings. Then for a year and a half I continued to work in my uncle's comic shop in Turin, sleeping in the mountains around the city. In 2018 the shop closed and in the meantime the van became a job.

What does travelling mean to you? Right now, as we speak, it's February, I'm twenty meters from the sea, in Sardinia, and I'm preparing a pasta sauce, in short sleeves. Waking up surrounded by nature is synonymous with freedom.

This is the idea, even if it is not always like that. My adventure has been gradual, it began in a tent and on a car, then I bought the van in order to have a stove and hot water.

Where have you been in these years? I love Italy, it’s full of beautiful places and it takes a very long time to discover them all. I have been in Sardinia for four months and it seems like I haven’t seen anything. I think it would take me at least three years to see Italy well. I do not understand why Italians snub their country, perhaps it is cooler to say that we have been to some exotic place. I am in love with Sardinia, Central Italy, Umbria, Abruzzo Marche, Lazio, the area of the Apennines is truly beautiful, especially when coming to free camping. I go every summer, at least a month, even to the border between Piedmont and France, where there are wonderful places to spend a night under the stars. I often travel abroad to France or even Norway.

Do you ever feel alone? You are born alone and you also die alone. Loneliness is scary for many people but it must be faced sooner or later. To feel good with others you must first of all feel good with yourself. A lifestyle like mine leads you to spend a lot of time alone, even if it doesn't mean that you always have to be alone. You must learn to share time with yourself: a person who knows how to be alone is a step ahead of others. Sometimes I feel lonely, but I have learned to handle this situation, so it doesn't bother me. Loneliness means having time for myself, to take pictures, to look at the stars. It is something bad only for people who are unable to face it, and are therefore happy to have anyone near, because they are afraid of their shadow. This does not mean that when I find people with whom I feel good I can feel better than alone. But every now and then I have the desire to light a fire alone. I'm used to not being judged for my lifestyle: I just get up and leave.

You are very popular on social media, how do you live your popularity? It depends on the situations: there are people who are a little insistent, however, when you expose yourself, this is also part of the game, you can't just want a part of it. I would like to use this popularity to convey the concept that the beauty lays in the little things. Instagram allows you to reach many people but the reality is not shown: only the beautiful part is shown, the one that makes you dream.

There are groups on telegram born only to say bad things about me. At first I was sad, there are really bad, envious and frustrated people that made me feel bad. Social media have amplified pub dynamics, and not putting your face on it is devastating. Out of ten people who insult me on social media, only one of them would have the courage to do it live. Now I just think this is part of my job. However, some criticisms are also constructive. The bright side is when someone tells me that he bought a camper van because he saw some of my videos.

A lifestyle like mine leads you to spend a lot of time alone, even if it doesn't mean that you always have to be alone. You must learn to share time with yourself: a person who knows how to be alone is a step ahead of others.

Have you been homesick during these four years living in a van? No, but sometimes unpleasant situations happened. There were moments I got stuck in the snow, or in the mud, where I really had to work hard to get out. Fortunately, I always managed to stay calm and in control, and then with the experience you learn to manage almost everything. One of the worst memories was when the engine broke down while I was climbing in Sardinia. But I continued to follow my idea of freedom and that night I slept in a tent.

No regrets? Never. I mark the days that have passed since I decided to live on a van not to prove something to others but for myself, I like to remember the places I went through. Today, we are in February 2021, it is the day 1.371.

What if you fall in love with a girl who has an office job? Your hypothetical future family should have your same lifestyle? The idea of stability actually kills a person. I know where I'll sleep tonight just because I have the ferry booked, but I don't know where I'll be tomorrow. I live day by day, it is my rule. It is difficult for me to share even just a dinner with a girl who does not like this lifestyle, adventure, a fire under the stars. In the last year, especially after the lockdown I spent on the mountains, I have become very selective with people. I understand that time is invaluable and I can't share it with people I don't get along with.

Any tips to light a fire? It is always a challenge: you have turned it on the day before and the day before that but you are never sure that you will succeed again. That's the beauty of it. The advice I would give is to know when to give up to fire because it is as beautiful as it is risky: in no time you can do gigantic damage and put yourself and others in danger.

Any more advices? More than an advice I would like to stimulate people to try and make mistakes in order to learn. It's like when someone asks me what parameters I used for a photo shoot: I can tell them, but in this way the next situation that you’ll face, and that will be certainly different from the previous one, you wouldn’t know how to behave. We must explain why, in order to favor understanding. You have to live the adventure, otherwise it's already written.

Future projects? I would love to go to Lapland to see the Northern Lights.

What have you discovered in these four years? That this is exactly the way I want to live, surrounded by the perfection of nature. A dinner in a restaurant would never beat a slice of meat cooked on the fire, under the stars.

P.S. Meanwhile, during the two months that have passed since the interview, Yari Ghidone arrived in Lapland, and saw endless Northern Lights.

Good journey.