From July 27 to August 10, I traveled to Gallipoli, in Puglia, with the Giuliaparla Association, which works with autistic people. I went with seven other young people from the Asperger Group—some of whom had been coming to Friday afternoon meetups at the "Latta Fermenti e Miscele" café in Rome.
During the stay, I lived with them and four or five staff members at the Via Doria Complex, a beautiful villa set within a beach resort. We managed the place wonderfully as a group. Every day we went to the beach in the morning and afternoon. Almost every evening we went out, except when we stayed home to play board games and sing our favorite songs. On Friday nights, since many of the group had to return to Rome the next morning, we'd go out for dinner and then spend fantastic evenings on the beach, staying until 2 a.m.
I especially loved the trip to Gallipoli on Wednesday, July 31, 2024. A small group of us, with an intern, visited the city's harbor and then grabbed an aperitivo before heading back to the beach resort for dinner. During those two weeks, I also enjoyed the wonderful happy hours at various exclusive bars around Gallipoli and the surrounding area—particularly the aperitivo dinner on Wednesday, August 7, at the restaurant Il Trullo in Nardò. There was a night at the nightclub Oasi Quattro Colonne in Santa Maria al Bagno (in the province of Lecce), where we all danced our hearts out—myself included—and impressed everyone else there with how much we were enjoying ourselves. And just before I left for Rome, we went to a concert in Nardò featuring a friend's band. The opening act was a young Salento singer at the start of his career, Maurizio Protopapa (stage name Proto), who won the Lunezia Giovani Prize in 2020, an important music award supported by SIAE.
To sum up: I had an amazing time. I met wonderful new people, including one of the interns—a Clinical Psychology student and a lovely Sicilian named Clara—and a twenty-year-old from Casal Palocco. I connected with both of them immediately and we talked about everything. I'm proud that I continued to build my independence and enriched my social life, and I hope trips like this one can happen again.