Hi there, I’m Lorenzo, but my friends call me Manzino!
I was born in Tuscany (near Pisa) and since I was a kid I dreamed to travel the world using only my grandmother’s atlas, one of my most treasured toys.
In real life, I am a Bartender and have been based in London since 2009. Working my entire life in hospitality has fuelled my interest in restaurants, food and beverage. However, I’d like to take you on a brief journey of my travels.
In 2012 I finally set out on my first backpacking trip with friends in Thailand, which ignited a passion for adventure that wasn’t going to fizzle out any time soon. One year later I did the same in Cuba hosted by local families, and in 2014 I drove from coast to coast with a motorhome across the USA, with a memorable stop at Burning Man festival.
After that, I crossed a vast expanse of Mexico by car dodging iguanas, followed by a motorcycle ride around Bali.
At the beginning of 2017 I felt rather tired of the working grind of London, especially those late nights, so I choose to take back my time and to embrace the happiness. I quit my job and I went solo backpacking in Central and South America for 8 months, I travelled slow and immersed myself in 10 different cultures along the way.
First stop was Costa Rica where I saw a wild puma. I sailed the San Blas islands from Panama to Colombia, and ventured into the amazon travelling for many days and nights on a rusty and slow boat lying on a hammock. I trekked for 5 days to the mystic Machu Picchu, crossed the border between Bolivia and Chile in the middle of the desert, and I drunk mate in Argentina. I hitchhiked in Uruguay and I ended up dancing Samba in Brazil.
My eventual return to London came with a severe bite from the travel bug, convinced that travelling would always be my biggest curiosity, and an endless pursuit in life.
Whilst working during the last 3 years I kept travelling whenever opportunity struck, mainly in Europe, however I managed to fit in an island-hopping trip in the Philippines, not bad!
In 2020 I was extremely lucky to visit two fantastic destinations right before the pandemic hit. These included dog sledding in Lapland and marvelling at the spectacular Sakura in Japan wearing a traditional Kimono, fullfilling and further sparking yet another dream.
My travel styles vary from trip to trip, but the hunt for local food is always the same. Being a photography enthusiast, I like to merge travel with street Photography. oh and did I mention I also love cycling? In the future I would love to experience more cycling expeditions. Believe it or not, I once cycled fro Florence to Rome.
But enough about me. I finally decided to create this blog, with a view to curating my stories and sharing my experiences with you, bringing perspective, flavour and dreaming, to whichever corner of the world you might be in.
I believe travel is endless. You could dedicate five lifetimes to it and still not experience Earth completely. Traveling is also the only thing you buy that makes you richer, and to that end, I finish on one of my favourite quotes:
You have to taste a culture to understand it
Lorenzo Manzo