When you get out of the hospital, are we going to leave for Australia? When Giulia Lamarca tells the story of a proposal which seemed absurd at the time (during the nine-month hospitalization following a scooter accident that caused her partial paraplegia), she doesn’t hide her emotions. It really did seem absurd so instead she and Andrea Decarlini, who proposed the trip and who she got to know by chance in the corridors of the hospital where he was doing an internship as a physiotherapist, travelled to Australia the year after the accident, in 2012.
The trip was only the first in a long series of oversea journeys, which in almost nine years has led them to visit twenty-nine countries on five continents – including China, where part of Decarlini’s family is originally from
Giulia Lamarca and her travel stories
Shortly after their wedding in 2016, Giulia Lamarca began talking about their lives and travels on Instagram. If the first posts were limited to images with a short caption, today they are always accompanied by Andrea’s photos and videos (he associates the profession of physiotherapist with a certain familiarity with the camera and editing programs) and show an unmissable story of a couple who certainly travel a great deal, love each other, support each other a lot and share a bit of their everyday life with their followers (who have long exceeded one hundred thousand).
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The truth about travel
A few years ago, they realized that they had enough material to fill a website with tales of their travel experiences and in 2018 they did it, calling it My travels: the hard truth, because this is what they do: they don’t hide the truth. A truth that, as Giulia Lamarca never ceases to repeat, thanks to her direct experience and her degree in Psychology with a specialization in business training, is a two-sided coin. There is the one side, illuminated by the smiles of a happy couple, engaged in an excursion to Mount Takao in Japan, sitting in front of the Taj Mahal or between the walls of their home in the long period in which travelling wasn’t allowed, but then there is the other side, always having to deal with accessibility for their wheelchair, and everything else that being physically restricted entails. They are just like another mixed couple (this time only partners in business) who also don’t shy away from the truth and who told NRW how they were able to face disability with vitality and creativity, even on social media.
This is why, on Giulia and Andrea’s website (next to the itineraries, the prices of attractions and museums, the interesting curiosities and suggestions on what you absolutely cannot miss out on when visiting somewhere) there is never a lack of notes on accessibility or advice to overcome the physical barriers they have encountered. Because, as Giulia Lamarca says, being amazed by the wonders of the world is a right for everyone.
Translated by Adam Clark
Photo: Instagram/Giulia Lamarca
