About us
Maria Teresa. Our story of meeting is funny. He was already abroad, I was studying in Italy. One of his friends told him: “Pasquale, you’re 26, you need to be married”. My husband was not thinking of marrying. He told him: I’ll introduce you to 3 of my friends. That guy was our common friend, but we didn’t know each other. He said: “You have to marry at least one of them”. I was the luckiest, the first and the second were terrible. That’s how we met. A year later we were married.
Our proposal was very romantic. He was in the South Arabic and bought an engagement ring, very beautiful with diamonds and sapphire. Women there like jewels, and he managed to find a classic ring. The seller put the perfume into the box with the ring so that it was very romantic when I see the ring. We weren’t always together, as he was travelling a lot, so it was very old-fashioned traditional and beautiful proposal. He was like a prince in a faraway country coming just to see me with the perfume and the ring. When he came we were 24 hours together trying to recuperate the lost days together.
There was south Arabian, then there was New York, Ethiopia, Africa. Then we decided that it was time to have children. Our daughter was born and then we continued to travel. But actually we travel more than common diplomats, we were twice in the states, then in Brussel, the last was Prague.
We’re going to be here for 3.5 years.
About Astana
Pasquale. The international capital, it’s the most modern, the newest capital in the world. It’s very nice. And our Rome is the oldest one. So the combination of the oldest one and the newest one will make both the rich. The international capital, it’s the most modern, the newest capital in the world. It’s very nice. And our Rome is the oldest one. So the combination of the oldest one and the newest one will make both the rich.
Maria Teresa. The new impression was like: How new it is! A little bit like a city of the future. All these skyscrapers, the skyline... It’s different from all the cities we’ve been to. We’ve been travelling a lot, we’ve been to Chicago, NY. So skyscrapers aren’t new for us, but here they’re very different. Cause it really looks like from future.
Pasquale. Astana has really good infrastructure. You had Expo, that’s very future of the future. It’s an advance and beautiful symbol of the fair. We like the architecture, it’s various: Ak orda, Presidential building, Mega silk way, Opera house. It’s clear that the government of the Kazakh people commit to have not just buildings, but very alive city. Your people’s challenge is to make the city alive.
Maria Teresa. Wherever you go you find shops devoted to Italian items: clothes, food, furniture. I think that if there’s such kind of interest, people should go and see a real place. As for me, in Italy I was trying to imagine how Kazakhstan looks. But you have to see the real place. You can’t buy Armani and think that you know the place. You have to go and see the real.
One more thing that strikes me is the kindness of the Kazakh people. Your faces, appearance give me the sense of calm, quite, kindness and curiosity towards us. That’s nice, we don’t feel rejected, we’re welcomed. I would really try to make friends with Kazakh women. We always try to make friends from different countries.
The thing is that Kazakhs have similarity with the Italian people, they like children, wherever you go you see parents playing with children joyfully. Yesterday we were at the restaurant, there were several Kazakh families with the children, there were children corners. Those people were having high standard of life, but they were still with their children. That’s not common in all the countries. But here you can feel that no matter what social level you have, the family is the nest like in Italy.
Pasquale. One of the reasons we decided to come to Kazakhstan is that we like mountains. We wanted to take pics of the Altai, Tian-Shang, Shymbulak. When out daughter comes we’ll go to Shymbulak. We’ve heard of Burabai, we’re going to go there. We’re very curious to go to Shymkent, Turkestan, see the Silk Way monuments. We’d like to see places visited by Marco Polo, the first European to come here. Our story of friendship with Kazakh started centuries ago. Then we’ll go to Bukhara and Samarkand.
About family
We’re married for 33 years, our daughter is 25, she’s in Italy finishing her studies. Until she was 18 she was travelling with us. Then she’ll probably join us to visit the country, to have some experience here.
Our daughter is very smart and beautiful. She has a big sense of humor, she likes people, and she’s very international, as she was going from one country to other. She’s a child of the world, but she’s from Rome. She’s fluent in Italian, French and Spanish. But at the same time she adores Rome, as she like the sunshine, walks watching monuments, small trattorias. When the weather is warm you spend time outside. Our daughter loves these things so she prefers Rome to other countries of the world. She may come in June. She’s very curious about Kazakhstan. We send her pics with monuments, murals, us riding on the frozen river, etc. By the way, murals are really unusual. We send pics with unusual monuments made of grass, some funny things.
I always travel with my husband. There’re many diplomatic couples, the wife’s in Italy and her husband’s travelling probably working abroad. But we’re always together visiting different places. Your country is like to be the last adventure, as my husband is going to finish his work then we’ll go back to Italy.
Pasquale. Italians are real Christians and we traditionally celebrate Christmas. It’s the time when you must be together. There were some birthdays like mine when I was 60, my mother’s 90 birthdays. So we’re always together on Christmas and some special birthdays. There’re parents, uncles, aunts, friends, in-laws. At Christmas there’re about 12 people gathering together. Our families are big and noisy.
Maria Teresa. I start thinking of the Christmas in September. We have a huge tree to put decorations that have a history. For example when we were in the States we had a wooden little decorations, in Prague we had glass balls. Wherever we go I have a big tree. We start to prepare it 2 weeks before, that takes a day. Then we prepare Christmas cakes, cookies, etc. We gather in the evening, cause in the evening it’s more atmospheric. If someone wants to fight we tell them: “Please, after the Christmas”. Because it must be peaceful.
Pasquale. There’s a special cake and every family has a special recipe to make the cake. Sometimes it takes years before our grandmother tells a secret recipe to her daughter-in-law.
Maria Teresa. My mother-in law is a traditional woman, she’s a good cook. She’s very traditional in terms of cooking, she has recipes coming from the South of Italy. This cake she’s making perfect, she said that I could use the book with the recipes. I was using it for 30 years with my daughter. It’s ok, but not as good as hers. After 30 years she said: “Even the recipe is good, I change it a bit, that is why my cake is better than yours”. And she told me her secret after 30 years of marriage! And now I have that secret. The recipe includes many of the eggs’ yolks. The book says: take all the white and whip it, then you’ll mix it inside the cake. My mother-in-law said me that she doesn’t use that white at all. That’s why her cakes are tastier than mine! I will tell that secret to my daughter, but after 30 years. My mother-in-law is from Naples and she cooks the tastiest pizza ever. But I cannot ask for too much. I need 30 more years to know her pizza recipe secret.
Current state of mind
Pasquale. The most interesting thing to understand in new place is your heart and your brain. In America there’s a strong feeling of freedom regardless of the political party. It’s much easier to start a business than in Europe or Asia. Just remember Bill Gets.
Maria Teresa. We can feel there’s a strong family relations like in Italy. Instead of buying a fancy car we prefer sending children to university, like Kazakh people. We’re ready to sacrifice for children. We have a lot of jokes about people stick with their parents. Even going away from the parents, they try to find an apartment in the same building to be close to mama. As mamas help a lot while you have small children. In the UK, the USA people are different. Italians and Kazakhs have a lot in common.
