My name is Manuela and I am a traveler by passion and profession and author of the Project India magazine.

The curiosity to discover the world and learn about other cultures and remote places has always distinguished me from a young age, and has evolved over the years into something deeper.

I wanted to connect with people on a different level, experience what it means to live in these places that I love, assimilating the local etiquette, the lifestyle of a daily life so different from mine.

From shopping at the market and cooking typical local dishes, to maintaining relationships with my new friends without risking accidentally offending them with behaviors that, for my culture, are courtesy but not in theirs, breathing in an atmosphere different from that of home, sometimes even far from my comfort zone.

Today I am the person I am largely thanks to these life experiences, which have allowed me to broaden my views, overcome my fears and my limits, and consequently my vision of things has also changed.

I managed to turn my passion into my job, in fact I have been working in tourism for twenty years. I first opened my own travel agency, then I took care of the planning of various destinations for a tour operator, and now I personally manage a tour operator www.enjoydestinations.it which gives me great satisfaction.

Project India was born from the desire not to contaminate my love for India with work. I hope you understand from each of my articles that I love every possible and imaginable form of this culture and its people, but work often tends to submerge and flatten everything. It all boils down to purely technical aspects, i.e. whether the hotels are more or less central, whether there is wifi, or how many steps away the room is from the sea.

I'll try to explain myself better.
A few years ago I sent clients to stay in a wonderful royal palace, with an architecture from a thousand and one nights, where the furnishings and every object present are a work of art.

The Maharaja still lives there today and takes care of its management with great care, a wonderful person who, thanks to this hotel, employs people from the whole village and with the profits from this Heritage hotel has managed to build the only school in the town. Whoever stays in this building has the opportunity to contribute to all this.

You have the opportunity to live a unique culinary experience, where you can take part in cooking lessons directly from the Maharaja's private chef, visit the local village completely off the beaten tourist track, with its characteristic market and a temple just outside the town which is still one of those magical places that I keep most jealously in my heart.

Not to mention the numerous boat excursions that can be done on the river to admire the local flora and fauna. My clients complained because they had nothing to do, they didn't have a television in their room and they were bored.
My experience is different.

I still remember when in a temple some women approached me, they made me sit on the ground with them to ask me where I came from, if I was married, how old I was, they wanted to know everything about me.

When they learned that at 40 I was married but had no children, and when they examined me they saw that I didn't wear any jewellery, (I don't have much in fact, I spend all my money on travel and I don't wear any out of respect for the countries I visit, but in India it is customary for a woman to have a dowry in jewellery), they therefore thought that I was poor and probably unlucky because I had not been blessed with the arrival of a child.

They welcomed me as one of their own, some took me by the hand, some patted me on the back, some caressed me, some with a very intense look, all in their own way, even those who didn't speak English, they gave me such an intense feeling of love, sharing, complicity and acceptance... I had never felt something like this in my entire life.

They invited me to their home to offer me a hot meal and introduce me to their family. I cried, and every time I think about it I can't hold back the tears.

Project India is dedicated to all those who are moved by people's smiles, who believe that our culture does not necessarily have to be better than others, to those like me who are amazed at how most illnesses can be cured with medicinal herbs alone, and to those who are still able to marvel at the beauties of nature, to all those who want to deepen their knowledge of a friendly, generous people anchored in human values ​​now forgotten by Western culture.