For Filippo Aragone, travel is more than just visiting new places — it’s a lifelong journey of curiosity, learning, and connection. His passion began at the age of five when a simple juice bottle cap featuring the Lesotho flag sparked his imagination and set him on a path of discovery.
Since then, he has explored vast corners of the world, blending fast-paced solo adventures with meaningful cultural experiences. Whether navigating the complexities of global travel, embracing unexpected encounters, or chasing the thrill of a new passport stamp, Filippo’s journey is defined by a deep love for exploration.
As a businessman, consultant, and NomadMania’s Envoy for Italy, Filippo continues to foster a sense of community among travelers while pushing his own boundaries. From the joy of feeling truly at home in São Tomé and Príncipe to the frustrations of corruption in certain regions, his experiences offer a raw and honest perspective on the realities of travel.
Filippo’s profile on NomadMania
In this interview, he shares remarkable stories, reflects on the ethical responsibilities of global travelers, and reveals the country he’d choose if he could never leave again. Get ready for an inspiring glimpse into the mind of a true adventurer.
Tell us a little about yourself and how your initial interest in travel developed
After having been a top manager in some Italian companies, I decided to further develop my own company FarSoFar, est. 2016, which is both a travel agency (dormant) and a management advisory consulting firm. I live in Genoa and Cornareto, in Italy, with my wife and two (17 and 15 yrs old) daughters. I still don’t know what is more challenging, my new working goals or dealing with the teenage Giulia and Arianna!
My passion for travelling began pretty soon in my life, when I was 5. A company producing fruit juice begun to print the world flags on the metal caps of its bottles. One day, I found a metal cap with the Lesotho flag printed on it near my playground. The old flag represented a Mokorotlo hat on the blue background.
“Mamma, what is it?” I asked; “It is a country in Africa honey,” she answered. Can you imagine? What an iron piece can generate in one’s fantasy, all of a sudden I was in the savanna, with lions and zebras, just the word “Africa” opened new borders and wiped off barriers. That was the beginning: I collected all the caps and learned all the world flags, the geography, the borders and capitals.
Then, when the capacity to turn into reality my dreams became stronger than the dreams themselves, I started visting all of Italy, first. Then all of Europe, and the world including Lesotho where it all begun.
What type of traveller would you consider yourself?
I have always needed to be a fast traveller, despite a good rate of our planet covered – because I have limited time during the year to jump on a plane. I choose both budget and luxury, important to me is having a bed to sleep in during my Odyssey and possibly enjoy great spots when I get a room anywhere.
I travel with friends and family, but mostly solo: one day by myself is like 5 days with my family, so they could not follow me everywhere!
Are you aiming for 193/197 or not really? Why or why not?
Yes, 15 UN until I become a UN (+4) Master. My aim is to do so because I love long-term goals. An almost 50 year-old goal which helps me to achieve the intermediate ones, letting me improve many personal attitudes as well: patience, planning of any kind, curiosity, happiness, flexibility, discovery.
Above all, we know the feeling with a new stamp on our passport: pure joy, no?
Of the countries you have visited so far, which one was the greatest positive surprise and why?
Apart from Italy and my Liguria 😊 no doubt, Sao Tome and Principe. Why?
Like many travellers, I believe that Africa is one of the most attractive continents. However, in many African countries I know I am the one stared at by many people because they may assume I probably have money, I am different, luckier, a visitor.
In Sao Tome, I had the impression I was simply … a person! Everyone appeared to be living happily there, they have all natural resources a human community may desire, water, cattle, land to grow vegetables, fish, amazing white sand beaches and black rocks to dive from, rivers as their ‘laundry’, lakes. A paradise! So, they look really happy and spontaneous smiles were directed to my eyes.
Songs heard in a small church mixed with the waves of the Atlantic Ocean during the Sunday Mass were healing me.
Who is richer, who is luckier there? Me? Not sure.
And which one was a negative surprise, if any?
Corruption is something I truly hate, so when it is about bribery, I usually give the right money to avoid severe hassles but I never forget if I feel in danger. Ready for the chart? Malawi, The Gambia, Republic of Congo share the top, they are wonderful nations but I was intimidated and stopped by the police for stupid matters, and paid too much.
During my travels, I have also paid few EUR/USD bribes in many other countries in Europe and America, so this list is not really complete.
As an Italian man, do you feel there are specific advantages or disadvantages to your travels in certain countries? How do people react when they hear you’re Italian? Please elaborate.
We are the luckiest travelers on earth! Italian people are generally considered positively in the world, sometimes “mafia, spaghetti, pizza and mandolino” are the classic stereotypes, but we are also thought of as good-hearted people, and why not? Also sexy, this helped me many times when I was single!
Few words together with a smile open doors! Which ones? Juventus, Inter Milan, Genoa (perhaps my illusion), Celentano, Volare, Albano, Pavarotti.
Please give us two travel stories that stand out and have stayed with you until today.
The funniest ever in my life. It was November 2011 when I decided to travel to Kyrgyzstan on a flight Milan-Moscow, then to Bishkek. I was at seat 21C on both flights. On the second flight, I spotted the same couple who flew with me from Milan. “We are the only Italians travelling there” the guy said to me. “Yes indeed!”. He was very fine and his lovely wife was from Central Asia, no doubt!
I briefly told him my origins. His best friend, a well-known doctor, is from Genoa too. When he mentioned the name I laughed, because he was the ex-boyfriend of my wife, furthemore I have known him and his family since 1997! They are colleagues, so he told me some common experiences in their young professional life. In the end, he invited me to the wedding of his brother-in-law, to be celebrated in the Capital city on the following Saturday.
I went to the party, sitting with local people, laughing every time I tried to communicate. Everyone was walking around the tables, pouring vodka and toasting with me all the times, until…The Italian doctor with his wife on stage called me with the microphone. He said something like “Well, I am not the kind of person anyone would wish to meet, because I am a doctor” and he immediately passed me the mike!
I was a “rapper” in a previous period of my life, and still I am, so I asked the people to clap their hands. Can you imagine? 200 Kyrgyz people of all ages, traditionally dressed, clapping their hands so I started with my love ballad dedicated to Elisabetta, my lady during my wedding day, 4 years before.
I forgot EVERYTHING after two rhymes due to Vodka reasons! I had 1/1000 second to decide what to do: I opted for the hard decision, to spit rhymes in Italian such as “I wish this couple to have a child, but my mind with the drinks got blind” and so on! At the end, the only one who laughed so hard was my new friend who understood my crazy rhymes, but he kept up the charade almost crying for my very romantic song. At the end anyone was applauding me and the young couple was in love more than ever!
Banana Island, south Freetown Peninsula, Sept 2017. A wild, long-shaped island divided into two parts by a narrow isthmus made by square black rocks.
I was in a hut resort held by Greg – a Greek guy who was sharing his life with Georgia, a very nice girl from Freetown. “Hi Georgia, I am going to see the isthmus, is it ok?”, I asked. “Yes you follow the path and you get there! There is no need for a guide, so have fun!”. I walked through the lush forest with sneakers and a swimsuit in the greenest wood ever seen. But I could just hear the waves on my right anytime.
After a few miles the path was lost, so I walked in the wild forest towards Rickett, the south village.
I walked on a palm leaf, when a light green snake appeared 25 centimeters from my shoe and calmly went away. The GREEN MAMBA! It is also called the 7 steps snake, like his “cousin” Black Mamba. I was paralyzed, because I knew what that meeting meant! Luckily the Green is not as aggressive as the Black one, and it is very hard to see one because they hide very well.
The path disappeared completely and the forest was anywhere: it was impossible for me to walk there so I decided, after another close up with a red frog when I was literally walking on my stomach, to walk on the rocks surrounding the island. All the rocks were covered with plastic, garbage, but also normal daily things such as bags, shoes, brought there by the Atlantic tide from the Capital.
I was scared, because a month before a terrible slide provoked 1400 casualties, only 400 bodies were found. And the others? Despite the fear of coming across one, I didn’t see any. Jumping from stone to stone, I finally reached my goal, a beautiful spot on two sides of the Ocean. I decided to go back following the path that was clear that side. But once again it was made way to huge vegetation, so I went back to the resort in the dark of the rocks again and the dark of the sky.
I met Greg first: “Hi welcome back! I would have started the search tomorrow morning, because it would have been impossible for us to find you in the dark”.
Then I asked Georgia if she knew where I was going through. “Yes Filippo, but I was sure that you would come back immediately after the first hike issues”, she answered.
“Ehm, Georgia you don’t really know me. If I say that I do something, I do it, no matter what! By the way, I was about to trample on a Green Mamba, it was for me an amazing experience, because I love snakes!”.
She immediately got serious and she said that I am the luckiest man she ever met on the island. Why? Because meeting a green mamba is pretty impossible there, she explained! BBC television itself went to the resort for a month to film that snake, in the end they had no material at all, so they opted for a documentary on the black mamba! Dreamy Sierra Leone!
If you were told you could never travel abroad again and had to choose one country to settle in for the rest of your life, which country would you choose and why?
Apart from Italy and my house in the forest, I have always loved Australia, a country with no borders, limitless, and easy-going, nice people. For a lifetime USA was the country of my dreams; I have been living there for a while. But after the failure of an engagement, I better understood something about Americans everyday life which didn’t agree with me.
Let’s turn to NomadMania, whose Envoy you are. What are some things you especially like about NomadMania?
Like I said in the video in Bangkok, “that is us, that is who we are!” There is no competition between who is the “most” but there is sharing between who is the “unique”.
Tell us about your role as Envoy. What have you done so far and how do you envisage doing more in the future?
Italy is not that easy when it comes to aggregation for different matters: our country is 1200 km long North to South and there are many individualities and yes, cultural differences: my goal to put together our 20 regions is very ambitious.
That is why I have decided to have the meetings in 3 different areas from time to time. I started with the first one in Genova, northern Italy; the next one will be held in spring 2025 in Rome, central Italy, and very likely the next one in the winter of 2025 in Bari, the city of the great Nomad Nicola Coratella I had the privilege to meet thanks to NomadMania.
I have been invited by an Italian cultural association in Malta next September to talk about my travels and I will spread the NomadMania message in Valletta!
If you could change or improve one thing about NomadMania, what would it be?
UN Verification was great and smooth. In few countries I crossed the border illegally but had good evidence, so no problem to get that badge.
The verification process for the 1301 NM is frustrating to me: I have been travelling for a lifetime but – before NomadMania, I could not imagine that proof and evidence of my stay in some areas could be required. Furthermore, the verification team picked only 60 difficult areas of my NomadMania map, without an opportune mix between hard and easy recognizable places.
Plus I have been travelling by car so much. So many areas were visited with no evidence as well.
That is why out of many NomadMania areas I could not keep a receipt and such, or even a picture to show where I was. For many old travels I had old-fashioned slides. Unfortunately many got lost and deteriorated!
So I am still to be verified. And probably will never be because I have no means to prove it. If only I knew beforehand!
Our founder’s presentation at last year’s ETF focused on dark travel and travellers’ moral responsibilities and ended asking people whether they believe their freedom of movement is their number one motivator when travelling or whether there should be some other (moral or other) motivators. What is your take on this?
I have reflected deeply in my life about this. So when attending that talk in Bangkok, a stream of thoughts was opened.
What was listed was a recent array of dark destinations, but if we consider world history, there is a very high chance that all places listed in the 1301 NM areas would be somehow affected by darkness across time. To me, a dead man 3000 years ago has the same importance of a dead man in 2025.
That is why I always feel deep sympathy and empathy with the story anyone has behind. To understand the present you need to understand the past. To witness history has never been a sin, it is a sin to judge it with no background. So let’s go anywhere.
I was surprised to visit the genocide memorial in Kigali and see all people living again peacefully together in 2008, only 14 years after 1 out of 8 Rwandese were killed. When in Italy we still have “antifascism” protests after 80 years!
And finally, our signature question. If you could invite any 4 people – from any period in human history, alive or dead, even fictional characters – to an imaginary dinner, who would want to invite and why?
My ideal dinner would be with me at 5, me at 25, me now and me about to pass away. But maybe that would be too emotional, I feel.
So I would opt for: Christopher Columbus, I may give him some ideas with a world map. Benito Mussolini to advise him to avoid some idiotic things, the king of Nan Madol to understand what he had in mind when he built the black-stone city, and Neo from the Matrix to let me know when AI is going to be that threat!
