Moving is hard. I know because this is the third time in less than a year that I’ve had to move, again.

This time it’s for a good reason: a love story for a city.

You see, when I lived there I hated it after a few months, I started getting really cranky on every corner and I think I yelled at least three or four drivers driving like crazy around there.

Cities, to me and a lot of urbanism around the world should be livable for humans and not cars, hence my hatred of drivers in general.

The first time I lived in Turin I started to doubt about not being able to live without a car.

Going for a coffee? I just need a car.

A walk to the park, of course, a car.

And so…

Of course, this because I lived on the outsides of the city center

I myself (wrongly) blamed the city for quite some time (and purposefully) but the reality is that I didn’t accept the conditions of the place I lived in.

You see, in my personal experience, every city has its own unwritten rules. This set of rules allows you to move around, live and enjoy a particular set of buildings that we call a city.

Now, when you go anywhere and expect to receive the same conditions you had before, it is your fault and not the cities.

Crime, working conditions, public transportation, water, air, etc., I can go on, but this set of conditions is something you sign up for whenever you move to a place.

This will bite you in the end if you don’t accept it, if you go blindly expecting the world to open doors for you without you opening your mind to what comes next.

To Sweden, for example, you won’t go (or shouldn’t go) if you want to enjoy sunny and warm days like in Valencia.

It’s something you naturally expect.

However, the same is true for all other dimensions of the city.

Climate is the most “sellable”, but not the only one. It is the easiest to detect, but it is the least important.

You need a support, a family, a set of constraints, a set of habits, around your home to conform enough to feel like you are living (and not just passing through).

And that’s why I’m moving back, to the city I almost hated but also loved, where I met some amazing people (including my future wife).

That’s why I’m moving back.

There is a fear spread around the world and it is the comfort zone. I drank the kool-aid as well, everyone tries to escape it, but the reality (as in this documentary about one of the best synthesizer designers in the world) is that you need to be fixed in one place to let your mind wander.

You can travel, discover, get to know, and of course enjoy. However you need one vertex of the polygon to be fixed otherwise entropy eats you alive.

But in the end you need a place, and this (this time), this must be the place.

I have accepted the conditions.

Let’s see what Torino has this time.