Stefano Gerosa
Italian - Mestre (Venice)
Public Clerk
servas Host from 2004
languages: Italian, English, Spanish (just a little)

Germana Prencipe
Italian - Mestre (Venice)
Psychologist
servas Host from 2003
languages: Italian, English

Self description

Now I live in Mestre (land of Venice) and work in Venice. I was born and I lived in Verona until 2003.
I studied Economics at Verona University and got a degree in ‘89 with the thesis “Limits to development growth, natural resources and environmental problems” (that won a national competition for environmental theses).
In 1990 I started my job in INAIL (compulsory insurance of workers involved in risky activities). I worked in different offices in Verona (to pay compensations, provide prostheses and treatments, third part civil liability in road accidents, etc.) and now, since 2004, I’m working in Venice at the Regional Direction - Legal Department.

In 1982 I founded the ecological association “Amici della Bicicletta” (bicycle’s friends) in Verona and then, some years later, with other Italian local associations, the National Bicycle’s Friends Federation (FIAB).
So, since ‘82, I have being spending my free time as a volunteer for this organization. In ‘94 and ‘95 I was FIAB President; now I’m a member of the National Committee, Responsible for Finance and National Website Webmaster.
Bicycling is not a sport for me, but a means of transport good for our towns (in Italian cities most distances are short) and for tourism (I travelled a lot by bicycle in Italy and in Europe).

In my volunteer job I made and learned a lot of things: I wrote articles (a book too!!), organized events, met public administrators, etc.… and I discovered another passion: the computer. I used it for many things (db, writing, graphics, newsletter layout); with the internet I learned to make websites: first I made Verona’s Bicycle Friends web site, and then FIAB website. Now I have a personal website too: www.stefanogerosa.it

I like to read: fiction (especially historical), science-fiction, fantasy, essays, magazine with international news. I like to travel, not only by bike, to know other people's life and see natural and historical sites (I visited all Italy, many  countries in Europe: France, Holland, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Austria, Germany, Poland, Czech R., Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Switzerland. The capitals in England, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium. Out of Europe: Mexico, South Africa, Egypt, Tunisia, Israel, Jordan, Cuba, Azores Island, Tenerife). I like eating (and cooking a little) good food and tasting good wines.

I’m a Christian, of Waldensians church (belonging to evangelical churches, but present in Italy since mediaeval times).
I believe in ideals of Peace and Gandhian Nonviolence and I’m an ecologist (before FIAB, when I was 20, I was very active in the Italian Nonviolent Movement first, in Green Associations and in the Green Party afterwards).

On 7 December 2007, I got married with Germana. And from Dec. 8 to Jan. 5 we will be travelling in USA (California, Arizona) and will spend Christmas with our friends, Rod an Judy, living in Laguna Beach, whom we have met in a cycling meeting in Italy.

Self description

I was born in Messina, in the island of Sicily in Southern Italy, but during my childhood my family and I lived in Brindisi, a tourist resort and an important harbour in the Puglia region.
When I was ten, we moved to Genoa and to Venice, so I had the opportunity to meet a lot of people and to get to know many towns in Italy with their different dialects, traditions and ways of life; I could really appreciate the good or bad things of each place where I stayed.

I studied psychology at the University of Padova and later I went to Milan for the first and very interesting working experience as a psycologist in Hospital.

I’ve lived in Mestre since 1996, now I’m working in a primary school as a teacher and at the same time as a psychotherapist in my own office.

I’m 44 years old and I live with my husband Stefano in Mestre and we just married, in fact we are on our honeymoon. I met him during a cycling holiday  with a big group of other friends.

Movements
We belong to FIAB an association of bicycle friends and cycling we visited many European countries: Germany, Poland, Greece, Slovenia, Slovakia, Corsica, France, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and of course many italian regions. I also went to China and to the Dominican Republic.

Interests:
My interests are connected to my jobs and I don’t have much free time for my hobbies. At night sometimes I go dancing: tango or latin-american.
I love going to the cinema, learning, walking, cooking and eating and good food and spending my free time with my family and my best friends and cycling.
I also like history novels and fiction.
I would describe myself as a talkative and extrovert person. Usually I get on well with sociable, active people.

Religion:
I believe in some Christian ideals as Freedom, Peace, Respect of other people's way of thinking.

I accept the ideals of Servas because they are laudable ones and they belong to my religion, too. I think that all people of different religions should follow what M. K. Gandhi said: "With every true friendship we build more firmly the foundations on which the peace of the whole world rests" .