In a few months it will reach the fateful step of fifty years, but this year has already celebrated their silver wedding anniversary with his great love, Africa.
Daniela Maggi, Milan, expert in marketing and travel, she married with Kenya shortly after having set foot for the first time.
"That was love at first sight - says Daniela, today African Adventure Guides commercial director in Watamu - I left for just a vacation together with a friend in 1990. The target was initially intended to be Thailand, but you see someone there had already decided everything ... problems with the reservation in South East Asia and so she jumped out the possibility of Kenya! Just I stepped in Mombasa I heard air of the house.
After the beach of Diani Beach and a safari in the Masai Mara that took my heart, I had no doubt I would have stayed in Africa ".
As for the great cooked, Daniela decided to revolutionize his life on the spot.
"At that time I worked in the marketing department of a large multinational. There were still the mobile phone, so I fired fax and after a brief return to Italy I returned to Kenya, where I started a collaboration with a well-known tour operators era. From there it started my fantastic love story with this country. "
An adventure that led her to sell the paradise in which he lives to Italian and international tourists and especially to be in contact with the sea and the bush, his two great passions.
"I love this endless nature - confirms Daniela - the savannah that excites me even when I'm on safari, I love the coast and those details that I should be accustomed but not enough for me and I never get tired. I would never give the free life that I can afford to do, with the people and the characteristics of this country. And finally I love the climate of the Kenyan coast, it is fundamental for me to enjoy summer all year around. My nostalgia for Africa and this is when they are anywhere else I feel a pain just like when you're madly in love with a person and you will have to remove. Always I feel a recall and a nostalgia that still make me move. "
True love knows how to renew itself every day, just like the African Nature.
"I know you always and love you as never" sings Gino Paoli (another sufferer Kenya) in "A long love story." The infinite passion of Daniela led her to realize her dream within a dream.
"From this year work on his own - he explains - I organize exclusive safari along with two real experts in the field Leonardo Mancini and Nilde Evangelista and I run with them also a boutique hotel, the Alawi, a small jewel overlooking the Jacaranda Bay Watamu ".
Kenya for the Milan manager also means a daily basis deal with the local population and tourists and their needs.
"My relationship with Kenyans has always been good and friendly. Of course, no shortage of anger at work, as indeed happens everywhere, but there is no comparison and I love to attend the local community also outside the workplace. With tourists there's a professional relationship and when there is mutual respect born too pleasant encounters. Also in Watamu and Malindi there are also so many fellow countrymen with whom in time, thanks to the love for this continent, have cemented friendships. Often with those who have known for many years remember a Kenya that today there is more, an even more from "dream place" and the simple life he had no need of anything, including technology. So Kenya was an elite destination, then came the difficult years. We have seen a lot, but I am convinced that soon will return to its splendor and travelers will appreciate this unique paradise in the world and those who work with passion and profession and organizes their stay ".
It seems that the long history of love of Daniela has yet to write his best pages.