Hey! I’m Matteo Caramaschi, founder of Nothing But Explore travel blog. Are you ready for the next adventure?

Remember: it’s never too late to live this world!

Not quite a traveller

I’ve always been an introvert, especially when I was a kid. I grew up as an only child, and that didn’t help. Connecting with other people has always been hard for me – I had two/three close friends and that was it.

If this wasn’t enough, I didn’t travel that much with my parents, too. Unfortunately, they aren’t the best model to aspire to in this scenario (I love you guys!). We usually ended up staying somewhere close to the sea around Italy – my country – every summer in August. Although I had the opportunity to play with other kids, I didn’t have as much fun as you’d expect. Besides, I knew they were just people who I’d never see again.

My world was my little village – inhabited by around 4000 souls – my toys, my parents, and that was (more than) enough for me.

So how in hell did I start a travel blog?

University and a new perspective

For the first time in my life, I could decide when to study and whether to attend classes. This kind of freedom was brand new for me, and I loved it from the very first second! Moreover, the feeling was amplified by my “job” as a home teacher for a few teenagers, which meant money and more opportunities to be financially independent, at least a bit.

However, this bachelor life (literally, it was a 3 years BSc) wasn’t sufficient to trigger my inner traveller just yet. I made quite a few connections in the meantime, and one of them told me about a group trip that my university was offering sometime in 2017. I don’t know the reasons yet, but at the time I felt it would have been fun to subscribe and use my money to go to Vienna with a bunch of random students.

It was a freaking 12-hour trip – you know, university budgets – but I didn’t feel either tired or bored by a single minute of it. Then, I spent four days in Austria tasting local food, learning about music history, and most importantly, having the best time of my life with complete strangers. That was amazing!

And you know what? One of those strangers is a dear friend of mine still nowadays!

The solo challenge

I was hungry. I was starting to plan trips to the different European cities I wanted to visit. Unfortunately, I had two problems. The first was the money – I didn’t want to ask for anything from my parents. In addition, I was still highly introverted, and I wasn’t really conscious about what was triggering my social side yet.

While I fixed the financial issue by working as a software developer – this was what I studied for – I came up with a mirror-breaker idea: let’s travel alone!

I have to tell you – I was freaking scared when I flew solo to Copenhagen at the end of 2018. At the same time, there was some sort of excitement growing in my guts. I stayed there for five days, and although I didn’t make any new friends, I enjoyed discovering a new place so much!

I went back home and I asked myself: “What’s next?!” – I couldn’t wait for the next trip.

Despite loving exploring by myself, I knew that I was missing a few aspects of traveling. I felt it somewhere deep in my heart. I wasn’t fully aware of it, though. This is probably why I thought it was time to take this solo traveling to the next step to shake my extroverted soul. I started planning a 10-day road trip to Norway at the end of February 2020. I was excited like I’ve never been before, looking forward to a summer to remember.

And yet, Covid-19 arrived.

Dark days, unlocking myself and the Canadian dream

The pandemic hit hard on everyone, no doubt about it. Focusing on myself, well… Losing my freedom was extremely painful. I felt like all those beautiful emotions were taken away from me. I couldn’t leave my house, and the worst was that I couldn’t travel either. No more Norway, no more “this time, I’ll win over my shyness!” goals. It was all over.

I had some personal issues right before and during the first year of the pandemic, which made me experience the whole situation heavier than it already was. However, moping in this prison for around a year gave me even more desire to go back out there.

Hence, I embarked on my first road trip around Italy in July 2021. I spent 10 days in the central regions, between mountains and nature, culture and history. For the first time ever, I lived every detail and every person I got in touch with throughout my journey. For the first time ever, I made friends along the way – I’m still super close with a couple of travel bloggers I met there!

This was an incredible feeling. Excitement, happiness, satisfaction, all together! I just clicked, finally. I wanted more. There was too much to see, try, taste, and live! Every person, and especially our planet, is an opportunity to connect not only with other humans, but also with yourself. From that trip, I have never forgotten this.

This being said, ups and downs were still on my way at the end of 2021. I wasn’t feeling quite right in my country, and my job wasn’t enough to support my will to travel.

I had been thinking about moving abroad for quite a while, and with the pandemic coming to an end, I thought it was time for the big step. After looking around, my instinct drove me to Canada. You should know that I always trust my guts. After going through many questions about my future, I decided to leave my permanent job to seek a new life. I applied for a temporary visa at the end of 2022, and I moved to Vancouver in April 2023.

What I’m doing in these days and this blog

After a long and stressful fight against immigration, I’m almost a Canadian permanent resident. I’ve been working for a startup as a software developer since mid-2023, but this is way different compared to my old job back in my country.

This job provides me with plenty of freedom and flexible hours. I can work from anywhere, which allows me to travel more often!

Therefore, here we are. I’ve been meeting many people from various countries since I moved to Vancouver, and I grew up a lot as a person. The most significant discovery, though, is that what I really wanna do is travel the world, visit natural gems, and connect with many cultures and traditions.

Nothing But Explore travel blog is the starting point for my latest goal – giving people an understanding of what they could find if only they decided to get out of their comfort zone. I’ve started flying here and there, from Hawaii to Jordan in the Middle East. Every place talks to me, and I feel so connected and fulfilled each time I touch the ground in a foreign airstrip.

I often find myself exploring and being attracted by the unknown, which brings me to exciting (or dangerous) itineraries every now and then. From finding peace on the top of a mountain to tasting some delicious food and studying local history, this is my promised land!

Here are a few of my next travel goals:

• Kenya
• Costa Rica
• Canadian Rockies

I can’t wait to share them all (and more) with you!

Get in touch

Wanna chat? Check out the contact form on this site where you can email me directly. I reply to every message received.

I can also be found hanging out on social media if you want to send me a message. My real-time updates are shared on the official Nothing But Explore travel blog Instagram page.