Encore: Some people are so poor, all they have is money. Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Have you seen the movie ‘Caravan of Love’? A semi-autobiographical film about an Italian man, who leaves his home town of Rome in Italy, to come to Ireland at the tender age of twenty-two, to find himself. After a very successful period of time spent in India, in a job he sourced from his then presumed to be, temporary home on the Emerald Isle, he returned to Ireland, this time to settle there. The rest is, as they say…the ‘social fabric’ of this fun loving, but very soulful man’s quest for meaning and purpose, in a world where many of the peeps around him seem to wear busy as a badge of honour. An emotional coach, he believes strongly in the importance of friendship and has a propensity for connecting authentically with people, casually and professionally in his chosen career combo of broadcasting and coaching. The movie chronicles the health, growth and restoration potential that he and his pals derive from their daily ‘hour long holiday’. The ‘inner sanctum’ are a core group of devoted and loyal pals who swim, run and have morning coffee together daily. New initiates can be admitted to the group by request and the only qualifying requirement is that you have a mind to join, turn up and involve! Conversation, connection and a sense of community are the core values within this movement-like crusade and the shared events of these infectiously inclusive and well-intended pack animals, provide the story lines within this feature length blockbuster. Everything from the circus like pace and frivolity of The Pogues ‘Fiesta’, against which the opening scene of the movie is played out, at which point the main character has a minor car crash at The Colosseum, in Rome, Italy, to ‘The Caravan of Love’ trip across Ireland that he laterally organises annually, for one charity or another, is a metaphorical and a literal life lesson for accessing and living out of one’s higher self. With no English, the equivalent of seven hundred euro and a pocket full of dreams, the main character made his way to Ireland on what appears like a whim within days of that ‘car crash’ moment all those years ago in Rome and has managed to carve out a life of abun ‘dance’ in Ireland ever since, where the less you attach to money, the more you can make. Do less to achieve more, in every sense of the word. In the interest of full disclosure, the main character, referenced above, is Andrea Splendori, my guest in this interview. In the interest of further divulgence, I’ve not seen the movie myself. In the interest of due diligence, it is important to reveal that the movie hasn’t yet been made. But it should be. This guy is the real deal. You may know the price of everything, tune in to learn the value of more. Some people are so poor, all they have is money!