The storage room under the stairs
cozy blog
About me
My name is Maria, Umbrian by origin and Bolognese by adoption. I grew up reading the Harry Potter novels and dreaming of the magical atmospheres of Disney cartoons. I love still having a paper diary, listening to people's stories, getting lost in the wonders of a museum, devouring classics, podcasts and TV series. My story with the "journey" begins with the Italian final exam in which, wandering with my imagination, I wrote about Dante's journey, Ntoni dei Malavoglia and Ulysses. After finishing high school, with my friends (now lifelong friends), I took my first trip abroad and decided that curiosity about the world would be the underlying theme of my life.
I am a curious, enterprising person who often has my head in the clouds. I get emotional in front of a painting by Chagall, but also watching a Christmas film for the thousandth time. I like to stop and admire the beauty of simple and genuine things. I'm looking for the Hygge dimension in my small apartment in Bologna with my partner and our dog Coco. Every season has its magic but winter is my heart's season, when the earth goes into hibernation and I find refuge in my little magical world made of books (in front of an imaginary fireplace), dreams of travel, herbal teas and scented candles . If I didn't love the liveliness of the big city and its cultural events so much, I would probably live in Scandinavia in a small house with large windows and a sloping roof covered in snow. My favorite trips are in fact those in the Scandinavian countries and in all the cold and rainy places in the world that I dream of visiting before passing on to a better life. I am passionate about illustrations (even if I don't know how to draw) and bookshops in which to get lost, travel with my imagination and dream of enchanted places.
I like to believe that diversity is wealth and that each of us can make a difference in this world, bringing our own inner beauty, reflecting on the impact that each of us has in respecting nature and others.
The idea of the cozy blog
My relationship with writing and magic is ancestral, combined with a passion for reading and winter, the idea for this blog was born. After an Erasmus in Finland and an experience in England, I developed a visceral love for snow, ice and the cozy atmosphere that reigns in these places, where I spent most of my time intent on writing my thoughts in a diary, warm, in coffee shops, while I watched the rain or snow fall. I have been writing for as long as I can remember, it has always been part of me and in 2022 I decided to stop, listen to myself and open this blog.
The Potterian name is a tribute to what the Harry Potter novel represented and still represents, a place to take refuge and feel safe. The storage room under the stairs wants to recreate those sensations, which give us serenity, security and which are a cuddle for the soul, despite the daily routine of our hectic lives.
I would define it as my virtual home, where I have the pleasure of offering you a cup of tea or steaming coffee and losing ourselves in chatter and dreams. A particular section is dedicated to Bologna which welcomed me and became my current home as well as one of my greatest sources of inspiration.
If you want a bit of winter and those magical sensations given by reading a good book in the warmth of the sofa, by the smell of cappuccino and scented candles, by exchanging thoughts with friends while sipping a chocolate, by the cold touch of snow or from the sound of rain, then this is the virtual place for you.
What I blog about
Travel stories in the cold and cozy atmosphere
Places and stories from Bologna
Traditions from the world and books
My favorite journeys have always been those where you can breathe the muffled atmosphere of snow and the poetic atmosphere of rain. The Scandinavian peninsula has conquered my heart but also Iceland, Russia, England, Ireland and Central Eastern Europe, as well as the Alpine region.
A secret dream is Antarctica or Alaska but also having December free to savor the atmospheres of all the Christmas markets in the world.
They say that Bologna is not a city to visit but a city to live and I couldn't agree more, you discover it little by little and fall in love with it viscerally.
During my travels I like to study its history, discover the traditions of the people, the anecdotes that lie behind that place, the famous people who lived there and the books that told about it.
Seguimi sui miei cozy social
