Coffee Surfing with Gabriele Galimberti and Illy Coffee

A couple of months ago the folks at Illy coffee contacted me and asked if I would go coffee surfing with Gabriele Galimberti and discuss moments of happiness when he was in Toronto.  I did a little research and quickly said “yes, yes, yes!”

Gabriele Galimberti is a world-renowned travel and portrait photographer who Illy Coffee is sending around the world to photograph interesting people and share their sips of happiness.  The stories and photos already published in the Coffee Surfing – Sips of Happiness series were lovely.   I was honoured to be included (and it has nearly killed me keeping my mouth shut about it). But the photographs and story dropped yesterday, so I can finally share!

Just days before they contact me, I had read a piece in HuffPo about Gabriele’s Toy Stories project but it was Delicatessen with Love that really caught my attention. In it, Gabriele photographs grandmothers around the world after asking them to cook for him.  I dug a little deeper and found myself incredibly moved by G.I. Jane’s other war Gabriele’s project focusing on American women soldiers’ stories, sexual abuse and MST.

Gabriele arrived with a disarming smile and such a warm, open personality that I found myself telling him way-too-much about my life and asking way-too-many questions about his life. We sat and talked. We walked and talked. We talked!  We started off in Kensington Market and ended up down near St. Lawrence Market with stops at the House of Spice, one of the tee-shirt shops on Spadina, and City TV.

We talked about happiness, family, travel, photography, publishing, coffee and in the end even Travel Bunny got in on the action.

I’m honoured to be included in Coffee Surfing and you can see Gabriele’s photo of me, Gabriele’s time with me and read my story of happiness on Illy’s Coffee’s Coffee Surfing.