Do you know a classic tour guide — the one holding a little flag, a closed umbrella, or a recognition paddle? Good.

Have you ever taken part in a traditional guided tour where you were hammered with long lists of historical dates, names of more or less famous people, overly technical terms, or information easily found in paper guidebooks or online? Excellent.

Well, I am none of that. And now I’ll tell you why.

First of all, I must confess that I’m not a fan of mass tourism. I don’t like overly large and heterogeneous groups, with participants who aren’t part of the same organised travel project and who don’t know each other. I detest the crush, the confusion, the stress. Rigid timings and overloaded programmes.

I also dislike repeating myself or reciting from memory what I studied in books. I never did that even at school. I’m allergic to monotony — I love originality.

What I offer in my tours is something completely different from the classic guided visits we’ve all been used to. The reason is simple: as a tourist myself, I have often found some experiences unsatisfactory and boring. So why offer my guests something of the same kind? “No, absolutely not — I do things my way!” I have told myself many times.

I like to portray Stockholm and Sweden in their entirety: their beauties, their undeniable charm, their many excellences. But I never overlook the other side of the coin — the many, many problems, the many, many contradictions, the many, many aspects and nuances that only a permanent resident can know. I love making connections, so that tours always have an internal logic and a coherent meaning: I never mix two things that have nothing to do with each other. And I try to adopt the most pedagogical approach possible: in this, the passion I’ve always had for teaching has helped me and continues to help me.

In short, I consider myself a somewhat unusual Stockholm tour guide, although the term “tour guide” doesn’t really suit me. It’s a term I deeply respect but it doesn’t reflect my way of practising this beautiful profession. I consider myself more of a guide for travellers, a “street” guide: a travel companion and a friend able to tell life around here from the particular perspective of an Italian naturalised in Sweden.

P.S. And yes, sometimes I do use the recognition paddle — but only when I need to disguise a bit my “differently-giant” height!