Having a house, a stable job and a professional life surrounded by banks, lawyers and notaries was normal for Meco. However, a personal crisis ended up dismantling practically everything he had built and led him to make a rather unusual decision: go to the forest.
For 14 years he has lived in a ‘teepee’ tent located in the Apennines of Romagna, in Italy, at about 700 meters above sea level. Before arriving there he worked as an agent for the insurance company Assicurazioni Generali.
His story, which has been broadcast by the famous YouTube channel ‘The Pillow’, which specializes in showing the daily lives of people who are isolated from society or who have a lifestyle different from what is commonly accepted, is that of someone who remembers that in his day he held an important position since, as he says, “I interacted daily with banks, lawyers and notaries.” Furthermore, together with his brother he had an office from which they managed around 50 neighborhood communities.
“I was gradually led to lose everything I had built.”
The change did not come overnight.
Meco explains that his father’s illness was one of the events that ended up altering his life. “I was gradually led to lose everything I had built,” he recalls.
Some time later he had an experience in the forests of Sona, near Lake Iseo, which ended up pushing him towards a completely different life.
“That was the spark that brought me here,” he says.
He currently sleeps in a ‘teepee’ that he built himself with sticks and canvas. At first he used cotton, although he ended up changing it to ship sails so that the structure could “resist any weather.” Inside he sleeps on a bison skin and uses the fire to endure the coldest nights.
“I almost never go shopping”
But probably one of the biggest differences with his old life is in something as everyday as filling the refrigerator.
“I pick mushrooms, chestnuts and what the forest offers,” says Meco, who admits that “I almost never go shopping.” To get drinking water, they also take advantage of what is around them: they go to a small fountain located among the brambles and fill their bottles there.
Over time, the land where he lives has also ended up becoming an educational space where children come to carry out activities. It does not charge a fixed entrance fee and works through voluntary contributions.
Your relationship with possessions has also completely changed. “I don’t own anything,” he maintains. He even says that, when an object has been stolen, such as a chainsaw, he feels regret but ends up accepting it.
Nothing to do with that man who managed insurance and dozens of neighborhood communities.
A city council closes access to the garden of an 81-year-old retiree and the Justice grants her the right of way because she had been using it for 59 years
The residents of a building have been living among scaffolding for six years that prevent them from opening the windows and leave their homes without natural light.
After 14 years in the forest, his life revolves around getting water, gathering food, keeping the fire going, and taking care of the place he lives. A radically different way of life that he summarizes from the experience of having left practically everything behind.