Monaco Residents’ Magazine – Spring 2023 Edition

Dear Reader,

Last year was a very special year, a positive turn of all the challenges after the pandemic. Life came back to Monaco as the restrictions were lifted, restaurants opened, events welcomed more people and overall we could experience connecting and moving freely again.

It was also a sad year due to the war between Ukraine and Russia. Something that indeed affected people globally. In this period, we tried to focus on human values and unity. This became especially important for me after I had a heartfelt discussion with my goddaughter, Faye. I want to share with you this story as it made me realize the things that are most important in our life.

Faye is 10 years old and one of her best friends is Evgenia, who is Russian. One day when I met her, she was very sad and told me that many people say that Russians are bad people. She was concerned that she would not be able to talk to Evgenia anymore. I saw the deep sadness in her eyes and tried to explain to her that there are many good people all around us, and even in such devastating situations not everyone shares the same views.

Coming back from Germany to Monaco with this experience, I remembered that our editor Dodo has a long-time fascination with space. She is an artist and always paints very airy abstract pictures, reflecting our universe.

Many years ago, Dodo created a project where she interviewed multiple astronauts who spent long missions in space. One of these interviews, with former NASA Astronaut, Colonel Ron Garan was truly inspiring. Ron talks about the orbital perspective, which means that from space we don’t see borders, we only see one planet, called Earth. This interview awakened in me the importance of unity, as the astronaut explained how different nations can work together in harmony in space for a mutual goal, leaving politics and borders behind.

I wanted Faye to meet Ron Garan so she could find comfort and inspiration through his messages of unity. As she always tells me that sharing is caring, when I invited Ron to Monaco, we sent out a message to all the local schools that the children can come for free to meet with a NASA astronaut.

I am thankful to the International School of Monaco for bringing their students to the event. I was truly impressed with how engaged the students were and the fascinating and sometimes funny questions they had.

It is truly uplifting to give back to society. Especially without any hidden agendas, just to motivate and inspire the next generation. Luckily, I had great resident supporters such as Michael Lanteri, Alexey Antropov, and Olga Barrale, whose united involvement helped to achieve the goal.

I am delighted to present the Spring edition of the Living in Monaco magazine, where you can have a bit of insight into this amazing event. And hopefully, with the support of the local community, we can repeat it in 2023 too.

This new year of 2023 represents a special milestone for Living in Monaco. The first publication came out in September 2013, which means that this year we are celebrating our 10th Anniversary. A special thanks goes to our wonderful editor, Dodo Newman who always helped us since the very first edition of the magazine to get the job done.

This current issue is about introducing and re-introducing some exceptional residents, interesting facts, as well as some photos from our legendary Monaco Residents’ Meetings.

I hope you will find lots of inspiring moments while reading this Spring edition. And as always, I wish you all the best, good health, and success.

With sincere regards,

Zsolt Szemerszky
Chief Editor