During a travel in Romania as a social clown, in October 2006, together with my friends we visited an institute hosting orphaned. The children were more than a hundred and the service staff in total counted no more than six people. In particular, I was impressed by a child among many; although he was three years old, he wasn't able to speak. No-one spent time teaching him. Something broke and, at the same time, something was born in me. It was a new awareness that, left for years at the bottom of my heart, day after day, pulse after pulse, helped me in writing this book.

Francesca Romana Pistoia was born in Rome in 1968, she graduated in international political science and orients her career on issues on thematics such as social inclusion, ethical finance, microcredit and active labour market policies as tools to fight unemployment and social exclusion. Journalist since 2000, she writes about music, art, theatre and cinema. She is fluent in five languages and since 2005 she is a social clown, active part and organizer of the "smile missions" in Guatemala, Romania, Ivory Coast and Tanzania. Her motto is: enthusiasm!