There are people who refuse to watch the world from the sidelines. They are not tour guides. They are not influencers. They are ordinary people who made extraordinary choices.
They stopped waiting for the right moment and just left. They faced their fears, crossed deserts, met strangers and then decided to do it all over again, bringing others along with them. In this series, WeRoad Group Leaders share how travel can change you and why doing it together with others can make all the difference.
This is Riccardo‘s story.
A friend, an application and a trip as a traveler mid-selection
He has already passed the group interview, but he is not a Group Leader yet. Before the bootcamp there is a trip to take, and Riccardo takes it as a traveler, in the middle of a selection process that will bring him to the other side.
It all started with a friend who worked at WeRoad and knew about his passion for organizing trips, even just for their circle of friends. In 2021 that passion became an application. Since then Riccardo has come a long way: from a Christmas morning in New York to an evening around a round table in Kyrgyzstan.
But what does a Group Leader really do when the group hasn’t met yet? We asked him.
IDENTIKIT
- Tour guide
- Italy
- WeRoad Group Leader since 2021
How did you become a WeRoad Group Leader?
In 2021 one of my best friends, who already worked at WeRoad, knew how much I loved traveling and organizing trips, even for our group of friends. He was the one who told me applications to become a Group Leader were open.
I went through the original selection process: first the group interview, then the bootcamp. In between, I also took my first WeRoad trip, as a traveler. I had already passed the group interview, so I went on the trip and did the bootcamp when I got back.
Is there a scene from a trip that you can still see when you close your eyes?
I have many, but the one closest to my heart is Christmas morning in New York. I was going back after 12 years. The first time I was 15, on the classic experience abroad without my family: college, international friendships and the fairy tale of New York seen through the eyes of a teenager raised on the TV shows of the time.
That morning we went ice skating in Central Park, under full sun, with Christmas songs playing and a “Merry Christmas” on every street corner. Every time I think about it, I get emotional. And I was lucky to be with a group that became friends, and we experienced the city like New Yorkers, not tourists.
What really changes when you travel with people you don’t know?
Above all, listening and recognizing the role. When you leave with friends and family, certain things, like respecting schedules and the route, or the value added by the person guiding you, tend to get lost. With strangers, the point of contact changes. At the start you have to know how to break the ice and put everyone at ease, with the subtlety of sensing whether the chords you’re touching work for everyone.
Experience and time help a lot: you learn to read people much more easily. The “social talent” each of us has, or doesn’t have, matters too.
What does a Group Leader do that travelers never see?
They study the group’s personalities before even arriving at the destination. They try to understand who is in front of them, what kind of travel experiences might interest them, what to suggest and what to avoid.
It’s hard to show the complex side of managing people: being a leader and an inspiring guide, while keeping the group at the center of the experience.
How much do you really share with the people in your group? Is it only experience, or emotion too?
I like to remember a very deep, introspective moment in Kyrgyzstan. One evening, around a round table, we went around the group, one person at a time, talking about each member’s qualities and hidden values. We also encouraged one another to let go and be ourselves. All of this on day 3 of the trip.
From the next day, we all noticed a joyful change (and we were already joyful before!), a deep sense of ease in expressing ourselves. In that setting the landscapes were the frame, and we, the group, were the protagonists of the adventure.
Discover them. Fall in love with their stories.
From an application born from a friend’s tip to a round table in Kyrgyzstan, Riccardo’s story is about what it means to put people at the center of the journey.
Riccardo’s story is one of the many that WeRoad Group Leaders carry with them. Not the destination, not the itinerary: the person he was before he left, and the one he became along the way.
On this blog, we share their stories, one at a time. Because behind every WeRoad trip there is always someone who chose to take the leap and then decided never to stop, bringing others along for the ride.
Curious to discover more extraordinary stories from WeRoad Group Leaders? Come and meet Andrea too!
