President of the European Commission for Transport and Tourism, Paolo Costa travels the world by car, train and plane... and never quenches his thirst for discovery! My fondest memories of travelling go back to my very first experiences of transport... At the age of five, by train, a Venice-Milan vaporiere. Then by car, on the roads of Provence and Camargue in France. By plane, on the first flight from Rome to New York. Or on the Pan Am Venice-New York flight, aboard one of the very first Boeing 747s, fully armoured, with the added bonus of an off-piste landing!
My first visits to major cities are also engraved in my memory. Paris, Notre-Dame and Ile de la Cité. Manhattan from Staten Island. But the trip was also full of high points, moments of life: May 68 in Paris; the visit to New York with Wassily Leontief, Nobel Prize winner in economics, one of the last humanists, as my guide! A man of rare culture, curious as a child, lively and funny.
I've never stopped travelling the world! First as an academic, then as a rector and now as a Member of the European Parliament... All in all, I've certainly spent more hours on planes than I have at home! I can't stop travelling, whatever the destination. Travelling is an integral part of who I am. It represents so many things! The pleasure of returning, the experience of the new, the reminder of tolerance, the literary references... Beliefs that I pass on to my two sons, regularly reminding them of a quote from Darwin reported by Chatwin about Audubon's goose: "Deprived of its feathers necessary for flight, it began to travel on foot!"
All means of transport are good. By car, I appreciate the freedom to go as I please, at my own pace, because I hate organised trips, even if they are part of my professional constraints. By plane, I adapt to the atmosphere of the flight and fully experience a fantastic world of rest and relaxation. I relax, sleep, read, write, watch films... but above all I don't work, unlike the train, which I prefer whenever possible to the plane. I'm nostalgic for the good old Orient-Express-style sleeper between Venice and Paris, with its morning papers, refined luxury, Swiss-baked croissants and Hercule Poirot atmosphere! On the other hand, when I travel for work, I like to stay in super-modern, super-equipped, super-comfortable hotels... the kind that make me waste as little time as possible, like this hotel in Tokyo whose name I've forgotten and which is certainly the most expensive I've ever stayed in! Everything a businessman needs was there. Discreetly, close at hand, even anticipating expectations. As for my holidays, they are the antithesis of travelling: I choose places that are rather cocooning, like guest houses, where I can sit and do nothing for as long as possible... A veritable eulogy of laziness!
Seven dates
1943: Born in Venice.
1977: Associate Professor at Ca'Fostscari University in Venice.
From 1980 to 1995: Professor of Urban and Regional Economics at the University Institute of Architecture in Venice, then at Ca'Foscari University in Venice.
1992-1996: Rector of Ca'Foscari University in Venice.
1996-1998: Minister for Public Works.
2000: Mayor of Venice.
June 2004: Member of the European Parliament representing north-east Italy and Chairman of the Committee on Transport and Tourism.
