After spending a nice day in the village and the hotel, my friends Luca and  Lucia and I drove to a small village 30 km south of Florence called Loppiano to meet the people of an organisation called Focolare. This group had learnt about the Friendship Tour and wanted us to come and see what they do.

In the morning, we had a meeting with the directors who showed us around the centre, where people come from all around the world simply to live and work together.

After a good lunch at the centre, we drove to meet Paolo Rossi, the soccer legend who was instrumental in Italy winning the 1982 World Cup. Rossi learnt about the expedition from Luca and very kindly invited us to his holiday farm with its beautiful villas. 

I did a brief interview with him and he spoke about how much he loved this area. I invited him to come to Bahrain and perhaps visit some of the schools and do some charity work and he accepted it.

Tomorrow I will meet the communication director of Focolare and we will talk about how we can work together on our common goal, which is to promote friendship between people.

Ali Mushaima