Location: Tajikistan

The Land Next Door
Photojournalist and author Gianluca Pardelli looked beyond the labels of the East and found a world worth exploring.
Gianluca Pardelli has a covetous resume of travel experiences – at only thirty years old, he’s traveled to over seventy countries on four continents. Travel has extended beyond a lifestyle; it’s become his livelihood. At one point, the Livorno-born Italian was spending up to eight months a year on the road. Today, it’s “only” three.
Gianluca is one of a handful in the world to have visited North Korea – an experience he’ll be talking about during the Berlin Travel Festival in March. He’s explored the hidden corners of Russia so intensively that he started his own tour company, Soviet Tours. With six languages and studies as a photographer under his belt, it’s no wonder that he’s a sought-after translator, speaker, author, and consultant. His accolades go on to include work as a photojournalist and author for publications including The Guardian, Russia Beyond the Headlines, Post Internazionale, DJ-Mag, Huck Magazine, Decoded Magazine, La Nazione, and Reise Know-How, just to name a few. Currently based in Berlin and Tbilisi, Gianluca shared some of his insights into lesser known regions of the East with us.
Location: Abkhazia
Location: Belarus
Location: Chechnya