BELLE ZORZI: La Dolce Vita, After the Fresh Start
ITALY COVER EDITION - SEPTEMBER 2026 ISSUE
Every departure begins before the suitcase.
It begins long before the airport, when someone starts looking at their own life and imagining what it would be like to exist somewhere else. Sometimes, that desire is born out of necessity. Other times, it emerges precisely when there is seemingly nothing wrong.
And perhaps that is one of the hardest decisions to make.
It is different to leave because there is no longer a choice, and to leave when there are still enough reasons to stay.
Whoever leaves behind a life that worked doesn’t take only documents, clothes, and belongings. They take references with them. A professional name that already means something. Relationships built over the years. Habits that no longer require thought. The familiarity of knowing how things work and, above all, the feeling of knowing who you are within that world.
Until you arrive in another one.
At first, everything feels bigger. Differences catch your attention, details become meaningful, and everyday life carries the intensity of discovery. There is a kind of suspension of the life that came before. For a while, almost anything seems possible because almost nothing has yet been tested by reality.
But no place remains new forever.
At some point, the landscape stops being something to discover and becomes an address. The language stops being a curiosity and becomes a necessity. Choices stop feeling like an adventure and begin to carry real consequences.
That is when the experience of living abroad often changes its nature.
Because there is a profound difference between discovering a country and building a life in it.
The first can happen in a matter of days. The second takes time.
And in that in-between space, an immigrant is confronted with what may be one of the most disorienting aspects of any major change: realizing that what once served as a definition of who they were may no longer work in quite the same way.
It doesn’t mean it has ceased to exist.
It means it needs to be reinterpreted.
That is why immigration can be, at the same time, both a geographical experience and an experience of identity. The address changes first. Everything else comes later.
Some people spend years trying to rebuild exactly the life they had before. Others gradually come to understand that the opportunity to be somewhere else can also be an opportunity to discover a version of themselves that their former environment never required them to become.
Neither path is simple.
Starting over involves a kind of grief for what has been left behind, but also a difficult-to-explain sense of freedom. When old reference points lose some of their power, an unsettling question emerges: if I no longer have to be exactly who I was, who can I become?
Perhaps that is the question that accompanies every true new beginning.
And it is not usually answered at the airport, nor on the first day, nor when the photographs begin appearing on social media.
It is answered in everyday life.
In the choices no one sees. In the days when you have to keep going without having all the answers. In the ability to look at what didn’t go according to plan without mistaking a change of direction for failure.
It is at this point that Belle Zorzi’s story becomes particularly compelling.
Because hers is not a story of rupture. There was no life in ruins waiting to be escaped. There was a life already built, relationships, work, and a reality that could have been enough to stay.
But there was also the awareness that a life can be working perfectly well and still not contain all the possibilities a person wants to experience.
That distinction changes everything.
Because when leaving is not an escape, the decision stops being solely about the place you are going to. It becomes about the person you are willing to become once you get there.
It was from that choice that Belle began her chapter in Italy.
And perhaps the most compelling part of this story lies not only in the country she chose, but in everything that had to be reconsidered when the woman she was before leaving encountered a reality that no longer followed the same rules.
It is at this border between the life we know and the one that does not yet exist that our conversation with Belle Zorzi begins.
1. You had an established professional life in Brazil, but decided to leave everything behind and start from scratch in Italy. What was missing from that life that made you feel it was worth taking the risk of starting over?
I don’t think anything was exactly missing. We had a good life in Brazil — we had work, family, friends, a structured life. But there was a very strong desire within me to discover what else life could be.
I always had this fear of reaching a certain point in life and realizing that I had spent my entire life in the same place simply because it was more comfortable to stay. I wanted to see other places, experience different cultures, have more freedom, work from anywhere, and build a life that truly made sense for us.
And perhaps that is why making the decision was so difficult. Because it is much easier to leave when you have nothing to lose. We did. Even so, we understood that some things only happen when you are willing to trade the security of what you already know for the possibility of building something new.
2. You arrived in Italy as a lawyer and suddenly had to face a reality in which your professional background no longer carried the same weight. After so many “no’s” and even being told that you wouldn’t be able to work because you didn’t speak Italian well enough, what changed within you that made you decide to create your own opportunity?
That was probably one of the most difficult parts of living abroad.
I have a law degree, I worked as a lawyer in Brazil, and when I arrived in Italy, I realized that everything I had built professionally did not necessarily cross the border with me.
I heard “no” many times. I was told that my Italian wasn’t good enough, that finding work would be difficult, and I began to understand that I could spend a very long time waiting for someone to decide to give me an opportunity.
Until I thought: if no one is giving me an opportunity, I’ll create my own.
I had already been working online for a few years, creating content and developing marketing skills. So I started looking less at what I had lost professionally and more at what I knew how to do.
That’s where the biggest change happened. I stopped waiting for someone to validate my abilities before taking the first step.
3. From that decision, you began building a new source of income online. What was it like to turn what you already knew how to do into services that someone would actually be willing to pay for? And what was the first job that made you realize this could really work?
In the beginning, it was very much a matter of asking ourselves: “What do we know how to do that can solve someone’s problem?”
Especially something that didn’t depend on my ability to communicate in Italian, since that was something I was still developing.
But I couldn’t wait for my Italian to become perfect before starting to make money.
I already had experience in content creation and digital marketing, and David gradually entered this world with me as well. So we started offering content creation, video editing, social media management, websites, and other digital services.
But knowing how to do something and turning it into a business are two completely different things. We had to learn how to sell, prospect for clients, set prices, negotiate, deal with clients, and, above all, demonstrate value.
Our first job was as videographers, creating video edits and managing social media for a beauty salon.
I realized that Italy wasn’t as advanced when it came to marketing. Many businesses still don’t even have social media. And those that do often don’t keep it active. Or, if they do, the quality of the content is lacking.
That’s when I saw an ocean of opportunities.
We started with small businesses, but every new client was almost a confirmation that this could exist beyond our own imagination.
Until there came a point when we realized that this was no longer simply an attempt to make an income online. It was becoming our work.
And I don’t think that realization happened in one single, defining moment. It happened gradually: when one client referred us to another, when someone came back to hire us again, until what had started as freelance work evolved into a marketing agency.
4. Today, you have built a routine that is very different from the one you had in Brazil. There is, however, a side of that freedom that doesn’t appear on social media: the risks, the difficult months, the need to constantly win new clients and make the business sustainable. What exists behind the life you chose to build that almost no one sees?
There is a lot of uncertainty.
Freedom is wonderful, but it comes with responsibility. When you work for yourself, there isn’t necessarily a guaranteed salary coming in at the end of every month. You have to win clients, deliver results, manage the business, think about the following month, and keep finding ways to grow.
On social media, people see the trips, the beautiful places, the possibility of working from different locations. What they don’t see as much are the hours spent in front of the computer, the proposals that are turned down, the clients who leave, the better months and the more difficult ones, the fear that something might go wrong, and the pressure of knowing that it is up to you to make it work.
And I don’t say this to romanticize hardship, because I don’t believe suffering is a prerequisite for achieving something. It is simply the other side of freedom.
But even so, I would choose this life again. Freedom comes with a price, but I wouldn’t trade for anything the satisfaction of building something that is truly ours.
5. When you look at the woman who arrived in Italy afraid she wouldn’t be able to make it, and at the woman you are today, what do you believe has transformed the most within you? And, after everything you have already built, what do you still feel you need or want to build?
I learned to trust my ability to rebuild myself so much more.
When I arrived in Italy, my biggest question was: “How am I going to make things work?”
And I discovered that we are capable of so much when we stop doubting ourselves and have the courage to go after what we want. When we refuse to let other people dictate how far we can go.
I was told I wouldn’t be able to work because I didn’t speak Italian. I watched my professional background lose the weight it had carried in Brazil and, for a moment, I genuinely questioned what I would be capable of doing here.
Today, I realize that we often place our sense of security in the things we have achieved: a profession, a job, a salary, a position. Living abroad taught me that there is a much greater kind of security — trusting myself.
Because if I was able to build a life from scratch in another country, learn things I never imagined I would learn, and create opportunities where none existed, I am much less afraid to try today.
And I still want to build so much. I’m a very dreamy and ambitious person. Not necessarily in the sense of having more things, but of experiencing more. I want to see the world, continue growing professionally, gain more and more freedom, and keep discovering just how far I can go.
6. And last but certainly not least: what is your voice? If you had the opportunity to say something to the world, without filters, without fear, and without having to fit into anyone’s expectations, what would you want to shout?
If I could shout something to the world, it would be: don’t put your life on hold waiting to be certain about everything.
We grow up believing that we need to know exactly who we are, what we want to do, and where we want to go. And that once we choose a path, we have to stay on it so that everything that came before feels like it was worth it.
But you can change your mind. You can discover that something you wanted for years no longer makes sense. You can change careers, countries, dreams. You can become a completely different person from the one you once imagined you would be.
And you don’t have to wait until you feel ready. Some of the most important decisions in our lives happen when we are still afraid, without all the answers, and without knowing exactly how we are going to make things work.
I’ve also learned that I can’t make decisions about my life based on what other people expect from me. Not everyone will understand the paths you choose, and that’s okay. In the end, living your life trying to meet everyone else’s expectations can cost you the very life you wish you had lived.
Allow yourself to change.
Allow yourself to begin before you feel ready.
Allow yourself to choose a life that makes sense to you, even if it makes no sense to anyone else.
After all, it’s YOUR life!!!
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