Tommaso Zurli: How I fell in love with Sweden (without even having been there!)

I'm so sorry! I haven't been updating my blog regularly over the past few weeks! The problem is, when I'm at home on holiday, it's a bit hard for me to be inspired to post something new, I always end up thinking about something else...
But now...I have announced you that my next post would be about some aspect of my life that I mentioned in my older posts, but never thoroughly treated.
More specifically, it's my great interest (or should we call it love?) for the country of Sweden, its culture, or, broadly and basically, everything related to it!
First things first: this is a passion that started in my teenage years, unlike the ones for English language and reading, which I had since my childhood.
As a child, geography has always been one of my favourite subjects; I could name the capital cities of every single European country, and most of the others, but when it came to Sweden, my knowledge was a bit limited, and, honestly, a bit on the stereotypical side: Stockholm, snow, cold temperatures all year long, blonde people with blue eyes, reindeer, high standards of living, IKEA, ABBA, Volvo, Saab, and nothing else.
But how did it really start?
I was 17 years old. It was summer. My mum had just finished reading the most famous of all my (not-yet-)beloved Swedish thriller novel series, Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy. I was, at the time, reading a book on hackers and cybercrime. The author wanted to approach readers who didn't necessarily have specialised knowledge in IT, and therefore he chose a character from a popular novel series who perfectly embraced the figure he wanted to portray.
Lisbeth Salander.
I won't tell you anything about the character or the story, just read them!
So I became curious. Are those books any interesting? Worth reading?
As soon as I had a chance, I bought myself a copy of all three novels, and, with immense curiosity, I started reading them.
The girl with the dragon tattoo.
The girl who played with fire.
The girl who kicked the hornets' nest.
And, quickly, I started learning about the places where the stories are set.
Stockholm and its surroundings.
Norrbotten county.
Gothenburg.
I am the kind of person who tends to be almost obsessed by the things I really like; back then, not a single day went by without me looking for information on some place, institution or any kind of Sweden-related topic; and I decided that, one day or another, I would have learnt some Swedish. I have found an online language course, a nice one, and I also get some little help...
I decided I wanted to be friends with someone from Sweden, and three years later, I was glad and honoured when I finally got in touch with one of them, with whom I share my great love of racing; we keep in touch regularly and we exchange postcards and greeting cards on special occasions, without having ever met in person! Tack så mycket, Emma!
And, of course, my ultimate dream is a trip to that beautiful country. I don't care what the others say, it's expensive, it's not interesting, blah blah blah...I just need to choose the right time, the right places, and get some money on my own. Needless to say, I'll soon start looking for a little job...and save!
Now that my interest has been well established for years, I have also read many other books, alongside the aforementioned three, and gained an even deeper knowledge of the country; also, watching films and TV series helps a lot, and sometimes, I watch them just for the setting, as it happened a couple of months ago with a terrible story set in an amazing piece of countryside!
There is, however, one more reason why Sweden attracts me so badly: the popularity of motorsports, such as rallying and rallycross, by far my favourite ones! I had chances to meet Swedish racing and rally drivers in the past, very nice people indeed! Also had some kind of crush on a certain Ramona Karlsson...(nothing serious, I think everyone at some point in their life become extremely attracted by some celebrity...average Italian guys usually choose stupid people...proud not to be one of them)
Before closing with the usual photos, a little question in case I had any readers who often go to Sweden or, even better, live there: Are there many Italians in Sweden, either as tourists or expatriates? If the answer is NO, then it's a great thing to me, on the day I'll go there! We can be extremely annoying! (not all of us, luckily :D )

Panoramic view over Stockholm, from Kungsholmen: