![Biking in Bolzano/Bozen, Italy versus London, Ontario](https://webassets.eurac.edu/31538/1699523070-cover-photo.jpg?w=680&h=457&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.49&auto=format&dpr=1.5)
Biking in Bolzano/Bozen, Italy versus London, Ontario
![Amanda Gutzke](https://webassets.eurac.edu/31538/1696847483-gutzkeamanda.jpg?w=352&h=352&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&auto=format)
Age: 55
Country of origin: Italy
Country of residence: Italy
Profession: musician and music therapist
Q: How does the EU influence your day-to-day life?
A: The EU gives me the freedom to travel comfortably, without borders, without controls, without currency exchange.
Q: When you think about the EU, what is the first picture that comes to your mind?
A: A big choir singing “An die Freude” in the finale of Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven.
Q: End the sentence: “Twenty years from now the EU … “
A: …will be a cultural reference rather than a political and economic one.
Q: Choose three adjectives for the EU!
A: Open, supranational, tolerant.
Q: Explain the EU to an 8-year-old child (in elementary school) in one sentence.
A: The EU is like a French and a German guy drinking beer together, 100 years after they shot at each other in a trench warfare.
Q: If the EU was an animal, what would it be and why?
A: A horse: beautiful, wise, useful, a protagonist in European history ever since.
Q: Is there a dish (in your country) that describes Europe best, and why?
A: The tomato! In the salad, in the sauces, on the pizza, on the polenta… whole Europe recognises the red colour of Italian tomatoes.