Nov 2022

That’s Amore.

A tasty Belka Retreat.

Belka Dog

Belka's official Spokesperson

Our website reminds us that we are a tight-knit group of 15 devs, designers, strategists and producers based in Trento, Northern Italy. We have a flexible working policy (from the office or from whenever you want) and some of us work fully remotely from Rome and Turin.

One of our company values is together. To make sure is not just a buzzword on our website, some time ago we decided it was worth to take some days off from work and just stay together.

Our UXR, design and dev team having a quick stand-up session in the morning.

Teamwork

The quality of our work depends on the quality of our teamwork. Getting to know each other better, helps our company to grow. It also reminds us that beyond our jobs, we’re human beings.

But most of all, we like to laugh. Like, a lot. On this purpose, gathering physically works like a charm.

Mattia is originally from Basilicata, a beautiful and mysteryous region in the South of Italy, known for excellent food. He couldn't believe that also in the North of Italy food can be ok, or even great.

Modena

We’ve heard of this city many times. During history class, in cookbooks, and during a sports car racing on TV. Not to mention, it's a gracefully life-sized city. It's like a mini-Italy where the main passions that characterize our culture decided to meet. So, we decided to join, and off we went!

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Claus staring at enthusiastic Ben as his backlog looks strangely empty today.

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And yes, if it makes you think of Pavarotti, dude you’re right — Modena was precisely his home city. You've never heard of him? You deserve a Pavarotti moment right now!

Walking by the walls of Palazzo Ducale - the residence of Este Dukes of Modena built in 1452 - with complete nonchalance makes you somehow feel super cool, even if you aren't. Give it a try!

Cate looks very excited but we don't know why. We'll ask her!

Ok, Rizzo makes his point. We’re still hungry here, food is still to come.

As we’re not much into opera and singing, we rather focused on food instead.

In this area, they have food specialties called *gnocco fritto* and *tigella*.

It's like a very soft kind of bread and suits perfectly jam, cheese and all sorts of incredible salamis they have in Modena. To be honest, not the best place for vegetarians.

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Homeland to fast cars

Another thing that makes Modena world-know is its luxury sports car industry. Ferrari, Maserati, Pagani: these names might ring a bell to you.

What about Maranello? It might sound just like another random Italian word to you. However, for average Italians, it isn’t. This little suburb outside Modena gave birth to Ferrari in 1939. The rest is history.

Obviously, we went to the Ferrari museum.

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Gigi and Sara feel like the ghetto girls in front of *cavallino*, the little horse in Ferrari’s logo and iconic status symbol.

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Here’s for a tribute to pilot *Michael Schumacher* with whom Ferrari won five years in a row from 2000 to 2004, monopolizing every Sunday afternoon of our childhood.

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After this intense experience, it was time to relax. We jumped into a Spa, then another round of good food and and intense round of team games.

Ahem, we enjoyed this too much and completely forgot to take pictures. Next time!

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In replacement, let’s have a look at Maria Sole’s intense portrait. She keeps telling she doesn't have good photos. Here you go.

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Being together, making together

Since Modena’s lavishing food was not enough and they really have good tortellini (small ravioli), tortelloni (big ravioli) and tagliatelle (come on, you know what tagliatelle are), we took a class at Acetaia Malagoli on how to make some. That’s how it went.

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Undoubtedly, Giò could quit his position in Belka's board today and start working as a cook tomorrow.

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Anas and Diego prove that developers and designers can peacefully work together.

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Our developer Fede switching from React Native to tagliatelle with ease and a big smile.

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Our engineering manager Rizzo taking control and supporting his team during hard times.

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Cate and Sara proudly showing the final results and articulating with their hands as only Italians do.

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And here’s again, in case you've missed it earlier, the *Grand Finale* at the super nice family-run Acetaia Malagoli!

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What we've learned

Somehow when the team is finally reunited something magic happens. The positive energy of us simply together is mesmerizing.

Maybe we knew this before already, but we’ve realized even more that we can be happy with very little. We don’t need complex experiences or luxury locations.

Like we wrote somewhere on our website, we're all in this together. True beauty lies within us.

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We're fascinated by Sole's expert hands working with tortelloni's dough. We'll ask her for more pasta making sessions between one user test and the other.

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We don't remember how we were supposed to use these tattoos with the team's faces, but they somehow ended up being everywhere on Cate's and Sara's faces, too.