ASTANA – Marco Alberti, Italy’s former ambassador to Kazakhstan, presented his new book “Kazakhstan in 10 Words” in Astana on July 1, offering a personal reflection on people, places and experiences that shaped his years in the country.
Kazakhstan in 10 Words. Photo credit: Aida Temerkhan / The Astana Times
Alberti served as Italy’s ambassador to Kazakhstan from 2021 to 2024, a role that took him across the country and inspired the personal stories that formed the basis of the book.
Speaking at the presentation, Alberti said the book was born from a desire to describe not Kazakhstan itself, but his life in Kazakhstan.
“I did not want to write a book about Kazakhstan, but about how I lived in Kazakhstan,” he said.
Alberti said one of the book’s central messages is the importance of experiencing places rather than simply visiting them. He drew a distinction between being a tourist and being a traveler.
“In life, you need to be not just a tourist, but a traveler,” he said. “A tourist forgets, while a traveler remembers.”
Rather than organizing the book chronologically, Alberti built it around ten words that he believes best represent the country. The words were suggested by Kazakh friends and colleagues, each becoming the starting point for a chapter based on his own experiences.
“I asked my colleagues and friends to tell me one word about Kazakhstan that characterizes their country,” Alberti said. “Each of these words I wanted to live here in Kazakhstan.”
Among the ten words are steppe, horse, yurt (a mobile nomadic home), sky, wind and hospitality. Instead of describing them academically, Alberti wanted to experience each one firsthand.
To do that, he visited yurts to better understand their cultural significance, explored the Kazakh steppe, spent time learning about Kazakhstan’s horse culture in Burabay and traveled extensively across the country. Much of the manuscript, he noted, was written while flying between Kazakh cities.
“I wrote it on planes between Aktobe and Astana, Astana and Atyrau, and many other cities,” he said.
Alberti emphasized that the book is not intended as a guidebook.
“It is not a tourist guide. It is a book about things that I have seen and lived through, so that someone else can experience them a little as I did,” he said.
Among the ten words, Alberti said the word “nomad” held particular significance, reflecting both Kazakhstan’s history and his own experience as a diplomat moving from country to country.
“For me, the trip to Kazakhstan was like being a nomad because diplomats are nomads in a land of nomads,” he said.
Describing the Kazakh steppe, he put it not simply as a landscape, but as a “way of being in nature.”
He also reflected on the vastness of Kazakhstan’s landscapes, recalling how he once stopped his car outside Astana to experience complete darkness and silence, something he said has become difficult to find in Europe.
At the end of the presentation, Alberti invited guests to sign his personal copy of the book. He explained that just as nomads carry their belongings wherever they go, he wanted to take home a reminder of the friendships and experiences he gained during his time in Kazakhstan.
