NK shared with “Caravan of Stories” magazine memories about her childhood, how she first came to Italy and explained why her wedding ceremony would be held only there.

Tell us how did you end up living abroad at the age of five?

At the age of five and a half, to be precise. My parents decided to send me to a French family (after the Chernobyl tragedy many Ukrainian children lived in families abroad). Can you imagine what a strong kind character has my mom since she was not afraid to send such a small child alone to a foreign country? When I look at five-year-old children now, I do not understand how it was possible to leave me alone away from home. I would never let my child go at that age. But my parents had a different opinion.

The truth is I am grateful to them now: they wanted me to grow up as a fully developed person, I knew languages ​​and was open to the world. And it happened. Although after the first trip to France, I firmly stated to them that I would not return there any more! I settled near Paris in an ordinary French family with three boys growing up. How they mocked and teased me! I sobbed every day! I did not like it there at all: the French have absolutely different mentality, and I could not adapt to their life, customs, food, especially at the age of five.

In a year and a half my parents sent me to Italy. I was not very happy, remembering the unsuccessful trip to France. At first, I was sad… But I got into such a beautiful family that I soon felt like home. I am still friends with this family.

In Italy, I adapted quickly, and most importantly, I really liked it there. Firstly, because of appearance, when you look at me you can say I look like an Italian. Secondly, because I have a good ear for music, so I immediately took over their manner of speaking and I could chat in different dialects, I learned to gesticulate like a real Italian. I got so used to the image of Italian that Italians wouldn’t believe me when I would say I was Ukrainian. I had to sing Ukrainian songs to make them believe it. And thirdly, Italians are very similar to us, Ukrainians, in terms of mentality. They are as emotional, noisy, open, and sincere as we are. Now I have traveled all over the world and I can tell you confidently that the Italians are the closest to us among all the nationalities.

Once I with a concert team went on tour to Italy; visited Naples, Capri. When we went to have lunch in a restaurant and I began to speak Italian with a waiter in the Neapolitan dialect, my colleagues were astonished by such a surprise! One of them even admitted : “You become a totally different person when you start speaking Italian!”

And I heard this opinion more than once. Later, I went on vacation to Sorrento with my friend, who has known me for many years. She arrived later than me, and we went to a restaurant. I again started a conversation with the waiter. My friend was very surprised. “I knew that you speak Italian, but I did not know that you were Italian,” she told me.

In fact, having just stepped on Italian soil, I feel that I come home, and immediately become not Nastia, but Anastasia, that’s how they call me in Italy.

Although we have a lot in common with the Italians, there are differences as well. For the first time I arrived there on Christmas Eve. It felt as if I got into a fairy tale: streets were decorated with bright garlands and ornaments, there were fairs and delicious treats we never heard of. For me, a child, it was an absolute happiness. That Christmas, which I celebrated with my Italian family, I will remember all my life! By the way, I called my Italian family members “dad” and “mom.” They asked me for that as they wanted us to get closer. And my parents did not mind.

On that trip I experienced a real shock. Accidentally falling, I got a crack in my arm, and I was taken to the hospital. When I got there, I could not believe my eyes: it seemed to me that I was transferred to the future by the time machine. In our Ukrainian hospitals I have never seen such equipment and medicines. When I was plastered, I completely did not understand what they were doing to me: first they put special cotton wool on my arm, then a plaster that was warm and pleasant in sensation. Then they put a special bandage on. From what I saw, I completely forgot about my injury. The only thing that upset me was that I injured my left arm, not my “working” right. So, after returning home, I would have to go to school…

I did not attend school officially in Italy – I made up missed classes in Kiev later. And unofficially attended the Italian school together with my coeval Francesco, the son of Italian parents. At that time I studied in fifth grade at a good school in the center of Kyiv and spoke English fluently. And then suddenly at a lesson in fifth grade at the Italian school, I observed how children were learning the words “dog”, “cat”, “flower” and so on. I was surprised, because the “doggies” and “cats” I’d learned during kindergarten.

I had become very different from the one year spent in Italy, not only in terms of English fluency – I also took classes of dancing, music and sang in the choir. When I was sitting on the splits in front of them, it was something impossible for them! Since then I realized that you need to get a secondary education in our country, it is the best one. But if you want to get a higher education abroad and become a holder of a European-style diploma, then you should go for knowledge there.

What I was also shocked about in Italy, is how they prepared for the weddings. There were two other girls, older than me in my Italian family, besides Francesco. I’d been in Italy for seven years quite often. And all these years, I watched as the girls grew up, matured, met with the boys and after that they started saving money for the wedding. There were several tin cans, in the house, on the shelf, in each of them they collected money for certain needs, and in one of them – for a wedding. Even the guys, with whom the girls were meeting, were throwing money into this jar.

For Italians family is in the first place, they are rarely divorced, and men have a very respectful attitude towards women – mother, sister, wife. That’s why a wedding is one of the most important events in life. They are preparing for this celebration for a long time and thoroughly, and the organization requires a lot of money. To order the most beautiful cathedral for the wedding, you need to register in advance for three years. Then you should book a restaurant, but not just a restaurant, but a whole palazzo for marriages! Italians, even with a small income, try to decorate the wedding on the highest level.

A souvenir, which the Italians call “bonbonieri”, must be attached to each invitation to the celebration. And every family has a shelf in the house, which holds a collection of these bonboniers, as a memory of the weddings of relatives and friends.

In addition to this after every celebration, there is a beautiful photo album that holds the footage from the wedding itself, and then photos of the children are added … When I was a little girl and came to visit friends with my Italian family, I was given a photo album to entertain myself, and I looked at it for hours.

My Italian sisters also had luxurious wedding celebrations. After that they had children. And when I came to visit I’d put them to bed and even would learned lullabies in Italian. It’s a great experience when you live through such exciting moments with your close people – and the Italian family has become my own during this time.

And would you like to have the same wedding as your Italian “relatives”?

It is the only one that I want! I am against stamps in the passport, because I think this is absolutely superfluous. A wedding should be arranged in order to have a great fun at it and be satisfied. And I dream of a luxurious celebration, even I would like to have a wedding in Italy.

You do not tell a lot about your personal life, why?

Because I’m not ready to talk about it.

But do you have it?

Of course I do! Look at me – there should be someone who loves this?! If I came to the interview in a good mood, I’m smiling and look happy, hat should mean that everything is fine in this field.

But why do not you want to tell who loves it?

One day at the beginning of my career, I told in great detail about my personal life. But I was warned: You should never tell all about yourself at one time, such frankness destroys relations. But I did not listen to the advice and did that. And soon we broke up with that person. Later, I began to analyze why this happened? I began to pay attention to the covers of magazines with the image of star pairs. I know more about the personal life of celebrities than the readers of these publications, and, looking at the happy faces of famous people, thought to myself: in fact this couple is not together, these people are together, but they are not doing well … I mean that the affairs and the marriages of many couples whose faces we can see on the pages of glossy magazines, do not have any relation to love.

I have great respect for Vera Brezhneva in this sense, who protects her family so carefully. As for me, believe me: If I want the world to learn about my personal life, everyone will know about it! I think that is important for my audience to know that I’m happy and I’m fine, I love and I’m loved. In my opinion, it is important not to be interested in someone else’s personal life, but to pay attention to yours, not to follow someone’s happiness, but to make every effort to become happy yourself. To tell the truth, I even want to plan the birth of my child so that no one knows about my pregnancy.