No Two Without Three: Toronto

By Luca Bonafede · November 13, 2026 ·

I lived in Toronto for a year. Downtown, with a good friend, in one of the biggest cities on the continent. I left saying I was taking the best possible memory with me.

And I was. But something underneath was off, and I knew it.

Later I came back for only four nights. Those four nights were so full that they nearly erased the whole year. That should have told me everything: I had been in the city without ever really being there.

Now I am back again, because I live by one rule: there is no two without three. I climbed the CN Tower twice, so the third was never optional. The same rule once kept me in a relationship a year too long, so I am not saying it is a wise rule. Only that it is mine.

Tonight I am in a beautiful hotel room. Alone. On purpose. Thinking about the man who lived here.

Who the fuck were you?

You had an amazing year in your hands and you spent it on dead-end jobs and the wrong women, with your heart parked a million miles away. No fine dinner balances that out. You were standing in the middle of everything and looking somewhere else.

I wish I could kick you right in the face. I can’t. The only thing I can do is avenge you, by taking a bigger bite out of Life than you ever dared to.

We are never the same person twice. The river keeps moving whether we approve or not. And if you never turn around to question who you were, I have news for you: you are not growing, you are just getting older.

So, Luca of that year: I understand you, and I forgive you. Now step aside and let me handle Toronto, and everything else.

The climb was never about the tower. It is the passage. A lobster has to live without her shell for a while, soft and exposed, before the new one comes. So do we.

Fuck, a lot can happen in a year. 

Thank you, and ciao for now. 

Luca Bonafede