The first huge thanks go to Mario for giving me the opportunity and the trust to work alongside him on the new edition of this book. It was an amazing experience and hopefully just the beginning of a long series of collaborations.

This book was only possible thanks to the incredible and efficient work of the Packt team, especially thanks to the relentless efforts and the patience of Onkar, Reshma, and Prajakta. Also thanks to the reviewers Tane Piper and Joel Purra, their experience with Node.js was crucial to raise the quality of the content provided in this book.

A great hug (and many beers) go to my friends Anton Whalley (@dhigit9), Alessandro Cinelli (@cirpo), Andrea Giuliano (@bit_shark), and Andrea Mangano (@ManganoAndrea) for encouraging me all along the way, for sharing with me their experience as developers and for providing meaningful insights on the contents of this book.

Another great thank you goes to Ricardo, Jose, Alberto, Marcin, Nacho, David, Arthur, and all my colleagues at Smartbox for making me love my days at work and for inspiring and motivating me to get better every day as a software engineer. I couldn't ask for a better team.

My deepest gratitude goes to my family, who raised and sustained me in every possible way along my journey. Thanks, mom, for being a constant source of inspiration and strength in my life. Thanks, dad, for all the lessons, the encouragement and the advice, I really miss talking with you, I really miss you. Thanks to my brother Davide and my sister Alessia for being present in the painful and the joyful moments and making me feel part of a great family.

Thanks to Franco and his family for supporting many of my initiatives and for sharing their wisdom and life experience with me.

Kudos to my "nerd" friends Gianluca, Flavio, Antonio, Valerio, and Luca for the great time together and for constantly encouraging me to keep working on this book.

Also kudos to my "less nerdy" friends Damiano, Pietro, and Sebastiano for their friendship and all the laughs and the fun we have when we hang out together in Dublin.

Last, but definitely not least, thanks to my girlfriend Francesca. Thank you for the unconditioned love and for supporting me on every adventure, even the craziest ones. I really look forward to writing the next pages in the book of our life with you.