Optimistic, curious, and constitutionally incapable of sitting still.
Ricky's default setting is "best day ever." Rain? "Expedition weather!" A wrong turn? "A discovery!" A burned dinner? "...A discovery." His optimism has a gravitational pull — grumpy adults find themselves smiling before they remember they were grumpy.
He asks approximately four hundred questions a day, a figure Nonna verified by counting once (she stopped at lunch). His field journal is full of sketches, maps, and hypotheses, including the landmark theory that the Lost Recipe is "probably behind something."
Ricky would follow Uncle Penne into any cellar and would defend Nonna's sauce against any critic, up to and including the critic being correct. His friends get his last breadstick. Always. This is the highest honor in Pastalia.
| Strengths | Quirks |
|---|---|
| Fearless curiosity; makes friends everywhere; never gives up | Cannot whisper (tried once); packs 6 snacks for a 10-minute walk; narrates his own life |
Very little — but ask him quietly and he'll admit: a map with no blank spaces left. Ricky needs the world to still have mysteries. Fortunately, Pastalia keeps delivering.