My name is Enrico and I do things.

Quite a lot of things indeed.

From a Biologist specialised in Ecosystems, Ethology and Evolutionary Sciences (whose dream was to become just like David Attenborough) you wouldn’t expect more than 25 years expertise in Communication, Digital Media Design & Production, Graphic Design, Online, Product and Area Marketing, Corporate Restructuring & Management, Events Design and Production, Tourism, Food & Wine… and yes, Music too! Well, that’s actually what happened to me during the last 30 years. I’ve been so busy doing things and in the meanwhile learning how to do them that time just passed in a breathe. Would you like to know more? Check this page out then, I promise you won’t get bored. Rather inspired most certainly.

Some Fancy Skills’ Bars

I’ve always thought that learning to do something is a process that can be approached in several different ways. So sometimes I study, even a lot, sometimes I copy or steal ideas (yes, why not?), sometimes I just jump into whatever no matter what, and then learn how to sort it out simply by doing it. It’s the fine Art of Surviving Your Own Assignments, trying and get out of them the best possible way, which very often matches the very possible way ever. I’ve developed quite some skills in the field, throughout all this time. And would you believe it? I still have a lot of fun putting myself deep into troubles and finding the way out. Every time it’s a big adventure and it gives me a lot of adrenaline, which is by the way the main reason why I still look so young and handsome.

Communication 80% 80%
Digital Media Design & Production 90% 90%
Graphic Design 70% 70%
Online Marketing 80% 80%
Product Marketing 60% 60%
Area Marketing 85% 85%
Events Design and Production 93% 93%
Corporate Restructuring and Management 85% 85%
Customer Happiness 99% 99%

Where it all started

At that time I was still 100% a musician and I was at the verge of publishing my second album with a major. For quite a few heavy reasons that never happened and I decided to do something else with my life.

Getting my hands dirty with computer hardware

I started working by Infobyte, which was supposed to become one of the biggest ICT companies of the whole Europe in the following years. At that time there were about 15 employees and I’ve been hired as computer hardware technician. My duty was basically to maintain PC Based Multimedia Systems located within the info points of the Italian power plants. Which meant traveling. A lot. And not only through the whole peninsula, but also abroad, following the company’s missions when delivering Multimedia Systems for International events, such as Sebilla 1992 Universal EXPO, where I’ve been several times for 6 unforgettable months.

Self Made Multimedia Project Manager

One day, while cleaning up the computers’ warehouse, I found a folder containing what looked like a project of a multimedia application about a natural park between Umbria and Lazio (two regions of central Italy). Precisely the territory where my family comes from. And it was all about ecosystems, fauna and flora and of course a sustainability project regarding a power plant built precisely in the middle of such an area. When asked about it, my boss told me that was a proposal of a couple of weeks before that nobody wanted to deal with because of total lack of competence in the fields within the Concept Design team in the company. I asked him if I could give it a try thanks to my background as ecology specialized biologist and he had nothing against it, unless I’d go on with my job. After 1 month of study and preparation, mostly while traveling, I came out with a fully detailed project and there my career as Creative Designer of Multimedia Projects started. 2 months after I was installing myself (of course!) the info point by this beautiful ancient building in Civita di Bagnoregio, which later became the museum of the park. My first multimedia vision came true.

Traveling the world after my creations

One of the most amazing periods of my whole life. In January I was in Mexico City, following the exhibition Tesoros artísticos del Vaticano: arte y cultura de dos milenios (exhibit, Colegio de San Ildefonso, México (D.F.), 16/11/1993 – 15/02/1994), where I had to install and maintain an educational Multimedia application on CD-ROM which I contributed to create. Then after I co-cured and directed the production of the multimedia catalogues of massive exhibits in Rome, like The Normans (Palazzo Venezia, Rome, more than 320k visitors!), Insetti… Ovunque! (Insects… everywhere! by the Insectarium, Rome, in cooperation with the Rome’s Civic Zoology Museum). Then I cured and published a CD-ROM series called Ecosystems in cooperation with CNR, a massive Multimedia Encyclopedia about life forms and their environments. Later on I co-cured and managed the Multimedia version of the catalogue of The Italian Metamorphosis, 1943-1968, with the artistic direction of Massimo Vignelli and in cooperation with Peggy Guggenheim Collection Venice. On October the 7th 1994 I was at the Solomon Guggenheim Museum in New York, at the opening of the exhibition, introducing our work and participating to panels. There I met Clint Eastwood, the mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani and I had a pastrami sandwich outside the museum with Naomi Campbell who would have gladly been anywhere else but there…

Time for a change and an upgrade!

At the beginning of 1995 Infobyte, the company I was currently working for and I’d stepped in 3 years before while being a group of about 15 people, bought an entire (luxurious) building in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Rome and moved there, because in the meanwhile their staff became of about 100 people including graphic designers, 3d modelers, audiovisual operators, programmers, editors, technicians and managers. That happened thanks to their commercial skills of course, helped by deep connection with politics and huge companies, but as well thanks to the enormous amount of work that people like me could perform and the amazing results they could deliver. As it often happens, this growth wasn’t proportional with the salaries. Tired of having growing responsibilities on my shoulders and always being payed the same amount of money, I decided to start looking around. After having participated to Media 1995 in Cannes, I just sent my CV to the nearby 60 Italian companies which at those times were already busy with multimedia or just simple startups. Motivation letter and a CV in an envelope, old style – no emails yet. They all replied! They all invited me for an intake! More than 80% wanted me as their Head of Production. I just had to choose which one. And I chose a startup in Rome, Immagini Interattive, whose owner was someone very well known in the Italian movie production’s field. We would start building a new generation of video games, based on Interactive Storytelling. And our headquarters would be based inside Cinecittà, the famous studios in Rome where Fellini among the many others contributed to the history of Cinema, exactly above his beloved teatro 5. The opportunity was too good to be true, a dream. And finally I could earn what I always thought I deserved. In the same year we traveled as a team to Los Angeles, California, to attend Siggraph 1995. There we met with Carlo Rambaldi, the several times Oscar prize awarded for special effects, creator of some of the most famous movie audio-animatronics, like King Kong, ET, Alien and many more. He would become a strategic partner in our newborn company and a friend who I’d meet again in an unexpected development of my professional future. I must say that yes, I was quite satisfied with my choice!

New horizons open, new business, new experiences

With Immagini Interattive I started being busy with Digital Media in the definition’s widest meaning. At first producing videos for The Mysterious Woman, an Interactive Movie on CD-ROM, pioneering Virtual Reality on consumers platforms like IBM-Windows PCs, combined with blue-green screen movie shots. Then quite a series of other titles, like the Cinecittà Studios CD-ROM, where we modeled and rendered in 3D the entire complex of structures as an UI to access informations; the CD-ROM for the celebration of 50 years of Piaggio’s Vespa, being selected directly by Piaggio among a vaste number of proposals, and then a couple of titles, still on CD-ROM, for the retail market, like Sing&Learn, an interactive English course based on pop-rock songs, published in 12 volumes. Being pioneers in Digital Video solutions, we streamed for the first time in Europe High Quality video (PAL standard), using both VDO Net and Real Networks Real Player through a double ISDN connection (128kbit/s): it was the Venice International Movie Awards’ Gran Gala Night 1996! Sponsored by Telecom and attended by almost 100 viewers, it was the official entry of the Italian Public telephonic company in the Italian Internet market as ISP. We produced several web services for Telecom, for the Italian Government and for many other Italian high profile customers. We produced edutainment video content for the first TV on demand in Italy, STREAM, which would become Sky in the future. And while evolving into a Web Design and Development agency, we created and published The Music Net, the first and biggest European portal about music at those times, having David Zard (the Italian tycoon of live music) as customer and visionary owner of the idea. Through the entire 1996 and 1997 it was the most visited Italian website, scoring award after award for design and performances. David Zard was so impressed by the result and by me being a visionary even more than himself, that we kept working together till now, July 2016, while I’m writing this.

My first company: The Brain Farm

During the production of the 50 years of Vespa‘s CD in 1996, I got in contact with Max Pinucci, owner of a graphic studio in Pontedera, Piaggio’s so called “company town” in Tuscany, nearby Pisa. I’ve always had a passion for the countryside and Tuscany above all places, so when he proposed me to start there a business together I just couldn’t say no. Although my position in Rome with Immagini Interattive was just perfectly fitting for me, I felt a sort of a call from destiny and I decided to follow my instinct. We were at the verge of what it looked like a digital explosion in the international scenario, with Internet businesses growing so fast that you could hardly keep up with what was going on on a daily base. That’s why I imagined a Creative Digital Studio in the Tuscan countryside, in a real farm, rebuilt following the traditional architectural styles of the area, but then connected at a high speed with the Internet backbone of those times. The company’s house quarters should have become a production centre and at the same time a professional training facility for all the necessary skills to be involved in the workflow. But also a resort, where our customers from all over Italy and (why not?) Europe or the whole world could come and spend some time with us, getting a glimpse of what sustainability, tradition and innovation could mean all together. We involved the whole territory of Valdera and Alta Valdera (a wide part of the Pisa’s district) in this endeavour, from public institutions to business partners, starting from Piaggio obviously, and then local governments, universities, artists, everyone and everything. And it was a success. By September 1997 I was moving from Rome to Pontedera, ready to start an exciting new adventure. The Brain Farm was born.

Another very busy year with an unexpected finale...

Together with Paolo Cecchetti as chief software engineer, Paolo Bitossi as video maker and Alessandro Caneschi as art director, The Brain Farm started its lucky stream scoring an assignment by the Italian Military Navy, a CD-ROM to celebrate the new millennium with their history, their ships and heroes. Then the first official website of Piaggio, then suddenly after Gilera‘s one and then Bianchi Bycicles‘s one too. A few corporate and product multimedia presentations for Piaggio (Vespa, Hexagon, Ape). A few corporate videos for Piaggio and Bianchi. And just before the end of the year, the start of a relationship with Italian’s biggest publisher, the Gruppo l’Espresso, with a few CD-ROM titles we agreed to start producing together from 1999 on. But something went wrong up there in paradise, and what looked like a beautiful fairytale with a happily ever after ended up in a sad clash of personalities. That was of course nothing for me, so exactly three days before Christmas I resigned and left the company, heading back to Rome. I realized a couple of weeks after that this was nothing but a little storm before the start of a new great adventure…

My second company: Golemarts

When I came back to Rome I went and visit my former art director at Immagini Interattive, Federico Romanazzo, who in the meanwhile had started his own business. He had quite a lot of work to do and he asked me if I could help him out as production manager. I said yes of course, and that’s how Golemarts studios started. We immediately went into 3D motion Graphics, realizing animated sequences for Tutti gli uomini del deficiente, movie by the Gialappa’s Band, a group of very famous comedians, distributed by Medusa/Mediaset. Then Alitalia came in, with a massive intranet project which would connect all the travel agencies with the booking facilities of the Italian National flight company. We stepped into TV program’s production with RAI‘s (Italian National Television) reality SMS, c’è un messaggio per te, realizing the website and managing the interactive online part. Then we designed and produced all the CGI and digital special effects for La Piovra, a very fortunate RAI series produced by Palomar Studios/Endemol. We studied and produced together with a team of architects the entire user experience of Explora, the Children’s Museum of Rome, and we also won the public competition for the assignment of their corporate image’s design. At the end of the year we received an offer we can’t refuse: David Zard, the live music tycoon, who never stopped wanting to work with me, proposed to step in as investor and co-owner of the company. We couldn’t do nothing else than accept, and a new chapter of my professional history was about to start.

From Golemarts to Materia

With David Zard stepping into Golemarts (changing its name to The Digital Workshop) and thus granting Federico, my partner in business, a fair follow up, I took the decision to leave again and go back to Tuscany. I wasn’t over my “digital farm” dream yet, so I started it all over again, but then by myself only. That’s when I finally started Materia, my own digital media and communication studio. As first act I developed for Materia a corporate award winning website completely in Flash (Actionscript 3.0), then after I won a competition for a € 100k financing by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Pisa for the realization of a web community. The project was called Pianeta Charlie (Planet Charlie) and it was actually the web version of a “friendly phone”, called Charlie, already active for 20 years on the territory and dedicated to adolescents with problems in need of anonymous help by psychologists and other specialists in the matter. I found out later on that everything about the design of this product, from concept to UI and UX, was incredibly similar to Facebook, but then something like 3-4 years before Zuckerberg came out with the idea. Story of my life. Anyway, Pianeta Charlie was the start of an unstoppable series of successes as Web Concept & Graphics Designer/Developer.

Materia: the Dream Builders!

Once reconnected to the network I previously had with The Brain farm (which in the meanwhile had been sold and moved to Milan, so much for the digital farm concept…) I was again a number cruncher of assignments. Contacted by local governments, regional departments and private businesses, I was deploying project after project: websites, printed graphics, digital videos… and events! In May 2003 the local government of Terricciola (Pisa) asked me to design and organise the 41st edition of their traditional Festa dell’Uva e del Vino (Festival of wine and Grapes). I replied with an extended area marketing project, proposing a complete rebranding of the festival and its upgrade from a traditional saga to a first class event, involving V.I.P. testimonials, art, music, theatre and of course the main wine producers of the area, who were starting to upgrade themselves as well to a more professional and also international profile. It was a stunning success with a triplicated number of visitors, which led to the following edition’s assignment, as well as to a new beautiful challenge: the assignment for the creation and design of a Wine Museum. I presented an idea of Echo-museum, through a multi-disciplinar feasibility studio, called DiVino Museo, which was immediately accepted by the mayor and his council. A Foundation around the idea was started, together with the main winemakers of the area plus Fratelli Lunelli (Ferrari), La Spinetta and Castellani Wine. DiVino Museo saw the light in early 2004. In the meanwhile I was teaching Digital Media Design & Technologies by Urban Valdera, professional training school in Pontedera, using funds coming from the EU. My “digital farm” dream started to have shape and ground.

Fiabesque, the Fairy Tales Town

In 2004 I moved Materia’s office to Peccioli, a lovely small middle ages village on a hill nearby Pisa, again together with Max Pinucci and another visionary, Gianni Pirotta, just fallen in there directly from Los Angeles. We weren’t even done with the moving yet that Peccioli’s mayor (knowing about my previous experience in large scale events organization) came to the studio, asking if we could come out with an idea for an event in the winter time, in order to gain some attention for the commercial activities in the village. That’s when Fiabesque was born. We designed this children event which would take place on every Sunday in December and have its clue moment on January the 6th, the day of La Befana, an Italian traditional fictitious figure, a witch on a broom who’s supposed to bring gifts to good children and black coal to bad boys&girls. We would turn the village into the Fairy Tales Town and stage theatrical shows, animation and music all over the place. The entire community was enthusiastic about the idea, and the Festival just started in 2004. It went on until 2013, when the local government could not afford anymore the production and suspended it. I can’t actually mention how much work, how many productions, how many contacts Fiabesque has generated in 9 years. Started as a local event, Fiabesque turned into an international entity, inspiring similar operations all over the world and helping connecting cultures and people. It’s been one of the greatest experiences in my whole life, not only professionally speaking, and I’ll always remember the magic of it, and with me the 150.000 and more people who had the privilege of experiencing it. Although my name has been removed (in 2009 I moved to the Netherlands and Max Pinucci carried on art direction and organisation of the festival), you can still have a glimpse of what Fiabesque has been just clicking right here.

Solidaria, PisaUnicaTerra, PisaVini, Tracce di Tartufo

After the success of Fiabesque‘s first edition, we’ve been hired for quite a numerous list of big events, both private and public. In 2005 we produced Solidaria, a 4 days kermesse about social solidarity in Pontedera, in the ex factory of Ape, Piaggio, promoted by local governments and with the patronage of the National Ministry for Social Affairs, where more than 40.000 people could enjoy a reproduction of a Saharawi village, including the desert’s sand, entirely populated by street artists, flee market, cultural activities, a cocktail bar and a pub, and of course 3 different stages on which national level artists where performing, from musicians to comedians. And from 00:00 on the whole area turned into a rave party which went on until the morning light. At the same time the Province of Pisa contacted us for the assignment of a massive project about the rebranding of the entire area, following the arrival of low cost flight companies at the Pisa’s airport Galileo Galilei and tackling the need to let tourist know and enjoy not only Pisa and its tower but also its splendid surroundings. I designed the entire project, from the communication campaign (and all its materials) to a feasibility studio about networking of all the production departments of the area which were linked to tourism and lifestyle in general, like hotels and hospitality in general, transports, restaurants, food&wine, agriculture, natural parks, yacht clubs and so on. A new unifying brand was created, PisaUnicaTerra, which had to represent a quality label on every certified product/service. I’ve redesigned as well every info point in Pisa and through the entire territory, including the one at the airport, right in front to the arrivals. In 2009 the web portal pisaunicaterra.it replaced the Official Government Tourism Office of Pisa (APT) and since then on it’s been an one stop referral point for whoever from all over the world would like to know about Pisa and its territory. in 5 years from the practical application of the measures designed by my feasibility studio, the Gross Domestic Product of Pisa and province boosted up till +38%. Here you can find all the necessary infos. In 2007 we were asked to redesign, produce and organize PisaVini’s 2008 edition, the only official wine event in Tuscany. I’ve rebranded it into DiVino and turned into a real wine fair on Vinitaly’s footsteps, integrating PisaUnicaTerra’s guidelines about interiors, communication and innovation. Another stunning success inside the splendid Stazione Leopolda in Pisa, the city’s old railway station. Again in June 2008 Materia designed and produced Tracce di Tartufo, an event which took place at Pisa’s airport, involving a selection of the best white truffle specialized restaurants, the Tourism Institute Giacomo Matteotti, the Province of Pisa and the National Truffle Association. On a 12 meters long semicircular widescreen we projected a video we realized, showing how the truffle is originated, how it develops and how it’s found, while the students of Giacomo Matteotti’s institute were passing by with wooden boxes full with the aromas of the underwoods. That was what I’d named Sensorama, recalling the famous experiments by Morton Heilig in the 50s.

MateriaLab, FiabesqueLab, Humus

Since 2007 I was promoting a cultural association within my activity, with the goal of producing items like theatrical pieces, movies and other “cultural” products. I’ve called it MateriaLab, and it’s first production has been La Fiaba delle Fiabe (the fairy tale of fairy tales), street art theatrical piece which was staged for the first time at Fiabesque 2007. A theatrical workshop, based on a concept script I wrote, involving a director and a few professional performers plus just normal people with a passion for theatre produced a show which intended to be performed through the streets of Peccioli. Due to its stunning success, the piece was represented as well in Livorno, staging the same crew which called themselves FiabesqueLab, during Effetto Venezia 2008 and later on in Croatia, by the yearly Fairy Tales Festival dedicated to Ivana Brlic Mazuranic in Slavonski Brod. Later on, MateriaLab produced HUMUS, a 3 days kermess by the huge Gaslini’s villa in Montefoscoli, yet in Pisa’s province. HUMUS should have been the first step of another visionary project about a school of sciences and arts in the Tuscan countryside, with people coming from all over the world, following the concept of Renaissance Academies and aiming to train multi-skilled figures in more disciplines at the same time, aiming to obtain a formation based on the Da Vinci’s model. The event was a success and the idea is still on the table, Italian times…

Materia goes to Holland!

In 2009 my sweet wife found an amazing job as Chief Fashion Designer by one of the most important european pret-a-porter women’s fashion labels based in Amsterdam. I might forgot to tell you that she’s Dutch, that she moved to Italy in 2007 and we’ve been living there together for almost 3 years. So she proposed me to go and follow her to the Netherlands, and you know what? I accepted without even thinking about it! I’ve always wanted to live in NL, I was 17 years old the first time I saw Amsterdam and it was love at first sight. No opportunity could have been better than this one to fulfil that old dream of mine! So I did, and in February 2010 I registered in the Zaanstad district, just a few km north of Amsterdam. And of course I moved Materia there with me. And I registered it as MateriaMedia in the Dutch KvK (Chamber of Commerce). Just for a change. In the meanwhile I was one more time in contact with David Zard, yes, him again. My greatest mentor, the Italian live music tycoon. He was just heading to the 8th year in a row with the astounding success of Notre Dame de Paris, the Italian version of the famous French musical, so he proposed me to follow the whole Internet and Social Media strategy for this and all his other productions. And I started again crafting mockups and setting up CMSs (Joomla at that time), with the help of my quite wide international network of collaborators. Notre Dame de Paris, Tosca Amore Disperato, Dracula in Love, for all those shows I’ve been producing all the related digital media and managing their dynamic content. In the meanwhile, the first Dutch customers were popping up…

ItaliëThuis and Transmedia Storytelling

While crafting websites and managing content for Zard Media Group, I had the idea to pur into practice her in NL as well my skills about marketing and communication, and of course my huge network of contacts I’d developed about it throughout the years. That’s when I came out with a brand, ItaliëThuis (Italy by your home, in Dutch) and an idea: selling digital media packages to Italian producers selected by the excellence in their sector and promoting them abroad, starting in the Netherlands, and selling their products too via e-commerce on a dedicated portal. The packages included the production of digital media like videos and landing pages, then of course their presence in the web shop and as advanced features their presence in promotional events and fairs here in NL. I applied the principles of transmedia storytelling to the scripts I was proposing to my customers, placing the videos in a wider perspective where the company’s story would have been told by using digital media AND other supports, also anagogic ones, like tastings, events, markets. Thanks to the help of a few friends-collaborators both in NL and in Italy, I could manage to collect as few Italian companies as customers and started producing the digital promotion material, from filming and editing movies to the design of their presence in ItaliëThuis’ portal. At the end of 2012, after having spent almost 6 months in Rome by Zard Media Group, italiethuis.nl was ready and I arranged a presentation event in the center of Amsterdam, whose title was (of course) DiVino 2012! That was a huge success and it stated the rebirth of Materia(Media) and me here, on Dutch soil!

The International Copyright and Patent Company

Zard Media Group was an Italian based entertainment agency, subject to Italian laws and fiscal policies about intellectual property. David Zard, under my advice, decided to create a Dutch based company for the ownership and management of his intellectual properties. After having studied International Right for a couple of months, together with the help of TEKZ Belastingadviseurs (fiscal consultants) and De Vos & Partners (one of the biggest Dutch lawyer firms, having U2, rolling Stones and Google among the others in their portfolio) I created The International Copyright and Patent company BV, which became owner of Zard’s intellectual properties and started managing royalties and other related businesses. TICAPC (acronym standing for the company’s name) produced the new musical by Zard, Romeo e Giulietta – Ama e Cambia il Mondo, and then licensed it to Saludo S.r.l. in Italy and to the Zorlu Performing Arts Center in Istanbul. I was appointed (and I still am) as Director, and arranged for TICAPC the whole administrative processes, billing, payments and bookkeeping. In the meanwhile I kept on being busy with ItaliëThuis, organizing events, selling products, filming and editing infomercials in Italy by the high quality producers we were selecting. At the end of the year I even opened the first ItaliëThuis shop in Wormerveer, boosting sales with Christmas gifts packages for companies and privates. Life has been good and warm in the cold, rainy Netherlands!

The Invisibles are coming!

It was going so well with me here in the Netherlands, that at a certain point I could relax and go after another dream of mine, yet the first and most beloved one ever: music! I started The Invisibles, a Postmodern Offbeat Band. “To put it simply, it’s pop music in a time machine”, like Scott Bradley would say. It’s today’s music, both original numbers and top hits, as they would have sounded if they were recorded decades ago by Jamaican artists in the legendary Studio Onein Kingston, Jamaica. We released our first EP, First Act! containing 8 tracks, recorded and produced by Robert Curiel (Dubcellar, Amsterdam) and me, then mastered at The Soundmasters in London by Kevin Metcalfe. Since then we’ve been playing through the whole country and by the end of 2014 I decided to start a YouTube channel, completely dedicated to modern and evergreen pop music, turned into vintage Jamaican offbeat takes. The playlist is called Take Her To Jamaica (from a famous Jamaican Mento number) and it’s here for everyone to enjoy. So far we’ve been featured once in the Pogues official Facebook page for our cover of Fairytale of New York, and twice on Talking Heads official Facebook page for our version of Once in a Lifetime.

Davvero: Italian restaurant, Wine Bar & Deli in the heart of Amsterdam!

Just because there was (NOT!) still some room in my daily schedule, at the beginning off 2015 I came out with the idea of starting a restaurant. Actually there was quite an opportunity to step into an existing activity nearby Leidseplein in Amsterdam and it was too good and attractive to say no… so together with my dear friend Nicola Mangiapane, International chef and communication expert, we took over the existing business and renewed it completely, transforming it into a dynamic location which was delivering pure joy for the palate at every step. A restaurant based on authentic and almost 100% organic Italian ingredients, with Nicola’s genius in blending tradition with innovation. A wine list made of hidden pearls of the best Italian production, supported of course by ItaliëThuis, which was animating a wine bar in the afternoon, between lunchtime and dinner. A deli, selling fresh pasta, dairies, extra virgin olive oil and every possible delicious Italian product or ingredient (plus wine of course). The name couldn’t have been other than Davvero (for real, in Italian). I was busy with the entire communication and marketing, online and offline, but also with being the host in the restaurant, introducing our menu and wine list and serving at the tables when necessary (quite always!), while Nicola was the King of the kitchen and the creative master of our proposals. We kept on running pretty well for almost six months, getting stunning reviews on Trip Advisor and the local Dutch Restaurant network, IENS, and doubling the brutto income every month! But then suddenly two tragedies hit both our families quite at the same time. Nicola had to face a divorce and I had to deal with my beloved father’s passing away. July-August-September 2015. I will never forget this dark period of my life. I had to rush back to Italy and assist my poor devastated mother & sister, and Nicola had to fly back to Sicily and pick up the pieces of his family, having to take care of two children as well. Our experience as restaurant owners had ended exactly at its best moment and in the worst possible way, and Davvero sadly had to close its doors on November the 11th 2015.

MateriaMedia: reloaded!

in October 2015 my life was totally different from what I’ve been used to that far. I had a lonely mother to take care of and my visits to Italy started to increase again, becoming pretty frequent, at the pace of one per month. That way I couldn’t cope with most of what I was carrying on in the Netherlands at that time. I decided to close the shop in Wormerveer and to temporarily switch off ItaliëThuis. I needed to be busy with something I could do from everywhere, Holland or Italy. Then of course I stepped back into the world of MateriaMedia. And immediately started looking for new assignments. That’s also why I decided to publish this website and yes, to write down my professional history this way, including here and there a few details regarding my private life too and therefore maybe being able to tell something more about who I am then just writing down a cold list of what I’ve been doing. In the end we become what we do, because what we do depends on who we are and the choices we make. From this moment on you may follow my work on my portfolio’s page here. And thanks for having read all this.