Zoom Calls
Make sure you take advantage of the Zoom calls with Alessandro and his team along with the vendors. It is a great way to connect with them
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Our passion for wine
We also wish to extend our gratitude to Connect2italy, Mr. Alessandro Mancini and Mr. Vincenzo Pizzolante for the meeting we´ve had with Antonio Terrell from Zenato Winery. As you all may now, Argentina´s wine industry has a great significance in our culture, so we are very interested in learning more about this sector abroad.
We really liked the product that Antonio presented us! The proposal is very complete as we can offer our clients different activities in this wonderful winery, together with the opportunity to stay in a boutique hotel and the chance to enjoy the Lake.
We keep in touch!!
My best,
Mario – Lloyd Director
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truffles?
do you know that Piedmont area is very rich of TRUFFLES?
Book an Allegro Hotel in Turin, enjoy the marvelous city of Savoy, its glorious noble city centre with beautiful city centre. Then you can take a train to ALBA, the richest place well known for truffles and taste the best truffle sauce ever. I bet you will go crazy for risotto and truffles, maybe with a nice glass of red Barbera wine.
Have you ever tried?
Allegro Hotels Turin https://www.allegroitalia.it/en/turin-golden-palace-luxury-hotel/
Read MoreIntroduction of Allegroitalia Hotels and condos
A special thanks to Mr Alessandro Mancini and Mr Vincenzo Pizzolante for arranging a Video Meeting with Allegroitalia Hotels and Condos. Ms Chiara from the property did a wonderful job runing through of all their properties across Italy. We are all egarly awaiting the reopening of the airways between our countries and the subsiding of this pandemic
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Italian – Argentinian meeting!
We would like to thank Connect2italy, Mr. Alessandro Mancini and Mr. Vincenzo Pizzolante for introducing us to Giuseppe Pipolo, from Neapolitan Experiences!
It´s been a very fruitful meeting and we learnt different incredible ways of visiting the city and its surroundings.. In Lloyd we focus on activities that are different from the standard ones and we always try to offer unforgettable experiences. We believe that this idea is totally related to the concept that Giuseppe wanted to show us!
It is true that Argentinian spirit is very alive in Naples!!
I hope we can start working together as soon as possible!
Best regards,
Nazarena – MICE Department – Lloyd Transatlántico
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Let’s visit ITALY!
Connect2Italy www.connect2italy.com born 1st July 2020, a tool of great utility and easy usability, a new form of contact between professionals in the tourism sector.
On the one hand, foreign Tour Operators who habitually buy Italy and who are always looking for new solutions and on the other, Italian tourism realities, with the possibility to get in touch with them directly, without having to attend international fairs or invest in building a network or having foreign commercial.
“After Expo Milano 2015, we dedicated ourselves to the promotion in the world of Italian excellence, in the tourism sector, in the hospitality industry and in the search for that experiential value, representing Italy and its excellences in the major international fairs and at promotional tables and evenings organized by our Italian Embassies in the world. From these numerous requests for applications, we have created this online platform where there are no intermediation costs “says Alessandro Mancini, CEO and creator of Connect2Italy.
Connect2Italy is powered by ManciniWorldwide that is costantly busy in promoting the beauties of Italy and its excellences. Engaging the best tour operators of the world in promoting and selling Italy.
With C2I Connect2Italy international buyers can have available Italian local excellences and unique experiences, an online B2B club. Aimed at 2 types of professionals: selected global operators – heritage of our network – with the aim of bringing together, through synergies, international buyers who can contact Italian tourism service providers (unique locations, high-level transfers, unconventional experiences, etc.). Benefiting from the worldwide institutional relationships created in almost twenty years of tourism and creating a new opportunity among professionals in the tourism sector.
The platform is online and each operator has the opportunity to directly contact the various connected operators around the world and to stay in touch with them immediately, through a selection of features and needs (e.g. experiences, MICE and corporate, Castles and residences for weddings, unique experiences and local and regional activities, other activities).
In particular, there are no commissions or other brokerage costs: you can negotiate and interface directly on the platform with the different excellences and have a 1-to-1 relationship with the international operators present on the C2I portal.
Furthermore, in these pre-launch months there have been a series of dedicated online business meetings, to increase the audience of each reality and above all to create a link with international Buyers.
In the recent weeks special experiences have been added such as the possibility of deepsea fishing in Ostuni, Puglia or booking a charter boat. Through C2I Connect2Italy, foreign tour operators will be able to purchase entrance tickets to the Doge’s Ball in Venice, taste the wines of the Zenato Wineries as an ideal setting to inebriate themselves with the scents of the vineyards and stay at the Allegro Hotels in Italy.
Each Italian operator has a page of its own where it can upload images, videos, offers and external links, a description and interface from the first day with foreign buyers who are looking for the most authentic Italy and its experiences.
“For example, the experience offered by a Tuscany company for an Argentine Tour Operator created a very profitable bond for both: milking the cows and creating the cheese, with the shepherd on site was what a group of twenty South American managers were looking for” concludes Vincenzo Pizzolante, Operation Manager for Connect2Italy.
The MANCINIWORLDWIDE team regularly participates in various international fairs including: FIT Buenos Aires, Anato in Bogota, ILTM Shanghai as well as ITB Berlin and WTM London. The road shows at our Italian embassies and consulates should be added in the way in direct contact with the local Tour Operators who market Italy, to whom the C2I product is always presented.
Last 30 June Alessandro Mancini, head of MANCINIWORLDWIDE, was present at the online conference dedicated to Kuwait tourism and high-end operators, with the Ambassador and 100 tour operators.
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20 reasons why we’ll all return to Italy when this is finally over
Twenty reasons we’ll return to Italy, they said. Twenty: is that all? There are 20 paintings that would take me back; 20 restaurants, 20 views, 20 hill towns; 20 of much else besides.
Because no other country has Italy’s riches, its peerless combination of art, culture, food, wine, fashion, opera, people and landscape; nor its vivid blend of the old and new, the beguiling and the beautiful.
Above all Italy has extraordinary variety, not least its art – you don’t like Gothic: then how about the Romanesque or the glories of the ancient world? Not keen on Giotto: then what about Raphael, Michelangelo or Leonardo?
And landscape. What other country has Italy’s range, from the Alps in the north to Sicily’s wild uplands in the south by way of Amalfi, the Lakes and the pastoral perfection of Tuscany and Umbria?
We could go on. My list is just a start. Italophiles will have their own variations and additions – if you do, then please leave comments.
In the meantime, here’s to the time we can once again stare in wonder at the Sistine Chapel, walk medieval streets on a balmy summer evening and indulge Italy’s other wonderful and countless pleasures.
1. The Italians
You can’t love a country without, if not loving its people, at least liking them. Obviously we’re dealing in national stereotypes. We also know that Italians often see themselves primarily as Tuscans or Sicilians, say, or Venetians or Neapolitans, rather than Italians. But they’re likeable all the same: realists, cynics even; passionate and noisy, but also formal and conservative; pragmatic and self-reliant; spontaneous and gregarious, and with a sensual appreciation of the finer things in life – and no wonder in a country where the finer things in life are so widespread.
2. Glorious gardens
Gardens are everywhere in Italy, from the villas of the Veneto and Italian Lakes in the north to the olives-shaded estates of Tuscany and lemon-scented courtyards of Sicily in the south. Personal favourites include Ninfa (frcaetani.it), south of Rome; Hanbury (giardinihanbury.com) near Ventimiglia; the Villa Carlotta (villacarlotta.it) on Lake Como; La Mortella (lamortella.org) on Ischia; and the weird and wonderful Tarot Gardens (ilgiardinodeitarocchi.it) in northern Lazio. Visit grandigiardini.it for details of other major gardens open to the public.
3. Historic small towns
Cities might seem Italy’s thing – Rome, Florence and Venice, with Milan and Naples close behind – but it’s the surfeit of beautiful small towns that make up much of the country’s appeal. Tuscany and Umbria have them in abundance, but every region has its star turns: favourites include Sulmona in the Abruzzo; Enna, Erice and Noto in Sicily; Matera in Basilicata; Tropea in Calabria; Ostuni in Puglia; Ascoli Piceni in the Marche; Ravenna in Emilia-Romagna; Camogli in Liguria. The list is long…
4. The outdoors
Italy is a country to be relished indoors – all those churches and galleries – but also outdoors. Its ski resorts are world-class – think Alta Badia, Courmayeur and Cervinia. You can canoe, sail, kayak and dive on the Lakes or off Sicily, Sardinia, the Cinque Terre and Amalfi Coast. Or indulge in gentle hikes and bike rides in Tuscany and Umbria or multi-day treks and circuits on long-distance trails in the Alps and beyond. And how about paragliding in Umbria (sarnanoturismo.it), white-water rafting in Calabria (raftingfiumelao.com) or tracking wolves in the Abruzzo (wildlifeadventures.it)?
5. A beautiful language
Everything sounds better in Italian. It’s the language of love, of music, and nothing comes close if you want to get worked up about something. Even the banal comes out with a singsong beauty, so even if you barely understand a word, the background babble of Italian in any setting is one more reminder that you are in a delightful country. And unlike some nationalities one could mention – that’ll be the French – the Italians love you making an effort, however dreadful, to speak their language.
6. The lure of the Lakes
Poets and painters have celebrated the Italian Lakes for centuries, and no wonder, for they represent some of Europe’s loveliest landscapes. Luxuriant gardens and idyllic villages scatter their mild-weathered shores, with the wooded slopes and snow-capped peaks of the Alps as backdrop. Maggiore and Garda are the most visited, Como the most beautiful; Iseo and Orta the quietest.
7. Opera
Opera’s roots are Italian, as are most of its greatest composers – Verdi, Rossini, Puccini, Monteverdi, Bellini, Donizetti. Italy also has two of the world’s best-known opera houses – La Scala and La Fenice – but beautiful theatres are also found in Bologna, Palermo, Treviso, Prato and Ferrara. Seasonal festivals proliferate, notably the Festival dell’Arena in Verona (arena.it), the Festival Verdi in Parma (teatroregioparma.it); the Festival Puccini (puccinifestival.it) near Lucca; the Macerata Opera Festival (sferisterio.it) in the Marche; and the Rossini Opera Festival (rossinioperafestival.it) in Pesaro.
8. A world-class cuisine
Not French, not fancy, but somehow perfect – Italian food is healthy; the ingredients – meat, fish, fruit, vegetables – are fresh; the quality is first-rate; there is huge regional variety – dumplings and strudel near the Austrian border, couscous and Arab-style peppers down in Sicily – and the cooking methods are quick and simple. The principal staple – pasta – is endlessly versatile; the fast food – pizza – has no peers; and as for pudding, where would we be without ice cream?
9. A way with drinks
No one is pretending Italian wine is the world’s best, though recent years have seen the emergence of innovative new producers and some groundbreaking wines. Old names have been revitalised (Chianti, Valpolicella, Soave), taking their place alongside wines that have long been revered (Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello). Sicily is an emerging powerhouse, so too Franciacorte in Lombardy and Bolgheri on the Tuscan coast. If the wine doesn’t please, there are spirits, liqueurs and aperitifs – grappa, Cinzano, Campari, limoncello, Sambuca – and some celebrated cocktails (Negronis, Bellinis).
10. The cult of coffee
These days we can buy our lattes, espressos, macchiatos and cappuccinos almost anywhere in the world, but where do the words, and the drinks, come from – Italy, of course. Great coffee is a given in any Italian bar, and has been for decades, long before the arrival of Starbucks and other upstarts. Indulge in the associated rituals for the full Italian experience – standing at the bar, not sitting, for example; latte in a glass (al vetro) in Rome and elsewhere; and never touching a cappuccino after noon…
11. Mountains
Plenty of countries have mountains, but only Italy has the Dolomites, Europe’s most dramatic upland region. You could make claims for the Pyrenees but they lack the distinctive spires and rock pinnacles of the Dolomites’ many and jumbled massifs. And only Italy has Mount Etna, Europe’s highest and most active volcano, and not one but two great ranges: the Alps and the long central spine of the Apennines, still the haunt of wolves and bears and landscapes that range from Tuscany’s jagged Alpi Apuane to the immense wilderness of the Abruzzo.
12. Fashion
Like everyone, the Italians have discovered cheap leisurewear, and sartorial standards are not what they were in the land of Armani, Valentino, Prada, Versace, Schiaparelli, Pucci, Gucci, Fendi, Ferragamo and more. That said, the Italians still value the notion of la bella figura – of cutting a fine figure – and can always turn on the style. You can buy, or window shop the big names in the main streets of Milan, Florence and other major cities, but don’t overlook smaller centres such as Como for silk, Biella for cashmere and Cogne for lace.
13. Architecture
You’d need several lifetimes to embrace Italy’s extraordinary architectural heritage. Every Italian town has a treasure: a Romanesque, Gothic or Baroque church; an abbey; a Roman or Etruscan monument; a lovely medieval piazza; a Renaissance palace. That’s before the country’s big set pieces, such as its great religious buildings – St Peter’s, St Mark’s and the cathedrals of Milan, Florence, Siena and Orvieto; or the many masterpieces of the ancient world and the sumptuous ducal palaces of Venice, Mantua and Urbino.
14. Venice
The world would be an infinitely poorer place without Rome or Florence, but a world without Venice? Of course it’s a city with problems, but you can easily escape its more troubling elements. Venice casts its spell year round, so visit in winter; walk to the fringes, far from St Mark’s, to San Nicolò dei Mendicoli in the west, Madonna dell’Orto in the north; explore the empty, echoing alleys at night; and spend a week here, more if you can, to uncover a sense of the living city beyond its superficial image.
15. Island escapes
Italy’s mainland is such a patchwork of fine landscapes that it’s easy to overlook its islands. Not the obvious ones like Capri, but those such as the Isole Tremiti off Puglia, still little known to outsiders; and Ponza, a beautiful bolt hole for Romans in the know; or Capraia and Elba, close to the Tuscan mainland; and the Aeolian and Egadi islands – Lipari and Marettimo in particular – off the Sicilian coast.
16. Coastal gems
Italy is not all superlatives. Its beaches, for example – save in Sardinia – are not the best. But it does have sublime stretches of coastline. Amalfi and the Cinque Terre are the most celebrated but there are quieter but almost equally beautiful alternatives, especially in the South. In Puglia, make for the Gargano and Salento, two peninsulas of cliffs, crescent sands and turquoise seas, and in Campania, south of Naples, head for the Cilento, a wild, rocky enclave scattered with lovely villages such as Acciaroli, Agropoli and Santa Maria di Castellabate.
17. Galleries galore
Italy’s has more than its share of world-class art galleries – the Uffizi in Florence, the Accademia in Venice, the Brera in Milan and the Vatican’s collections in Rome. But even apparently modest Italian towns have paintings that would have star billing elsewhere. Perugia’s Galleria Nazionale, for example, full of Umbrian masterpieces; or the Carrara in Bergamo; the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino; the Galleria Regionale in Palermo, the Pinacoteca in Siena; the Museo Civico in Vicenza and many more.
18. Art on the ground
Art galleries are one thing but in Italy, more than any other European country, exceptional art is still found in the places for which it was commissioned. The Sistine Chapel and Leonardo’s Last Supper are the most famous examples, but what about the Basilica di San Francesco in Assisi, where Giotto, Cimabue and Simone Martini changed the course of Western art? Or Signorelli in Orvieto cathedral, Masaccio in Florence’s Cappella Brancacci and Giotto – again – in the Cappella Scovegni in Padua?
19. The ancient world
Other countries can lay claim to the odd Roman ruin – an amphitheatre here, a Hadrian’s Wall there – and Greece has no shortage of monuments to its ancient past. But Italy combines Greek ruins – notably Sicily’s 2,000-year-old temples and theatres – with countless remains from 1,000 years of Roman history. Pompeii stands alone among the latter, followed by the greatest monuments of Rome itself, the Colosseum and Pantheon, but countless towns have memorials to a Roman past – a theatre (Aosta), an aqueduct (Spoleto), an arena (Verona).
20. Tuscany
Of course it’s a cliché, but what a cliché. Everything that goes to make the good life is here: urbane towns and cities filled with art and culture – Florence, Siena and Lucca and smaller gems such as Pienza, Sovana and Cortona; fine food; excellent wine; and a variety of exquisite landscapes, from the vineyards of Chianti and pastoral hills of the Val d’Orcia to the islands of Elba and Capraia and the mountains of the Orecchiella and Alpi Apuane.
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Vins @work!!!
Vins @work!!!
Contacting each one of you in order to fix up your profile and putting you in touch with all italian members in order to introduce you one each other and to grow up our community.
Please help us completing your profiles and do not hesitate in contact us
cheers
Alessandro
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Grazie, Thank you Kuwait!
Last 30th June an International Webinar with more than 100 Tour Operators in Kuwait.
Here an important feature on the Italian press:
Please take a look to this amazing video seen just before the webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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Italy on Track!
Today we have received an amazing accomplishment from Kuwait!
Thank you Embassy of Italy El Kuwait! Grazie!
Last 30th June Alessandro Mancini, Ceo ManciniWorldwide and ideator of Connect2Italy, was present to an International Webinar with more than 100 Tour Operators in Kuwait.
Here some important features on the Italian press:
Please take a look to this amazing video seen just before the webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnbKtGTNn7A&feature=youtu.be
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CCD43NpjaKc/?igshid=mzmmx46q2vfp
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