ISante, originally a leather goods factory that began in 1947 made its first exhibition in Germany exporting goods for Scandanavian countries, France, England, and the United States. Lord & Taylor was one of their first customers. ISante has remained stylish, focusing the majority of its efforts on superior quality of the leather product. In 1972, [...]
Tuesday 6/2/10
Pariani, one of three horse-saddling companies in Italy, has a well-earned reputation of handcrafting the finest saddles known in the industry. For over a century, the Pariani’s have been the most innovative in the business. They are known for revolutionizing the English saddle to improve the performance of both the rider and the [...]
Monday 6/1/10
We arrived in the showroom on the way to Milan at the Pagani showroom, an elite super car company that currently hand produces and customizes 17 cars per year. Using only 6 materials magnesium, titanium, avional, aluminum, carbon titanium, and carbon fiber , and hands on factory with no machinery available for assitance [...]
Monday 5/31/10
Four generations going, a household standard of leadership carries the company Barilla to new heights. With courage, humility and resilience as the superlatives they use to describe the success in their company, Barilla has assumed yet another branch of service called Acadamia Barilla, an educational resource for Italian food consumers and aspiring chefs. [...]
Sunday 5/30/10
The walls of the Castello del Tribbio that housed the historical conspiracy of the Patsi and the Medici conspiracy stand today for producing some of Tuscany’s finest wines and olive oil. In 1478, the Patsi family conspired to kill the Medici family. Interestingly enough, the Pope supported the conspiracy, as expansion plans for the [...]
Saturday 5/29/10
The intricacies in the creation of The Last Supper are almost as impressive as the pioneering artistic technique used to create the masterpiece. Da Vinci, (which we also found out was not his sur-name, but the name of his village), took four years to paint The Last Supper on the back of a dining [...]
Thursday 5/27/10
Today we loaded up the bus and headed to Montalcino in Tuscany to taste the wines harvested on The Estate founded by Count Alberto Marone. The history dates back to the 17th century, which housed the noble family of Delle Ciaia of Siena. To date Count Alberto Marone owns 400 acres of land/forest, 70 [...]
Saturday 5/22/10 and Sunday 5/23/10
It’s easy to imagine the obstacles of being in a country without a competency of language and an innately bad sense of direction. When the situation was brought to life in Rome, exchanging currency, run-ins with pickpockets, street predators, and lack of “inner city” mentality and experience magnified the challenges. Crossing [...]
Friday 5/28/10
Today we learned the value of exclusivity in another “sense”. Lorenzo Villoresi, and his wife compete in the niche market of artistic perfumery. Building on his talents as a chef and an academic background in philosophy, Lorenzo created a niche product whose contents are uniquely as attractive as the precious materials with which they [...]
Wednesday 5-26-10
Opening up our first adventure in Rome, the money museum took us back five thousand years in history. After screening our passport information, we were led downstairs by a private tour guide and his translator. Encased inside of the marble and glass shelves was a collection of coins that signifies the earliest stages [...]
Okay I have to first put the truth out that I am not fan of motorcycles.
Ducati has 500 employees; 120 work on the racing bikes and 380 in the office. They produce 200 bikes a day in high season and 100 bikes a day in low season. They build for specification per region. An example [...]
Santa Maria Novella company visit
Santa Maria Novella although they sell fragrance they consider themselves a pharmacy. They sell homeopathic herbs and fragrances. Their products are linked to theoretical and natural healings. This company dates back to the 13th century. Why are they immune to the depreciation of practice over time? What do they have that [...]
Lavazza is one of the leaders in the Italian coffee industry. The company started as a small grocery store in Parma, Italy, and after over 100 years of business, has grown to one of the largest food companies in Italy. The company and began roasting coffee after two years of business in their grocery store. [...]
Today we had a wine tasting company visit at the Col D’Orcia estate in Tuscany. This is one of the oldest estates in the Montalcino territory, and fills up 540 hectores with beautiful scenery and immaculate landscaping. The company produces 800,000 bottles a year and sells it in specialized retail shops and upscale restaurants around [...]
Today we had a company visit at Pariani, a leader in horse saddle industry. Founded in 1903, Pariani began as a company specializing in clothing imported from England, and soon after began importing horse saddles from England. They decided to capitalize on their own exquisite talent in creating saddles, and collaborated with another company to [...]
i Santi.
I Santi was the last company we got to visit as our trip to Italy came to an end. When we walked into the conference room where we would be having our meeting, there were displays of i Santi bags that they offer. I loved the bags; the bags were so simple, clean, and [...]
LavAzza & Pininfarina.
Today, we went to visit Lavazza and Pininfarina. Lavazza is a coffee company that started up in 1895 and is, now, one of the biggest coffee producers located in 40 countries. Pininfarina is a very innovative company that has been producing numerous “timeless beauties” since the 1930s. They design concept cars for their [...]
Lake Como>Venice.
We have another free day to roam around, this time in Milan. A group of us had planned to go to Venice together. However, I was unable to wake up in time for the scheduled time to leave. Instead, another group of us went to Lake Como instead (Thanks to Sherise!). It was only [...]
Pariani.
Today was an interesting and fun-filled day. We started off the day by going to Pariani, a saddle-making company. Then, we went to go see the Last Supper and ended off the night with a group dinner and cigars in the square of the Duomo. I spent the whole day walking in painful heels, I [...]
Pagani. Ducati. Barilla. Dallara.
Today, we left Florence and headed to Milan. On the way to Milan, we stopped at four different companies making it a very tiring and busy day. We visited Pagani, Ducati, Barilla, and Dallara. I really enjoyed all these companies we visited, being able to see their production factories and facilities was [...]
