by Albe
Today is a special day. I had to write it on this diary
This introduction is absolutely necessary: the picture where we stand on top of a mountain in Abruzzo it's quite horrible: it was not post-produced or modified, and for its presence on this page I will be probably punished.
We would like to introduce ourselves: my name is Silvia (the one on the back a bit blurred), Ema (the guy on the back that wasn't realizing a picture was being taken) and Alberto, the one who writes and that held the iPhone to shoot the picture (with low photographic skills as you can see). The other guy wearing sunglasses is Fabio, a dear friend of ours. He's the man we call whenever we go (or we take someone) over 800 metres above sea level.
So, without becoming wordy and boring, today I would like to share our enthusiasm for a very important day for us: crusoe.travel is finally online up and running.
This is the goal of a year-long run, 2020, an inauspicious year for tourism and more specifically for the lives of those working to this project. Crusoe.travel was conceived in a fast food in Senigallia when me and Silvia, one dear friend and former bachelor colleague; the both of us returned to this little town after years abroad working for big companies, after some depressing personal happenings (that I won’t describe here). Maybe was the wine, maybe we’ve been impulsive, as we decide to draw a project to valorise all those areas, defined by us “loser areas” of Italy. In other words, territories, areas or cities with an incredible beauty and interesting heritage that for some reason struggle to be known and visited by a wide number of people.
Take for example our region, Marche (translate it in English: BRANDS. Yes, that’s the strict translation): when I was abroad I always had difficulties to let other understand where I was coming from, as in what part of Italy. My arguments were: “Yeah, it’s around Rome but more on the right” or maybe “it’s just underneath San Marino (San WHAT?! was always the next question); these were my explanation before calling for help to Google Maps. Me and Silvia both have a long history in tourism and by Crusoe we decided to spend our energy and passion to let these “loser” territories emerge, even though they have nothing that may define them “losers”. In other words, we want to create a system that enables visitors to enjoy, for example, BRANDS (or other territories a bit unknown to an international audience) with ease, reliability and with services available all year round. Something easy to buy and even better to experience without hassle for booking procedures and so on.
We started analyzing, studying, making speculations and we noticed from the beginning that we were lacking something: experience and connection on territories. Our first meeting with Ema was a real luck: it was a rainy October afternoon in Pesaro when Emanuele (half-life spent in managing a travel agency with an experience that can’t be contained in a warehouse) decides to get to know us and while he was describing how badly things were going in that period (October 2020, in the middle of the second COVID wave) he mentioned that among his half-realized project there was something to bring people to Marche. We shown our idea, illustrating how our project was just starting from our Region with the goal of growing. A project that built on e-commerce, technology, operational efficiency. Me and Silvia were a bit resigned to the idea of a failure, after some very skeptical comments from him. Surprisingly the week after we go to his office to talk a bit more and that was the occasion when we met Roberta, Emanuele’s wife. She is a great professional, and to make things better she was even more skeptical about our project. For some reasons Ema was caught in a very enthusiastic moment and decided to jump on; he convinced Roberta that idea could work and he wanted to be part of it. I want to underline how Roberta is important to us: she is a real power, with her way of doing things. Ironical and with great practical sense, Roberta is the one that can reset situations when nerves start to overheat (and for this we are grateful to her… even her husband is).
To make it short, we decided to begin. It has been an awful year, made of headaches, bad days, curfews, social distancing and lockdowns: in one word, a mess with stress killing us and a funereal mood. Today, July the 29th 2021 we start our challenge, the real one. Our project is finally able to operate and we can’t really wait to put ourselves to the test and share our love for Italy, for travel as well as for a new tourism model which is respectful and cosmopolitan to promote and support those “losers” territories with global customers. A project that narrates people, traditions; it combines art, culture, literature in a mix of travel elements that make our trips and excursions fun and enjoyable
This is Crusoe, these are "all the shades of Italy" we want you to see and discover.
