Giuseppe

Giuseppe is an Italian native and was born and raised in Rome, Italy. With his paternal roots deep in Southern Italy and his maternal ones deep in Northern Italy, he grew up breathing the amazing cultural diversity of his beloved country. He worked as a lawyer and served as a young city councilor in Rome. He then moved to the US, where he graduated from Columbia Law school and practiced law in NY for a few years. When he came back to Italy to get married at the family villa with guests from all over the world, he re-discovered the beauty of his country and realized that he wanted to live and follow his passion of creating his own business to “promote” the amazing food and culture of Italy to people around the world. Not wanting to be stuck in a large NY law firm, he moved back to Italy, had three children and started the villa business with those things in mind. He then met an Italian American guy with similar passions and a similar dream of starting a food-related business in Italy. This guy, Mike, was a guest at the villa and so it was natural that they started talking, exchanging emails and ideas about creating this great business together and so, we embarked and La Cucina Sabina was created.

Mike

Mike was born and raised in St Petersburg, Florida among palms and sunshine. All his grandparents were Italian, which helps explain his deep attachment to his Italian heritage. After a successful 30 year career in the U.S. as an executive at a Fortune 500 investment firm, Mike decided to retire early to pursue his passions for travel, food, culture and everything Italian. A dual U.S. and Italian citizen, Mike’s an avowed foodie and world traveler. While the US and Italy are his two favorite countries, he has a desire to see “everything” and so continues to travel to exotic locations. During his tenure in the corporate world, he gained valuable experience hosting and planning conferences, incentive trips, reward travel and corporate retreats at exclusive locations throughout the U.S. These experiences fuel his love of creating memorable events and WOW experiences for guests. After a month-long visit to the villa in 2011, he and Giuseppe realized they both had a passion for sharing the rich culture of Italy. Thus the idea for La Cucina Sabina was born. To get to know a people, get to know their food. Mike is realizing his dream of bringing Italian culture to others and splits his time between Rome and St. Petersburg, Florida.