Mario Di Girolamo lives in Caserta, a small city near Naples, and runs a 22 person AI company he built without taking a euro of venture money. He was selling party tickets at 17, big enough to bring David Guetta to one of his events. Now he analyzes how Italian companies actually work before he sells them any technology, and he turned down a pre-seed round because of what it would have cost him in control. We talk about why he thinks Milan is overrated, what it's like building a business with your partner in life, and his answer to FOMO: PBO, the pleasure of being out. His goal is not a unicorn. It's enough money by 40 to stop thinking about the bills and go see the world.

Recorded in English.

Tamara Lunger grew up at 2,300 meters, in a mountain refuge in South Tyrol, where she decided as a child that a day without the mountains was a day lost.

She became one of the world's leading high-altitude mountaineers, until the winter of 2021, when a tragedy on K2 took five lives, including the man she had just fallen in love with. That's also when a quiet intuition she had spent years refusing to hear saved her own life.

So she stopped going up and started going across. 2,000 kilometers of steppe and desert, walking beside a camel named Tùje, moving at the speed of an animal instead of the speed of a summit push. Months of it. No rope, no oxygen, no record to chase. Just distance, and silence, and time to find out who she was without the mountains.

In this conversation, Tamara talks about losing her identity and rebuilding it, about trading vertical for horizontal, and about what 2,000 kilometers teaches you that 8,000 meters never could.

Tamara's book, "Una donna che cammina con il vento", is available now in Italian. Recorded in English.

Made in Italy tells the stories of Italians who turned what they love into how they live.

In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Piergiorgio Castellani, the man behind the scenes of Zio Baffa's wine in Tuscany. We chat about Tuscan waves and wine and the lifestyle that comes with it. This is an inspiring episode for me because of the marriage between Italian and California cultures and the brand they've created with their influences.


https://www.ziobaffa.com/
https://www.instagram.com/ziobaffa

Benvenuti to my eighth made in Italy Podcast. In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Roberta Mancino, arguably the most badass woman in Italy. She is a sky diving model with over 10.000 jumps and has appeared in publications such as Playboy. 


Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mancinoroberta/

Siccome molto spesso i miei amici Italiani mi parlano di splendide idee di business da iniziare negli Stati Uniti, ho contattato un  avvocato Italiano a San Francisco specializzato in pratiche di immigrazione per esplorare insieme a lui i vari modi in cui e possibile per uno straniero' mettere su un business negli States.



https://www.ambronlaw.com/

Benvenuti to my 6th made in Italy Podcast. In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Fabrizio Passetti. This is perhaps one of my favorite episodes I've recorded thus far. Fabrizio lost his leg in a motorcycle accident and tells his inspirational story on how he concorded one of the heaviest waves in the world. This episode is interesting because it is both in Italian and English. Stay tuned and enjoy! 

Bella Vita Film is some of the first exposure that the Italian surf scene has had on an American audience. The film does a fantastic job of depicting the passion that goes into searching for good waves in Italy. In my interview with Scott Griest, we talk about the rise of Italian surf culture and where/when you are likely to find good waves there.

Instagram: Bellavitafilm

In this episode, I interview Paolo at C Lover Van Solutions to gain an insight into how van life is perceived in Italy.  Check out C Lover Van solutions on Instagram @c_lovervansolutions
Also, I would love to hear from you so please write to me at [email protected]

Welcome to the third made in Italy podcast. In today's episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Sabrina Notarnicola the VP of marketing for Urbani Truffles. It is arguably the world's biggest truffle company and is responsible for providing a vast majority of the truffles here in the US. Stay tuned to learn more about the world's most valuable fungus.

Nils is a surfer and drone pilot from Rome, Italy. He travels all over the world in search of epic locations and waves. He has also been commissioned by the city of Rome to capture never before seen perspectives of the city that are truly jaw-dropping.


Nils work can be viewed here:

https://www.instagram.com/snils/
https://www.instagram.com/dirtyseagullsfpv/