We are a team of authentic Italians who decided not to leave Italy behind but rather relocate to the USA without ever losing touch with our homeland. We spend our lives in a perpetual journey between two worlds: both European and American. We invite you to join us on this fantastic journey, which will lead us to discover Italy in all its shades and authenticity.
Loredana Valentino – Founder & President
As a child, she preferred equations and algorithms to dolls, fixing appliances and exploring the world of computers. As an informatics engineer by vocation and profession, Loredana Valentino combines her career in cybersecurity with entrepreneurism. Italia, I Love You was born from her idea of making her beloved country known to Americans.
Originally from Calabria, Loredana lives in her adopted city, Rome, and her second home, New York.
When not traveling around the Big Apple, you will see her riding her motorcycle—her other great passion—spending time with the dogs and horses that she loves, and being with family and friends.
Gioia Grabos - Assistant Executive Director
Gioia loves art in all its forms and believes that food is the highest and most complete expression of it. Highly aesthetic and a pure hedonist with the gift of practicality, she considers her name as synonymous with her bubbly personality which is always reflected in her work. Born in Genoa, Gioia is a citizen of the world having lived in London for 9 years and currently based in New York City for the past 13 years where she became a United States Citizen. She is very passionate about supporting equality for everyone and LGBTQ community in New York City as well as Italy. Always involved in fashion and design she perceived luxury as a tool of simplicity that enables her to appreciate beauty in life. She worked for over a decade with Italian and French high -end luxury brands.
Fluent in English, Italian, French and Spanish, Gioia’s main goal is to bring the rich culture and history of Italy to New York City and the Hamptons with passion and elegance.
Franco Faggiani - Journalist and Writer
Journalist for many years, specializing in adventure travel, art, and especially the history of Italian food and wine, since 2018 his main focus has been storytelling. He has published essays, short stories, books on nature, environment, and travel routes, children's fairy tales, and, most notably, novels, which have been translated into several European countries and have received wide recognition from both readers and literary critics. The events described are true and the result of numerous travels, interviews, and, above all, meticulous field research. With the novel The Inventory of Clouds, published in 2023 by Fazi Editore, he won eight literary awards, one of which in France, becoming a publishing sensation. When he’s not writing, he is hiking through the Alps and the Apennines, seeking hidden territories, true but almost unknown stories, unusual characters, and traditions worth sharing in books or lectures.
Roberto Scarcella Perino - Elegant Event Chef
Although born in Sicily, the region that proudly preserves its origins and traditions, Roberto has had a heart for New York a long time now (he dropped anchor here at the very beginning of the new millennium). He is a great example of Italian creativity—one that does not limit itself to developing only one sector but rather spans, involves, blends, and narrates various “worlds” in an ever new and surprising way, in which Roberto always exhibits a deep personal experience.
Roberto is a great musician, a fine composer (of opera, film, choral concerts), a distinguished professor at New York University and, especially for us, a great chef. In the kitchen, his art of composition becomes sublime. The ingredients are naturally traditional, as are the musical notes; but their creative union can give life to forms, aromas, and flavors always capable of surprising.
Marco Napoli - Director & Videographer
His career began in front of a camera, but he eventually ended up behind it.
Marco Napoli, an Italian from Milan and also a New Yorker, ended his initial career of acting to study filmmaking at the London Film Academy. As a director, he won prestigious awards both in Italian and in international festivals such as the David di Donatello, Flaiano Awards. Raised by watching Fellini and Hitchcok’s movies, he likes to call himself a film fiction director, preferring always the narrative and cinematographic approach in all his works, whether they are shorts, music videos, or documentaries.
In 2017 he directed his first humanitarian documentary "Serendip” which is a story about an humanitarian mission in Sri Lanka.
His mission at ‘Italia I Love You’ is expressing through the camera the sensitivity, the deepness, and the uniqueness that distinguishes Italy in all fields.
"I'm am, and will always remain an Italian director. In my stories there is always Italy, even if we do not expressly say the “Bel paese”.
Fabio Convertino Smith - Hair Stylist & Makeup Artist
After years of training in Milan - the undisputed capital of Italian fashion - Fabio Convertino, hair stylist in New York, began his career opening two saloons in the heart of Milan.
Fabio always remembers his years in Milan as the most productive time thanks to his collaboration with Vogue Italy, Sky, Mediaset.He felts in love with New York and a newyorker and after commuting between Milan and the Big Apple, he decided to make the big step: getting married and moved."I love this job because I am able to enhance the individual beauty.Every cut is unique. It must create harmony with the face, brighten colors, respect the health of the hair”. There's no cut, color that is not subject to his strict and straight judgment.
His favorite story is "The Ugly Duckling". Our favorite story about him is watching Fabio’s eyes while he sees a woman smiling in the mirror.
Andrea Balducci – Singer
Andrea is an Italian crooner that sings classics and jazz in English, Italian, French, and Spanish. He has a warm and seductive voice, echoing classic American tunes and following the footsteps of Frank Sinatra, often compared by reviews with the new generation of pop-jazz singers, such as Michael Bublé, Peter Cincotti, and Jamie Cullum.
Andrea is signed with the internationally renowned Schema Records and his latest album, Bloom, has been receiving great reviews and royalties across Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia.
Beyond his voice, Andrea’s personal charm and his passion for his music allows him to create an elegant and stylish ambience, leaving hearts pounding and making people want to get up and dance.
