Olga Mazzoni, her Massachusetts told on a website

You write it "www.vistimass.it” and it reads “Massachusetts distinctly different“. It is the new idea, translated into the site, of volcanic Olga Mazzoni, former President of Visit USA Italy and co-founder of Thema Nuovi Mondi, a Milanese company that represents various destinations in Italy.

We met Olga Mazzoni, renamed by many "purple woman” because of his passion for the color purple, for an interview with FullTravel.

1) Olga Mazzoni, a life dedicated to the United States and in particular to Massachusetts. Why did you start this site?

For in Massachusetts I have always felt a distinct and very deep feeling. I began an important working relationship with this state, originating back in 1992 to promote Boston as a gateway to the entire region of New England. At that time in Italy there was only one US tourist promotion body, the US Virgin Islands (another historical client of mine). In addition to this singular reality as an insular, not a State but a Territory, continental America was silent. He then landed in Italy Massachusetts Port Authority, an institution managed by the Airport and Port of Boston which coordinated a network of commercial and tourist promotion offices around the world for New England.

It was a very engaging, educational, highly stimulating undertaking which helped numerous Italian companies in the tourism field - Tour Operators, Travel Agencies, Airlines and Cruise Companies - to seriously consider a region on the Atlantic side, made up of many six states – including Massachusetts leading thanks to the city of Boston – in a tactical geographical position, easily accessible from Europe.

I have vivid memories of those 90s, so dynamic, so pioneering, of great drive and growth. I personally began to love the whole region and invested time and resources in spending a good part of my personal holidays there, going on exploratory excursions, designing paths of discovery, meeting a curious, intelligent humanity, in need of welcoming new generations of international tourists. It was an immediate fascination: so much history, so many traditions, so much art and culture, a concrete link with migratory waves of Italians during the late 800th and early 900th centuries, a style so intrinsically different from the America I had already known, that Of New York, Miami, Las Vegas.

The bonds forged in those years were also precious for my professional growth. I owe a lot to my mentor at the time, Salvador Starling, with whom we "travelled" in harmony in this challenge which had the aim of building step-by-step a solid partnership with the Italian tourist market. They were very stimulating years. The creation of the first roadshows with training diplomas (the Massachusetts Port Authority College which I created over a three-year period), of annual events (the Thanksgiving Dinner celebration evenings), of assiduous product presentations in which I taught a lot of geography, history, promoting the then little-known places of Plymouth, Salem, the Berkshires, Cape Cod are now essential points of reference. Massachusetts was my inspirational force.

In 1996 - thanks to a futuristic communication and constructive journalism project with Massimo Pacifico and Silvestro Serra dedicated to Jack Kerouac's hometown, Lowell National Historical Park of the Industrial Revolution - addressed in a decidedly avant-garde manner for the time, considered a transgressive and audacious idea , I was awarded honorary citizenship by the then Mayor of the Cities of Lowell. I still have the keys!

Here: these are just some of the stages that have led me to love and respect the state of Massachusetts more and more over the course of approximately 30 years of professional activity. I also experienced the tumultuous and painful journey with the events of September 11th and subsequently with the bombing of the Marathon of Boston. Therefore, having accumulated so much professional and human experience, having been able to make over a hundred trips to this state, has undoubtedly allowed me to become an important expert on Massachusetts in Italy. All this heritage - in my opinion - could not be archived and kept secret.

With the 2020 pandemic and the discontinuation of the promotional activities of the tourism body in the world, I felt the need to share content and information that can inspire other people to approach, also from a tourism perspective, a unique state that offers universal values. Those who travel to Massachusetts return not only enriched but also comforted, "enlightened" in spirit and with an open heart.

2) How much importance do you give to digital in promoting the location?

I could have written a book about it in Massachusetts. I chose a website in a light format, to be easily browsed and read. It needs to be accessible to everyone and I can keep writing.

3) If you were to take an x-ray of the Italian traveler who chooses Massachusetts, what would be the most representative points?

The Italian traveler who chooses Massachusetts is represented by a target of couples, families and young people motivated by a curious spirit, supported by a desire for historic places like Plymouth, intimate landscapes like Cape Cod o Cape Ann, great cuisine, charm of small coastal and rural communities like the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, cultural excellence as in Berkshires, inspiration for education and instruction emanating from the many colleges and universities starting from Harvard and MIT, push for technological and scientific research which originated and is still cultivated here, civic sense and conservation, liberal spirit starting from Boston.

It is the profile of an Italian who wants to go beyond the usual postcards, who also feels the call of iconic images in which he finds his own feelings: the lighthouses, the red barns of the farms, the lobster pots stacked in the small harbours, the chairs rocking on the verandas of ancient inns, the bucolic streets that lead to small ancient worlds, the fascinating collegiate campuses. I am outlining the traveler who knows how to grasp evocations of an America that is not necessarily tabloid-like, perhaps one inspired by art films, historical novels, non-screaming sounds.

4) How do you see the near future of travel in Massachusetts?

In such a small state, so rigorous in safeguarding its inhabitants, its crops, its fish, its farms, the food it produces and enjoys, I see the renaissance of slow cycling, in pastoral and landscape contexts of great relief, to discover small villages and towns with 400 years of history behind them. I also see trips to a country that, while incessantly projecting itself towards the future and innovation, always keeps a watchful eye on preservation of what is ancient and which deserves respect and appreciation. I see journeys of taste, exploring the many Slow Food presidia that Massachusetts has, tasting healthy and certified zero-mile products. I see cultural, art, music trips and the discovery of collections and artistic enclaves of great tradition and artisan workshops.

I see romantic trips, for all ages, in authentically charming accommodation, in ancient historic homes or in new inns recreated with style and contextualized to the environment, in human-scale structures that respect the environment. I see a intelligent, sober tourism, which aims at the essence of the experience and is animated by the desire for multiculturalism, where there are no racial, religious or gender disparities. I see one generation of journeys characterized by intense ferments of renewal and genuineness of feelings. In short: nothing artificial, nothing standardized or sophisticated. I continue to see a trip to an America close to Europe.