News

Our Blog was highlighted in Top 35 Italian Blogs!

We must be doing something right! Our Italian Lifestyle Blog (now in it’s 7th year) got highlighted over at Feedspot in the 15th position! You can find us over at this link. Also love to see that we are in wonderful company with other fellow bloggers that are extending the love for this beautiful country that is Italy!

Casa Chiesi makes Feedspot Italian Travel Blogger list

One of the pleasures that we have here at Casa Chiesi is planning future articles and trips (specially once Covid19 starts giving up it’s grip on this wonderful country that is Italy).

That is why we are supper happy to have been indicated as one of the top 10 Italian Travel Blogs over at Feedspot which covers Bloggers worldwide in a vast amount of categories!

Some awesome news in these times when travel is slowing reopening worldwide. Viva Italia!!

Link to Feedspot is here

Nazim

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Covid19 Italian Lockdown : How does it feel?

As we have reached the 51t day of our lockdown status here in Milan, Italy I have decided to give our friends and followers an idea of how things have evolved in these last 6 weeks at the Chiesi-Beltran household. As most of you know this Italian Lifestyle Blog is our platform on which we express our thoughts and love for this beautiful country that is Italy. You can read a bit more of the people involved since we started back in the Summer of 2014 here at this link

As most of the people we know around the world the arrival of this virus has affected everyone’s life in one way or another: from major health concerns plus the economical impact on our pocketbooks this one comes right up there with something that at least I have personally not come across in my 60 years on planet Earth.

From seeing the images of our empty cities on the news along with information on the web to hearing accounts from friends and family of which direction this might take us it becomes quite hard to dispense optimism and empathy but still….we maintain a positive outlook
and try our best to keep a level of calm which we clearly know is hard to do based on a month (plus or minus) of lockdown.

But now for the positive stuff that has come out of all of this. Human beings need to have a sense of communication that before all of this had somehow gone lost in the crazy and production-based society we live in. Betti and I find ourselves with extra time to explore all those things and ideas that before were not possible to envision or develop. We tend to leave the Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other distratcions as an evening only option and somehow now look at all of it with a different eye. In fact, Betti would rather prefer to watch documentaries on subject matter which is culturally enlighting instead of a bizarre shows such as the likes of Tiger Tail or similar.

From a work standpoint of view, we are fortunate in the sense that my work revolves around the digital transformation of companies and even if Betti is a make-up artist and for now fashion is on hold she is teaching remotely to the diverse schools that she is involved in and working on a new project that revolves around Make-up. I am blessed to be married to such a talented person!

Our daughter Zoe is also in the house and being a 25 year old woman we were concerned that she would go in a downward path being locked up for so long but to our surprise, she is upbeat and working on her career as a photographer and digital entrepreneur. We are quite impressed!

Another beautiful thing that has come out of all of this is that we have established a close relationship with our neighbors which has evolved towards the idea of having a weekly Saturday dinner party which we do on the landing of the fifth floor between both apartments placing a plant in between and keeping a safe distance but setting up candles and cooking phenomenal Italian Food. Tonight is Saturday so we are already preparing for what we end up dreaming about all week long: la cenetta con il vicini!

Another interesting thing that has occurred in this period is that we have decided with the advance of the days and then the weeks to tune out from the news which in the end only brings negative vibes to the whole equation. Better to concentrate on positive stuff and learn or polish new skills related to both our professions.

In regards to our Casa Chiesi project even if the whole travel scene here in Italy has come to a grinding stop we are still writing and posting material about our love per Italia! Once things slowly pick up we will be back on the beaten path traveling and showing great sites, food, art, history, and traditions.

To all our dear friends and followers big hugs and stay as healthy and safe as possible.

Baci e abracci a tutti

Nazim

[socialWarfare]

Italy and the beauty of unity in a difficult time : Covid19 update

As we go into the third week of a new way of living due to this virus which has touched everyone’s life near and far one has to look at the positive things that we can at least derive from this new phase in what we call live on this planet.

Yes we can not deny that this is a game changer for people worldwide in more aspects that one can envision but at the same time we should
embrace the opportunity to mantain an approach that embraces calm and collectivness along with a new sense of empathy that had gone out the window in the current world we were living in.

When we started Casa Chiesi about 5 years ago we embarked on the adventure of showing our friends near and far the beauties that this country has to offer and these last 4 weeks have really shown us how strong this population is and how they are fighting with our their hearts and souls an invisible enemy. We are sure that this will all pass and we will come out of it with a stronger sense of unity and love.

As always we are here to keep promotion the wonders that Italy has to offer and waiting for the moment whe we can embrace each other in our love for all that Italy represents! Hang in there as this will pass….

Some magical and impressive moments from the last weeks in a locked down scenario follow…

Aperitivo with our neighbors from a safe distance!

Nazim on an empty train from Genoa to Milan two weeks ago

Arrival at Stazione Centrale and certificate check

Betti teaches Makeup to her class online

Virtual Dinner with our friends

Traverse Travel Bloggers Pub Crawl Quiz

Baci from Nazim and Betti!

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Back from Trento and Traverse 19 with friends!

The last four days have been an eyeopener for us over at Casachiesi! Thanks to our dear friends and fellow bloggers Chef Dennis K. Littley and his wife Lisa Ross along with Amy Askin who pointed out this fantastic blogger conference we were able to attend for the very first time in the city of Trento, Italy which we never had the chance to visit but was on our bucket list.

We took advantage and left early Thursday morning so as to be able to visit and prepare three articles regarding this area. The scent of fresh air and new attractions had us gleaming with anticipation as we knew that we only had two days before the beginning of the weekend sessions which revolved around improving our blogging assets (this site, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube)

If you are curious about what the seminars revolved around here are the schedules for each day

Useful Links related to Traverse Events and VisitTrentino:

Visit Trentino: https://www.visittrentino.info/en

Traverse Events : https://www.traverse-events.com/

This years edition of Traverse in Trento: https://www.traverse-events.com/traverse19/

Nazim Beltran

[socialWarfare]

Virgin Voyages and the Italian connection

As some of you might know after moving to Italy back in 1992 and having left the sunny shores of South Beach, my first set of interviews looking for a job as in Architect in Italy (with vast Cad Management experience) was sort of touch and go.

All the studios I initially contacted on my arrival in Milan loved my portfolio but back then they were just starting to embrace CAD and offered measly salary offers as opposed to what I was earning back in the US.

After a foray of interviews, I went into a slump and was a bit depressed to the point that my wife considered moving back to Miami (my old position was always open since my boss at the time had mentioned that if I encountered any problems in my new country that I was welcome back).

But out of the blue, my wife’s sister calls me up and says that a friend of hers architectural studio in Genoa (about 2 hours away from Milan) was precisely looking for a person with my qualifications.

So I rush down to Genoa and have the interview with my future boss that went much better than expected (considering that it is an architectural studio that designs Cruise Ships – something totally different than the type of projects I worked on in Miami back in the day).

I have to say that after 24 years working at this studio the level of projects and the working environment are superb! And along the road after embarking on projects for companies such as Princess Cruises, Cunard, and Silversea we arrive at the first of a series of vessels for the new company founded by Sir Richard Branson. Last week we had the pleasure of being his guest at the Steel Kneel ceremony (Steel kneel relates to placing the first steel component of the ship and officially starts the construction process) at the Sestri Levante Shipyard.

The party was amazing as you can see if the short video clips below. Boy George was the DJ (Culture Club was one of the first groups on the Virgin Records roster). I also had the pleasure of having a short chat with Richard at the after party in which we spoke about the vessel.

So in a nutshell….I tend to imagine what would have happened if I had not encountered my current boss and moved back to Miami back in 1992?

Life and its mysterious routes…. Viva Italia!

Here is an additional link regarding the new ship currently under construction.

Virgin Voyages sites

Nazim

[socialWarfare]

Casa Chiesi Interview : A Fresh Perspective

One of the great things about Social Media is the possibility of meeting wonderful people from all around the world.
As most of you know we are on the main channels so that we can reach out to our audience and show them the beauty that is Italy.
A while back my friend Vicki Fitch contacted us and invited us to be part of her show “A Fresh Perspective” a show that in our time frame starts at 4am in the morning. In fact, I get to catch the end of her show usually when I am on the train to go to work in Genoa. This time I put two alarms on so that I would not miss the allocate for the interview. It was a pity that Betti was out of town due to work commitments (maybe next time).

I have to say that the hour flew by since Vicki is tops as both host and interviewer. We covered how I ended up in Italy along with the stuff that we do over here at Casa Chiesi regarding our love for Italy.

Would love to invite you to check it out over at this link on her Facebook Page: click Fresh Perspective with Vicki Fitch

Thanks, Vicki and all those that joined!

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