On social networks, several people are ready to tell New York, offering stories and content on what is better to do, where to go, tips on unknown restaurants or not very tourist destinations. There is no doubt that all these content creators love the Big Apple, but there is a girl, whose love for this city shines through surprisingly, we can say visceral. The interview with Giada Pellizzari (@giadapellizzari) is telephone, but on the other side of the handset, you can clearly perceive one by one, the tears in the eyes that are born spontaneously when she talks about her great love: New York.
Those tears of emotion that anyone who has suffered the indescribable fascination mixed with freedom, talent, eclecticism capable of escaping from every alley of that city, knows well.
Giada, I can’t help but ask you your first time in New York …
“As a girl I never traveled much, I had the first strong approach with New York, from the films, from the television series, from music videos and from September 11: a moment indelible for me. I was a twelve -year -old girl and I suffered a lot, as if I knew I had lost a piece of a place that would be in one way or another to be part of my life. From there until 2010, New York has become a dream, I work, I started. It was August 2010. I have a very clear memory: we arrived late and the friend who was traveling with me preferred to go to the hotel. My love relationship with New York was born, such a visceral love, so true, that she comes to the luck of having managed to transform it into a job. “
A very different job from the previous one.
“Arrival from the banking world, exactly for fifteen years of bank, where I have always invested a lot, traveling all the steps: from the counter operator and then became a branch director at the age of thirty. As yes, I had a career delineated and satisfactory career. New York has always been a parallelism in my leisure time that has never had any type of working meaning. “Finding it”.
In fact, how did you become a travel designer in all respects?
“Probably, Covid was missing, which was an important watershed. It was the first time that I had to separate from New York for two years. There I really understood how much for me that city was imported. It was the spring that led me to January 2022 to find the courage to leave alone. I immediately relived the feeling of freedom that I had felt in 2010, but amplified. I will never forget that journey. To my usual work, but despite the fact that I always liked to work in the bank, something had changed. I pay, do you organize an itinerary from me? From there I understood that there would be enormous potential for the development of my passion.
You wrote a book: “Ask me New York”. The love you transmit by telling this city is rare: a deep sense of belonging surrounded by a clean and contagious enthusiasm
“Thank you for these words, however, I would have hypocritical to say that they amaze me. It is a beautiful compliment that is made quite often and I wanted to make sense. The way I tell New York I am not minimally affected by the fact that it has become my job. And this is seen. My aim is not to monetize or advertise some products, but narrate the city I love. To those who ask me to undertake this job, I always answer the same thing. Thinking of doing it only if you would be willing to do it even for free.
On your profile you clearly perceive your seriousness and professionalism. You have also obtained the official license of certified tourist escort.
“The role of travel designer does not require a certification, nor is there a real one, but in a smoky world like that of social media, I wanted to have everything in order, something that would certify my work. I do not chase the virality, my community grows in an organic way and if we want slower than the other creators, but it is my greatest reason for pride. Having a loyal group, polite and united in the principles. But they must find professionalism, seriousness and transparency.
Best and worse period to visit New York?
“While knowing that I am a voice out of the choir, I would advise against the Christmas period: there is undoubted magic, but perhaps you tend to overstimar her. The city is less decorated than you can imagine, with very high costs, an atmosphere not exactly friendly and chaos everywhere! I still go against the current, saying that August is instead a great month to visit it. The true summer in NY is in the end of July. (that they do not celebrate) means going to one of the lowest season periods.
Without spoiling too much your travel designer secrets, do you give us advice, maybe for those who go to New York for the first time?
“A little tourist thing that I feel like recommending (perhaps it can be trivial, but it is what I feel like advising in a more sincere way) is to take a couple of hours and go for a walk to the Hudson River Park, south or north, where it then changes its name becoming Riverside Park. It will not be the most secret attraction that one knows, but I guarantee one hundred percent that you will feel connected more than ever with the most magical city of the city. world.
Walking through a city without thoughts and with a full mind only of curiosity, it is one of the most beautiful ways to discover a city, and a metropolis like New York knows how to give an emotion at every corner, at every step, at every look at the panorama in front of us, was just a simple cart capable of offering the most magical hot dog of the entire city that never sleeps.
