Who...

we're in the press! Donnanews February 2001 The NIAF News Fall 2000 San Francisco Chronicle March 1999 RAI Corporation TV January 1999 La Repubblica September 1998

• Laura D.A. Pazzaglia, Founder
• Roberto Simmarano, Director of Business Development
• Carolyn Masone, Travel Editor
• Camille Di Loreto, Italian American Editor
• Deborah K. Millemaci, Genealogy Editor, Genealogy & Traditions Forum Moderator
• Agatha Coco, Travel Forum Moderator
• Dan Sih, Travel Forum Moderator
• Susan Gagnon Wilson, Genealogy Forum Moderator
• Anna Garasto, General Forum Moderator
• Lisa Capogreco, Ambassador for the Boston & Greater Area
• Joe De Felice, Ambassador for the Philadelphia & Greater Area
• Tiffanie Pang, San Francisco & language forum moderator

What...

virtualitalia.com is an effort to organize, invigorate and bring together the Italian and Italian American community, starting with the San Francisco bay area and the Los Angeles and greater area.

We've never met an Italian who wasn't happy to make new and different friends and willing to learn from them to enrich his or her own life. Unfortunately, some of the clubs listed in the resource directory are for men only. We believe that everyone should be able to enjoy Italian culture regardless of gender or cultural origin. We've listed information about these clubs in the hopes that those of you who join may be willing to shake things up at the top so that one day a woman, like the founder of this web site, may also become a member.

Where...

We're located in San Francisco Bay Area. However, we're always looking for volunteers in other geographic areas. If you'd like to get in touch with us, here is our contact information:

virtualitalia.com
701 Howe Street, Suite A
San Mateo, CA 94401

(650) 347-3768, TEL
(707) 988-7785, eFAX

contact us

How...

In 1982, 9 year-old Laura Debora Adrianna Pazzaglia arrived in the United States with her mother and sister. She learned English and made new friends, but none compared to those she left behind in Italy. During the intervening 16 years, the Italians she did meet were few and far between.

Early in 1998, Laura, by then an Italian American web pro, was convinced that there had to be other Italians hiding in the bowels of her fair city. In order to find them, she began by collecting information about Italian American events and realized that there are a whole bunch of Italians around, and that they too want to know where and how to meet other Italians. The first incarnation of virtualitalia.com was an extra page from her personal web site, called "A Taste of Italy".

When it became clear that the information deserved a dedicated web site, Laura set in search of a snazzy domain name (her results happen to be the name of this web site).

To expand content and add to the useful information on this web site, Laura asked her mother Alice, an avid recipe collector and excellent cook, to contribute to the recipes section. She contributes more than recipes: if you read her creations carefully, you'll also get glimpses of her life in Italy.

Everyone one has their own special story, but most of our volunteers contacted virtualitalia.com with enthusiastic emails -- excited about the project and wanting to get involved in serving the Italian American community... somehow. Jill shares her professional writing talent with us primarily through the travel section while Deborah generously shared content she'd already created to the genealogy section.

A year from the launch of virtualitalia.com Laura was "fixed-up" with Roberto. When she discovered his business savvy she ruthlessly recruited him to assist in growing and developing this site. Their relationship also grew and developed... into a merger!