Lindsay Marie Morris

As an Emmy-nominated international journalist, host, and producer, Eszter Vajda traveled the world to pursue stories and subjects. But it was actually a trip back home to Massachusetts, where the Hungary-native grew up, that led her to Sicily. 

"There are no coincidences," Eszter reflects. 

She had interviewed Merrimack Valley-based radio host Tom Zappala of The Sicilian Corner a few times, including for a story on Lawrence, Massachusetts' Feast of The Three Saints (patterned after Trecastagni, Sicily's Saints Alfio, Filadelfo, and Cirino Festival). 

One day, Tom called to see if Eszter could fill in as host for his show. The scheduled guest was Tom's brother, Alfred M. Zappala, a Northeastern Law School professor, who had just returned from Sicily.

"I really had no idea what Sicily was about," Eszter says. "We did an hour-long interview on the radio. I've always been very passionate about history, so it struck a chord with me."

 

Alfred described Sicily's important strategic location in the Mediterranean and the many peoples and cultures that passed through and influenced the island. And Eszter wanted to know more.

She invited him to appear on her TV show. The interview ended, the lights and microphone were off, and the crew was ready to go home. But Eszter and Alfred kept talking.

 

He invited her to lunch, and they began discussing a plan for Eszter to spend a month making a few videos in Sicily. 

 

Eszter arrived in Sicily in June 2014, intending to stay four weeks and produce seven videos. She ended up staying five months, and the videos took on a life of their own. The couple split time between Sicily and the U.S. while Alfred was still teaching. He retired in 2016, and they officially became island residents.

Today, you can catch Eszter and Alfred's popular video series, You, Me & Sicily!, on YouTube, sign up for one of their Sicily tours, or consult the couple for your own Sicilian vacation. Additionally, the two are deeply involved with the Sicilian Project, which raises money for academic grants to provide English-language education to students in Sicily—Alfred as Chairman of the Board and Founder, and Eszter as Public Relations & Social Media Director.

 

Eszter shared more about their work and what she ultimately hopes to give back.

 

 

Shopping in Sciacca

 

How do you approach capturing the essence of Sicily in your video series?

We literally zigzag the island. We've covered the island up and down. There are very few must-see places in Sicily that I haven't been to. And we don't mind going back. 

Festivals are a very important part of Sicilian culture. Every town has its own patron saint, and it's a big deal. It's multi-generational; the kids, parents, and grandparents go together. I went to the Three Saints festival in Lawrence before I went to the festival in Trecastagni. The religious feel, the excitement, the fireworks… It's very different here. So we do that, of course.

There's a lot of food and cooking because you've got to have that. Then maybe there's an event we'll cover, like an art show or music. We'd like to be very diversified.

 

Inevitably, something, like a natural disaster in Etna, happens, and we cover it. Obviously, we were doing that during COVID.

 

We do a lot with the history. We're very fortunate to be aligned with a lot of professors from the University of Catania, and we've had [retired professor of Italian and Chairman of the Department of Modern Foreign Languages at St. John's University] Gaetano Cipolla on at least a half-dozen times. So, a lot of that, sharing the history and the culture, is really just providing what we think would be good information for the people.

 

For example, we published a video about the new Italian citizenship rules because Al does dual citizenship. There were 200 comments on it. Italian citizenship is trending on Google. So we're focused on that. We stay on top of these types of things.

 

We take people to the markets and introduce them to the people, not just the produce. We feature the vineyards, and you meet the family behind the wine. We do that a lot. We feature a lot of family-run businesses. There's even a playlist. "Family-Run Businesses." That's very important. 

 

Eszter in Taormina

 

What makes your private and group tours unique?

What makes them unique is that we live here. You'll go to places we frequent. We take you to restaurants where the owners are our friends. The owners of the hotel you're staying in are our best friends. We've vetted the vineyards and have been going there for years and years.

 

We have made incredible connections. We have drivers and guides and hotels all over the island. We visit vineyards, do olive oil tastings, go to the Sicilian cart museum, and ride boats. We offer a basket of experiences.

 

For the private tours, I work one-on-one with the families multiple times to make sure that it's what the family wants. And 99.9% of the time when a family comes, it's because they want to come to Sicily and see an ancestral home. So those are some very special tours.

 

We keep our group tours very small, so they're very personalized and customized.  

 

A colorfully decorated boat in Aci Trezza

 

Tell us more about the Sicilian Project, which Alfred founded.

English as a second language is a huge problem in Sicily. Alfred wrote in one of his books (and I'm not quoting him exactly), "If someone gave me a donation, I would start some kind of an English-as-a-second-language language program that would be free for Sicilian kids." Someone who read that book called and said, "I'm going to send you a check."

 

This man, Steve Carbone, who is still a good friend of ours, sent Al a $10,000 check. And Al said, "Oh my God, I've got to do something." So he made it a 501(c)(3).

 

We've had very regular classes. We had one in Brolo, we had one in Bagheria outside of Palermo, and we have them in Canicattì, Aci Trezza, and Aci Catena. We hold these classes, and they run as sort of summer camps. We play (depending on the level of the kids), we sing songs, and have conversation.

 

When COVID hit and we had to cancel two classes, what we started doing was handing out money to the churches. So for about two years, we did that for Easter and Christmas. Some churches had more need than others. Then, we literally restarted the Sicilian Project.

 

I'm so thankful we're able to have classes now. We had four classes this past fall, and we started an adult class where Sicilian professionals who want to improve their English come and do that.

 

We just finished a class with 15 kids and six adults, and we were able to get guys from Naval Air Station Sigonella to volunteer because they have to do a number of hours of volunteering. So we had native speakers. I did class, and Alfred taught.

 

When I came here, I felt like Sicily was like a blanket. And then Sicily gave me so much beauty, food, and nourishment, emotionally and physically, that I was hellbent on being a very active member of the Sicilian Project. And not just being a board member, but actively giving back. We are very, very active. 

 

A rainbow of umbrellas floats above a street in Catania.

 

What do you hope to share through your work?

First of all, we started the show to dispel stereotypes and myths about Sicilians and educate people about Sicily's deep and wide contribution—not just to Europe but to civilization.

 

Bringing people to their ancestral home is probably one of the most gratifying things. Hearing the oohs and ahhs of people on my tours when they're out seeing something beautiful or tasting something. When you are in Sicily, it is an experience for all the senses, right? You're emotionally overwhelmed by all the senses that are stimulated. So, that's what I hope my work does. I hope it inspires and educates more than anything.

 

 

 

 

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From curating art to launching a London café and landing a spot on Gordon Ramsey's highly competitive Future Food Stars, Valentina Fois's journey is full of creative turns. Though Lele's has closed, and Valentina has since moved to Rome, the brand remains successful digitally thanks to her passion for storytelling.

I sat down with her to discuss digital marketing, her Future Food Stars experience, and her take on authenticity in building a lasting brand. Plus, check out her recipe for vegan arancini!

How did you transition from art and fashion to digital marketing?

The transition came quite naturally. I have always had a passion for technology; it has always inspired me, and I'm very curious about it. So I always find myself reading and learning, and back when I used to be a curator, I did this MA in digital technologies for the art sector, which was very much about how to introduce digital technology within the art world. It could be through social media or a different way of archiving what happened to a work of art, such as coming up with ideas and different resources and having that knowledge to study combined with all the experience I had with Lele's.

Lele's had a physical community, but it was very much digital. We had nearly 30,000 followers back then. Everything was organic. We didn't invest much in advertising because I didn't have the budget back then, so that wasn't an option. So, I think what I was doing was probably done correctly because it did resonate with people. And that told me a lot about storytelling and what it means to really craft something around a brand. That's how I work right now with my customers and clients; I think about them as unique businesses and people. They all have their own story, and that story cannot be told in the same way because of the public who wants to hear the story; the segment might not be the same, and they need to be told the story in a different way because their perception is different.

So that's something I had to learn, and it's constantly changing. You need to evolve as much as the software you use; the algorithm is constantly moving. You can't fight it and say, "That's what I learned a month ago, and I'm going to stick to it." No, you need to learn. You need to progress; you need to evolve.

This is a job that many people could do. It's not a job that requires you to be a certain genius. To work in digital marketing, you need to be very open-minded, to transform yourself daily, live in time, and, like a sponge, absorb a bit of everything. When you talk about social media, it's very reductive. Because it is so integrated into everything we do, it's not just scrolling on your phone; it's the latest music, the latest trend, politics, economics, journalists, and everything on there.

 

What's been your most successful campaign to date?

Lele's is a good example of a very successful campaign. And I think the secret was that we decided to talk spontaneously and authentically. We really opened the door through the creation and cooking processes. And people appreciated that because they felt they were invited to a real kitchen to cook with a real person with real food. I think at that time, we needed a bit of authenticity, something that wasn't sleek and glamorous but just very genuine. And especially through the COVID period, people wanted to have company and wanted to be entertained, but in a friendly way. Obviously, not every brand is the same, and every brand has a tone of voice. But for Lele's, that was the winning element: the authenticity.

 

How do you measure success?

First and foremost, I measure how much I enjoy doing something. As long as I'm doing something and benefiting from it, it's successful. I don't even care about the metrics because the minute I don't enjoy myself anymore, that's not successful to me anymore. I think they go hand in hand. When you do something with dedication and believe in it, it reflects what you do. And there is a difference, and people perceive that.

Obviously, after that, the answer will be metrics. When you're talking about social media, it will be—not so much the likes—the engagement: how many times people will share. One of the most beautiful things would be when you launch a campaign, for example, to sell some cookies online and suddenly you ship them everywhere, or people come from everywhere around London or even outside London and say, "I follow you on social media. I really wanted to try those cookies." That's obviously even nicer than the like because, yes, it's great to have likes, but if you can't convert that into leads or followers.

 

You were a contestant on Future Food Stars. How did that come about?

What happened with that is that, obviously, I was very passionate about the café and the whole philosophy and ideology of being vegan and promoting healthy living and healthy eating. We weren't preaching; we weren't telling people what to do. We were just showing that there were alternatives. That created an environment that felt genuine and friendly. So we started having lots of followers and built this community around Lele's, not only online but even offline. There was a sense of family. And because of that, the team behind Future Food Stars got to see me on social media, and then they asked me.

 

Tell us about that experience and what you learned.

On a personal level, I learned that I am a little bit less diplomatic than I believed I was. It is a wake-up call when you do something; you obviously think of yourself in a way, but just because you think about yourself doesn't mean that people perceive you that way. So I always thought I was maybe a little bit calmer, but maybe I wasn't. So that's something that I had to learn and work through. So that was good. I think it's very important that you stick to your principles and what is important to you without being aggressive and with respect.

 

I was happy when I had to stick to my beliefs on several occasions. I was the only vegan on the show, and it was really a hard time. It was very frustrating. Even when we used to have lunch or dinner, there were very few things I could eat. I was on set for two months straight and was sleep-deprived, and working schedules were very tight. It was very stressful. Sometimes, we had to shoot at three o'clock in the morning. I was not used to that.

They were very good on many different levels. I met lovely people, and the production team was amazing. They were very accommodating and very lovely. But they underestimated the catering aspect.

 

What advice would you give someone interested in digital marketing?

Understand that it's a 360-degree job. It's not just about marketing, it's not just about social media, it's about life itself. You need to be on top of everything you need to know. You cannot know everything all the time. You want to have the willingness to be informed.

Study or take a course, but at the same time, put that into practice while you study. If you don't have a client, make a client up. Invent, create an Instagram account that doesn't exist, and make that your client. You can experiment and see what works and what doesn't work. 

 

What experience do you want your customers to have?

With every customer, I ensure that I tell their story, the real story, who they are, why they got to be there, and why they're doing what they're doing. That also means the way they're doing things and why. Maybe the product, if they're selling a product, is special and different from other products. But the idea is always to create a story, a narrative around them—not a narrative based on lies but a narrative based on facts. My job is just to make this narrative sexy through graphics, video, and copywriting, but I always start from their narrative. Of course, I could build a spider web of lies, and some people do this as a strategy to sell more, but I don't believe it ever pays back. It's not the way I want to work. 

 

 

 

 

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