Welcome to Pitch, Please!, The Christy Maz Network series where you can promote your product here and reach women now!
We wanted a space for women to be able to promote their latest products/projects and let other women be the first to know about things that are new and exciting! So Pitch, Please was born.
CMN sat down TRACY ZITO BRANDS who co-owns with her husband David Brands, Branzito Connections: they offer Sicilian experiences for Americans seeking an authentic connection to the island’s unique culture, history, food and traditions. From day trips to extended stays, we can assist you as you rediscover your roots and plan your dream vacation. They offer two tour options,
THE BRIDGE TO BISACQUINO tour or a CUSTOMIZED Sicilian tour
Hi Tracy, welcome to Pitch, Please! For those who don’t know you, tell us what is your company’s name and what does it do?
My name is Tracy Zito Brands and I am 49 years old and currently live in Bisacquino Sicily with my husband David. Branzito Connections (we combined Zito and Brands – both our last names) Branzito Connections – Experience Bisacquino and Sicily I was born in Birmingham Alabama to both a Sicilian American mother and father. After visiting Sicily for the first time in 2017 David and I fell in love with the people, the culture, and the food and knew we had to move here permanently.
What is your background/ How did you get into this industry? I came from a work background of managing retail and restaurants for the past 20 years. In September 2021 David and I made the leap and moved to Bologna Italy on a 6 month Italian language study visa. We rented our house in Panama City beach Fl to help pay for our living in Italy.
How and why did you start this company? David had started collecting and translating all of our great grandparents documents two years before because we wanted to obtain Italian citizenship. We moved to Bisacquino, our great grandparents hometown after studying in Bologna for 6 months and I obtained my Italian citizenship September 22, 2022.
What moment made you realize this idea was going to be a success? We fell in love with Bisacquino and bought a house here in 2022. After being here for a year we realized there was a real need for Americans living in Bisacquino to help Americans traveling here with roots from bisacquino with everything from translating the language, to finding their relatives and ancestral streets, to understanding the culture and way of life.
We spent the whole first year being called by everyone in town to go to the bar to meet some Americans that were here and translate what they were saying; and this happened twice a week! That’s when we knew we needed to start tours for Americans because we were already doing it for free!!!
What were your fears and how did you overcome them? Our fear with starting this tour business was that we weren’t sure what kind of clientele we would get and we also worried about the towns opinion. Bisacquino is a really small town and not a tourist location; and while that is the beauty of bisacquino and how visiting here is more authentic, we didn’t want to corrupt that.
What is the best thing about what you do? The best thing we get to do is change peoples lives and help them understand who they are and where they came from. I know how moving and magical it was for me to come to the Sicilian town where my great grandparents were born and walk the streets that they walked and go to mass in the church where they were baptized. It’s an overwhelming feeling that you can never explain. You can only experience it and we get to do this for families that have similar backgrounds like me.
What impact do you hope your company will have on people’s lives? We have only completed one full year of tours, but we led 10 tours this past year. We know how much of a treasure this Sicilian town is and how amazing the people are that live here and every tour that we’ve given this past year the families feel the same way. Like many Americans you only get to come to Sicily one time maybe in your life so they book 10 different Sicilian towns in 15 days and it’s just too much. We understand that they spend a lot of money so they want to see everything that they can but even though we tell people before they come, you’re gonna want to stay in your ancestral hometown longer they rarely do. After spending the day here every one of our tours tells us they wish they would’ve stayed in Bisacquino longer because it’s a more authentic and special experience.
We’re also so grateful that a couple of our tours have just been recommendations from other tours that we’ve done because they enjoyed the experience so much. That’s an amazing feeling and we are proud to be doing this work.
What is the one thing that people always compliment you on in your business? Everyone in bisacquino truly supports us now and promotes us all the time. They are so proud of this town and so excited when any American who have ancestors from here care enough to come back and visit and see what it’s all about. David and I are so lucky that we were accepted immediately here, mainly because we put forth the effort to learn and speak Italian, and because we integrated wholly with this community. That connection alone is what has made us successful in this business.
If you want to book your dream our to Bisacquino Sicily with Tracy and David Brands you can find them on their website: Branzito.com
