Welcome to MarketingApulia.com
And here we are. I can finally explain a few things, especially after some friendly criticism from friends in my Salento.
“Why do you keep talking about Alberobello if you are from Salento? Talk about Lecce instead!”
A famous Mastercard campaign once said that there are some things money cannot buy. For everything else, there is Mastercard.
In this case, I would change it slightly.
There is a big difference between Alberobello and an Albero Bello.
And if you do not speak Italian, this is where I should explain what I mean.
Alberobello is the real name of the famous town in Puglia, internationally known as Apulia.
But if I creatively separate the Italian words, Albero means Tree and Bello means Beautiful.
So: Alberobello → Albero Bello → Beautiful Tree.
Words can evolve. Meanings can be looked at from another perspective.
And tourism can evolve too: the way we communicate a territory, the way we connect it and the way we promote it.
Sometimes we should not stop at the first appearance of things. We should go further, look deeper, think and observe more carefully.
Albero Bello
Beautiful Tree.
That is simply what, together with Regina Puglia — Queen Apulia and the international partners working every day across my territorial promotion projects, we are trying to build.
A Beautiful Tree with strong roots, structured and firmly planted in the ground.
A tree capable, over time, of producing good fruit.
A Beautiful Tree should produce good fruit for everyone.
Tourism operators and travellers. Accommodation providers and guests. Businesses and users. Territories and people.
In Puglia, a huge number of people work directly or indirectly within the tourism economy: accommodation, restaurants, retail, services, transport, culture, events, professionals, businesses and workers.
On the other side there is the guest: the tourist, the visitor, the person who chooses Puglia, experiences it, travels through it, talks about it and supports an important part of its economy.
Because when territories grow and evolve, they can create more opportunities, more connections and more work for everyone. Not only for a few.
From Salento to Queen Apulia.
Before going further, there is another small linguistic detail worth explaining.
Puglia is the Italian name of the region.
Apulia is the international English name that I use for this side of the project.
They are not two different places.
One land. One story. Two ways of taking that story beyond its borders.
And when I call her Regina Puglia, I am personifying the territory.
In English, you can read it as Queen Apulia.
Not as an institution, but as a narrative voice: Puglia becoming the protagonist of her own story.
From Salento to Regina Puglia.
I am not working here only for Salento, the land I come from.
I am looking at Puglia as a whole: my RegiOne / RegiOn.
And when you move from one part of a territory to the entire territory, your perspective necessarily has to change.
It requires a broader VisiOne / VisiOn and a more complex, more difficult and perhaps even more challenging MissiOne / MissiOn.
In Italian, VisiOne, MissiOne and RegiOne visually play with the ending One.
In English, I continue the same visual idea with VisiOn, MissiOn and RegiOn.
So throughout this project you may find them written together:
MissiOne / MissiOn
RegiOne / RegiOn
Small visual details. Different ways of looking at words. And perhaps, through those words, different ways of looking at ideas too.
It is exactly the same principle that took me from Alberobello to Albero Bello.
Alberobello is a real and extraordinary place.
Albero Bello is the idea that its name sparked in my mind: to build something with strong roots, capable of growing and, above all, producing good fruit.
I chose an olive tree for this Beautiful Tree because I believe the olive tree is one of the strongest symbols of Puglia.
And I also believe that in this evolution from Salento to the whole of Puglia, Alberobello and its Trulli, known throughout the world, are a natural place from which MarketingApulia.com can begin.
Rivalries? Let us keep them within the 90 minutes.
If we really want to grow as a territory, internal rivalries should remain part of a good sporting competition.
Lecce and Bari can compete for ninety minutes.
After those ninety minutes, if we want the territory to grow, we need to be united.
We can be Salentini Pugliesi and Baresi Pugliesi.
People from Salento and people from Bari, but all part of Puglia.
One side needs the other.
That, at least from my perspective, is part of a modern, evolving idea of people and territories.
Sometimes the difference is made by a Dot. Or even a hyphen.
Anyone who knows my work knows how much importance I give to digital identities.
This same story can also be reached through Albero-Bello.com .
Yes. I deliberately chose the hyphen.
Because sometimes the difference can be made by a hyphen, a dot, or one apparently insignificant detail.
In ordinary communication, a dot may seem like almost nothing.
In the digital world, however, one single Dot can make an enormous difference.
15 August 2026. A broader VisiOne / VisiOn begins.
A vision that starts in Southern Italy: a generous, colourful and warm part of the country, rich in places, history, stories and culture.
We have territories, landscapes, people, skills and enormous possibilities.
The future depends on us: on how much we want to grow, how willing we are to look deeper, and how capable we are of seeing beyond things and concepts.
PigLia La PugLia.
Another Italian expression that deserves a small explanation.
In colloquial Italian, piglia means something close to take or grab.
La Puglia simply means Puglia.
So PigLia La PugLia becomes much more than a literal phrase.
It becomes an invitation: take this territory, understand it, care for it, build with it and take it beyond its borders.
PigLia La PugLia and turn it into a masterpiece.
PigLia La PugLia and take it to the World.
PigLia La PugLia and create work, connections and growth.
Only then can this project become a real Albero Bello di Puglia — Beautiful Tree of Apulia, and not only Alberobello, which of course is beautiful in its own right.
We have many reasons to grow. I believe we have already lost enough time.
People often say: “Time is money.”
I think I prefer: “Time is work.”
Because work is not always easy to find.
But if you try to create it yourself, perhaps you will find it.
Problems? I remember them from primary school.
In my schoolbook there was a section simply called: “Problems”.
And as far as I can remember, every problem eventually had a solution.
Sometimes the solution was easy and quick.
Other times it required time, reasoning, attempts, mistakes, more attempts and more mistakes.
It depends on us whether we really want to solve a problem or simply leave it there.
I do not claim to have all the solutions.
I keep trying, making mistakes, trying again and perhaps, one day, I will get there.
I do not know.
But difficult things are interesting.
I am happy to leave the easy things to someone else.
I would rather risk being wrong,
make sacrifices,
try
and try again.
But perhaps one day,
with you
or without you,
I will really manage
to create an
Albero Bello — a Beautiful Tree.
Because,
in the end,
that is all
I really care about.
Carmelo Rizzo
Before we begin, perhaps I should introduce myself a little better.
I am not here to tell you my entire life story. I simply want to explain what I know how to do, what I am trying to build, and the skills, experience and connections I bring into this project.
MarketingApulia.com will continue to evolve.
Over the coming days, the project will progressively reveal new pages, new places, new connections and a much broader structure.
What you see today is only the first step.
This is where it begins.
Welcome to
MarketingApulia.com.
The first place
from which I want to begin
telling the story
of
Regina Puglia — Queen Apulia
is Alberobello.