CU Italy Travel - Cives Urbe - Chiara Underwood

Continuing with our week-long spotlight on Italian culture, we have the pleasure to introduce you to Chiara (pronounced ‘kee-ahr-ah') Underwood.  Chiara owns Cives Urbe, a travel consulting company that specializes in custom trips to Italy.  And guess what?  Chiara lives right here in Bucks County.  We caught up with Chiara recently, and here is what she had to say about her new venture, life in Bucks County, and the Italy she knows and loves. 

Bucks Happening: Tell us about growing up in Italy. Where did you grow up?
Chiara Underwood: My hometown – Latina (see it on the map), is about 35 miles

Ventotene

Ventotene

south of Rome along the coast between the capital and Naples. While not famous and in Italy-terms “brand new” (it was “only” founded in 1932) it was a great place to grow up and to live. It’s beautifully positioned at less than 3 miles from the coast and less than 70 miles from several skiing areas with a National Park that includes unique sand dunes and salt water lakes. So, a lot to do all year-round. And with the bonus of being so close to Rome! My parents were the first generation actually “born” in Latina and they basically know everybody who is a “native”. The funniest thing is that Latina had more than 150,000 inhabitants by the time I came around and went to school and I still manage to either know everybody directly or know them indirectly through friends or family.

BH: How did you end up moving to Bucks County?

Valeggio

Valeggio

CU: I used to work for a US Fortune 500 Company and in my late 20s I was moved for an international assignment to Belgium. There and through work I met an American expatriate. When the time came for him to come back to the US, he asked me to “tag along” and we started planning our move. The company we both worked for at the time is NJ based, but we really didn’t know the area at all.  Many people in his network recommended Bucks County and Doylestown, so we visited the area during our “exploratory” trip and we fell in love. Since then, we bought a house, we married and we wouldn’t leave Bucks County for the world… well, let’s say that if I cannot convince my husband to move to Italy, then this is the place I want to live!

BH: What are your favorite places in Italy? Tell us about some hidden gems.

Terracina

CU: There is so much! In every town there is always a narrow street, a church, a building right behind the corner that takes my breath away. I personally love medieval towns, and my two favorites are Monteriggioni (a fully walled town on top of a hill right outside of Siena in Tuscany) and Sermoneta (sitting on a mountain very close to my home town with a beautifully maintained Patrician Castle at its top and a breathtaking belvedere from which you can see as far the outskirts of Rome). In Tuscany I also love Volterra because of its history rooted in the ancient Tuscanan population (the Etruscans). Twilight Saga fans may recognize the name, but they may not know that the Italy scenes of New Moon were filmed elsewhere. In my most recent research trip, I went back to Torino (Turin) after a few years absence and I was impressed with what they’ve done with the city and with the splendor of the Royal Savoy residences. For the beach lovers, Puglia is an up-and-coming region and still very new to foreign tourism. I’m planning a “scouting trip” in May 2011 to see with my own eyes and make connection. I’ll be happy to report afterwards!

BH: How did you come up with the idea for your company?
CU: When I first came to the US and people asked me where I was from, two things shocked me: the positive

Tempio di Giove

Tempio di Giove

connotation my heritage has in this country (thanks to millions of Italian immigrants that over the years have come to the US and established themselves) and the fact that everybody loves Italy, wants to visit Italy, wants to live in Italy. While working in corporate America, co-workers and friends will turn to me to help them with their travel plans to Italy and what all of them always asked was the “insider view,” the way to experience the culture and do what locals do. But I also had a lot of people telling me that they had terrible experiences in Italy and whenever I probe I found out that they had gotten caught in the classic tourist traps (that restaurant with bright pictures of food in 5 different languages in the main square anyone?) because nobody had helped them or guide them in the right way.

Sermoneta

Sermoneta

I must admit that in the last year I went through a critical phase in my professional career. While having enjoyed more than a decade of success and professional growth, I had lost passion and sense of purpose. I felt that while my work was important, I wasn’t “saving lives,” I wasn’t impacting other people, I wasn’t leaving a mark, a legacy. I knew I wanted to create deeper relationships, I wanted to help, I wanted to focus on what I could give vs what I could get.

Then one night we had some friends over for dinner and I was listening to the conversation. Very soon our friends started sharing vacation memories and telling stories, many of them already shared several times but always wonderful to hear. And then it struck me: I couldn’t save lives, but because of who I am, where I was born and raised and where I have my family and network I can help people create wonderful memories. I can impact others by designing an experience they will never forget and they will still talk about at dinner with friends 5, 10 years down the road. That’s how the idea of Cives Urbe started.

BH: What does Cives Urbe mean?
CU: It doesn’t mean anything literally but plays with the two Latin terms “Civis, civis” (citizen) and “Urbs, urbis”

Ninfa

Ninfa

(city – but most often during roman times used to indicate Rome). In ancient Rome, only free men born within the city wall of Rome were “cives” and therefore enjoyed rights and privileges (like owning property, trade, marrying, elect and been elected) and shared a unique lifestyle and vision of the city of Rome and of the entire Empire. Through my unique network and my deep knowledge of my country, I offer my clients the chance to see Italy like a citizen would, to experience it like they belong.

CU are also my initials and “text code” for “see you”, making Cives Urbe a name rooted in history, unique, personal and at the same time young and innovative. So look out for Cives Urbe’s official launch in early November!

BH: What Bucks County spot most reminds you of Italy?
CU: To me the Doylestown Farmers Market from May to November is my little piece of Italy in Bucks County. It

Fossanova

Fossanova

reminds me so much of the daily fresh vegetables and fruit market in Latina and I can almost hear my grandmother or my own mom teasing or negotiating with the vendors for the freshest zucchini or complaining for the rip off price of the cherries at the beginning of the season. To me is not the place necessarily, it’s the lifestyle it represents.

BH: What are some “things to expect” when traveling to Italy that most people might not anticipate?
CU: Different types of travelers expect different things, but in general what throws everybody off the first time they visit Italy is really the lifestyle and how a typical day is organized. The day starts later for everybody (I was always the first one in when I got to the office at 8.00 am) and the meals for example are timed accordingly: lunch is normally between 12.30 and 2.00 pm and dinner is between 7.30 – 9.00 pm. Quite a difference for Americans!

Circeo

Circeo

And shopping hours: most Americans are astonished that stores are usually open 9.00 am to 1.00 pm and then from 4.30 – 8.00 pm. Knowing this in advance can help optimize your trip by planning a sightseeing visit during those hours for example.

During my last trip back, this past July, I noticed how sporadic DSL and wi-fi connection still is in most places and how web-marketing and web- presence is still very limited for any service category, making it more difficult for tourists to research the location of a particular spot or use Tripadvisor to select a restaurant for their evening meal. The solution is easy, just ask the locals and stay away from anything that serves dinner before 7.30 pm – I can assure you it is a tourist trap!

BH: The food, the art, the music, the fashion, Italy has contributed greatly to the world stage. What are you most proud of?
CU: As an Italian I’m honestly most proud of the thousands of young Italian talents that everyday make an impact in their respective fields all over the world. And I’m not just talking about the young

Amalfi

Amalfi

talents that are infusing new creative energy in iconic Maisons like Valentino or Chanel, or the young architects filling Renzo Piano’s big shoes, but of all the young Italians who live and work all over the world and contribute with their expertise and their best effort to the country they have elected as their home. I connect with them often via an Italian expat blog sponsored by one of the major Italian newspaper and I’m amazed by their passion, their resilience, and their maturity. Not all of them are going to be the next Pavarotti, nor all of them will be famous, but they all bring a piece of Italy with them wherever they go.

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