Erica Di Giovancarlo grew up near Rome, studied economics and spent his career moving between continents – including India, Japan and Brazil – always at the service of the same mission: to tell the world what Italy produces and why it counts.
In January 2024 she arrived in New York as the first woman in history to take over the role of Trade Commissioner for Italy, taking over the American network of the Italian Trade Agency through five offices distributed from one coast to another of the country. Its headquarters is a five-storey neo-georgian townhouse built in 1904, half a block from Madison Avenue, which once belonged to the Bouvier family. Yeah, that family.
This May too, it will open its doors to the city turning it into Italy.
We sat down with her to understand what this really means and why, after four editions, it is becoming increasingly difficult to book.
She is the first woman in history to be named Trade Commissioner for Italy. What does that mean in everyday practice?
Fashion, food, wine, beauty, design, technology, aerospace. Five offices throughout the country, each focused on a different sector. New York is the headquarters, with special attention to fashion, accessories, food, wine and cosmetics. My job is to make sure that the best Italian companies find the right partners, the right audience and the right time. It is an important task, to which I deeply care. And Italy on Madison was born from this, directly from this building. When I crossed the threshold for the first time, after my arrival in New York, I thought: it’s like the White House. I immediately started to imagine what we could do with it, how to use it to tell the story of Italy in a way that no showroom, fair or advertising campaign could ever replicate. That intuition became Italy on Madison.
For those who have never heard of it, what is it?
It’s very different than anything else we do. The real change took place with the third edition, when we decided to stop treating this building as a simple office. We opened it to the New Yorkers and let them in. But simply opening the doors wasn’t enough. We wanted it to be authentically Italian, with every room furnished with furniture, objects and Italian products, up to the smallest detail. This year the concept is Il Teatro, the Teatro dell’Eccellenza del Made in Italy. I will not reveal everything, it is a surprise, but will be present almost every sector of the Italian daily life: furniture, fashion, footwear, jewellery, perfumery, beauty, food and wine. The Italian lifestyle, in its entirety, here in New York.
The building has its own history. Does this play a role in the event?
Hugely. This was the residence of Jacqueline Bouvier, before Kennedy became one of the most iconic women in American history. He lived here. Since 2000, this place is Italian territory. People pass by every day and stop asking if they can come in. This curiosity exists no matter what we do. Then we add the fact that people inside are Italian, with everything that this implies: beauty, creativity, sweet life, but also innovation and products that surprise even those who think they already know Italy very well.
How do you choose the brands that are part of it?
Design, quality, beauty and excellence, which, frankly, are the distinctive features of Made in Italy. This is not abstract concepts. They are the criterion with which each company is evaluated. This year’s care was led by Paola Navone, who conceived the entire space experience. There is a guiding thread that crosses the whole building: a journey through Italy, its places, its landscapes and its products. It’s not a catalog. It is a story told through the rooms.
Is there anything that Italy is still able to really surprise Americans?
The American consumer is very informed, and we are good at promotion, so the combination works. When talking about fashion, design and food, very high expectations are always met. But the beauty, especially the niche perfumery, still has huge margins of discovery here. There are Italian perfumers working at an extraordinary level, with a packaging that is itself an object of design and formulas rooted in centuries of tradition. From ancient pharmacies to herbalists, there is a tradition of knowledge of plants dating back to the Renaissance. Last year, the beauty was one of the great surprises of Italy on Madison, and the New York response was extraordinary. This year we will go further.
In New York there is always something better to do. Why would anyone spend their afternoon here?
Because this is something that is nowhere else. Enter an Italian house, not in a showroom, set or television advertising, and live something close to the Italian lifestyle for a few hours. Taste it, smell it, touch it. Italy is already known in America for food and design, and these expectations will be met. But what I hope people carry with them is something that goes beyond the simple confirmation of what they already knew. Italy always has something unexpected, even for those who think they know it well.
What did surprise you more in the way New York reacted?
How much people want to get in. The building was a revelation. They’ve been in front of us for years without knowing what was behind that door. Then, suddenly, they found it open, they discovered Italian furniture, perfumes, food and clothes. People understood something they might have always perceived, but never expressed clearly: that the Italian way of living is not a luxury reserved for those traveling in Italy. It can be lived, at least for an afternoon, on the 67th Street.
Italy competes with the whole world and continues to win. What’s the secret?
Other countries do many things very well. But what we communicate, better than almost anyone else, is our joy of living, our knowledge of living. When you meet him, you immediately recognize him. It comes from something very precise: a culture that, over many centuries, has decided that beauty counts. That the way a table is mounted counts. That the coffee cup counts. That the way a jacket falls on the shoulder counts. No vanity, no status. The attention to how things are done and how they are lived is itself a form of respect for those who create and receive.
What will be the future of Italy on Madison?
This is the challenge we have every year. This year we worked very hard to do something different than the last edition. Next year we will have to raise even more the level, and we will find out how when the time comes. What I would like most to make people understand is what makes all this unique. It was born of a very simple idea: Italian life, lived in our home. Not a perfectly maintained showroom. The Italian product, in all its beauty, but lived: the morning when you wake up and the sheets are beautiful and slightly rubbed; the smell of the coffee that fills the house; the perfume you put before going out to the office. This is a lifestyle in the true sense of the word, not the version you see in the TV commercials. The real one, the one that happens every day, without public, simply because that’s how you live.
Last question. What is the most Italian thing in the world?
Breakfast, absolutely.
L’articolo Erica Di Giovancarlo, the woman who brings Italy to Madison Avenue proviene da IlNewyorkese.
