In my opinion, nothing touches the public more than an unexpected anecdote: this is the word that best sums up the peculiarity of my visits. In my work, in addition to careful preparation, there is never a lack of curiosity, a smile and above all a lot of dedication. For me, being a guide is a true vocation that offers me the opportunity to improve myself every day thanks to the encounters and exchanges with my tourists.
Raffaela graduated cum laude in History of Art from the University of Perugia in 2002.
After an internship at the Superintendence for Historical, Artistic and Ethno-anthropological Heritage of Umbria, she obtained a Master’s degree in Management of Cultural Enterprises in 2004.
Winner of a scholarship for specialization abroad, at the end of 2004 she moved to Brussels where she began a collaboration with the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, first as an intern, then as an assistant for the organization of various exhibitions, including » Rembrandt et ses élèves ”,“ Spilliaert ”,“ Alechinsky ”and“ Cobra ”, collaborating among other things in the opening of the Magritte Museum.
His experience as a guide already began in Italy in 2004 with the exhibition « Perugino, divine painter » at the National Gallery of Umbria, and then continued in Belgium at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels for which she became an official guide in Italian and French for the permanent collections (Oldmasters, Fin de Siècle and Magritte) and for important temporary exhibitions such as « Rubens, l’atélier du génie », « Kandinsky & Russia », and the more recent exhibition « Dalì & Magritte » in 2019.
Since 2011 she has also become a tour guide of Belgium and works for important Italian and international Tour Operators, enthusiastically sharing her historical, artistic and socio-economic knowledge about Belgium with the many tourists who had the opportunity to follow her for a visit to the discover Brussels, Flanders, Wallonia or in one of the country’s many museums, such as the Rubens House Museum, the Plantin-Moretus Printing Museum, the Ghent Museum of Fine Arts, the Battle of Waterloo Museum and many others.
Her passion for the history of gastronomy led her to win an award at the « Gourmand World Cookbook Awards » in 2015, thanks to an article on the « History of Pasta in Umbria » published in the French specialist magazine « Papilles ». Thanks to this experience, between 2017 and 2018 she became an « ambassador of Italian cuisine » and columnist in the television program « Max & Vénus » of the Belgian public broadcaster RTBF, an activity that was interrupted due to the arrival of her second child.
After a period on maternity leave, she passionately resumed her favorite activity: surprising the Italian public by taking them to discover the country that welcomed her!