Meet Domenico Emanuele Matania | Cultural Manager & Musician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Domenico Emanuele Matania and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Domenico Emanuele, how do you define success?
Success for me is making other people successful, seeing them smile and giving them instruments to realize themselves. Personal and economic gratification of my team is a success for me. Success for me is the response of our visitors: they are always very enthusiastic, they feel like at home – like they’ve been hosted by friends – and are very happy to see the city through our eyes in an authentic and genuine way (not saying this like a clichè, but in the deepest meaning of the words “authentic and genuine”). When you actually are authentic and genuine, then it is when you win.
Also, success is doing what you love: I play the accordion since I was a little kid, so you can say that music and art is something that runs through my veins, but at the same time I was able to connect the artistic part with managing skills. The art makes me feel alive, it’s my place in the world: when I feel down, I find all the answers in art and creativity.
You’re successful if you manage to find balance in your life: luckily, I have a partner who understands and shares my choices. Balance is everything, it’s and instrument we have to understand and apply: one day you wake up and feel like a hero, the next day you feel like a failure. It’s our mind, we have to accept it. We must use the instruments that life gave us to fight these feelings and try to be balanced as much as possible.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
First of all, I must say that I’m very proud that I did it all on my own: Napulitanata is something I really believed in and seeing how far we’ve come fills me with joy and pride. Luckily, a lot of things make me happy: growing up I realized it’s very important to take the good from the small things, not only from the big ones. With my project, I’m happy when I see I can make other people happy, both staff and visitors. Professionally, I’m here because I created the right mix of skills and passion, I worked on it and found the balance between everything. It was a journey, and like other ones, it needs effort, but when you look back and see everything you did, you realize it was all worth it and everything you overcame prepared you for the things that will come in the future. I think that my story, along with the ones from the other guys in my city, can be an inspiration: regardless the area of work (it could be arts, management, engineering), you have to work hard and have faith in yourself so you can really make it.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I’d take him in the most famous places in Naples and in the region, as “Cappella San Severo”, “Catacombe di San Gennaro e San Gaudioso”, “Chiesa di Santa Luciella ai Librai” and of course “Scavi di Pompei”, but also I’d like to make him visit my favourite and hidden spots, along to the most important places for our friendship, the ones that are in our hearts. You can’t ask a Neapolitan to choose only one place where to eat, but if I have to choose, I’d definitely bring him to “Pepe in Grani”, one of my favourite pizzeria in Caserta: it’s actually located in Caiazzo, a picturesque old town where you can also enjoy walking through.
Lastly, I’d like to take him to a wine tasting near the Vesuvio – I think the view there is breathtaking!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to dedicate this to Massimo Faella, the president of a cultural association based in Naples “Respiriamo Arte”. We both came from the same kind of studies and our organizations are very similar both in management and in the effort we put in it. For us, it was kind of a challenge against a context that seemed to offer us nothing, so we had to take anyway and build it from scratch. He hosts guided tours in various churches and in particular in “Chiesa di Santa Luciella ai Librai” where you can find the unique “teschio con le orecchie”, a skull with ears: since the beginning of 1900 the Neapolitans went there to address their prayers, in the hope that by listening to them, he would take them directly to the afterlife – a real messenger between the world of the living and the dead.

Website: https://www.napulitanata.com/it/napulitanata-3/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/napulitanata/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/napulitanata/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/napulitanata

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Napulitanata

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRfKEgBNtrYotcg8U45_Nkw

Other: Tripadvisor: https://www.tripadvisor.it/Attraction_Review-g187785-d12396492-Reviews-Napulitanata-Naples_Province_of_Naples_Campania.html Domenico Emanuele Matania personal linkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/domenico-emanuele-matania-247b7a8a/

Image Credits
Napulitanata