Stefania’s big business in Milan: an “atelier” of the best Sicilian craftsmanship

An entrepreneur from Messina is living a “second life” thanks to a business in which more and more artisans representing different sectors are believing.

She has created a heart of Sicily, pulsing with passion for her homeland, in downtown Milan: 55-year-old Stefania Quagliata Vender of Messina, after two decades as an entrepreneur in Sicily in the office supply industry and a broken marriage, for the love of her new spouse she sold the company and moved to Milan. “I arrived in Milan,” she says, “and for a couple of years I dedicated myself to helping my three sons (today one is a doctor, another works in his father’s business in Sicily, and one, Gianluca, works with me) fit into their new surroundings. But I missed the contact with the public. I would have liked to open a store and I wanted it to have something to do with Sicily, but I didn’t have a clear idea yet. I then took a plane, came to Sicily, got into my car and in five days drove more than a thousand kilometers. And a world opened up to me: as I discovered so many small artisanal realities of excellence, I realized that the ideal would be to bring to Milan their creations in a wide variety of fields (from ceramics to jewelry, from textiles to essences and perfumes, from handbags to home accessories, from sweet and savory food to liquor and oil). On their own, in fact, they would never have had the strength to get out of their territory.” Article