About the host

Alessia Puzzo

Born and raised in Sicily, I’m a storyteller at heart and a professional in the HR and talent space by day. I’ve never quite fit the idea of what an Italian “should” be. I wasn’t loud or effortlessly social, I didn’t dream of summers at the beach, and I preferred comics, videogames, and American pop culture to Italian romantic songs and films. For a long time, I felt like an outsider in my own country: curious about everything except the place I came from.

But growing up, travelling, and seeing Italy through the eyes of my partner, who is American, changed everything. It made me rediscover the beauty, contradictions, and complex heritage that actually make this country special: the kind that no postcard or cliché can capture. And somewhere along the way, I realized that I had been trapping myself in those same stereotypes, the ones that made me believe I wasn’t a good fit for this country. The truth is, Italians aren’t caricatures: our identity is complex and constantly evolving. This journey helped me make peace with that and to finally appreciate the place I’d been taking for granted all along.

About the SHOW

Voices of Italy is an English-language podcast born from a simple question: what does it really mean to be Italian today?

The answer starts from the refusal to accept that “being Italian” can be summed up by a few caricatural scenes: obsession with food bordering on religion, hands gesturing uncontrollably, or the glamour of Fellini’s La Dolce Vita. These are part of our story, but they’ve come to reduce Italian identity to something flat, almost performative. An entertainment product rather than a people.

That’s where Voices of Italy comes in.

This podcast is my way of reclaiming the narrative, of listening to the voices that live beyond the clichés. It’s for expats trying to find a sense of belonging in a place that’s both ancient and unpredictable. For anyone connected to Italy by heritage and wanting to discover what lies behind their grandparents’ stories. For the curious listeners who love this country but want to understand its people, not just its postcards. And for the Italians who, like me, grew up feeling a bit out of sync with their own culture and are now learning to see it with new eyes.