MALLEI: our journey, our heritage
“There are times when the desire to progress and take a step further towards its goals becomes ever greater, where you think less about the consequences and decide to raise your mail.
So a year ago Mallei was presented to the world of Linkedin by our co-founder Francesco Caruso and since then we have grown very fast, between peaks of enthusiasm and, let's not hide it, moments of uncertainty, that only the launch of a new project can give you.
But we feel we are on the right path and the enthusiasm of Francis and George in seeing their “creature” grow is contagious.
We realized that in a year of adventure we never dedicated time to telling ourselves: Why are we born on June 23?
Nothing has been left to chance and for a company that professes how important it is to be present on digital channels strategically, it is a great débâcle.
But make the most of the necessary mea culpa, on the occasion of our first birthday we are ready to share with you some of the elucubrations of our co-founder, who are so linked to their “genovecity” that they want to bring a piece with them in their project.
Our story begins on June 23, 2021 among the carrugs of Genoa, when, after a twenty-year friendship and years of work side by side, Giorgio and Francesco decide to give birth to Mallei and the ambitious and innovative project behind it.
But why on June 23?
On June 24th Genoa celebrates San Giovanni Battista, Patron Saint of the Superba and protector of the ships from sea storms. What better date to insare le vele and to give up the moorings towards our new adventure?
For obvious reasons we could not record our birth on June 24, but we chose to do so on June 23, the Night of St. John, during which the great bonfire is lit in Piazza Matteotti and the Superba begins to animate events and music.
And why is the name Mallei?
In this year of call with customers and partners, how many times have we heard the wrong pronunciation of our name? Mallèi – Malleì... the pronunciation is Màllei and if you give us two minutes of your time we would like to tell you why.
Francis and George decided to baptize their project with this name in honor of Guglielmo Embriaco said “Caput Mallei” (The knife or the hammerhead).
Born in Genoa on the second half of the 11th century, Guglielmo Embriaco is the most valiant Genoese: hero of the first Crusades, conqueror of Jerusalem and Caesarea, merchant!
In short, if it were English, they would have already dedicated novels and colossal cinematographics to the likes of William Wallace, Ivanhoe and Riccardo Cuor of Leo.
What fascinates us of this character is not only his marine qualities, which combined with his cunning and strategic ability, allowed him to attack and expel Jerusalem; but his ability as a merchant.
He immediately took off the conquest of new ports and commercial bases, followed by the town nobility. This allowed Genoa to expand its influence throughout the Mediterranean, up to the Colonne D’Ercole, thus becoming “The Superb”.
To honour its value, it was decided that no tower in Genoa could be higher than the tower of the Embriaco, which still runs up today, protecting the city.
This is our story... what's left to say?