Giampiero

Hi. That’s me, Giampiero Ambrosi, enjoying the view from Mt. Whitney the tallest mountain in the continental US. Before that I had a photo of me floating through the air and flapping my arms like a plucked chicken on a cliff jump in Sardegna. It’s one of my favorite places on the planet! I grew up in Kansas and in Italy, went to school in Rhode Island and have lived in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Siena, the Alps and Sardegna. I was born in the US, but am a dual citizen of Italy, where my family lives. I’ve roadtripped across the US a lot by car and motorcycle and love the open road.

Cavria, Pinzolo, Madonna di Campiglio and the Dolomiti di Brenta

I’m also interested in the internet and travel. I was the General Manager of the pioneering travel site, VirtualTourist.com. When we were acquired by TripAdvisor in 2008, I was a General Manager there. I spent a lot of my childhood shuttling between Kansas City, the Italian Alps, and Sardinia. Before VT, I created TravelAddict at DEN.net which was one of the internet’s first user-generated travel communities. My background is as a documentary field producer for NHK (Japan’s national TV) as well as a writer. I was a magna cum laude graduate of Brown University where I was captain of the soccer team, a sport which has served as a guaranteed conversation ice breaker in taxi cabs and restaurants around the world.

For a while, I used to appear on NBC’s top-rated Today show as a travel expert. Kathy Lee and Hoda are my girls. I also really enjoyed Tori Spelling – believe it or not. I occasionally do other broadcast TV and radio programs and have been in various print and Internet articles including Forbes.com, the Boston Herald, Corriere della Sera, The Guardian, and Canada’s National Post, among others. I think one of my favorite  travel memories is winning the 2008 CEAT Indian AutoRickshaw Challenge from Chennai to Kanyakumari, an event dubbed “A Race for the Clinically Insane,” in which we (I with Konstantin Othmer and Meghan Harken) competed against 27 other teams from around the world. I currently live in California, with my wife and daughter, Amelia. For the next few years, we’re planning on spending time in Europe and other parts of the U.S. We don’t really need to settle anywhere until she’s going to school, right? 🙂

*And for those wondering, my name is pronounced something like Jom-pea-air-oh.

Group Passport Photo With My Brothers

Here I am in my early intrepid traveler mode with my brothers. I thought it was cool that we had a passport for the 3 of us. As I said in my VirtualTourist bio, I fondly recall the space age TWA terminal at JFK. It was exotic and romantic to travel by plane in those days. I love those faded 70’s photos of us waving from the silver stairs of some jet! We used to travel back and forth to Italy from Kansas City on this passport!

HERE’S SOME FUN STUFF TO CHECK OUT:

Tony Tetro. The World’s Greatest Art Forger
Tony was huge in the 70’s – 80’s ! I acquired the life rights and wrote a feature film about him that has been optioned by Code 39’s Stefano Gallini – Durante, the Producer behind Emilia Clarke’s upcoming film, “Voice from the Stone”.