Language Champion Spotlight: Silvia Avvertenza ‘The Closeness Comes from Speaking the Same Language…’

Last updated: Feb 1st, 2024

Silvia Avvertenza, A Rayburn Tours Language Champion

Here’s our second Language Champion spotlight to showcase the incredible linguistic talent inside Rayburn House!

Bursting at the seams, we thought phenomenal Italian native and Operations Manager for our Education department, Silvia Avvertenza, was the next linguistical step! With decades of language skills and multi-lingual experience Silvia is a sure-fire way to dive even deeper into our language talent pool.

Versed in Italian, with a history speaking French and German and able to understand Spanish – who uses her toolkit to help craft RT tours – Silvia’s gripping language story and how it helps you is below…

The closeness comes from speaking the same language and getting the culture – that’s really important.

Silvia Avvertenza
Operations Manager for Education & Language Champion

 

 

The Inspiration Behind the Language Toolkit

Enthusiastic and skilled – her infectious nature for language was instilled from her inspirational English teacher in school (a supportive mother helped too!). From a warm and traditional village just outside Monza in Northern Italy, Silvia’s toolkit includes:

  • French & German school learning
  • University degrees in English & German Literature
  • An understanding of Spanish

Event management in Milan came after Uni, where her varied vernacular helped arrange, organise and tailor-make events for customers. And that was just the start…

 

Ciao Italia, Hello England!

Silvia’s partner worked in England, so it made sense that after she’d finished her degree, she moved across too!

First English employment stop? The fast paced and think-on-your-feet world of a call centre. And then – after showing her linguistic talent – handling the edgy world of complaints.

Well-equipped to meet, respond and solve challenges in multiple tongues, those skills honed in that quick environment are a valuable part of Silvia’s toolkit to this day.

 

Communicating in that language helps create that relationship; some suppliers I’ve worked with for 15 years!

Silvia Avvertenza
Operations Manager for Education & Language Champion

 

 

The World of Tour Operating

Silvia’s incredible linguistic journey doesn’t end there! Joining an English based operations team, she’d help organise tours by speaking with suppliers in Italian & English – an integral thread to maintaining and developing a network of productive relationships from here to the edge of the Mediterranean.

 

Being an Italian native really shines in situations like this too as it means she deeply understands the cultural complexities of the supplier she speaks with.

Italian Tour Manager

Not intent to stop there, Silvia’s brilliant Italian is super helpful when she’s a tour manager with school groups to exciting places like Sicily, Rome and the Bay of Naples.

Tour Managers are your on-tour extra of pair hands, making sure all the logistics and practicalities go as they should and relieving any leftover worry you may have.

To Rayburn Tours & Beyond – Talents Helping Craft Your Unforgettable Tour!

8 years ago a driven, likeable, talented, experienced and lively multi-lingual speaker came to help craft unforgettable trips at Rayburn Tours: Silvia!

But how does that help you?

Simple! First as a Tour Operator, then Operations Supervisor and now Operations Manager, Silvia’s gift and passion for language provided Rayburn with an incredible insight and connection to the people from the countries of the languages she speaks!

Not only that, but she helps create a warm, bubbly and thriving atmosphere within Rayburn House – supporting colleagues so we can focus on our roles, which are also a part of the fundamental character of creating your tour. Talented linguist. Classic Italian warmth. Total team player. Leading by example.

 

 

When you learn the language, you learn the culture, and it shows you there’s more than one perspective, more than one way of doing things.

Silvia Avvertenza
Operations Manager for Education & Language Champion

 

 

That’s Silvia’s Journey, How About Yours?

Silvia’s phenomenal journey and valued language toolkit are just part of the wider and vibrant Rayburn picture.
We’re absolutely stuffed with talented and experienced multi-lingual speakers whose primary focus is all the aspects of your tour that demand communication in a second language.

And it’s those skills that are fundamental in crafting your international school tour that you won’t forget anytime soon.

 

Language Trips? Yes Please!

 

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