We had the good fortune of connecting with Viktoria Rusnakova Samuele Bagnai and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Viktoria Rusnakova, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Love Takes You To is a platform to reach those who like traveling, reading, entertainment, and inspiration. We write biweekly blogs about our favorite destinations, cultures, family, and relationships, all with a twist of humor and our European-American perspectives.

We recently published two books, which are available through Amazon or our website.

By day, we are both accomplished business professionals in finance and accounting whose hobbies turned into something more creative than just numbers. The idea behind our business became clear soon after we met.

We both moved from Europe to opposite coasts of the United States in our early twenties. Five years ago, in a series of peculiar coincidences, we met in San Diego. Inspired by our common background and interests in writing, travel, humor, and photography, we started the Love Takes You To website.

Our blog topics were first related to traveling, sprinkled with humor and our European-American perspectives. Then, we ventured out to more personal topics, including family and relationships, which from our perspective, are an endless source of humor. Most importantly, we began the Love Takes You To website as a fun pastime for ourselves with the objective of reaching a happy audience that likes to have fun just like us.

In 2019, we both published books: Enthusiastic All the Way, written by Viktoria, and The Tuscan Who Sold His Fiat to the Pope, written by Samuele. Both are available through Amazon or our website.

Each of our books is written with a slightly different approach, but both apply the three must-have ingredients in life: humor, enthusiasm, and curiosity. This is also true for our website and blogs that give a more in-depth look at our chosen lifestyle.

We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way? What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
We both came to America to broaden our life experiences. Although the beginnings were not the easiest, living in the U.S. has taught us to stay determined and enjoy the ride. Now that we are in our forties, we can look back and laugh at some of the ups and downs. There is a lesson in every moment of life, which is what we also want to convey through our website Love Takes You To.

Part of our business is also focused on working with small businesses, including hotels, restaurants, museums, resorts, excursion companies, etc. We sample the business and then write honest articles about our experiences with fun storylines and quality photos. Since we know that a picture is worth a thousand words, they are an important part of our storytelling.
Let’s be clear. We don’t write “reviews,” as we prefer to focus on businesses that we know, experienced, and really enjoyed. Our intent is to help business grow and introduce them to a new client base in a fun, upbeat, and personable way. Our writing can be an article about a shop or bakery, such as these two popular blogs from our adventures in Florence, Italy: “Italian Butchers Do It Better? ‘Yes’, According to My Sister in Tuscany” or “My Brother Owns the Best Bakery in Florence, Italy – Antica Bottega del Pane.”
We have written several articles for local California establishments, as well in Europe and other parts of the world, including French Polynesia. We hope to continue growing this part of our business. It is a central theme and the origin of our business’s name, Love Takes You To: it can take you to a town, country, national park, restaurant, a state of mind, and beyond. You get the point.
But our efforts are not limited to writing blogs. Since publishing our books in 2019, we have embarked on a successful joint book tour throughout San Diego for multiple local libraries, philanthropic groups, and cultural organizations.
We realized that in addition to reaching our friends and followers via social media, we enjoy connecting with people directly in real life, hearing their own stories, seeing them laugh, and getting feedback.
The Covid-19 pandemic has paused our presentation events, but we are confident that at some point, we can continue our efforts to entertain audiences around the country with our humorous stories. It’s a never-ending adventure, and we love it!
So, if you like to laugh and embark on adventures, and need some new suggestions, feel free to follow us along to see where Love Takes You To.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
There is so much to do, see and enjoy here in San Diego. Of course, we would have to show them downtown San Diego, Little Italy, Seaport Village, Balboa Park, Del Mar, and the famous La Jolla.

People around the world daydream about the sunny warm weather and blue waters of Southern California and San Diego has some of the most magnificent beaches. One of the days, we would pack a picnic and take our friends for a day at the beach. That would be the best way to enjoy quintessential California.

The best part is that enjoying these beautiful beaches is free, just as the best things in life are, including effortless love, when both partners have fun and live each moment as a new adventure where Love Takes You To.    

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Great question! We are both grateful foremost to our families, but there are many other people that helped us throughout our journey, too many to mention. Most importantly, we are grateful to have found each other. It’s truly a dream come true to think that we met in San Diego, coming from opposite sides of the world. The joyful experience of writing that we share is what one could describe as being in both the P and the C zones. The C zone is the satisfaction and fulfillment that comes from creativity, which doubles when the effort is shared by two people in love. The C zone can be further divided into three complementary aspects: Conceptualization, Implementation, and Final Touch. Then comes the P zone…but to explain that…you will have to either read our books or read our blogs. It’s somewhere in there, we promise. Shoutout to the P zone!

Website: www.lovetakesyouto.com
Instagram: @love_takes_you_to
Facebook: @LoveTakesYouTo

Image Credits
All of the images are ours. Viktoria Rusnakova and Samuele Baganai, Love Takes You To.

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