The search continues...

Back in 1966 my mother was travelling by ship from Sweden to New Zealand.

She was travelling on the Fairstar which was run by an Italian cruise company called Sitmar or in Italian - Societa Italiana Trasporti Marittimi.

On that voyage my mother met my father - a young purser whose name is Paolo Benassi. He is circled in the picture below. My mother is the woman 2nd from the end of the line. I understand the man to Paolos left is the captain.


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This is unfortunately all the information I was given back in 1996. Since then:

1998
I did a massive internet search for people with this name/surname and emailed them.

1999
I found the two links above on  Fairstar and Sitmar.

2006
I found a Facebook group for the Fairstar. From this crew list I tried to email/contact people who were sailing around the same time as Paolo.

I tried to get some information from P&O employee records.

2008
I managed to trace Paolo's footsteps to a P&O Cruise office in Florida, USA where he worked for a while.

2011
This page was written and an entry put into Italian Genealogy.

Over the years I have checked various genealogy sites and come unstuck either with money or language (Italian).

2014
Out of the blue I received an email from Tanya who kindly told me that in her ancestry searches she became interested in Rasputin and found this book. The book has been translated by Paolo and includes this biography.


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2015
I found this LinkedIn profile:
January 1997 – Present (18 years 1 month)
Paolo Benassi - A life in Hospitality

Hospitality has played a key role in Paolo Benassi’s life.
He was born and raised in his parents’ hotel in Emilia, the Northern Italian region famous for Parmesan cheese and Ferrari cars.

After a significant experience with Forte Hotels in London and Sardinia, Paolo joined Costa Cruises as V.P. Hotel Operations and was sent to Florida to oversee the launching of the “Costa Riviera” and the “Cruising Italian Style” marketing concept in the U.S. market in 1985.
The Costa Riviera became one of the most popular cruise vessels sailing from South Florida and in 1989 she was honored as No. 1 in Best Food, Best Dining Service and Best Cruise Staff (Survey of Cruise Ships by Ocean & Cruise News) outclassing the best known cruise ships of that period.

Paolo’s hospitality industry skills are by-products of international training, including a master’s degree in Economics at University of Genoa (Italy), a culinary stage at Roger Vergé's École du Moulin in Cannes (France), catering training course at HCITB College in Wembley (U.K.), beverage seminar at the School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

Between 2000 and 2006, Paolo organized and conducted food sanitation programs for Pullmantur, Silversea, Star Clipper and World Explorer Cruises, and created an entry-level hospitality training program covering “Food Production”, “Food and Bar Service”, “Housekeeping and Laundry”, “Front Office and Purser Office” for a shipboard hospitality school in Haiti.

In 2005, Paolo served as adjunct-professor in “Food Management” at Johnson & Wales South Florida campus and “Hospitality & Tourism” at Florida Atlantic University.

Recently Paolo was involved in the management of two fascinating sea going programs: “The Scholar Ship” and “The Peace Boat”.


Can you help me?

Mark