Dear friends and readers of We the italians we are back today, retracing on the wings of time, the history of the Italian KEFA, which we are passionate about and following together with you very closely.

Today we will give voice to one of the two founders of the brand: Carmelo Caruso. Carmelo will tell us the deepest emotions and thoughts of how, together with his partner Gianluigi Di Lorenzo, they experienced firsthand the conception, gestation and birth of a dream.

"Dear readers of We The Italians, it is a pleasure for me to reach out to each of you and to be able to personally tell you about the emotions I felt during the initial stages of this incredible dream becoming a reality.  Mine is a tale made from the heart that is the testimony of my journey made of faith, unexpected events, coincidences and satisfactions. A personal parable that has shown me how, when the individual parts of a complex gear come together in a unique and unrepeatable combination, a perfectly functioning mechanism can be achieved. In my case, this little miracle is called Petrus.

From initially abstract ideas, such as our aspiration for something "higher," followed by very concrete actions, such as the creation of the Kefa brand, we arrived at a crucial point in our story: having the courage to present ourselves to the Vatican Authorities to make a request that was unthinkable, to say the least.

Our intention was, in fact, to request permission to be able to use the official emblem of the Vatican State and the personal emblem of Pope Francis, for the creation of our watch. It is easy to imagine that such a concession, until then never granted to anyone, seemed impossible, but it was fundamental for us. It meant, in fact, to give definitive strength and value to our idea and to consecrate, with the approval and blessing of the Vatican Authorities and the Holy Father Pope Francis, a project that had sprung precisely from our faith.

A faith that sprouted in me in unhappy periods of life, but which became, over time, strength, optimism and conviction. A beacon that has been able to guide me at times when it was necessary to make courageous choices, to follow impervious paths, to pick up signs that, to anyone else, would have seemed just coincidences.

Approaching the Vatican, as you can imagine, was not an easy thing. The presentation of our idea came through the Science and Faith Foundation - STOQ (Science, Theology and the Ontological Quest), the first of its kind, as a promoter of dialogue between the Church and the world of science.

The first approach given to the project and presented complete with drawings for Petrus' drafts received a rejection from the Vatican. In spite of the rejection, certain of the goodness of the project and moved by my innate optimism, we went ahead and made, with a touch of madness as well as personal financial sacrifice, three prototypes of the clock.

A phase, this one, that went through delays, derived from modifications and refinements that became necessary during the course of the work and from having to coordinate the suppliers of the different components of the watch, all rigorously selected among excellences of Made in Italy.

The birth of the imagination, faith and ambition of two ordinary people had become real and concrete. Despite the hiccups what was a project became a fine object that we could finally hold and touch with our hands!

So we revived the project, supported by a valuable object, tangible, appreciable to the touch and sight, deciding that part of the proceeds from the sale of the watches would be donated precisely to the Science and Faith Foundation. I always thought that being in solidarity with others for a company is a real added value, and I saw in this project the way to give back what faith, over the years, had given me.

It was Christmas 2019 when providence began to turn the crown and get the gears of our project moving, giving my faith the assurance that the hands of Petrus were destined to stop no more. At that time I spoke with the president of the Vatican Foundation, whom I had known for some time and to whom with an open heart I spoke about myself as a person of faith and what the realization of Petrus meant to me. At the same time, other signs were coming from providence: real rose petals on the road to my future.

It was, in fact, a rose, which I still keep today, given to me by the humblest of street vendors, that heralded the day when the news came to us that marked the zero hour of our history: January 22, 2020. The Vatican Secretariat of State had accepted our project, authorizing the Foundation, to grant us a license to use the two emblems to officially create the Petrus watch.

Dear readers of We the italians, it has been an honor for me to tell you our story and I would like to greet you with the hope of finding you in our big KEFA family as owners of one of our Petrus watches to share emotions, style and values in which we find ourselves and recognize ourselves."

Friends of We the italians we greet you with this positive testimony of will, faith and tenacity and we also continue on the wings of time to travel together with our friends at Kefa until we reach the next stage of this fantastic journey into the world of the possible.

Our friends at Kefa wanted to grant a unique and exceptional gift to us at We the Italians and to all our readers. Those who want to invest, after reading all the features that make it a unique item, in the purchase of a "Petrus" watch, will be given a silver "Emblema silver" pen: this gift, exclusively for our readers, is worth $1,050. At checkout, adding the code WTI will automatically add a free "Emblem Silver" pen for each "Petrus" watch placed in your cart, exclusively for you. Here you will find the exceptional characteristics and prices of these three items: the "Petrus" watch (for men, here; and for women, here); the "Emblema Aurum" gold pen; and the "Emblema Silver" silver pen. We at We the Italians are proud to be able to partner up and offer these unique and inimitable Made in Italy items of the highest quality, and with a huge gift just for our readers. Believe me: you will thank us if you choose them.