Dear friends,

I just came back from a magnificent Verrazzano Day in Tuscany, in Greve in Chianti, the small town where the great explorer who first entered New York Bay 500 years ago was born. It was a beautiful day of friendship between Italy and the United States together with the Tuscan authorities, the new U.S. Consul in Florence Danela Ballard, the Ambassador of We the Italians in Tuscany and President of Associazione Toscana/USA Maurizio Mancianti, and with the delegation of the Delaware Commission on Italian Heritage and Culture led by my dear friend Rick Diliberto, who is also an Ambassador of We the Italians, in Delaware.

The commission also represented the town of Rehoboth Beach, twinned with Greve in Chianti, which donated a sculpture, unveiled in the navigators' garden designed in Delaware and built in Greve, not far from the monument celebrating Giovanni da Verrazzano. The day continued at the beautiful Castello di Verrazzano, with several celebratory contents, a beautiful cocktail network at sunset enlivened by a band playing New Orleans-inspired jazz music, and then a wonderful and delicious dinner during which it was wonderful to see how much love and friendship there is between Italy and the United States. Really, two flags one hundred hearts, happy to be together and celebrate a hero 500 years after his incredible feat (who is also the protagonist of our interview of this month with Professor Stefaan Missinne, please don’t miss it, here on this magazine or in our website). 

At the end of March, at the Italian campus of Duquesne University here in Rome, it was a privilege for me to give a lecture to more than 20 young Americans, including several Italian Americans, on the relations between our two countries and the wonderful Italian American community, with a point of view dedicated to information and communication described by the experience of We the Italians. It is always nice for me to immerse myself among young people, and I thank for that my friends from Duquesne Michael Wright, Alana Sacriponte and Michael Dillon. I also got to confirm that the crazy idea that came to me on the plane back from the Italian American Future Leadership conference in January in Florida might not be so crazy...I hope soon to write more about it. Stay tuned...

Last April 4^th, the We the Italians website reached an important milestone: we reached and exceeded 80,000 content on the site: articles, interviews, magazines, podcasts, newsletters. All of them have Italy in common. Some of them describe the many good and beautiful things about our country, others anything that relates to any content about Italy and the United States, on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Let me just remind one of these contents, exactly from 4 years ago: on April 19, 2020, we reached a very important goal in our fundraiser to help the Spallanzani Hospital, helping Italy in the beginning of the pandemic. Thanks to all of you we were able to donate 53,000 euros: as always, the response of the Italian American community was fantastic. Well, eighty thousand pieces of content on our website is not a small amount, and they are all available for free to our readers. Who knows, maybe we will have a big party when we reach 100,000 content!

And speaking of party, in the meantime we are continuing to work on the next We the Italians gala, which will be held on June 17 here in Rome. It will be a fun, interesting, enjoyable evening and at the same time very Italian, American and Italian-American (it doesn't get better than this!). In the morning of the same day we will organize at the Italian Parliament, more precisely at the Chamber of Deputies here in Rome, a conference where Italians and Italian Americans will discuss the topic of the Italian diaspora in the United States.

As mentioned last month, we have established a partnership with an Italian tour operator, Micromegas, which will help us to offer you experience tours in Italy, with several new features and special contents.

The first tour we propose contains participation in our June 17 Gala, the only event in Italy that celebrates you, the Italian American community. The tour includes tours of Rome, Florence and Pompeii, and those who attend will also be welcomed by us at We the Italians at our gala evening. Please find more information about the tour and how to register here, and a description of our gala here. We look forward to seeing you in Rome on June 17!

Last but not least, there’s a new member of the We the Italians family. We are very happy to welcome among us Giulia Vinci, our brand new Event coordinator. Graduated in Tourism, Member of the Greal scientific committee at the "Università Europea di Roma", Mice and Destination Manager, Giulia loves creating events of national and international importance with creativity and passion. She is also CMO of Borgo Novus srl and currently manages the municipalities of Vejano, Corchiano and Castel Sant'Elia.

Once again, let me remember the new yearbook of We the Italians is available. You can find a preview and buy a copy here. Finally, please check our virtual store, the perfect place where to buy gifts for your family, your friends and – why not – for yourself! You can find more than 20 products in different colors: t-shirts, tank tops, hoodies, onesies, mugs, notebooks, pillows, totes, tapestries, pins, laptop and smartphone cases, magnets, stickers, masks. Buy We the Italians!

It’s all for now. Please stay safe and take care, and enjoy our magazine and our contents on our website. The future’s so bright, we gotta wear shades. A big Italian hug from Rome!