NIAF board mission to Italy heralded as an unprecedented success in Italo-American relations

Jun 30, 2022 498

After a two-year, pandemic imposed, hiatus, the Board of Directors of the National Italian American Foundation recently resumed its annual mission to Italy in grand fashion. During the course of a nine-day trip between June 12th and June 21st the board visited both Abruzzo and Toscana, meeting the regions' political and civic leaders in order to foster closer cultural and economic ties. In addition, the board stopped in Umbria to visit a school it funded in the earthquake ravaged town of Norcia.

The mission concluded with an intensive day in Rome where NIAF became the first Italian American organization accorded the privilege of laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in homage to all those Italian servicemen and women who lost their lives in the defense of liberty. This rare honor, normally accorded to heads of state, was given to NIAF Chairman Robert E. Carlucci.

The board's activities in Rome culminated with a gala at the Diplomats' Club on the banks of the Tiber where more than 200 leaders of Italian officialdom including Ministers Giancarlo Giorgetti (Economic Development) and Mariastella Gelmini (Regional Affairs) and numerous parliamentarians were in attendance. At the gala, Minister Plenipotentiary Luigi Maria Vignali of the Italian Foreign Ministry praised NIAF as "the most important association that unites Italians and Italian descendants in the United States."

SOURCE: NIAF

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