We the Italians has decided that starting this year we will name the Italian American of the year. This year there was little time to survey all our 100,000 newsletter subscribers; we will do that from next year. So this year we decided to ask our team, our family. And so the Italian American of 2022 was decided by us, internally. 80 members of our team voted. 35 of them live in Italy, 45 in the United States.

We reasoned about how to organize our poll, and since the audience is very diverse, we decided not to make a shortlist within which to choose. We left it free to vote, asking each person for three names, and awarding 10 points to the first name, five to the second, and three to the third.

The only constraint we asked for was to choose people who were born in the United States, and who are still living. Each of our team chose freely: some named people who were not famous but had territorial or thematic merits. Others chose famous people.

84 names were given: this is the number of people who were mentioned at least once. 49 of these people are men, 35 are women. There are people from the world of entertainment, science, sports, politics, and information, but not only.

Putting together all the votes from the 80 members of the We the Italians team who were kind enough to have fun casting their ballots, the podium for the Italian American of 2022 is as follows. Number three is Nancy Pelosi, former speaker of the House of the United States of America. Number two is Ron DeSantis, Governor of the State of Florida. Number one, the Italian American of 2022 according to all of us at We the Italians, is Stanley Tucci, host of the TV show "Searching for Italy."

I take this opportunity to thank the whole We the Italians family, the whole team. I am lucky to have such a big family, with such wonderful people, scattered all over the United States and all over Italy. Professionals, experts, friends: good people. It's a great achievement for me, and so to them I say thank you, Merry Christmas and best wishes for a happy and healthy 2023. Two flags, lots of hearts. Thank you and congratulations to Stanley Tucci!