October marks Italian American Heritage Month, a time that recognizes the history and culture of the Italian American community. On the heels of celebrating and proclaiming Polish American Heritage Month and raising the Polish flag, Utica City Hall continued the October heritage commemorations with celebrating and proclaiming Italian American Heritage Month and raising the Italian flag, as both countries share the same heritage month in the United States.

“We are here, once again in this great city, to talk about our heritage,” Utica Mayor Robert Palmieri said. “It’s amazing in the city of Utica that we can have so many flag raisings and so much history and so much ethnicity in a great city. I don’t think there’s any city that I know of that has a melting pot, maybe New York City, that would be about it.”