Ciao from Rome on lockdown to all the friends of We the Italians.
Good morning everyone, I hope you're alright, as well as your families and friends. This is the second editorial I write in quarantine. These are difficult times for everyone. Italy and the United States, the two countries to which I belong, those who gave born to We the Italians, those of the two flags with one heart, are the most affected by the coronavirus. Today more than ever I would like to virtually hug all the friends of We the Italians.
As many of you know, since the beginning of lockdown I started We the ItaliaNews, a daily videobroadcast that tells day after day the evolution of lockdown in Italy, the playlist with the videos is here. These are short videos in which you can not only daily be updated about the situation in Italy, but also, since here we are about two weeks ahead of the United States, some of the things that could happen in America. I'm waiting for you all on our YouTube channel, or on our other social networks.
On Sunday, April 19th we concluded our fundraising campaign in favour of the Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases (Istituto nazionale per le malattie infettive "Lazzaro Spallanzani"). The fundraising will remain open, whoever wants can continue to donate. But we feel that continuing to ask money from our Italian American friends in this situation might seem insensitive on our part, and that's the last thing we want. In addition, the donations collected have exceeded the goal we had set. To the 30,000 € collected thanks to 300 fantastic donors that we thank with great love, will be added in these days another 25,000 € donated by a wonderful foundation named after two generous Italian Americans, presided over by a great person who has done everything possible for this goal: to all of them goes the immense thanks of all of us at We the Italians.
Now, talking about “all of us at We the Italians”: indeed, this is We the Italians, not me the Italian. I strongly wanted each of our staff to make a little video to ask Italian Americans to donate: the 15 videos of the 15 wonderful people that make up our family together with me are online and have contributed to the success of fundraising: you can find them in the "Please Donate" playlist. Thanks to all of them, who are also the protagonists of the cover of this issue of the magazine. Thanks to Alessandra, Edoardo, Enrico, Eleonora, Federico, Giulia, Giovanni, Jennifer, Lorenzo, Mariella, Patricia, Riccardo, Sofia, Sandra and William: the family of We the Italians.
In the "Please donate" playlist you can also find three videos of three great friends, three wonderful artists, three generous Italians who have agreed to make a video to ask their fans to donate through our fundraising: my heart is full of gratitude for them, who represent the Italian talent appreciated by the United States. We are lucky to have friends like Renzo Arbore, Francesco Baccini and Rosario Monetti.
But We the Italians doesn't stop, and from today our family will expand even further: we are very happy to welcome Priscilla Sassi, who from this issue will tell us every month the excellence of Italian entertainment: cinema and television, music and theater, everything that is Italian entertainment will be the topic of Priscilla's articles. Welcome among us!
I would also like to mention the interview you will find in this issue with Michela Giorcelli, Italian born Professor of Economics in California and expert on the Marshall Plan. We want to give a message of hope telling how Italy has come out of the Second World War: we have already overcome a terrible period, we will do it again. But we can never forget that in order to recover, then, we were helped by our American friends, who with the Marshall Plan gave decisive help to the whole of Western Europe.
Last but not least, I would like to point out two online events in which I had the pleasure to talk with some friends in videoconference, telling about We the Italians, our activities and the situation of Italy at the time of the coronavirus. The first one, together with Valarie D'Elia, went live online on April 11th; the second one, together with Tony Mangia, Raymond Guarini, John Viola and Stephen La Rocca, went live online on April 15th.
The recommendation always remains the same: please stay safe, please stay healthy. Do not underestimate this threat, take care of yourselves and your families. We'll get out of this, we'll make it, and we'll come back to hug each other as Italians love to do. Italy and the United States will not stop being brothers, allies, friends. Please follow our daily video broadcasting and don’t give up on Italy. I won’t gonna stop saying this: the future’s so bright, we gotta wear shades!
