Dear friends, it has been a very, very busy but exciting June for all of us here at We the Italians. We started it in New York's Little Italy with the opening party of the magnificent Red Sauce Studio, the latest genius brainchild of John Viola and the group that makes the Italian American Podcast with him, including my friends Rossella Rago and Patrick O'Boyle. The party, which started on May 31, ended after midnight, kicking off this month for us really full of Italian American contents, friends, leaders, joy.

Still in Little Italy, the next day, I spent a beautiful day at my "home" in New York, the Italian American Museum, which I have the honor of representing here in Italy.

The museum is almost ready to reopen to the public, it will happen in the Fall, but it was able to host the annual meeting of the Conference of Presidents of the Major Italian American Organizations, in which We the Italians participates as a partner. So many friends here too, six different Ambassadors of ours in the U.S., leadership and commitment to Italian heritage: an Italian American family that it always does me so much good to attend.

Back in Italy, on June 4, we celebrated and thanked the U.S. Fifth Army, which exactly 80 years earlier liberated Rome from Nazi-Fascism, German occupation, and the nightmare of war. We the Italians is partnering with three events dedicated to thanking Americans for our freedom: two were held precisely on June 4, the third will be in September.

June 17 was another very tiring but also extremely interesting and positive day. It began at the Chamber of Deputies, where we brought the topic of the Italian diaspora in the United States into the Italian institutions, thanks to a large audience that came to listen to high quality national and international speakers called to debate this very important topic. Moderated by journalist Mattia Iovane (We the Italians Ambassador in Campania), after the opening remarks of the Honorable Christian Di Sanzo (Italian Member of Parliament elected in the North American constituency) I gave a brief welcome address. Then, the panel began. Robert Allegrini, President of the National Italian American Foundation spoke about “A community of 20 million Italians proud of Italy”; Delfina Licata, Curator of the Migrantes Foundation's Italians in the World Report and We the Italians Ambassador for Emigration, spoke about “The numbers and trends of the Italian diaspora in the United States”. Marco Permunian, President of Italian Citizenship Assistance, spoke about “Dual citizenship, the rediscovery of origins”. Davide Ippolito, Co-Founder with We the Italians of the Italian American Reputation Lab, gave a speech about “The Reputation of Italian Americans”, and Gilda Rorro Baldassarri, Chairwoman Emerita New Jersey Italian Heritage Commission, presented “The Universality of Italian Heritage Curriculum: Preserving the Italian Cultural Legacy”. Paolo Monea, ITALEA Project of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, described “The Year of the Roots”, aka L’anno delle radici. Antonella Brancaccio-Balzano, Honorary Consul of Italy in Orlando and We the Italians Ambassador in Florida, spoke about “The Italian System between Consulates General and Honorary Consulates”. And finally yet importantly, Lorenzo Tavazzi, Senior Partner of The European House-Ambrosetti, presented their paper called “Enhancing the Power of the Global Italian Diaspora. Strategically managing an asset of value for the Italian system”.

And if you think that is enough, you could not sense the enthusiasm, the richness, the friendship spread among and by the participants of our third Annual Gala, which was also held on June 17, but in the evening. At the prestigious Grand Hotel Parco dei Principi three hundred and twenty personalities driven by love for Italy and the United States gathered to celebrate, celebrate and promote relations between these two fantastic countries. We welcomed members of the Italian government and parliament, the U.S. Embassy in Rome, the U.S. system in Italy, and the board of our two partners, the National Italian American Foundation and the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy. Take a look at a few contents, videos and photos of our beautiful night, here. It really was Two Flags, Three hundred and twenty Heart.

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 tricolor shades. A big Italian hug from Rome!