legacy it carries — what happens the day after, with those research centers, those universities. Diplomatic Connections: So, the intention is to strengthen your presence. Ambassador Bisogniero: In a way, yes it is. The Italian presence here, but also ties between American institutions and those back home. Diplomatic Connections: It’s a two-way street for American technology directed towards Italy and — Ambassador Bisogniero: There’s also an economic dimension to the whole initiative, and there are companies that are in the United States with their technology, and they are financing many of these events. So, we also see it as a way to promote the presence and the knowledge about Italian companies in the United States. Finally, there is also another aspect that is rarely mentioned, and this is the focus on the younger generations. We want to reach out to the younger generations through a variety of events, some of them based on contemporary music and jazz, and design and technology and research. In Washington, we have an event based on the Metro system with beautiful posters of Italy on the Washington busses and subway cars, and also very short Italian poems — one to three verses translated into English. This is a way for us to reach out to a wider audience than the one that would normally go to museums and opera houses. Diplomatic Connections: What about the timing. Why in 2013? Ambassador Bisogniero: When the Then-Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, was asked at a press conference what she thought about “2013: The Year of Italian Culture in the United States,” her reply was “2013? Well, for me every year is the year of Italian culture,” and I think she has a point. Diplomatic Connections: But the year also marks several anniversaries. Ambassador Bisogniero: Obviously 2013 is important. It is, for instance, the 200th anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi, and, of course, yes, several works by Giuseppe Verdi are planned, including the opera La Forza del Destino in Washington, DC; and we will have Riccardo Muti in Chicago conducting a series of prestigious concerts. 2013 is also the 500th anniversary of the composition of the famous book “The Prince” by [Niccolò] Macchiavelli, a work which is very much up-to-date in today’s world politics. It’s also the 700th anniversary of [Giovanni] Boccaccio [author of “The Decameron”], another very distinguished Italian — and I could go on and on, so I think Hillary Clinton had a point. Every year, 20
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