An Italian gathering

On Friday eve, March 26th, I attended a pizza party that was planned by the Italian community in Tirana for the visit of Beppe Severgnini, noted author and journalist of ‘Corriere della Sera’ of Milan, and ‘The Economist’.

He runs some TV programs in Italy and, for the past 10 years, answers daily a dozen emails addressed to the Corriere, in a column entitled “Italians”. He has traveled the world to launch his books, now also translated in other languages, and has also lived for a while in Washington, DC. Since 1999 the tradition is that a pizza party is organized by his fans in every city that he goes to, but it’s never repeated in the same city should he returns to it.

Although he has traveled from one end to the other of the globe, he has never been to Albania, where he finally came this year. I originally met him at the 2nd pizza held in NYC in 1999, and now saw him again at 103rd pizza in Tirana. He made a presentation first at the University in the northern city of Shkoder (Scutari in Italian), and then, rode to Tirana in the evening, accompanied by the Italian Consul of that city.

A young lady that has lived and worked in Tirana in the past year for an Italian consulting firm was the organizer of this pizza, which took place at a well known local Restaurant.

Asia, the organizer, with Beppe
Some of the expected participants did not show up at the last moment, but of the 30 people or so that came, a gamut of Italian businesses were represented, in addition to quite a few members of the Italian Embassy.


Italian Amb. D'Elia (on left), Italian Consul Marguccio (with beard), and Albanian Student of Journalism in Italy, Leonard (on the left foreground)


Members of Italian Embassy
I had the honor of sitting next to Beppe and to chat with the Italian Ambassador that asked me to sit in front of him for ease of conversation. It was a pleasant evening and a nice break for me from my busy move.

Beppe networked with everyone present, and, as usual, then mentioned the variety of people he met in his online column.

The Italian Embassy this year has planned and is carrying out quite a project for the next 3 months to further develop the interaction between Albania and Italy. It’s called “Italia e Albania 2010” with a motto of “due Popoli, un Mare, un’Amicizia” (= two people, one sea, one friendship). It includes concerts of all sorts, a rock festival, dance programs, and even a ‘regatta’ that will be run across the Otranto Canal from the Albanian Coast (Orikum) to the Italian heel of Puglia region.

The Head of the Italian Commercial Office kindly included my email address onto their ad list so that I may be apprised of dates and type of programs as they’re publicized. I look forward to attend some of them, if at all possible, while in town.