Italy has been re-elected to the UNESCO Executive Council for its fifth consecutive mandate

Italy was re-elected today, 11 November 2015, for its fifth consecutive mandate as member of the Executive Council of UNESCO. The election took place during the 38th meeting of UNESCO’s General Conference in Paris. The election saw Italy and Greece winning the highest number of votes – 165 from 186 voters – from the western […]

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Balkans: 250,000 euro from Italian development cooperation to help migrants in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Italian Development Cooperation has decided to allocate further multilateral emergency funding of 250,000 euro to help the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia tackle the refugee emergency. Most of the large numbers of refugees entering the country are from the Middle East, and travel along the “Balkans Route”. The new Italian funding is intended to support […]

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Development Cooperation has allocated a further 2 million euro for Syrian refugees

Italian Development Cooperation has allocated new funding of two million euro to help Syrian refugees housed in camps in Jordan and Lebanon. The emergency funding is part of Italy’s humanitarian aid plan for the Syrian crisis, which for 2015 amounts to about 20 million euro, making a total of nearly 79 million since the start […]

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Arte chiama arte prize 2015 featuring Pinocchio

This year sees the fourth edition of the “Arte chiama arte” prize, conceived by Andrea Franceschetti and launched in 2012 by the Italian Cultural Institute in Shanghai. Participants have included the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, the East China Normal University and Contesta Rockhair.  Each year, the competition asks a group of Chinese artists […]

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Afghanistan – Support for the international community against the growing threat posed by Da’esh, says Gentiloni

The international community’s commitment in Afghanistan should be aiming to “close the last chapters of a story that has gone on for 12-13 years. It should also be aiming to tackle a threat that in part is new, most notably the growth of Da’esh, and to manage migration, given that this year Afghanistan has become […]

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Rabat – Castiglioni unveils Italian excellence in design

Excellence in Italian design will be unveiled by architect Piero Castiglioni at a lecture in Rabat, in Morocco, entitled “Luce-Architettura, la luce in-visibile”. Castiglioni will illustrate projects where lighting plays an important part, such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Quirinal Palace in Rome, the […]

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Gentiloni: Meeting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia

The migration crisis was the focus of the meeting between the Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Paolo Gentiloni, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, Karl Erjavec, which took place today, 10 November 2015, at the Farnesina. The meeting was held during a period marked by the migration crisis […]

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DEI – Kuwait: Green light for new law on FDI, with fewer limits on foreign operators

Fewer restrictions for foreign investment in Kuwait. That is the aim of the new law on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which makes the authorisation process for 100% foreign-owned companies less complex. The Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority (KDIPA), which replaces the Kuwait Foreign Investment Bureau (KFIB), is the body tasked with promoting inward investment. Licenses […]

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Minister Gentiloni meets General Luciano Portolano, Commander of UNIFIL II mission

The Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Paolo Gentiloni, met General Luciano Portolano at the Farnesina today, 10 November 2015. General Portolano is the military Force Commander and Chief of Mission of the United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon (UNIFIL II). During their discussion, Minister Gentiloni asked for the General’s views of developments in […]

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Tokyo – Dante in Japan: a linguistic and cultural divide?

Dante Alighieri, and the way his work was “imported” to Japan during the Meiji era, will be the topic of a lecture by Professor Iwakura Tomotada at the Italian Cultural Institute in Tokyo on Wednesday 11 November 2015. The lecture will discuss linguistic and ideological aspects of the “heroic” poet’s work, and its translation and […]

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Ankara – Film – a week dedicated to the “Seventh Art”

Italian Contemporary Film Week, which runs until 15 November 2015 in Ankara, is an important channel for the cultural dialogue between Italy and Turkey. Films shown during the “Week” will include ““Tutti i santi giorni” by Paolo Virzì, “Buongiorno papà” by Edoardo Leo, and “L’ultima ruota del carro” by Giovanni Veronesi. The event is promoted […]

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Madrid – From Ungaretti to Apollinaire: the Great War in the words of the poets

“La Guerra d’Europa 1914-1918 raccontata dai poeti” (published by Nottetempo) features the voice of Ungaretti, whose “San Martino del Carso”, written in 1916, recounted the drama of the front and trenches of the Great War. The bookalso includes works by 52 other poets, including Apollinaire, Joyce, Pessoa and Mandel’štam, from 16 different countries. It was […]

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