On the occasion of the Dante Day on 25 March 2025, ALIM (Association of Italian Language Lecturers in the World) promoted the international project “Dante, tercets in all the languages of the world”, which involved students and teachers from ten universities spread across Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. The initiative, the brainchild of Foreign Ministry’s lecturers Rosaria Antinoro, from the University of Bucharest, and Daniela Silvano, from the University of Tirana, made it possible to enhance the supreme poet as a universal figure capable of uniting different cultures and peoples through poetry and the Italian language.
The universities of Addis Ababa, Baku, Belgrade, Bucharest, Cairo, Jakarta, Lima, Beijing, Tirana and Vancouver took an active part in the project, each represented by a group of Italian university students and a Foreign Ministry’s lecturer (Roberta Abballe, Michela Cavagnin, Pina Porzio, Rosaria Antinoro, Giuliana Giorgi, Alessandra Costantini, Mikaela Mercanti, Monica Bezzegato, Daniela Silvano and Michela Valmori, respectively) who coordinated the activities on site. Students from all over the world recited a tercet of the Divine Comedy both in Italian and in their mother tongue, thus contributing to the creation of an evocative language and cultural mosaic.
The result was extraordinary: in the project video, Dante’s tercets became living instruments of cultural diplomacy, breaking down language barriers and creating an ideal connection between students from different countries and cultures. Even today, more than 700 years after his death, Dante’s literary legacy is a bridge and a tool of intercultural dialogue, which continues to keep interest in Italian language and culture alive in the world.
The project is part of the broader mission of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, which promotes Italian as a language of culture and diplomacy by sending lecturers, within the broader Italian Education System in the World, which includes Italian schools abroad and Italian language sections in foreign, international and European schools.
