As a prelude to the celebration of the Italian Republic Day, the Italian Ambassador to Bolivia Fabio Messineo has hosted the concert of Italian music “Serenata alla Repubblica” (Serenade to the Republic) in the gardens of the Italian Embassy in Bolivia on 29 May. During the concert, songs from famous Italian films and opera arias interpreted by local singers were performed. The event was also an opportunity to pay homage to Giacomo Puccini, whose death centenary falls this year.
The Embassy then welcomed five instructors from the Alpine School of the Italian Finance Police (Guardia di Finanza) in Predazzo, who, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of their Corps’ foundation, set up a solidarity initiative in favour of a school of mountain guides founded on the Altiplano by an Italian missionary of the “Operazione Mato Grosso” movement, Father Antonio Zavatarelli.
The Italian Alpine troops also climbed two peaks (5400 metres high) that had never been climbed before in the Cordillera Real. On these peaks they hoisted the flags they had received at the Italian Quirinal Palace from President Sergio Mattarella before leaving for Bolivia. Finally, during the event, they remembered, with deep emotion, the three Guardia di Finanza mountain rescue officers who had died a few hours earlier in the accident in Valtellina and who had been students of the instructors present in La Paz.
