The new Italian Ambassador to United States, Claudio Bisogniero [2], in charge from February 6, made his first official visit to the Consulate General of Italy in Philadelphia [3]on March 30.

The Consul General, Luigi Scotto, accompanied the Ambassador on his tour around the city to discuss strengthening the relations between local and Italian institutions and increasing the presence of Italian culture in the US.

The Ambassador started his tour at the Consulate General of Philadelphia, launching the International Conference “Reading and Translating Leopardi,” organized by the Consulate with the Center for Italian Studies of University of Pennsylvania and New York’s Institute of Italian Culture. During the conference, Ambassador Bisogniero announced that 2013 will be the “Year of Italian Culture in the United States.” In his efforts to bring this declaration to life, the Ambassador met with Timothy Rub [4], Director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art [5], to discuss future collaborations with the Maxxi Museum [6] in Rome.

During the day, the Ambassador and the Consul General had the chance to meet with representatives of Philadelphia’s most prestigious museums and cultural institutions, such as Director of the Barnes Foundation Derek Gillman, Director of the Academy of Fine Arts Museum Harry Philbrick, and Director of University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Richard Hodges.

After the visit to the museums, Ambassador Bisogniero and Consul General Scotto met Bruno Cellemme CEO of Agusta Westland, a Philadelphia-based Italian helicopter design and manufacturing company, and one of the largest in the US.

Bisogniero was then invited at the City Hall of Philadelphia by Major Michael Nutter. They discussed the presence of Philadelphia located companies to the BioInItaly, a biotechnological conference in Milan on April 18 and 19, in which Assobiotec and PABio, an Italian organization and its Pennsylvanian counterpart, will be participating together.

Other topics of discussion included ideas to expand the presence of Italian culture in the city such as campaigns to increase Italian as a second language and fine art in the Philadelphia School District and the Italian AP exam, recently reinstated.

The visit of the Ambassador Bisogniero concluded at the Italian Consulate with a reception in his honor. On the occasion, Bisogniero had the chance to talk with several members of the National Italian-American Foundation (NIAF), with members of the Consiglio Generale degli Italiani all'Estero (CGIE), with members of Com.It.Es. and of Professionisti Italiani di Philadelphia (PI-Philly), and he discussed the activities of the Italian and Italian-American population in the Greater Philadelphia area.