On May 30, Dario Item, Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda in Spain, Principality of Monaco and Liechtenstein, attended the meeting organized by the Embassy of Italy in Madrid for the Italian Republic Day celebration.
Invited by the Italian Ambassador in Spain, Stefano Sannino, and her husband Santiago Mondragòn, Dario Item joined the event which took place in the embassy gardens, illuminated by the italian flag colors as a tribute.
More than two thousand guests were invited. There were spanish and italian personalities from the world of culture, politics and economics.
Among them, the Ministers of Agriculture and Economy and Entrepreneurship, the President of the Congress of Deputies and a large representation of the diplomatic corps.
The Italian Republic Day in Madrid
Established to celebrate the birth of the Republic with the institutional referendum of 1946, the Italian Republic Day celebration is traditionally held on June 2 of each year.
The flag hoisting ceremony at the Vittoriano in Rome (better known as “Altare della Patria”) and the homage of the President of the Republic to the Unknown Soldier are the opening ceremonies of the national celebration.
The President places a laurel wreath on the Altare della Patria (the unknown soldier’s tomb) accompanied by the highest offices of the State. The notes of Mameli’s hymn resound in the air and, higher up, the so called “Tricolour Arrowns” run through the sky, leaving a trail of coloured smoke that recalls the national flag.
The Italian Republic Day celebration is also held in Madrid. Annually, the event is promoted by the Italian Ambassador Stefano Sannino. It is widely attended by members of the Spanish parliamentary monarchy and by several ambassadors in Spain, including Dario Item.
Dario Item and Stefano Sannino, italian ambassador to Spain
This year’s celebration was dedicated in particular to the Campania Region. It is no coincidence that the Italian Ambassador to Spain, Stefano Sannino, in office since 2016, is a native of Portici, a town on Vesuvius slopes, near Naples.
His long diplomatic experience began in 2002 within the European Commission, as a diplomat to the former President Romano Prodi. During the party, Sannino did not fail to emphasize how precious and exemplary is the relationship between Italy and Spain, and how important it is that cooperation continue by strengthening “the countless material and immaterial, rational and emotional ties” that the two states share, immune to any respective political direction.
The installation at the gardens entrance has become the symbol of this long and fruitful relationship: a project in which young Italian designers who live and work in Spain have participated.
Ambassador Sannino addressed his interest to young people in an attempt to transform the Italian embassy in Madrid into a “space open to society”, a place of dialogue and inclusion, open to interaction and equality.