nd
# 56 • MARCH 22 , 2015
matter if you are a large capital
or a tiny village, you can always
have activities your community
can benefit from.
which potential cities they can
form a partnership with. We
help them discovering things
about a US community and
then, when they choose, to
If an Italian city wants to regi- develop a partnership agreester a partnership or pursue a ment.
program under your organization, what’s the procedure?
Generally, if an Italian city wants to form a partnership, it is
Well, we encourage to reach important to start from what
out to us directly. If they con- they have. Of course you need
tact us interested in finding a the mayor to be on board: but
US partner we help them: we that’s not enough. You also
try to understand what type of need people within the comcommunity they are looking munity, because - we’ve seen
for, and then we search which it sometimes - if the Sister City
potential American city would program is realized only bebe a good match. If they al- cause of the will of a mayor
ready have a particular city in or a specific city government,
mind, we reach out to the local every time the administration
sister city program and help of the city changes the Sister
them in trying to develop the City program strongly risks to
relationship. But sometimes stop.
we suggest a partnership, maybe with a city they don’t know So you really need local combut that matches their criteria munity organizations, whether
A big part of these programs a museum or a high school or
and also a big joy is to uncover a library or a cultural organihidden gens, a developing re- zation, taking care of the relalationship with someone that tions and the activities. So, if
you didn’t know a lot about be- a city wants to pursue a profore. So we encourage people gram, I think that they should
to keep an open mind about decide and find among its citi-
# 56 • MARCH 8
zens who wants do to be involved in this, which kind of activities they want to organize and
how, what are the groups and/
or the schools and/or the organizations involved. It’s very
important to figure out who is
going to be the champion for
this relationship, the engine of
it, because all Sister Cities relationships have since the beginning a few champions who
are the ones who really push
the relationship that they hope
to develop.
nd
2015
discover our new column The Italian Way
THE ITALIAN WAY:
The Italians and their food
By Elda Buonanno Foley, PhD
It’s easier for a mayor to travel to another city and sign a
piece of paper that says “we’re
partners”, and the program definitively needs him or her to
do that: but you have to really
develop the structures that are
going to support that partnership. Most of our Sister Cities
programs start small with one
or two exchanges, maybe focus on a particular area, and
over time they spread over the
communities and then they
get new ideas. We have programs that have been going
on for decades and that’s the
way they have grown up.
more to that.
Food is to Italians as the sun is
to the day: it is our reason to
live, to breathe, and to be social. Eating for Italians is not a
matter of survival but, rather, a
discipline, a state of mind and
body, an appraisal of an art
and an old culture that is embedded into us since we were
born. We do not conceive eating as just a fast survival matter: it is a school of thought, a
journey of flavors and taste that
you come to appreciate on a
daily routine. Because food for
us is not only what we eat, but,
especially, how we choose it,
how we cook it, and finally how
we present it: sitting at a table
with a nice tablecloth is a daily
matter not a special occasion.
Among the peculiarities we
Italians are famous for around
the world, one seems to sum
them all up: our food. Pasta,
pizza, gelato, espresso are
the first words that a foreigner
would tell you once he is asked
to name the Italian words he
knows. We understand only
too well that there is so much
Having stated that, Italian food
is also part of the so worldly
acclaimed Mediterranean Diet
that embraces all the countries
bordering the sea. We share
10 | WE THE ITALIANS
WE THE ITALIANS | 11
www.wetheitalians.com
www.wetheitalians.com