The president of Tuscany, Italy, visited the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum in Rosebank on Saturday to highlight the work of inventor Antonio Meucci. President Eugenio Giani and his colleagues were welcomed by the Sons of Italy Foundation to the house that was once occupied by Florentine Antonio Meucci, whose homeland was the region of Tuscany, before he settled on Staten Island in 1850.

In attendance were Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/South Brooklyn), Borough President Vito Fossella and Assemblyman Sam Pirozzolo (R-Mid Island). “In this community, as many of us know, when this was first started, a lot of Italians in Rosebank and South Bech and other parts of Staten Island hold the biggest population of Italians in the United States,” said Fossella.