Ciao from Rome, welcome to the #110 magazine of We the Italians! First of all: Merry Christmas and a Happy 2019! Another year went by, full of Italian excellences, here at We the Italians.

At the end of November I had the pleasure of presenting the We the Italians’ book in the splendid Villa Cordellina in Vicenza, designed by Palladio. Together with me I was lucky enough to have Frank W. Lands, USAG Italy Deputy Garrison Commander; Abdel Perera, Deputy Head of the Consular Section of the Consulate General of the United States of America in Milan; Antonio Ferragù, Representative for Veneto of the American Chamber of Commerce in Italy; Fabio Finotti, Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Pennsylvania and at the University of Trieste; and Francesca Zilio, President of Nation Brand Italia. It was an extraordinary event, in a very "American" city.

In early December it was an honor for me to be part of an event at Center for American Studies, the "home" of all that is American in Italy. I was asked to talk about the relations between the Italian American community and the Trump presidency, and to summarize the evolution of the electoral behavior of the Italian Americans from the beginning of the 19th century to the present day. With me was also His Excellency Sergio Vento, former Italian Ambassador to Washington from 2003 to 2005.

In addition, it was exciting to attend the presentation given by Jordyn Stanley, Rachel Maher, and Francesco Britti, three International Marketing students of the class of Professor Ieva Jakobsone Bellomi at John Cabot University here in Rome, on a hypothesis of marketing strategy of We the Italians to reach, thanks to new technologies, the largest possible number of young Italian Americans. On this topic, 2019 will bring great surprises, stay tuned... For now we want to thank very much Jordyn, Rachel, Francesco and Professor Jakobsone Bellomi and then also Joanne Bergamin and Silvia Pulino who made this beautiful project possible, and the President of John Cabot University Franco Pavoncello with whom we share the birth of this idea.

Last but not least, a look at next January 2019: We the Italians is media partner of an extraordinary event. After 6 wonderful editions of InScena! Italian Theatre Festival in New York, our friends Laura Caparrotti and Donatella Codonesu will inaugurate the first edition of OnStage!, the first American Theatre Festival in Rome. We have helped to spread the word and involve all the main "American" subjects here in Rome: from the American Academy in Rome to the American International Club of Rome, from the Center for American Studies to the Association of American College and University Programs in Italy, from the American University of Rome to the John Cabot University. The program of the festival can be found here and in this issue of the magazine you can also find a description by Donatella Codonesu. It will be a huge success!  

Once again, we encourage you to take a look at the 2017 Yearbook of We the Italians. It can be a wonderful Christmas gift, and we lowered its price for this occasion. So thanks, and please keep buying that, here! 

Please, join us in our social media presence: Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube!

That’s all for now. So stay tuned, fasten your seat belt and enjoy the ride. The future’s so bright, we gotta wear shades!