Dear friends,

the year ends as many things scheduled for 2024 overlap with the last things for 2023.

For We the Italians, the year ended with participation in a prestigious conference entitled "Cultura ed identità delle comunità italiane all’estero: tra Turismo delle Radici ed internazionalizzazione del Sistema Paese." The event was organized in beautiful Lucca by the "Lucchesi nel mondo" Association and its President Ilaria Del Bianco, whom I interviewed in 2022. Together with me and other important speakers were our friends Giovanni De Vita and Delfina Licata, respectively Coordinator for Roots Tourism at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Curator of the Rapporto Italiani nel Mondo published by Fondazione Migrantes. As you know, here in Italy 2024 will be the Year of Roots Tourism, and we will also do our part. Stay tuned!

From Lucca to Florence, Tuscany is the protagonist of this last issue of the year: in fact, Maurizio Mancianti, our Ambassador to this beautiful region and also President of the Tuscan American Association, is this month's interviewee.

Just like last year, We the Italians decided that also in 2023 we wanted to name the Italian American of the year. Last year there was little time to survey all our 100,000 newsletter subscribers, and we asked the members of our team. Stanley Tucci was the 2022 winner. This year we asked all of you, and we had a great response!

This year too we decided not to make a shortlist within which to choose. We left it free to vote. Putting together all the 7,845 votes we received, the podium for the Italian American of 2023 is as follows. Number three is the late Tony Bennett, who left us this year after a wonderful Italian American life and career. Number two is Lidia Bastianich, the most popular Italian chef in the US. Number one, the Italian American of 2023 according to you all, is Sylvester Stallone, the Italian stallion.

Sylvester Stallone is famous first and foremost for the Rocky movies set in Philadelphia. And speaking of the City of Brotherly Love, we are very happy to host in this issue of our magazine an article by Ambassador Andrea Canepari, Consul General of Italy in Philadelphia from 2013 to 2017. The article is about his book "The Italian Legacy in Philadelphia: History, Culture, People and Ideas."

Andrea, who participated in 2016 in the presentation of the first We the Italians book held in Philadelphia at Filitalia's History of Italian Immigration Museum, is now back in Rome at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he heads the structure responsible for the internationalization of local authorities, tourism, sports, Italian chambers of commerce abroad, the promotion of Italian design and the agro-industrial system. In 2022 he was awarded the Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by the American University of Rome (AUR) for his diplomatic career and promotion of Italian culture overseas.

One of the things we are working on is the 2023 Yearbook of We the Italians, with all the 17 interviews published this year, both in the English and in the Italian version. It’s our tenth book (the eighth yearbook) and it is almost ready, we hope that you will want to buy it and make it a success like our previous yearbooks.

As Christmas is coming, let me remember our virtual store, the perfect place where to buy gifts for your family, your friends and – why not – for yourself! You can find more than 20 products in different colors: t-shirts, tank tops, hoodies, onesies, mugs, notebooks, pillows, totes, tapestries, pins, laptop and smartphone cases, magnets, stickers, masks. Buy We the Italians!

It’s all for now. Please stay safe and take care, and enjoy our magazine and our contents on our website. The future’s so bright, we gotta wear shades. A big Italian hug from Rome, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!