The Italian Minister of Agricultural Food and Forestry Policies, Maurizio Martina, and the Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MiBACT), Dario Franceschini, proclaimed 2018 as the National Year of Italian Food. Starting this month, and throughout the year, many events and initiatives linked to the Italian food and wine culture and tradition will take place all over Italy.
The activities will focus on the UNESCO recognitions that Italy was awarded in relation to food, such as the Mediterranean Diet, the sapling vine of Pantelleria, the landscapes of the Langhe Roero and Monferrato, Parma Creative City of Gastronomy, and the recently recognized Neapolitan pizza art. It will be an opportunity to support the candidacy of Prosecco and to introduce the candidacy of the Amatriciana. Initiatives will be launched to raise awareness and promote, also in terms of tourism, the historical rural landscapes, for the involvement and promotion of supply chains and there will be a specific focus on the fight against food waste. The close link between food, art and landscape will also be at the heart of the tourism promotion strategy and social media campaign launched by MiBACT with invitation to visit the more than 420 museums, archaeological parks and places of Italian culture, to look for, photograph and share food and signature dishes, according to a monthly theme, with the hashtag #annodelciboitaliano.
Agriculture Minister Martina commented: “We have a unique heritage worldwide which, thanks to the year dedicated to food, we will be able to promote even more. It’s not only a matter of stressing the economic success of this sector, which, in 2017, reached record exports worth 40 billion euros, but also of stressing the deep connection between food, land and cultural identity. We will do this through a new project on food districts”, involving farmers, fishermen and chefs. While, Culture Minister Franceschini, said the year of Italian food will provide an important occasion to make a big investment on the image of Italy in the world.
Delia Lo Calzo