Italy-Albania Spring Program Continues with “Wine Poetry” Event

Tirana, March 16, – “Italy, Albania, Two Peoples, One Sea, One Friendship” continued its program last Tuesday with the “Wine Poetry” event. The commercial and cultural event which kicked off at the “City Park” trade center outside Tirana aimed at exchanging experience on the production of wine and tasting it accompanied by the best poems Italian and Albanian poets have written on wine.
The event also moved to the cities of Durres, Berat and Shkodra before closing in Tirana on March 20 with two activities at the National Historical Museum and at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Protection. Italian Ambassador to Albania Saba D’Elia as well as senior Albanian and Italian officials attended the activities.
The “Wine Poetry” event was also accompanied by paintings dedicated to wine production created by Albanian painter Taso.
Organizers said 10 percent of money collected from the sale of Albanian and Italian wines would go to charity for the “Zyber Hallulli” orphanage and Roma children in Tirana. The event was promoted by the “Syri Blu” cultural association and the International Poetry Festival Poeteka with the support of the agriculture and culture ministries.
The “Italy-Albania, Two Peoples, One Sea, One Friendship” program of events started on March 14, Summer Day, with a performance by Kataklo, an Italian athletic dance theatre at the Palace of Congresses in Tirana.
The events will continue with a young photographers’ competition organized by FORMA International Centre for Photography in Milan. The competition which will be held in the southern city of Vlora from March 20 to 22 will award the winner a Master’s scholarship to Italy.
The more than 80 events scheduled to be held until next June include 25 concerts, 5 film festivals, 10 fairs, 28 conferences, 5 sports events, 7 initiatives on the economic and commercial sector, 6 training activities and 5 contests.
“The event is inspired by the excellent relations between the peoples of our two countries and is aimed at revealing and stressing the special thing about the Italian-Albanian relations in the many aspects they are characterized,” said Ambassador D’Elia as quoted in the calendar of events published on the Italian Embassy’s website.
The events will continue on March 20 with the premiere of the Rigoletto opera by Giuseppe Verdi and the “Six Characters in Search of an Author” comedy by Luigi Pirandello at the National Theatre in Tirana on March 26.
Senior Italian officials including Foreign Minister Franco Frattini are expected to visit Albania next April as part of the events promoting Italian business and culture in Albania.
Around 430,000 Albanians live in Italy, making it the most integrated foreign community there, according to Caritas.