There we were, day 28th,2007 at 2:05 p.m. our luggage made it and having landed at Catania airport and chatting with a professional photographer that works with an international organization "Thru Each other's Eyes" Riccardo Lombardo, let's call this our first official meeting. Riccardo by now had become a long time friend and supporter of Phoenix Sister Cities, he and his wife were traveling to Cuba, he volunteered to share some latest news on the upcoming festivities of the Saint Patron of Catania, St. Agata, our transportation arrives and we are pressed to move on to the first of our appointments The Puppets Theatre, so on to Acireale one of the many little capitals of Baroque best kept architecture, site of one of the oldest schools of one original way that was the main source for entertainment in past items, The Pupi Siciliani-art recognized by Unesco as "Humanity's Patrimony" ,for the record, the entire town of Acireale will be annexed to this exclusive geographical denomination. Prior to the show we accidentally step into the museum of the puppets, and a willing curator tells us the story on Emmanuele Macri founder of the Pupi as well as showing differences of styles and details that make this a true artistic creativity Endeavour. We move on to the entrance of the Teatro, there we were expected by associate of Mr.Abbate, Mr. Scavo, Mr. Abbate being unable to be present for away for busyness, however Mr. Scavo was very eager to oblige and invited us to be the guests of the Teatro and enjoy the show. Which we did, albeit the tiredness was having the better part so after having enjoyed most of the show, excused ourselves to moved on to make a brief stop to greet my parents and brothers by making a small detour into a nearby village, after which we headed on to Catania, Hotel Novecento, our base for the following six days. Day 29th of January rushed towards us, the night was or felt indeed short, we have our first meeting with Assessore Dottor Maimone, councilman for the Cultural Heritage for the City of Catania, the Catania Committee has entertained good relations with the assessore and with the staff of his office in recent past, the office of the assessore has provided material for the world Fest that occurred in 2006.Dottor Maimone and all his staff were present to the meeting whereas we started to rely all the objectives that we were aiming at, Dottor Maimone was very interested and particularly so at the Vincenzo Bellini project. Dottor Maimone confirmed his interest and asked that his office be kept in the loop of the ongoing projects. On the same day at around 11:30 a.m. we meet Ignazio Monaco, vice administrative director of the Teatro Massimo Vincenzo Bellini, please note that Maestro Monaco is actually a music professor. After many telephone calls this was my first time, the first time for everyone to meet this classy and generous individual, it should be known that that base plan for the Vincenzo Bellini project was modified by then a number of time from our part, the flexibility of Ignazio allowed our communication to proceed without ever having a hint of disappointment. While in Ignazio's office we square the day's meetings, we talk about the potential performance in October, we tie the date to the 5th of October as the best possible, at the time we allow ourselves a leeway space to move the date to a day before (the fourth) in the event that Arizona Opera might have a show on that particular day, we later find out that that was not the case, the 5th fits perfectly. More details we talk with Maestro Monaco are the involvement of the Divas in master classes to be held within the ASU campus, musical department, we also talk about the possibility of having them perform in two other Opera Houses in the South West U.S.A., we share with Ignazio our knowledge received thru the contact made with the Italian Cultural Center of Los Angeles, Signora Francesca Valente, we share with Ignazio our hopes to see this performance occurring in other cities also as a precursor of the larger event we would like to foster for the year 2010 with a wholesome presence of the Teatro staging a full scale of the most classical of Vincenzo Bellini creations" Norma " . We go over details repeated over and over, the names of the sopranos, the number of the maestri musicians, the narrator, the libretto, yes the libretto maybe to change with making the second half not a Vincenzo Bellini, this and more we talk until the time comes to call for a break, we adjourn but prior to parting Ignazio takes us to a brief tour of the Teatro and a true display of uniquity -The Foyer-area where a break with a drink and a gossip would be best enjoyed. We definitely take a needed pause and meet again later with Ignazio and Dottoressa Seminara. Graziella Seminara is a professor at the University of Catania, teaches music, she is also in charge and curator of the Museum Belliniano, one of our Committee objectives is to have a permanent expo of Vincenzo Bellini memorabilia along with the Teatro Costumes in the museum present within the Sky Harbor airport, Phoenix. The Dottoressa listens to our presentation, it should be know that Alessia Russo had already met with her and Ignazio, ( and other interested parties that I had already mentioned on previous matters) the fact that Alessia so graciously introduced our projects increased our likeliness of success upon our arrival, and as a result we receive a big nod of approval by Dottoressa Seminara, she does however require to know more about space availability and other details, we of course promise to follow up and end the meeting with closing the day with a given positive, we all grin so much the locals must think we are from elsewhere, and we are as a matter of fact, we are from America! Although we did no time ourselves, we likely totaled a good eight hours of meeting/talk/interacting that day, and it was going to get more intense as the days went on, we might have just been caught off guard!
Day 30th of January our first meeting was with Dottoressa Vincenza Tutino, head of the office of international relations of the University of Catania, a positive hand in mentoring this contact was provided by Professor Dottor Antonino Casabona whom stayed with us for most of the time while we were at the university grounds. But we are still on day 30th, and Dottoressa Tutino listens to our proposals and wishes to see the Universities of the twinned Cities of Catania and Phoenix undertake closer ties of cooperation and exchange and working together, she listens and than starts to talk without stopping for a good while, she explains the accordi quadro, drafted documents ready to be signed by both parties without need any further approval from the academic senate, she goes into details, and she definitely affirms that the University of Catania looks forward to establishing international cooperation with other universities, in the meantime our friends Antonino Casabona is there with us, he representing the faculty of Medicine, break time, we part with Dottoressa Tutino with an arriverderci to the day after ( 31 ) we meet with Ignazio and Dottor Antonino Ferro for a brief couple of hours, Dottor Ferro is the administrator of the Teatro Massimo, we go over the plan with him and are told that the following day we were to meet with the Superintendent the person in charge of all operations and of the Teatro itself, Dottor Munzone.We are still on day 30th and we are to meet with the head of the Chamber of commerce of Catania, Dottor Rosario Condorelli, we are punctual at our appointments ( also because of Ignazio's chaperoning us ) we enter this huge building that overlooks one of main street of Catania and proceed to the office of Dottor Condorelli. There we meet the commissioner for the Chamber Dottor Mannone. Again we go over our presentation, we express our desire and that of the Honorable Consul General Diego Brasioli to see an enograstronomic presentation occur in Phoenix and in the potentially other cities where the Musical performance were to present, we mention that our organization works in close ranks with other organizations, namely in this case the American Italian Chamber of commerce, and that one of the founders, Mary Anne Desmond is also a valid member of the Catania Committee. Both gentlemen advance ideas and ask questions on what best would have an impact on the economic area of Phoenix, realistically we defer the questions to better prepared institutions and promise we shall have them make contact with City of Phoenix Economic department as well as the American Italian Chamber of commerce, we end our visit by being toured in the building, impressive rooms. We face day 31st with a very busy schedule; we are meeting first with Nora and Daniele founders and owners of a private English School as well as tour operator that specializes in international travel for students. Our aim is to interest Nora and Daniele in becoming a reference/recruiting point for the student exchange program. We travel by taxi to their school, present our ideas, find them both very interested, we go over details as of what our student exchange entails, Nora and Daniele accept to cooperate, they understand that making a selection based on merit ( not only ) is also a way to motivate, we need to part, we set up a new appointment for the morning after, in the meantime we need to rush to the appointments set up by Dottoressa Tutino, we are meeting the Rector of the University of Catania, Antonino Recca, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine Nunzio Crimi and the Dean of the Faculty Luigi Fortuna. It should be known that in the process of entering and exiting rooms and building we meet and are introduced to people and Vice Rectors and that I might be omitting relevant details but the list is rather long as it is. The Rector is very straightforward, He looks very pleased to be meeting with the delegation and his auspices are to see as soon as possible agreements under way and underwritten. The meeting with him ends and our Friend Antonino Casabona drives us to this faculty of Medicine, we meet professor Crimi, again he expresses an acute interest in seeking agreements with universities of Phoenix, Mr. Widener makes exemplary presentations of possibilities, unbinding of course, as all things said and done during all the meetings, we realized all along that our mission was explorative of possibilities. We end the meeting with Professor Crimi and his Associate and drive on to the faculty of engineering to meet with the dean Professor Luigi Fortuna. Professor Fortuna lists a number of agreements already running between his faculty and Universities in the U.S.A. and acknowledges the closeness to STMicroelectronics by citing a number of collaborative projects. He underscores the wish to work out a program with ASU and at the end of our visit with him arranges a ride and escort to take us to one of the modules of St. Microelectronics, where we receive a short tour and a presentation prepared by Dottor Luigi Occhipinti, we end our visit, need to head back for we have a meeting with Mr. Scavo, remember the first day? we meet again to define ideas, the first night we had not spoken much other than viewing the show, he tells us of past experiences, and that his company if not seeking a profit from all this and he understands that the promotions as a result would be very beneficial, we part with commitment to look into it further. .The day 1st of February had a number of meeting involving the office of Dottor Salvatore Zinna director of politiche comunitarie for the city of Catania, part of the meeting consisted a presentation made by professor Faro on the infrastructural development of the area of the Vulcano/metropolitan.On the same day we met with Salvo Vazzana, founder of two popular website, one that focuses on the technological and one that posts cultural news. Salvo was very receptive of our goals, and our meeting ended with positive note of cooperation. On same day we met with Roberto Faro owner of a Tour operator, Roberto was instrumental in making a valuable contact for us with the Azienda Provinciale Del Turismo in the person of Lorenzo Asero. On same day a professional translator was met, Letizia Musso, she offered to assists if the need arose. Following a meeting with Rosalba Papale an English teacher, she wishes to see a long term of exchanges happen for her school, we might just have what could be a perfect match and we part saying that we'll be in touch.
A key meeting occurs in the evening with Dottor Campo- Deputy Officer for the Region Sicilia for Cultural matters and in Charge of all museums, present to the meeting also Dottor Munzone Dottor Ferro, Ignazio and the four of us from the delegation. We make the presentation, our desire of having the permanent expo of Vincenzo Bellini memorabilia, costumes from the Teatro Massimo , and more we express our desire to have the puppets from the traditional Teatro Macri', at this point Dottor Campo offers to send the original puppets from the very founder Emmanuele, the Region Sicily had purchased them years ago, the offer of the puppets was not all that he had for us, he has a ready to go cartography 1400 1500 collection, three months notice is all that he needs, he also has a collection of painting of Volcano Etna paintings, again 1400, he inquired about the Phoenix Art museum and its possible involvement, we countered of involving the Italian Cultural Institute once the expo would be coming to and en here in the Phoenix Area, we would be asking for the cooperation of the Italian Cultural Institute to see if another location the a permanent expo were feasible. This meeting, again, was ending on a positive note.
The 2nd of February has one last mid morning meeting with Dottor Gelardi, he is the Sicilian government Cultural deputy minister, we do again our presentation, he is very thankful for our initiative, offers support and looks forward to a long lasting friendship, this was the last meeting. The above is a shorthand of meetings, it would have taken a lot more space to cover all the conversations, we run from one part of town to the next, however should be said that the suggestion of our friend Ignazio for us to make base at the Hotel Novecento proved vital for the Hotel is located very closely to the Teatro Massimo Vincenzo Bellini, and within walking distance to the Chamber of Commerce, the Office of politiche Comunitarie. In many cases we used the Hotel lobby for our meetings, all in all we could not have asked for more responsive audience; in fact we are now facing situations where they are ready to move on. With this I close this report that wants to be informal yet more informative of the human part of this trip, we as Catania Committee plan to bank on this and bring to fruition our goals,
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