You have been directing the Italian Institute of Culture in Tirana for three and a half years.Had you previously held similar positions?
Yes.I was a director in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, and in Canada in Toronto. They were very different experiences as different is this experience in Albania.
How did you find this country?
Very interesting. I was very curious and wanted to come here because Albania, in the landscape of our foreign locations, has a really peculiar place. Not only because it is a neighboring country with which we have a very close relationship. Albania has a very special peculiarity, it has a very large Italian-speaking community . Albanians who speak Italian are many. Italian-speaking communities there are all over the world but they are mainly made up of our Italian immigrants.
Here, however, there is really a community that has been connected to the history of this country since the late 1980s. And then there is also a large Albanian community in Italy. The historical ties that unite our countries are very close. And this constitutes a special context to do the work of promoting Italian culture also because on the level of popular culture there is not much to promote because popular culture anyway already very well known. The interesting work that can be done is that of collaboration, to make Italian and Albanian cultural institutions even closer.
How is this strengthening of cultural ties between the 2 countries experienced by the government in Tirana.
Very positively. The reports are excellent
What have been the main strands of the Institute's activities in recent years?
First of all language courses, we have been working a lot on areas such as film and audiovisual, contemporary art, music, theater trying to support local activities as well. One of the main aspects of the work is to have a listening attitude towards the local context. That's what you do when you arrive in a new country: you meet all the possible partners and try to understand what the needs, desires, and expectations are. A good part of the job is to put those expectations together with the cultural promotion goals given to us by the Foreign Ministry
We try to appeal to a younger audience, promoting the less obvious aspects of Italy that are not only the classical aspects of opera music, although we have an excellent collaboration with the Tirana Opera House
My commitment is to make the Institute perceived as an accessible and helpful partner.
Do you get proposals for activities both from Italians living in the Albanian territory and from other communities in this country?
Yes. The idea is to keep an open door and screen the various initiatives that we decide on either independently or in collaboration with partners.
Back to the language issue. There is a generation gap here in Albania . Those who are 40 and older know Italian either because they learned it through TV during the dark years of the dictatorship or because many lived in Italy after the collapse of the regime. But for the younger generation, our language is no longer a natural choice.
Albania's context has changed, but Italy's presence here has not diminished, and there are important programs even at the school level to support Italian; there are several bilingual sections in schools. There are Albanian teachers who teach Italian in elementary school. However, we have to take note that Albanian children have a more open horizon internationally also in relation to professional expectations, and this of course is combined with a wide spread of English. For this reason, learning Italian emerges as the third language after Albanian and English.
Is there attention to Italian universities as well?
Yes. At the beginning of February we held a big event to present Italian universities. There were about fifty of them and they explained the educational offerings to Albanian students who came in thousands to visit the booths and talk to representatives of Italian universities. The main interests are for medical studies, for polytechnics. On this occasion there was a meeting between Italian and Albanian universities to sign various faculty exchange agreements.
On the equivalence of degrees, is there a preferential channel between the two countries?
No, but the Embassy is working on it. There are, however, more and more universities offering the dual degrees. For example, there is an active course of study between Bari Polytechnic and the University of Vlore for the management and conservation of cultural heritage for which Italian and Albanian students who enroll take a year course in Vlore and another year in Bari. The degree awarded is valid in both countries. And this is not the only case. There are others as well. There is an agreement between the University of Rome La sapienza and the University of Durres.
And are there courses in Italian studies?
Yes, there are many courses. We support the department where there is an Italian lecturer in the Faculty of Languages at the University of Tirana. We try to make sure that the usefulness of studying our language is perceived. But there is a decreasing trend of students.
However, there are 2800 Italian companies here, and maybe the Albanian employees of these companies might have an interest and to know our language better...
We offer language courses directly for employees of companies and organize them with those who ask us. These are courses structured directly for companies that possibly also take into account the specifics of the sector in which they operate.At the event with the universities, which I mentioned earlier, we also invited the Chamber of Commerce, Confindustria and Banca Intesa, which are the main players. Several companies also came and presented their job offerings related to knowledge of Italian.
I don't know if it's within the remit of the institute she heads, but the tourism sector that Albania relies heavily on needs a lot of training, which Italy could provide by taking the opportunity to reintroduce knowledge of our language.
It is something that is directly followed by the Embassy where there is a school office that deals with cooperation. But certainly language courses, we also offer them in that kind of context there.
In the context of bringing Albania closer to Europe, do the institute's activities have special relevance?
In an indirect way in the sense that the institute is not institutionally concerned with this. But from a cultural point of view, integration is already there because Albania is completely included within the artistic flows and cultural exchanges
In the music industry, there are young Albanian artists who have been successful in Italy. Are they considered ambassadors of the 2 languages?
Albania has a strong cultural education system and therefore many of their talents are distributed around the world. In Italy there is a community of more than 500 thousand Albanians and among them there are top level artists established in every field. They were born in Italy as a second generation or moved to our country . Last year we organized for the second time the concert of Ermal Meta in Butrinto amphitheater. It was a great successAfter all, more and more, culture is the terrain where the national dimension fades most easily.
It is not a matter of flags. They are testimonies of an exchange relationship that along with complexity also brings a lot of cultural richness.
In the film sector, is there good cooperation between Italy and Albania?
This is an area where Albanians are doing a lot of work and we try to foster contacts with Italian film realities. In 2025 in December there was the Balkanfilm market attended by many Italian producers who are interested in coming to Albania both for filming and to enhance Albanian artistic talents. So Cinema has possibilities for both cultural and commercial development .However, one must take into account that Albania is a relatively small country with a limited market both for raising capital and for distribution because there are few cinemas
What are the Institute's initiatives in the field of visual arts?
We have a very rich program. Last year we organized a big exhibition by Enzo Cucchi, one by Michelangelo Pistoletto There is a collaboration with several galleries in Tirana. A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Maxi in Rome and the Albanian National Gallery. There is an accompanying project underway toward the reopening of this Albanian cultural institution.
In the publishing industry, are there any activities with Italian publishing houses?
We work mainly with Albanian publishing houses; we have a program to support translations of Italian publications into Albanian. Publishing houses apply for a grant from the Ministry to translate Italian books into Albanian, which are then submitted.
Whenever possible we invite authors. We cooperate with the book fair. With the European delegation we started a literature festival that takes place in December, it is called Felt, festival of European literature in Tirana
With such a rich program all that remains is to wish her well!!!
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