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Luciano Pignataro, a journalist for Naples’ Il Mattino—the leading newspaper in Southern Italy—has spent the last thirty years writing about agriculture and the last twenty about enogastronomy. His is the longest running column on wine in an Italian paper. He is the representative of two southern regions for Slow Wine, Slow Food’s wine guide, and head of the Southern branch of the Guida Ristoranti Espresso. In 2004 he began a blog (www.lucianopignataro.it), now one of the most frequented in Italy, with almost five million hits in 2015 alone. The blog features reviews of wine, restaurants, pizzerias, pastry shops and cheeses. He has published many guides to wine and books on Neapolitan cuisine.

Italian American politicians adhere to a corollary given by the 6th century BCE Chinese general Sun Tzu who wrote the Art of War. It was uttered by Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974): "My father taught me many things here — he taught me in this room. He taught me — keep your friends close but your enemies closer." My mother-in-law Rose Jordan-Nicoletti’s version of this Italian American proverb was “Don’t apologize! Your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it.”

Two months of intense organizational efforts from i-Italy between Naples and New York, a great collaboration with the Consulate General and the other institutions of Sistema Italia, enthusiastic and generous support from all sectors of the community. These ingredients made for the success of the mayor of Naples Luigi De Magistris’ trip to New York. Street encounters in the Little Italies of Manhattan and the Bronx, conferences in the two major university institutes, meetings with entrepreneurs and tourism agencies – and a great human connection with mayor Bill de Blasio. At the center of it all, an atypical and unexpected Naples, the emblem of an inclusive city, which volunteers alongside New York to jumpstart an international movement towards the globalization of the rights to citizenship – a globalization of humans, not just of capital and merchandize.

L'Arte dei Pizzaiuoli Napoletani: a tradition to preserve.