On 14 March, an official delegation of the Italian Republic headed by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Italian Republic to the Russian Federation, Pasquale C. Terracciano, visited Voronezh State University.
Among the members of the delegation were the honorary consul of the Italian Republic in Lipetsk, Vittorio Torrembini, the Counsellor of the Italian Embassy's Economic and Trade Department, Francesca Santoro, the First Secretary of the Italian Embassy's Economic and Trade Department, Katerina Gigliuto, and the Director of the Department of Trade Exchange Promotion at the Italian Embassy (ICE agency), Pier Paolo Celeste. The visit of the delegation started with a tour around VSU's book museum. The laureate of international and national competitions, the folk music group "Terem” welcomed the guests.
The Rector of Voronezh State University, Dmitry Endovitsky, told the members of the delegation about the history of the university, the cooperation of the university with international companies, its projects, and its experience of academic cooperation with Russian and international universities:
“Our university has partnership agreements with universities from all over the world. One of the major spheres of international activity of VSU is developing partnership with universities of Italy. VSU has agreements on scientific, academic, and cultural cooperation with the Sapienza University of Rome, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, the University of Parma, Tuscia University (Viterbo), the University of L'Aquila, the Kore University of Enna (Sicily), and the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio (Cassino). VSU has always been a centre for the promotion of the Italian culture and language in Russia. In cooperation with the government of the Voronezh Region we will do our best to make our Italian friends feel at home in Voronezh.”
After the meeting with the university’s administration, the guests were invited to the conference hall of the main university building where Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Italian Republic to the Russian Federation, Pasquale C. Terracciano, gave a public lecture for students “Bilateral Relations between Russia and Italy”.
After the lecture, Pasquale C. Terracciano had a discussion with the students about the prospects of cooperation between Russia and Italy in the area of small and medium business, about how the Italian motivates their students to learn Russian and about the active support of academic and cultural exchange programmes between our countries.
