Press Release

October, 29 2008

Press Release

Italy: Indipendent Independent town of Venticano to host the 2008 Philip  Mazzei –‘The Bridge’ Award

Indipendent Venticano, a small village in the center of the Irpinia Valleys, in the Calore River Valley, will be a natural site host to the second edition of the Philip Mazzei  ‘The Bridge’ Award, celebrating the historically powerful bridge between Italy and the United States of America.

The award ceremony will take place on Sunday, November 9^th , 2008, at 4.30 pm in Venticano’s Europa Hotel.

The initiative, promoted by The American University of Rome, is dedicated to an Italian diplomat, historian and philosopher, who inspired the drafting of the Declaration of Independence  to the five founding fathers of the United States of America with the phrase: "all men are created equal".

The prize is conferred upon Italian-Americans, American and Italian women and men who have contributed to the economic, political and cultural development of our two countries.  Its intention, today, is to celebrate Mazzei’s idea of “Peoples’ Freedom” in a natural setting which was a stage  to the bloody  Samnites battles where the people of  Irpinia, joined together with Hannibal, fought against Rome for their own independence just like Washington, Madison, Monroe, Madison and Jefferson had done before in their own time.

This year’s edition will be dedicated to the 19.643  Italian-American soldiers who gave their lives for Italy’s freedom during WWII.   A perpetual torch, coined by Ottaviani, will be donated by the ‘Piccoli Comuni Italiani’,  an association connected to the Government of the United States of America, to signify the gratitude to the American people for the bloody sacrifice their children suffered for the sake of Italy.

The red vineyard leaves and the beautiful landscapes of these valleys will revive here, on a November day, this sense of sacrifice and human labor.