A few National Days or in the case of the Italians; ‘Republic Day’ were brought forward for 2017 celebrations, in order to precede Ramadan this year. The Italian National Day is June 2nd and it commemorates a national referendum calling for the abolition of the Monarchy. All Embassies around the world hold functions on this day and it is of course a public holiday in Italy.
H.E. Ambassador Domenico Bellato is quite adept at speaking and gave a run through on the present status of Italy on the world stage. To the surprise of just about every guest, a musical treat was on the menu with Tenor Roberto Cresca accompanied by Maestro Gianfranco Fiumara Pappalardo who performed short excerpts from very well known Italian operas.
The evening was very pleasant indeed, but much later and off camera, after many of the well fed and watered audience had called it day, the music continued with more opera and even the Italian Ambassador displaying his operatic skills. Unfortunately, you don’t get to see that and nobody at ‘Who Does What’ is going to admit to actually having some footage of it (but nudge nudge wink wink).