On 22-23 November 2018 Ambassador Alberto Colella made an official visit to the Agder, in southern Norway. The program included a meeting with the Mayor of Kristiansand, Harald Furre, the official opening of the new Italian Honorary Vice Consulate in Agder and a visit to the local University.
The Italian community in Agder is small (about 100 persons) but cultured and dynamic. At the service of this community there is today a new Honorary Vice Consulate, with offices located both in Kristiansand and in Grimstad. Italy’s new Vice Consul is musicologist and philologist Andrea Maini (e-mail: andrea.maini@consolatogrimstad.it) who has been residing in this area for 15 years and is very well integrated in its social and artistic life.
The inauguration of the Honorary Consulate took place during a formal ceremony, followed by a dinner organized by the new association “Italian Community in Adger” and attended by representatives of the local civil society and culture community as well as by numerous Italians. The dinner was also the occasion to inaugurate the Giuseppe Verdi room, which hosts the premises of the Honorary Consulate and which has been made freely available for initiatives of the Italian community.
The ‘Cilento Day’ event, with tasting of products from the Italian region of Cilento, well known for its exquisite gastronomy, was also part of the ceremony.
The inauguration of the new Consulate – which adds to the Honorary Consulates of Switzerland, Malta, Cyprus, Romania, Germany, Estonia, UK, already existing in Kristiansand – was discussed at the meeting with Mayor Furre, who stressed the importance of it for the internationalization of the city, and at the meeting with the Rector of the University of Agder, prof. Frank Reichert. During the visit to the University the Ambassador had the opportunity to meet teachers who have exchange programs with Italian universities and about 20 Italian Erasmus students studying in Kristiansand.
The opening of the new Consulate was also commented on a radio interview that the Ambassador and the Vice Consul gave to NRK, the Norwegian national broadcaster.
The mission in Agder was rounded up with a visit to the headquarters of the Italian Honorary Consulate in Grimstad and a visit to the adjoining ancient church of Fjaere, a Norwegian national monument, which houses a beautiful Italian organ.
the new Honorary Vice Consul Andrea Maini, the Mayor of Kristiansand Harald Furre and the Italian Ambaasdor Alberto Colella
The Vice Consul and the Ambassador at the Giuseppe Verdi room
