«I must congratulate all the people from Puglia, they were far more than up to the task and I think this was the best response to the usual prejudices read in the international press, someone may have arrived with an idea and everyone left with a ‘another idea’. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said this in the final conference of the G7, which took place from 13 to 15 June in Borgo Egnazia. Only a few days earlier, CNN had published a report entitled “Mafia style”, dusting off old scripts on the role of criminal organizations in the region, amidst nonsense and inaccuracies.
The singing, the typical products and the lights
«After the summit ended last night, after Andrea Bocelli’s splendid gift to us of singing a few songs for the leaders – continued the Prime Minister – I wanted it to be an entire traditional Apulian evening. There were the panzerotti, the artisans, the ladies who made the orecchiette by hand, there was the taranta, the lights of the religious festivals, there was Puglia as the Italians know it. I was proud to see the G7 leaders with their mouths open, sometimes even less, for the flavours, tastes, identity, the ladies who gave bracelets with olive stones, I have one, the artisans who worked the olive wood that we had to eradicate due to Xylella, the tables we made with that wood because here we are always capable of reinventing ourselves”, added Giorgia Meloni, underlining that “the signal I wanted to give was a bit of the global village” .
«Seeing the greats of the world talking about global challenges in a village, reminding us that we are not able to face these challenges if we do not start from the identity that has made us the civilization that we are», he remarked. «I am happy that we managed to find this splendid synthesis, I think that the message has arrived loud and clear and I think that several leaders who came to visit us will return to holiday in these parts».
