AND’ Pierluigi Petrini the new president of Rotary Piacenza; doctor, with a long militancy in politics, Petrini was also vice president of the Chamber of Deputies and protagonist of national political life for 4 legislatures. The presentation of him as president of the Piacenza club, in particular the handover with the president in office Louis Swichtook place on Wednesday 12 June, although it will only be from 1 July that Petrini will lead the Rotary Piacenzaa club now almost centenary, among the first to be founded in Italy, the first in Piacenza.
THE PASSAGE OF DELIVERY And there were also around a hundred participants in the evening organized at the «Società Canottieri Nino Bixio 1883» for the handover; a place in Piacenza dear to many, one of the few to offer the opportunity to enjoy the Po. Recently renovated and embellished with plants and flowers, the location in this case also served as the setting for the rare spectacle of the river in flood, on the eve of summer.
In the presence of the civil authorities – the prefect Paolo PontaMayor Katia Tarasconithe general director of the Local Health Authority Paola Bardasi and the health director Andrea Magnacavallo – of the presidents of the other Rotary clubs and of the two Piacenza Rotaracts, of the president-elect of the Rotary Club of Alessandria Roberta Panzeri as well as of the president of the «Canottieri Nino Bixio» Paolo Molinaroli, Rotary Piacenza has united past and future, following the thread of the activities carried out during the last year and anticipating the intentions and objectives of the months to come. All in an atmosphere of elegance and friendliness, with guests linked by friendship and esteem towards the members of the club.
AN INTENSE ROTARIAN YEAR IS CLOSING Many services and solidarity initiatives in the Rotarian spirit, but also many current affairs, culture and art themes that characterized the activities and convivial events of Rotary Piacenza in the year of the presidency of Louis Swich: the proliferation of wildlife and swine fever, the shortage of water in Val Trebbia, the demographic winter in the economy and society, the bill on the premiership, just to mention a few; but there was also talk of real and perceived safety in Piacenza, of correct nutrition and food conservation, of alternative energies, of cardiological diseases in women, of art in its various declinations: the «Ricci Oddi» Modern Art Gallery, XNL , the Civic Museums of Palazzo Farnese, the pictorial work of Margherita Caffibaroque music, with the famous soprano Roberta Mameli.
All of this to act as a backdrop to targeted service initiatives, some of which are also jointly supported by the other Piacenza Rotary and Rotaract groups: from the conspicuous creation, in concert with the Local Health Authority, of “Casa Lilla” for the care of people suffering from disorders food (located in the Renaissance apartment of the abbot of the former Olivetan monastery of the Holy Sepulchre) to the creation of the educational farm for therapy with pets at the Casa del Fanciullo; from the purchase of musical instruments for the “From the classroom to the orchestra” project, which aims to teach through music with the famous Abreu Method, to the support and promotion of the “Chiara Corbella Petrillo” Life Help Center in Piacenza and protection of unborn life and pregnant women.
The initiative launched with the Rotary Club Athi River of Kitengela (Kenya), and shared by the entire Piacenza Rotary Group, to provide specialized healthcare equipment and infrastructure to the hospital The Joshua Clinicfounded and directed by the well-known fellow citizen Francesca Lipetia doctor specialized in tropical diseases who has carried out his meritorious missionary activity among the Maasai for decades.
ASSIGNED 13 PAUL HARRIS And Dr. Lipeti herself, represented on the occasion by the president of the “Yoshua Tree” association, a lawyer Elisabetta Levitiand the «Chiara Corbella Petrillo» Life Help Center, together with 11 particularly deserving members of the club were awarded the Paul Harris Fellow, the highest Rotary honor given to those, even non-members, who have distinguished themselves through their commitment to service in humanitarian, social or cultural initiatives. At the end of the ceremony the president Louis Swich handed over the collar, which bears the names of all the presidents of the club founded in Piacenza in 1926 – from Bernardo Barbiellini Amidei to Vincenzo Lodigianifrom Carlo Fioruzzi to James Massarentifrom Francesco Battaglia to Pietro Nuvolonefrom Aldo Aonzo to Ranieri Schippisi it’s at Corrado Sforza Fogliani – to Pierluigi Petrini for the start of the new Rotary year as president.
THE VISIT TO PALAZZO LANDI The day following the handover, a delegation of Rotary Piacenza members visited Palazzo Landi. Welcomed by Manfredi Landi of Chiavenna, father of the partner Ubertino, and his wife Elke Elisabeth, the guests were able to admire the recent restoration of the superb facade that characterizes the Stradone Farnese. The owners, together with the technical director of the architect works Giovanni Gallosiillustrated the restoration and consolidation works carried out in recent months as well as the history of the palace and the noble house, historical Ghibelline component of the General Council of Piacenza together with the Anguissolas on one side and the Guelphs Fontana and Scotti on the other.
During the visit the frescoes of Bartolomeo Rusca on the vaults of some rooms and two central figures of the Landi family have been illustrated: Giovanni Battista Landihusband of Isotta Pindemonteanimator of a literary salon and patron of the famous painter Gaspare Landiwho immortalized him in an equally well-known portrait now exhibited at the Bank of Piacenza, and Ferdinando Landi, a bibliophile whose collection of manuscripts, incunabula and printed volumes, upon his death, merged into the Piacenza municipal library which has since been called the Passerini Landi Library. Among the documents donated, also the very precious Landiano Codex, the oldest currently existing codex of the Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri.
