On Friday 18 March 2016, the Italian students of the College of Europe in Natolin organized the Italian National Day. The event, named after the best known Italian movie La Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini, aimed on the one hand at presenting the traits that make Italian culture – synonym of quality of life and beauty – so distinctive and beloved all around the world; and on the other hand at deepening the way the Italian political thinking and commitment has contributed and continues to contribute to the European unification process.
As an anteprima, on Wednesday night took place the screening of La Grande Bellezza by Paolo Sorrentino, that in 2014 won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. On Friday morning, after an Italian breakfast with cornetto e cappuccino the final match of the student football tournament Coppa Italia took place, while other students had the chance to attend a laboratorio della pizza. Both activities were followed by a typical pranzo italiano served at the Natolin canteen. Friday afternoon was devoted to a double high level conference. The first panel was on Made in Italy, Made in Europe. The challenges of a Member State in the European Single Market beyond the crisis with Mr Piero CANNAS, President of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Warsaw; Mr Giuseppe FEDERICO, President of ICE; and Mr Donato DI GILIO, President and CEO of Core. The second panel was entitled Włochy, Polonia and the perspective of the United States of Europe: from independence to supranational unification, with H.E. Mr Alessandro DE PEDYS, Ambassador of Italy to Poland; H.E. Mr Tomasz ORŁOWSKI, Ambassador of Poland to Italy and the Republic of San Marino and MEP Ms Elly SCHLEIN, Member of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament.
At the end of the conference, speakers, students and staff were kindly invited to an Apericena, which was followed by an evening party on the theme "Festival del Cinema di Venezia", in the student bar Chopint, renamed for the occasion "Spinelli", in honour of the author of the Ventotene Manifesto whose name is also present at the entrance of the European Parliament in Brussels.