Mar. 4 - The President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano is set to visit Albania from tomorrow to Thursday; and for the occasion, the Italian Institute of Culture in Tirana organized a day on Italian Unification and its protagonists. This week’s “Literary Thursday” will be devoted to the Albanian translation, edited by the Albanian Institute for International Studies, of Napolitano 's book, "One and Indivisible - Reflections on 150 years of our Italy." On March 6, at 6pm, the Palace of Culture will welcome Ambassador Massimo Gaiani, alongside Albert Rakipi, director dell'Albanian Institute for International Studies, who will present, and Pellumb Xhufi, former ambassador of Albania to Italy. The book was first published in 2011 for the sesquicentennial of the Italian Unification; its second edition, released in 2012, reports Napolitano’s advise to "continuously ask about our history, study and discuss it, as it will create widespread awareness on the heritage of our experiences and values; it will be a source of pride and confidence from which we can strengthen our national community by putting it in a better position to deal with the difficult challenges of the present and future." The translation in Albanian will allow the public to retrace the key stages of the process of Italian unification.

NAPOLITANO’S BOOK

The book, published by Rizzoli in 2011 and reissued the following year, touches the salient aspects of the process of Italian Unification: Cavour’s design, the momentum sparked by Garibaldi’s heroic gestures, the active participation of the South in the construction of a united Italy, the deep links of the national movement with other European experiences, the unification of the language and culture… Napolitano does not hide the gray areas and the broken promises, particularly the imbalance between North and South and the slow and only partial implementation of autonomy and federalism.