Valletta 18 and Matera 19 meet to consolidate

Malta’s Capital Valletta and the city and province of Matera in the region of Basilicata in Southern Italy will be bestowed with a common prestigious recognition in the coming years. This will be the European Capital of Culture title that Valletta will be cherishing in 2018 with Matera assuming it a year later in 2019.

Following a visit to Malta last year by Dott Macello Pitella, President of the Regional Council of Basilicata, the specific necessity of establishing sound relations between the two cities was realised for the mutual benefit of the two sides.

On the initiative of the Maltese Italian Chamber of Commerce it was decided that the Vivanda - Taste The Med, the biannual International culinary event being held in Malta this week, should serve as a platform for the two sides to meet and identify issues on which to set a collaboration agenda between the Italian and Maltese sides.

In this regard a strong representation from the Italian region of Basilicata is in Malta this week to launch this bilateral programme. Ten and eleven persons make up the political and business delegations respectively.

Six chefs from the region will be competing in the various gastronomic competitions as part of the Vivanda Culinary Fair while the Basilicata pavilion will show products from twenty-four companies. The products being displayed include wines, figs, pasta, olive oil, vegetables, jam, bread, typical liqueurs, smoked cheese, snails and mozzarella.

The chefs from Basilicata are all members of the Italian Federations of Chefs while the Malta event is being held under the patronage of the World Association of Chefs Societies - WACS.

A significant commitment of this visit will be a press conference which will lead to various meetings on different concerned topics. This is being held tomorrow morning and is being staged at the Italian Institute of Culture Centre, Piazza San Giorgio in Valletta.