Bologna pays homage to Beniamino Andreatta. This morning the section of road between via San Leonardo and Viale Quirico Filopanti – formerly a section of via Belmeloro – in the university area of Bologna, where Johns Hopkins is based, was named after the economist and politician.
The ceremony was attended, in addition to the mayor, Virginio Merola, Andreatta's son, Filippo, and many friends and protagonists of public life past and present in public life in Bologna and beyond, first of all the former premier, Romano Prodi. Present, among others, the archbishop of Bologna, Matteo Zuppi, the rector of the Alma Mater, Francesco Ubertini, Pierluigi Castagnetti, Pier Ferdinando Casini, Gianluca Beneamati, Andrea De Maria and Gianluca Galletti.
“We have all enjoyed his help – said Prodi – No one has ever sowed advice like him for free, even when it was not convenient for him. This more than ceremony is gratitude to the person. He has helped us so much and done so much good. So I say thank you Professor Andreatta”.
“A welcome recognition of the company. It is not usual for street naming to take place in the central, busiest part of the city. Even in the neighborhood where my father lived. So I find this gesture moving, perhaps significant of a difficult moment for Italy, in which the political class, compared to when my father was serving as a politician for the common good, is in more difficulty". This is the comment of Beniamino Andreatta's son, Filippo, on the sidelines of the naming of a stretch of Via Belmeloro, in the university area of Bologna, after his father. "So the hope - he continued - is that instead of being the adoration of the ashes, closing oneself in memory, this may be an opportunity for the torch to be passed on to have beautiful ideas and examples that exhort us to do better too in the future".
