in 2021 Italian post help 70 small Italian municipalities to recover effigies and monuments dedicated to Dante Alighieri. This is the contribution that the group led by Matteo Del Fante will make to the celebrations scheduled for next year the 700th anniversary of the poet's death, who died of malaria in Ravenna on 14 September 1321. The initiative was presented on Friday to the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities.
"Poste Italiane is the first of the major national organizations to commit itself to the celebrations for the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, which in 2021 will see the whole country involved - said the minister Dario Franceschini – We thus inaugurate the collaboration between the public and private sectors for this special anniversary, which has been working on for some time a national committee which in the coming months will have to evaluate the over 320 projects received".
The 70 Municipalities involved in the Poste project are connected in various ways to the artistic and biographical events of Dante: some possess ancient copies of his works; others are mentioned in the Divine Comedy; still others have to do with the adventurous existence of the poet, who lived for twenty years in exile from Florence.
The initiative is part of the program presented during the second meeting between the Post Office and the mayors of small Italian municipalities, organized last October in Rome.
"This is an opportunity to touch on a very important cultural theme and at the same time support smaller towns - said Of the infantryman – We have also found in our philatelic archives two stamps made by Poste a century ago, for the 600th anniversary of Dante's death: one for 25 and one for 40 cents of lire, which will then be exhibited and valued by the committee. We will also make new ones, naturally in euros”.
