IMPORTANT AMERICAN VISITORS TO GENOA:

Nancy Pelosi, the first woman Speaker of the House, visited Genoa on January 12, 2001 when she was congresswoman from San Francisco.  She and the White House Chief of Staff of the Clinton Administration, John Podesta, both Italo-Americans who trace their roots to Liguria, came here to attend the formal inauguration of  the commencement of the Columbus House restoration project in Genoa at the invitation of the late U.S. Ambassador to Italy Thomas M. Foglietta and former Genoa Mayor Giuseppe Pericu.

In 1999, the Clinton Administration established a Millennium Fund to “Save America’s Treasures” -- its monuments of national significance in the U.S.  Soon after, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton visited historic sites throughout the U.S. to show her support for this fund and to stimulate new private efforts to preserve the national heritage.

Ambassador Foglietta and his team in Italy took the initiative to adopt this project, Italian style, and identified the Columbus House in Genoa as a building that celebrates our common heritage.

They worked closely with Mayor Pericu, Deputy Mayor Claudio Montaldo, and their teams at the City of Genoa and the Porta Soprana Association to develop a project to restore this historical monument.

As a fine example of cooperation between the public and private sectors, three companies with close ties with the U.S., Costa Crociere, DaimlerChrysler, and EDS, as well as the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF), agreed to be sponsors of this project. 

             Following are abstracts of remarks delivered during the ceremony on January 12, 2001: 

Remarks by U.S. Ambassador in Italy Thomas M. Foglietta marking the commencement of the Columbus House restoration project: 

  " I am so proud to join Mayor Pericu and these fine organizations with very close ties to the U.S. here in Genoa. Mayor Pericu and I worked together to turn a very simple idea of culture exchange into a reality, restoring the home where Columbus lived as a boy. It took the leadership of Costa Crociere, DaimlerChrysler, EDS, and the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF), to insure that this reality is paid for. Our work and funds will enable us to open this home’s doors in time for visitors during the G8 conference to be held here in July.

When you serve in public life as I do -- as does Mayor Pericu -- as do my friends from America, John Podesta and Nancy Pelosi -- you often think about how you will leave the environment in which you served a better place. That is what keeps us going.

In hoping to create a renaissance here in Genoa, I know this is what drives your Mayor.

Before I came here as Ambassador, I served as a Congressman of an extremely poor district, and I worked hard to make the lives of the people there better, safer, and more prosperous, and I know Nancy Pelosi does the same in Congress for her wonderful district in San Francisco, as well, I should say, for protecting human rights around the world.

John Podesta -- one of the highest ranking Italian-Americans in our government, whose family comes from the small Ligurian town of Ne’ -- is thinking about how he made the world a safer, more peaceful, more prosperous place working for President Clinton, as I do.

It was that notion of legacy in public service which made us think about leaving this gift of a restored Columbus House to the people of Italy. And I am sure that’s what First Lady Hillary Clinton was thinking when she envisioned “Save America’s Treasures” as a way to celebrate the new Millennium. In “Save America’s Treasures,” the White House raised public and private dollars to protect historic monuments for the next Millennium. They included an immigration center in San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi’s home town; historic Central High in Bill Clinton’s home town; a monument in the district I used to represent in Congress; and even the baseball scrapbooks of Babe Ruth. With this project here in Genoa, we restore the home of Christopher Columbus, that mighty pioneer, who paved the way for the centuries’ old love affair between Americans and Italians... .”

N.B.

Remarks by John Podesta, Chief of Staff to the President of the United States marking the commencement of the Columbus House restoration project: 

  " I want to begin by congratulating Mayor Pericu and Ambassador Foglietta for the leadership they have provided in restoring the home of Christopher Columbus, a treasure for both Italians and Americans. Mr. Ambassador, on behalf of the President and Senator Clinton, I want to thank you for your tireless work to improve U.S.-Italian relations by promoting trade, economic development, and cultural exchange between our countries.

You have been a friend to Italy and a critical link between our two nations especially during crucial moments. I also applaud our friends from Costa Crociere, Daimler-Chrysler, EDS, and NIAF for their generosity. And I congratulate the City of Genoa on this achievement.

More than five hundred years ago, in the face of doubts and danger, Christopher Columbus set sail across vast oceans for the riches of the New World. More than a hundred ago, another Ligurian set sail for the shores of America. My grandfather, Antonio Podesta, was born in Ne’, a small town near Genoa. He laboured in the shipyards of Genoa until he moved to America in the late 1890s. But it was near Genoa where my grandmother, Francesca, perfected her pesto, cima, and ravioli.  And where my grandparents learned the importance of family and of community, the benefits of tradition and culture, and the meanings of hard work.

I am here today, in part, to salute my grandparents and all the Italians who helped to make America what it is today. I know that Ambassador Foglietta talks often of the influence that his roots have had on his life and on his commitment to public service. I learned the history of our people from my parents, and I am so happy that my daughter, Mae, joined me for this trip. Now Mae will understand, first hand, the beauty and importance of our Italian and our Ligurian roots. Like many Americans, our blood is part American, part Greek, part Italian, and, I suspect, part pesto, too.

At the end of last year, we stood at the convergence of a new century and the next millennium -- a milestone in human history. It was Mrs. Clinton's vision that we in America not just celebrate this milestone with fanfare and fireworks, but with tangible gifts to the future. And one of the best ways to do that was to preserve what we value from our past.

Thanks to her work, and the efforts of the White House Millennium Council, we are saving America's past for the future. Dozens of monuments around our country have been preserved from ancient Indian cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado … to a plantation in Maryland; from the USS Missouri now based in Hawaii … to Martin Luther King's church.

Today we honor the past by adding another one of America' treasures to the list, the home of Christopher Columbus, one of the greatest mariners and discoverers in our history.

I know that when I was in school, many of us often dismissed the importance of learning about history and drawing lessons from our past. We often forget that history is our map to the future. In this historical project, we are honoring a man of great discovery and adventure. And we mustn't forget that discovery -- and the road to it -- is just as important today, in the world of the Internet and space travel, as it was when people thought the world was flat. Just last summer, scientists completed the first survey of the entire human genome, which, in the coming years will revolutionize the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of most, if not all, human disease. A week from today, the Space Shuttle Atlantis will depart on a mission to deliver the centerpiece of the International Space Station, which, in the near future, will unlock secrets to the great frontiers of space.

So, in the first months of the new Millennium, we must continue to save our world's heritage. As history has taught us, only by preserving our past, can we truly imagine our future. Today is an important day in that adventure. I am confident that Americans and Italians alike will enjoy the Columbus House for generations to come. And perhaps the next President will have the opportunity to visit this noble house when he is in Genoa for the G8 Summit.

Thank you again for your work on this project and for your friendship to President Clinton and the United States of America.

God bless you." 

             Remarks by Hon. Nancy Pelosi, making commencement of Columbus House restoration project.
 

  " It is a great pleasure for me to be back in Genoa with you today, Mayor Pericu, Chief of Staff Podesta, and deputy mayor Montaldo, to participate in these ceremonies. And with Ambassador Foglietta, the U.S. sent an Ambassador with a long history of promoting the U.S.-Italy relationship and a love of Italy. President Clinton sent our best.

What a great honor that President Clinton's Chief of Staff is here. It is a sign of the priority that President Clinton attaches to the U.S.-Italy relationship that in the last eight days of his Presidency he sent his Chief of Staff to represent our country at this occasion so important to both countries. How proud we are all of John Podesta's distinguished service.

It is a personal pleasure for me, because of my own family's ties to Liguria. And it is a civic pleasure as well. First, in the American Congress, I represent the people of San Francisco, a city where many others, like me, trace their roots to Genoa and Liguria. A few years ago I met many leaders of Genoa who came to San Francisco to dedicate a monument to Christopher Columbus on Telegraph Hill.

And I grew up in Baltimore -- Genoa's sister city. Both my father and my brother have had the honor to serve as mayors in this great port city. In the fifties, I visited Genoa with my father when he was mayor and heard him address the city council. Years later my brother came as mayor, addressed the leadership of the city council and established the sister-city relationship.

The restoration of this House is another step in Genoa's revitalization. This project, initiated by Ambassador Foglietta and with leadership of the Mayor, his Deputy, and their staffs, also represents an important step in preserving our common heritage and the close ties between the peoples of Italy and the United States. Although he was not the first explorer to touch our shores, Columbus was the great navigator and pioneer who captured the imagination of the existing

World, and really opened the doors to the many generations who came to settle in and create our New World as we know it today.

As a member of Congress I want to commend all who are involved in this splendid example of cooperation between the public and private sectors in making something happen that government alone could not accomplish. We owe a big debt to the public spirit of the organizations that have made this possible, the National Italian American Foundation, Costa Crociere, Daimler Chrysler, and EDS, a New Economy pioneer.

As we enter a new Age of Discovery, and as advances in technology and communications bring us ever closer together, this is also a fitting Millennium project, honoring a great explorer of our common past. Today, in honoring Columbus we honor courage and imagination. We honor Italy, America, and all that we have in common."  

N.B. Nancy Pelosi ‘s grandmother, Maria Petronilla Foppiani, was born in Rovegno, a small town in the hinterlands of Genoa.