Italy stages opera, food and wine gala to promote UNESCO bid

Italy will put opera, food and wine on the same stage in Verona on June 5, in a prime-time television event meant to showcase two of the country’s UNESCO-recognized cultural assets and to launch a new bid for another. The show, titled “Campioni del mondo - Italia loves Unesco,” will air on Rai 1 at 9:30 p.m. from the Arena di Verona and Piazza Bra, with about 11,000 spectators inside the amphitheater and 1,000 invited guests at tables outside, all raising a glass in a coordinated toast that organizers say will also involve viewers at home.

The event comes as Italy seeks to turn its cultural prestige into tourism and economic momentum. Gianmarco Mazzi, the tourism minister, said at a news conference in Rome that the evening was designed to celebrate Italy’s record of 61 UNESCO World Heritage sites, to mark the recognition of opera singing and Italian cuisine as intangible heritage, and to introduce the campaign for “Canzone Napoletana Classica,” or classical Neapolitan song, with hopes of winning that designation by the end of 2028. He said the effort is also meant to support what he called “roots tourism,” aimed at millions of people of Italian descent living abroad who may be drawn back by televised images of Italian culture.

Francesco Lollobrigida, the agriculture minister, said the country should present a more positive image of itself and make better use of its strengths in culture, business and food. He said the UNESCO recognition for Italian cuisine was not about dishes alone but about conviviality, the social act of gathering around a table. He pointed to figures such as Giuseppe Verdi, Dante Alighieri, Leonardo da Vinci and Rita Levi Montalcini as symbols included in the nomination dossier to reflect Italy’s cultural breadth.

The broadcast will be hosted by Milly Carlucci with Paolo Belli and will feature performances by Plácido Domingo, Vittorio Grigolo, Massimo Ranieri, Sal Da Vinci, Gigi D’Alessio, Serena Rossi and Patti Smith. Renzo Arbore has also backed the campaign for Neapolitan song. Organizers said the evening will end with a mass toast supported by Vinitaly and Veronafiere, underscoring wine’s role in Italy’s food culture and in its efforts to promote tourism tied to vineyards, regional cuisine and local identity.

Federico Bricolo, president of Veronafiere, said the company’s involvement reflects wine’s place in Italy’s cultural image and its ability to promote territories as well as products. He noted that Vinitaly had already served as a stage for major announcements about Italian food culture, including the earlier bid that led to UNESCO recognition for Italian cuisine.