{"id":5958,"date":"2025-09-21T20:22:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T18:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laquila2026.it\/senza-categoria\/laquila-the-2026-capital-of-culture-receives-the-cultural-excellence-of-italy-award\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T20:22:57","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T18:22:57","slug":"laquila-the-2026-capital-of-culture-receives-the-cultural-excellence-of-italy-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laquila2026.it\/en\/cultural-initiative\/laquila-the-2026-capital-of-culture-receives-the-cultural-excellence-of-italy-award\/","title":{"rendered":"L&#8217;Aquila, the 2026 Capital of Culture, receives the &#8220;Cultural Excellence of Italy&#8221; award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>L\u2019Aquila, September 21, 2025 \u2013 The mayor of L\u2019Aquila, Pierluigi Biondi, accepted the \u201cEccellenze culturali d\u2019Italia\u201d award today in Giardini Naxos, in the province of Messina. The award was presented to the city as part of Naxoslegge\u2014the Festival of Storytelling, Reading, and Books.<\/p>\n<p>The awards ceremony took place during the festival\u2019s opening\u2014now in its 15th edition under the artistic direction of Fulvia Toscano, the Sicilian municipality\u2019s councilor for culture\u2014which, in addition to Giardini Naxos, also includes Messina, Catania, and Letojanni, with over 60 guests, including writers, scholars, artists, and cultural professionals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReceiving such a prestigious award on behalf of L\u2019Aquila fills me with pride. This award also highlights the path of regeneration we have built over the years, positioning culture as the driving force behind the development and revitalization of the region\u2014from our transition from a \u2018city struck by an earthquake\u2019 to a \u2018city of the earthquake,\u2019 all the way to our goal of becoming the 2026 Italian Capital of Culture. This recognition also speaks to the inland areas of the Central Apennines, for which L\u2019Aquila serves as a point of reference: our ambition is to continue representing them, promoting their heritage, communities, and talents on a national and international scale.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As part of the same initiative, awards were presented to, among others, Raffaello De Ruggieri, former mayor of Matera, the 2026 Mediterranean Capital of Culture and Dialogue, Salvatore Sutera, mayor of Gibellina, a city designated as the 2026 Italian Capital of Contemporary Art; Antonella Corrao, president of the Scientific Committee of the \u201cOrestiadi di Gibellina\u201d Foundation; Antonio Calbi, director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris; Giuseppe Carmeni, president of the Giardini Naxos tourist board; Filippo Grasso of the University of Messina; Paolo Della Sega, consultant for the 2028 Italian Capital of Culture; Giuseppe Culicchia, writer and director of the \u201cCircolo dei Lettori\u201d Foundation in Turin; Stenio Solinas, writer and journalist; Carlo Muratori, singer and musician; and Antonio Presti, entrepreneur and patron of the arts.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Biondi received the award from the mayor of Giardini Naxos, Giorgio Stracuzzi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>L\u2019Aquila, September 21, 2025 \u2013 The mayor of L\u2019Aquila, Pierluigi Biondi, accepted the \u201cEccellenze culturali d\u2019Italia\u201d award today in Giardini Naxos, in the province of Messina. The award was presented&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5961,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-5958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural-initiative","entry","has-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>L&#039;Aquila, the 2026 Capital of Culture, receives the &quot;Cultural Excellence of Italy&quot; award - L&#039;Aquila Capitale italiana della Cultura 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/laquila2026.it\/en\/cultural-initiative\/laquila-the-2026-capital-of-culture-receives-the-cultural-excellence-of-italy-award\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"L&#039;Aquila, the 2026 Capital of Culture, receives the &quot;Cultural Excellence of Italy&quot; award - L&#039;Aquila Capitale italiana della Cultura 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"L\u2019Aquila, September 21, 2025 \u2013 The mayor of L\u2019Aquila, Pierluigi Biondi, accepted the \u201cEccellenze culturali d\u2019Italia\u201d award today in Giardini Naxos, in the province of Messina. 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