We have undertaken an important journey to build a “Bridge” between Fertilia and Trieste and to “Reunite the Threads of our History” and we return enriched and surprised by the warm and affectionate welcome we have received.

We first met Giuseppe Silvino, nephew of Don Francesco Dapiran, in Rovereto, with whom we shared the strong emotions that the birth of the Egea Museum and the publication of the book Rotta 230° – Fertilia and its protagonists gave us.

So we spent a long time with Egea Haffner and Giovanni Tomazzoni. With the “Girl with a Suitcase”, to whom we dedicated the Museum, we retraced the stages of our work and shared the results achieved just three months after the inauguration of the exhibition pavilion. We also outlined together the future stages of our work.

Arriving in Trieste on September 20th, we were guests of the Giuliani nel Mondo and in particular of the President Franco Miniussi, with whom we experienced the ceremony of the celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the Association established in 1970 by the Municipalities and Provinces of Trieste and Gorizia. In the prestigious setting of the Verdi Theater, we met Roberto Dipiazza, Mayor of Trieste, who reserved words of affection for us. We also had the opportunity to speak with the President of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region Massimiliano Fedriga, with whom we proposed our desire to establish a Presidium of Julian Culture and Traditions in Fertilia, finding in him a great interest and a desire to start this ambitious project.

At the end of the religious ceremony in the wonderful Church of San Giusto we then met the Archbishop of Trieste Monsignor Crepaldi with whom we remembered the figure of Monsignor Santin, thanks to whom the City of Trieste donated the bells that in 1959 were placed on top of the bell tower of the church of Fertilia dedicated to San Marco.

In the meetings that took place at the “Caffè Tommaseo” and at the “Caffè dei Speci” we met representatives of the Julian Communities from various countries around the world, including Nicolò Giuricich, from South Africa, Marco Forgiarini from Brazil, Claudio Purhart from Germany and Giuliano Dellaporta Xydias from Hungary, as well as Roberto Sancin from Rome, Marino Olivieri from Genoa and many friends from Trieste including Viviana Facchinetti, Director of the periodical L'Arena di Pola and Dario Locchi, President Emeritus of the Julians in the World.

On September 21st we were in Monfalcone, in front of the Mayor Anna Maria Cisint and all the mayors of the municipalities of Bisiacheria. While in the evening we were in Gorizia, the city that will be the European Capital of Culture 2025, fraternally welcomed by the now friend Mayor Rodolfo Ziberna.

Also on the 21st we were received by the President of the Regional Council of Friuli Venezia Giulia Mauro Piero Zanin with whom we spoke at length about the project of the Julian Embassy in Fertilia. A project that was welcomed with great interest for which the President himself guaranteed his personal commitment, in addition to the involvement of the Regional Council of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

On September 22nd we went to Belluno to visit the Bellunese Immigration Museum, welcomed by President Oscar De Bona and his Staff. An important reality, with over 7.000 members around the world, with whom we have started a path of "friendship and sharing".

In the afternoon we met Fabio Lussetivich, an exile born in Melbourne, Australia who returned to Trieste. With him we retraced the stages of the long and tortuous journey made by his family. We then met again, after about forty years, Mario Cervai, born in Fertilia to parents from Orsera, who for work reasons moved to Portogruaro with his family at the age of 11. The meeting was an opportunity to remember life in Fertilia and the protagonists of that community.

On September 23rd we then left for Vicenza, to meet Franca Drioli Salghetti, representative of an important family that in Zara, since 1759, had created the first Maraschino company in the world, a factory that after the exodus was reopened near Venice. The incredible collection of documents that Mrs. Drioli has carefully preserved and catalogued represents a very important heritage for the history of the whole of Dalmatia. An extremely cordial visit that allowed us to talk and appreciate a living witness of an important history of the lands of the eastern border.

On September 24th we first had the pleasure of meeting our friend Toni Cattarini, an exile from Lussino, in the wonderful setting of the Yacht Club Adriaco, a place rich in history that was frequented for years by Admiral Straolino.

In the afternoon, at the headquarters of the Lega Nazionale in Trieste, a prestigious and worthy association founded in 1891, we were able to present the Egea Museum and the book Rotta 230° – Fertilia and its protagonists in the presence of the president of the Trieste association, Avv. Paolo Sardos Albertini. The presentation, which was broadcast live, was made by Rai journalist Massimo Gobessi, who expressed great esteem and closeness to our initiatives. The Rai headquarters in Friuli Venezia Giulia had hosted the Egea Ecomuseum on several occasions as part of the radio broadcast Sconfinamenti. Gobessi himself, at the end of his speech, expressed his willingness to make himself available to start a fundraiser necessary to allow the bells of the Fertilia bell tower, donated in 1959 by the City of Trieste on the initiative of the then Archbishop Monsignor Santin, to ring again.

So, on September 25th we first visited the headquarters of the Association of Istrian Communities accompanied by the vice president Giorgio Tessarolo, with whom we were able to establish cordial and collaborative relationships, while in the afternoon, at the invitation of the president Renzo Codarin, we participated in the Bancarella 2021, Eastern Adriatic Book Fair. First on the stage of the pavilion we were able to offer the symbol of the Egean Museum and a copy of the book Rotta 230° which tells the story of the birth of Fertilia dei Giuliani to Lidia Bastianich, an exile from Pola who became a very famous Chef in the United States, and immediately afterwards we were the protagonists of the presentation of the film “Fertilia Istriana” and of the Egean Museum together with the director Cristina Mantis and the journalist Francesca Angeleri and the moderator of the meeting Alessandro Cuk, journalist and vice President of the Multimedia Documentation Center of Julian, Istrian and Dalmatian Culture and of the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia.

A journey full of appointments and important meetings that has allowed us to promote not only the Egean Museum but also the entire territory of the Riviera del Corallo and Sardinia by building a path that could favor, if the Institutions support it, also an important vector of attraction for an "Identity Tourism" that is increasingly developing and that could be an important key for a true deseasonalization of tourist flows to and from Sardinia.

Mauro Manca e Federico Marongiu
Aegean Project