Four days of events and opportunities to meet in Rijeka have characterized, as per tradition, the celebration of the patron saint San Vito, Crescenzia and Modesto. On June 15th of each year, the people of Rijeka gather in prayer, giving life, at the same time, to a program full of events, from music to publishing, from official meetings to the award ceremony for school children. All of civil society is committed to highlighting an important anniversary, a symbol of shared joy.

So also this year, the initiatives of the city, of the Community of Italians of Palazzo Modello were joined by the proposals of the Association of Fiumani Italians in the World and of the Society of Fiumani Studies, sometimes in complete harmony, other times in full autonomy in respect of the mutual needs and paths. But the desire to share has offered everyone the opportunity to contribute to making these days full of significant declarations of unity of purpose: starting from what was declared at San Vito during the Mass, to the speeches given in the Great Hall of the High School addressed to the schools, to the meeting with the Department of Italian Studies and during the reception by the Mayor.

Significant was the reaffirmation, once again, of AFIM's desire to build new ties with the Fiumani living in the city of Quarnero, proposing other initiatives to share. The meetings were attended by the Consul of Italy in Fiume, Davide Bradanini, the Embassy Counsellor Renato Cianfarani from Rome, the president of Unione Italiana Maurizio Tremul and the president of the Giunta Marin Corva, the president of the Association of Istrian Communities of Trieste David De Paoli Paulovich and the Vice President of the national ANVGD Donatella Schurzel.

“We never tire of reiterating our desire to unite in this reality of Fiume – underlined Franco Papetti, President of AFIM -. Our contribution intends to be effective, so we will have to continue to work with even greater attention, delicacy and the desire to be part of a group that we feel is deeply ours”.

A delegation of AFIM, SSF and CI participated in the meeting with Mayor Marko Filipović and President of the Council Ana Trošelj at the Town Hall. Mayor Filipović focused on the many economic initiatives that are transforming the city into a port that intends to become increasingly important, a path that has a positive impact on all sensitive sectors of life in Rijeka. The joint work of introducing odonyms in the city was recalled with the hope of soon resuming the implementation of the signs in the streets of the center and the outskirts and the desire to carry out, with the auspices of the Municipality, some initiatives in the council chamber: on October 30, 2023, the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Society of Rijeka Studies will be commemorated, while the following day the conference dedicated to Franco Vegliani will take place with the presentation of the box set with the volumes in Italian and Croatian of “La frontiera”.

The events began on June 12 with the Festival della canzonetta fiumana which is becoming a key event of these days, greeted with great enthusiasm by the Mayor himself. Filipovic participated in the Aula Magna of the High School, two days later, in the celebrations of the 135th anniversary of the Italian school. On this occasion AFIM and SSF awarded the students who participated in the Concorso San Vito created precisely to highlight the anniversaries.

The presentation of Massimo Superina's book on "Fiume al lavoro" was another important moment, as was the evening dedicated to the 2023 issue of Tore, which showcased the magazine's new editorial team led by Florinda Kleviser.

Such a dense program almost took your breath away, leaving little space even for the AFIM assembly, with the intervention of all the guests present, the approval of the proposal to postpone the elections of the new Presidency Office to 2024, the presentation of the next appointments of a year particularly rich in activities and the economic budget. A mass of work, of plots, of proposals that sometimes happens to give in to the details but that is carried with great momentum and authentic enthusiasm.