On Tuesday 16 April in Rome, at the Chamber of Deputies, the Genoese Pesto with Mortar was presented, the flag of Liguria and excellence of Made in Italy, in a demonstration wanted and organized by the Presidency of the Liguria Region.
The press conference was attended by the President of the Region Giovanni Toti, the Mayor of Genoa Marco Bucci, the Deputy Minister of Infrastructures Edoardo Rixi, the President of the Cultural Association Palatifini Roberto Panizza and the Vice President delegated to the UNESCO project Sergio Di Paolo. Almost all Ligurian Members were present.
It was an important occasion both for the celebration of Pesto and its centrality in the Ligurian food culture, and for updating the application for UNESCO recognition to the CNIU (Italian National Commission for UNESCO) dating back to 2015. From the beginning the accreditation process – which involves the CNIU, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and the Ministry of Agricultural Policies – highlighted the role of the Pesto World Championship in safeguarding the ancient practice, considered an innovative and unique experience of its kind, such to aspire to register in the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices, which “contains programs, projects and activities that best reflect the principles and objectives of the UNESCO Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage”.
One of the main aspects of the Convention is the popular participation in the recovery goals of the cultural good, our Pesto with Mortar. During the press conference the adhesions of almost all the Ligurian municipalities, of dozens of associations, Italian and foreign schools and universities and the more than 25,000 signatures collected by the Liguria Region during the week of the 2018 World Championship were recalled.
A demonstration of Pesto al Mortaio and a distribution of food products and Ligurian wines by the Enoteca Regionale della Liguria of Castelnuovo Magra.
The participation of the political world and of communication with hundreds of souvenir photos taken around the giant mortar by Roberto Panizza was very strong with testimonies of sympathy, support and interest including those of the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and the Vice President Matteo Salvini.
