Columbus got a taste of Italy this week. Or is it the other way around?
Five visiting Italian Rotarians have been in town since Monday on the latest stop of a statewide tour. The visitors, from the Brescia North Rotary Club are participating in an exchange program which sent five north Mississippians to Italy.
The Italians have already been to Jackson, Meridian and Starkville, and after Columbus they”ll be off to Greenville, Greenwood, Vicksburg and as far south as New Orleans.
The trip isn”t entirely social. Since Rotary is a club for professionals, the Italian delegation has stopped by industrial centers, hospitals and the like to get a taste of what work is like for their American counterparts.
Simona Gentilini, 39, a pediatrician, works for the government in Italy. She and the team have visited several hospitals and most recently stopped by the Columbus Children”s Clinic. She was impressed that pediatricians have their own practices in America, but hesitated to give U.S. health care her full endorsement.
“Sometimes it”s better than ours (in Italy),” said Gentilini.
Simone Stancari, 38, an architectural engineer, deals primarily with energy savings and renewable energy. Italy, he says, doesn”t have nearly as much horizontal space as Mississippi, whether on the ground or rooftops, to take advantage of solar energy via solar panels. However, he says the country attempts to compensate with a high number of energy saving facilities.
Stancari”s agency promotes construction of new renewable energy plants.
He praised the energy conservation steps taken at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, but feels Mississippi is not taking advantage of a “great potential” for renewable energy.
The most interesting stop on the Mississippi tour, thus far, for Alessandro Copeta, 35, a mechanical engineer, has been the Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems in Starkville. A close second was the flight simulator at Columbus Air Force Base, which all five guests got to experience.
Jay Wiygul, president of the Columbus Rotary Club, happily reported only one crash at the simulator.
In addition to CAFB, the Italians toured the Global Industrial Aerospace Park and were set to take the Pilgrimage tour Thursday.
Copeta said he”d be happy to return to America, very possibly the south, one day because America offers “more possibility to succeed if you”re good (at your job).”
He had a hard time putting the explanation into words due to his limited English, but Copeta says the employment system in Italy is set up in such a way that it”s hard for individuals to excel, but at the same time, prevents complete failures.
America, on the other hand, allows the freedom to shine as well as the freedom to crash and burn.
Franco Decchio, the elder leader of the Rotary exchange group, said all of the participants, who are first-time visitors to America, were selected to the program to broaden their world views and become better Rotarians in Italy.
Wiygul says the visit has served as a learning experience for both sides.
“We realize how much we have in common,” he said. “I feel like we”ve been blessed by their attitude and enthusiasm for the state. And I hope we”ve given the team a true picture of what Mississippi actually represents.”
Stancari admits the team didn”t know what to expect, having only seen Mississippi represented through movies and popular culture. The entire exchange group was very complimentary of the state and its people and will take those impressions back to Italy.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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