(VOV) -Vietnam Days in Venice kicked off on June 14 with a week-long photography exhibition featuring Vietnam-Italy friendship in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Vietnamese Embassy in Italy announced that the festival will run from June to August 2013 , with a wide range of activities, including a Vietnamese film week from June 17-21; and a display of Vietnamese lacquer paintings from July 9-August 2.
Organisers will also hold a concert by the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra (VNSO) on July 9 and an exhibition of Vietnamese culture from July 20-August 3.
At the ceremony, Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son highlighted the traditional ties between Vietnam and Italy, which have flourished strongly since they first established diplomatic ties in 1973.
The two nations raised their relationship to a strategic partnership at the beginning of this year during Party General Sectary Nguyen Phu Trong’s visit to Italy.
The diverse Vietnamese cultural activities in Venice will help strengthen solidarity and friendship between the two countries and promote the unique Vietnamese culture to Italian and international friends, he added.
Venice Mayor Giorgio Orsoni said Venice is proud to be the venue for these events and the local council will create all favourable conditions to make the festival a great success.
At the opening ceremony, Italian friends played a video tape of late President Ho Chi Minh’s message to the Italian people recorded in Hanoi in March 1967, which expressed his deep gratitude to the Italians for their assistance during Vietnam’s resistance war against the US aggressors.
Visitors to the ceremony enthusiastically applauded the unicorn dance and martial arts performances by Italian practitioners from a Viet Vo Dao (Vietnamese martial art) club in the region.
Đăng ký: VietNam News