December 14, 2023

Tomorrow the lighting of the torch will kick off the national final of the second edition of the CONI Winter Trophy, three days of youth sport staged in Turin, Pinerolo, Bardonecchia and Pragelato.

Athletes from all over the world have already arrived in Piedmont and some of them, as part of the “roots travels” project of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in collaboration with CONI, are visiting Piedmont and Turin, the land of their ancestors.

In fact, 2024 will be the year of Italian Roots in the World and the project aims to allow an “all-round” rediscovery of the places of origin, allowing travelers to regain possession of the culture of their origins also through traditions, testimonies, craftsmanship and gastronomy.

Thanks to this occasion, a delegation of very young athletes of the Argentine ski team, accompanied by representatives of CONI and the Ministry and by the Italian ski champion Ludovica Druetto, was received at the Civic Palace by the Mayor Stefano Lo Russo. For many of them, Italian is the language spoken by grandparents or great-grandparents in Argentina, a land that has a massive presence of citizens of Piedmontese origin, descendants of those migrants who left our region in the last century.

Yesterday, however, they visited, received by the mayors Roberto Mellano and Patrizia Manassero, Envie (CN) and Cuneo, the lands of origin of two of them.

“I am really happy to welcome you to Turin and to Palazzo Civico,” said the Mayor. Argentina is a place I visited and it really stayed in my heart. But it is also a land that has a very close bond with Piedmont and with our city, which I hope you will have the opportunity to visit. It’s really nice to see how girls and boys like you can get in touch with their origins also thanks to sport, which confirms itself as a vehicle for knowledge, integration, and the spread of positive values.”