The Italian Cultural Institute has organised a number of activities to promote Italian as part of the 14th edition of the Italian Language Week in the World.

The institute hosted an awards ceremony for the winners of a competition to promote creative writing in Italian for students aged 10 to 12, entitled Piccoli autori crescono.

Kimberly Rega from St Ignatius College secondary school was awarded first prize for her story L’isola che non c’è.

She was presented with a tablet computer by Italian Ambassador Giovanni Umberto de Vito, who presided the panel of judges that evaluated the contestants’ stories. The panel included Joseph Brincat, Joseph Pace-Asciak, Sandro Caruana and Mario Pace.

Four other students from the same school – Charlotte Formosa, Kelly Muscat, Dorita Agius and Leanne Mercieca – also participated in the competition and the school was presented with an award for achieving the highest points awarded to students from the same school.

A collective exhibition entitled ‘Paper reincarnations’ was inaugurated at the institute. It will remain open until Friday.

Two renowned Italian professors – Massimo Arcangeli and Edoardo Boncinelli – delivered a lecture at the University on the use of language at the interface between the sciences and the humanities.

Arcangeli also gave a talk about the history and the use of the e-mail symbol @, which is the subject of a book he will publish shortly.