An exhibition staged by the Archive of Serbia, entitled "Serbia and the Serbs: 1914-1918", formally opened on 13 April at the Cordellina Palace in Vicenza. The event was co-organized by the Serbian Embassy in Rome, Honorary Consul of R. Serbia in the Veneto Region Ms. Loreta Baggio and the Serb Association of Italy.

Students of Arrigo Pedrollo Conservatorium of Music played Italian and Serbian national anthems, and the student of the Serbian evening school "St. Sava" Ms. Julija Lazic sang the song "Far and Away".

Mayor of Vicenza Francesco Rucco underlined the importance of and contribution made by the Serbian community to the development of the city and province, as the most numerous, very-well integrated ethnic community there. In addition to many representatives of Serb associations from the Veneto Region and Serbs living in Vicenza, the exhibition opening was also attended by Vicenza Municipal Secretary Leonardo De Marzo in charge of international relations, exhibition curator and archival counselor Jelica Reljic, Public Prosecutor for the city of Vicenza Paolo Dainese, parish priest of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Vicenza, presbyter Dalibor Djukic, and President of the Serb Association of Italy Dusan Aleksic.



After the exhibition launch in Vicenza, Ambassador Goran Aleksic visited the Serbian cultural community "Arzignano", the "Crown" organization from Schio and attended the opening of photographic exhibition about the bombing of the FRY entitled "20 Years After". Ambassador Aleksic and Honorary Consul Baggio also visited a class of the "St. Sava" Serbian evening school to greet the students.



The visit to Veneto Region was also an opportunity to promote the Serbia-Italy economic cooperation, in which context Honorary Consul Loreta Baggio hosted a working dinner with entrepreneurs and representatives of the Veneto Region business associations chaired by the Mayor of Treviso Mario Conte. The Ambassador spoke about the business environment and benefits of investing in Serbia, the advantages offered through free trade agreements, including access to third markets, and pointed to the continued trend of growth in terms of economic cooperation and Italian investments.