For the first time, Bulgaria will be represented at the international festival "Il mondo in casa", or "The World at Home", in Milan. The forum is being held for the eighth consecutive year and its main goal is to achieve familiarization and dialogue between the different communities on the territory of the Italian metropolis, guided by the belief that "knowledge eliminates fear".

Each year, four countries are in focus, as they symbolize four different continents. Bulgaria has now been selected and will be represented in the company of Argentina, Japan and Tunisia.

The Bulgarian evening is on June 7 at 19.30 in Piazza Del Carmine, a prestigious location for cultural events in the Italian city.

The presentation of Bulgarian culture, folklore and cuisine is being prepared by the organizations "Meridian 13" and the Association for Cultural Exchange in Milan. They were specially selected after a study of their participation in the cultural life of Milan by the organizers - Scalabrian Agency for Development Cooperation /ASCS - Agenzia Scalabriniana per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo/.

"This is a non-profit organization that supports the Missionaries of St. Carlo on the territory of Europe and Africa - organizations of the Catholic churches that provide help to communities experiencing difficulties," says Ana Sotirova, president of the Bulgarian Association for Cultural Exchange in Milan.

"The aim of this forum in Milan is to create an open community here that accepts migrants so that they are seen as an added value and not as an obstacle to society. Each nationality is represented by cultural organizations chosen by the community. The presentations are through culture, food, folklore, clothes - everything that is related to the overall image of a nationality. This is the idea of the project, which is organized for the eighth year in a row, but Bulgaria had never been presented before," Ana Sotirova tells Radio Bulgaria.

The "Ritmika" folklore lab is in the core of the Bulgarian Association for Cultural Exchange in Milan and it will present Bulgarian folklore. An interesting fact is that this will be done in cooperation with Italian choir "Indisciplinati". Some time ago, the members of the Italian band showed interest in Bulgarian folk songs. On the occasion of May 24, they delighted the Bulgarian community with their performance of the song "Sadila moma yadeno grozde". Now they are to present it on June 7.

The Bulgarian performance is on June 7 at 7:30 p.m. "The other nationalities will be presented in other evenings. This whole forum takes place within a month. There is an exhibition organized in the church, for which we have already provided our authentic costumes. It will be open for nearly two months. Maybe it is not clear from the announcement, but the event takes place in the courtyard of one of the oldest churches in Milan - Santa Maria del Carmine, in the Brera district."

Milan is a very cosmopolitan city and Bulgarians are well received there, but very little is known about Bulgaria. Therefore, our compatriots plan to present two books during the festival:

"We will also present the first published travel guide in Italian. This is a book that already has a second volume - the first is Guide Bulgaria and the second is called Guide Sofia by Morellini publishing house. In this way we can arouse their interest in Bulgaria and they can organize a wonderful trip to the country with the help of this guide,” the chairwoman of the Bulgarian Association for Cultural Exchange in Milan says.

Photos: Facebook /culturabulgarainitalia, Facebook / ritmika.folk.lab

Publication in English: Al. Markov