"Do You Speak Napoletano?" San Francisco and Napoli Aiming for Landmark Agreements, Reports SF Based Consulting Firm Campania Felix, LLC

San Francisco, CA, October 25, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Since the election in 2011 of independent politician Luigi de Magistris to Mayor of Naples (Italy) , the city has become a laboratory for social innovation, participatory democracy and ground-up initiatives.1 Citizens have taken to the streets to clean parks and public spaces of debris and garbage; restore monuments, clean graffiti and revive public gardens. But above all they now express a discontent with the status quo, the naysayers that for decades have purported that Naples is a city that couldn’t do better, could not change, and was destined to continue its long decline to oblivion from being one of the World’s capitals of humanistic culture, civil engagement and scientific and technological innovation.

Carried by Neapolitan cultural institutions such as the Teatro di San Carlo, (Naples’ Opera house and Europe’s longest serving lyrical institution), young startups, scientific researchers, and de Magistris himself this renewed sense of purpose will be on display this week in Sa Francisco. Here from a unique conjoined performance Teatro San Carlo/San Francisco Opera of Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, to a Gala featuring the cuisine of Maestri Mozu’ Chefs--masters of Noble Neapolitan—to ratifying of a number of agreements on Human Rights, scientific research and youth entrepreneurship with Bay Area institutions and enterprises, everything will appear to be speaking Neapolitan.

“Naples and San Francisco are cities with a strong affinity, and not just because of their proximity to the sea and their maritime history, but also for their strong civil rights and environmental culture,” declares de Magistris ahead of his arrival to San Francisco, “The orchestras and the choirs of the San Francisco Opera and of the Teatro di San Carlo, which will be soon engaged in a historical conjoined performance of Verdi’s Requiem, are the heralds of this re-found affinity, and the confirmation that the ties binding the two cities, as the project Unite the Two Bays attests, go well beyond sea, and geo-morphological similarities but involves also the arts, culture, science and technology."

A young, energetic, and independent politician Luigi de Magistris, is probably to more genuine, although contradictory, expression of this civil revival. A former mafia and camorra prosecutor, a staunch supporter of civil rights of all minorities, and of zero waste practices, he was swept into office on the wave of a civil revolution which has cast old parties aside to make way for a new coalition of civil-minded community organizations.

Following a Gala on October 24th at the San Francisco Italian Athletic Club, and ahead of Verdi’s Requiem at the War Memorial Opera on October 25th, Mayor de Magistris, and representatives of the University of California San Francisco, the University Federico Secondo of Naples, local business executives, as well as California representatives Congressman Tom Ammiano, and State Senator Mark Leno will meet at the Italian Consulate of San Francisco to announce an upcoming agreement on Human Rights defense between the two cities and to witness the ratification of bilateral agreements for scientific and technological exchanges.

Open to members of the working press, community leaders, and donors to the various initiatives of Unite the Two Bays, the meeting will provide also an occasion to local and international media to meet the Mayor and the proponents of project “Unite the Two Bays”.

Where: Italian Consulate of San Francisco

When: 2950 Webster Street

For media inquiries please contact:

Paolo Pontoniere, Campania Felix, pmpurpont@aol.com

1 Anthony M. Quattrone, http://naplespolitics.com/2011/08/01/naples-is-becoming-a-laboratory-for-social-innovation/