Week of Italian cuisine due in Baku

By Azernews

By Amina Nazarli

Residents and guests of Baku will be able to enjoy Italian dishes, salads and desserts the whole week as part of the first World Week of Italian cuisine.

Italian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Giampaolo Cutillo said that within a week, about three hundred events will take place all over the world, where people will be able to plunge into the atmosphere of the Italian way of life, listening to the Italian music and tasting Italian goodies.

The Week aims to promote Italian traditions, food and culture throughout the world. People around the world will gather around the Italian tables during the Week.

"Baku will also host five events until Saturday, November 26," he told Trend. "Visitors of Italian restaurants will be able to get acquainted with traditional kitchens of Turin, Sicily, Milan and other Italian cities."

The diplomat also noted that in recent months, Azerbaijan and Italy carried out a number of cultural activities.

"Recently Baku hosted the Week of Italian Fashion, Week of the Italian language, and other several events, in particular those relating to education in Italy. We try to carry out as much work as possible. There are good conditions for this. Relations between the two countries are friendly and good," said the ambassador.

Being one of Azerbaijan's major partners in Europe, Italy has been Azerbaijan's number one trade partner for the last eight years. It is the largest importer of Azerbaijani goods.

Currently, about 45 Italian companies are operating in Azerbaijan in insurance, banking, trade, and other areas.

Italy has become the biggest trade partner of Azerbaijan in importing crude oil and oil products and mainly exports pipes for the oil sector, tobacco, leather and furniture to Azerbaijan.

Baku and Rome are strategic partners in the energy sector. Italy, whose scanty natural resources traditionally make the country dependent on import has been a key partner for Baku. Since 1999, Italy has begun to receive a large part of Azerbaijani oil exported through the Baku - Supsa pipeline and then through the Baku - Ceyhan. This made Italy the number one partner for Azerbaijan and this position is maintained until today.