Good afternoon everyone, thank you for being here. I am very happy to have the opportunity, together with Minister Sun Yeli, whom I thank, to officially open this wonderful exhibition dedicated to Marco Polo on the 700th anniversary of his death.
I also wish to thank the exceptional artists who accompanied us, treating us to another important piece of our extraordinary culture. Marco Polo was one of the greatest Italians of all time. During his epic life, he built bridges between East and West, influencing for centuries the view us Europeans and Westerners had of Asia, and particularly of China. 

As the title of this exhibition reads, Marco Polo’s was not just a physical journey along the ancient Silk Road, but was above all a cultural journey, a journey of ideas, a journey of discovery, a journey of knowledge.
Marco Polo brought that wealth of knowledge back with him, contributing to altering people’s perception of the Chinese Empire in Italy and Europe, at a time when distances were so great they could seem unbridgeable.  
His book ‘The Travels of Marco Polo’ talked about China and went on to become much more than just a travel diary. Those pages became a window, a portal to a culture that only few Europeans could imagine at the time. Marco Polo charted a path leading from Italy to China, and from his time to ours.

The journey may have seemed easier at times, while at others more uphill, but ever since then that path has always remained navigable. And I believe it is now up to us to create together the conditions to keep it that way, to allow the economic, scientific and cultural relations that form the basis of cooperation between our two nations to continue on their journey along that path. Two age-old civilisations, both aware that they have a dual mission: on the one hand, to treasure the extraordinary legacy of our forefathers, and, on the other, to carry on that legacy and heritage both now and in the future, also making them a basis and inspiration to achieve new milestones.

Defending what we are is also the most effective way we have of understanding others. And understanding others is key to better address the major global challenges of these complex times. As the Minister was saying, our deep relationship is reflected in the bas-relief behind us, which is dedicated to the thousands of years of China’s history (very generally speaking, of course, as such a long and complex history could never be enclosed in a single room). As the Minister mentioned, only two foreigners are depicted in that bas-relief and in that story, both of whom are Italian: one is Marco Polo and the other is Matteo Ricci. 
While Marco Polo introduced China to Westerners, Matteo Ricci helped the people of China broaden their horizon and understand Europe and the West.
This is enough to understand how deeply valuable Italy-China relations are. I must therefore thank all the Italian and Chinese institutions that have contributed to this exhibition: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italian Embassy, the Cultural Institute, Treccani, the Municipality of Beijing, the World Art Museum, as well as the many museums that have made their collections available, and of course all those who have supported this project, many of whom are here today.

As you know, this is not the only initiative Italy has launched to celebrate the great Marco Polo. The Ministry of Culture has set up a national committee for commemorations that is taking care of the various initiatives being held both in Italy and abroad, starting with the upcoming transfer of the wonderful exhibition currently on display at the Doge’s Palace in Venice to the Shanghai Museum in November. This exhibition chronicles the extraordinary journey described in ‘The Travels of Marco Polo’.

I have already explained the historical reasons why we are celebrating Marco Polo seven centuries after his death, but I think we are also essentially paying tribute to this man for the life lesson he left us, because if Marco Polo hadn’t dared embark on a journey that until then was considered unimaginable, impossible and beyond reach, if he hadn’t braved the unknown, then history would probably have turned out differently.

So, we are above all commemorating Marco Polo to remind ourselves that, in the end, we are the ones who make history, especially when we’re not afraid to take risks, when we follow our beliefs, when we don’t let ourselves be influenced by the limits that others believe in. This is true for everyone, now and always.

On this basis, I do not think that remembrance without action has much value in the end. Courage and daring were what created the centuries-old bond that unites our two nations, and so I also think the best way to celebrate that history, those events and this anniversary seven centuries on is to make that bond, which is first and foremost a cultural bond based on respect, even stronger, and that is what we are here to do with our visit.

My sincere thanks therefore go to everyone; thanks to all the authorities that have worked on this initiative, thanks to the Minister and thanks to the Government for their warm welcome over the last few days.

I wish you all the best with your work.

[Courtesy translation]