The sunny Italian side of Margarita Fores

I landed in Manila for the first time one evening in early August 2017 to begin my assignment as Ambassador to the Philippines. The next day, in fact my first day in Manila, I asked the embassy where I could go for dinner with my daughter Alessandra who had accompanied me. They suggested the restaurant Lusso in Greenbelt and booked me a table.

Sitting in the restaurant and chatting with my daughter, the owner Margarita Fores suddenly materialized, probably having been warned that the new Italian ambassador would be having dinner there. From that moment a deep and sincere friendship was born between Margarita and me that accompanied me not only in my four years as ambassador, but well beyond in the following years, meeting often both in Manila and in Rome.

With Margarita, I organized the Italian National Day (June 2) in 2018 and 2019, always in places different from the usual somewhat dull halls of large hotels. Margarita and I shared the idea that the national holiday should be a non-formal moment of joy experienced by whole families. The first year we organized it in Karrivin, among art galleries and Italian street food stalls organized by Margarita.

In 2019, the National Day was held at Ateneo University and it was also a great success that time, with Margarita and I who decided to propose traditional dishes from northern Italy, starting with a legendary mushroom risotto.

Covid prevented us from organizing National Day in the following two years and the regret remains because the dream of both of us was to organize the National Day in Cubao Expo.

In the residence, however, we organized a celebration of the week of Italian cuisine during which I had the honor and pleasure of nominating Margarita Fores knight of Italy, Cavaliere. No one more than her deserved the honor for how much she contributed to spreading the culture of Italian cuisine in the Philippines.

We organized many other events together and what I would like to emphasize with great affection is both the enthusiasm that Margarita put into any project I proposed to her, and the deep love that tied her to Italy, a true and undoubtedly reciprocated love. I see her again when we are sitting with some members of her staff in Rome at Campo de Fiori eating together a pasta alla carbonara at the Hostaria Romanesca, also that time talking about which projects to implement to bring Italy and the Philippines even closer together.

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Giorgio Guglielmino served as Ambassador of Italy in the Philippines from 2017  to  2021.