リヴォルノ - 大村市 (Livorno - Ōmura)

On October 9, a delegation from the Japanese city of Ōmura, headed by its mayor Takashi Matsumoto, has been received in our Town Hall in view of a possible twinning with our city. The rationale behind this choice is that the first Japanese diplomats arrived in Italy in 1585 through the port of Livorno.

Japanese delegation at the Foreign Navies ceremony in 2011

I am very happy about this, but I am quite ashamed to confess that until now my only knowledge of this prospective sister city was through the libretto of Puccini's Madama Butterfly:

Il Commissario Imperiale: È concesso al nominato Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, Luogotenente nella cannoniera Lincoln, marina degli Stati Uniti, America del Nord: ed alla damigella Butterfly del quartiere d'Omara Nagasaki, d'unirsi in matrimonio, per dritto il primo, della propria volontà, ed ella per consenso dei parenti qui testimonî all'atto. Madama Butterfly, Atto Primo Libretto di Luigi Illica e Giuseppe Giacosa Musica di Giacomo Puccini

The Imperial Commissioner: It is permitted to the herein named Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton, Lieutenant in the warship Lincoln, United States Navy, North America, and to Miss Butterfly of the Omara district of Nagasaki, to be united in matrimony, the first by right of his own wish and she by consent of her relations here witness to the contract. Madama Butterfly, Act One Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa Music by Giacomo Puccini

Livorno is already twinned with Bat Yam (Israel), Haiphong (Vietnam), Novorossiysk (Russia), Guadalajara (Spain), Adana (Turkey) and Oakland (USA).

External links: Ōmura, Nagasaki - Livorno, sister cities (Wikipedia)

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