DAMIANO FRANCOVIGH, the new Italian consul-general in Calcutta, talks food and wine, golf and tourism with Chandreyee Chatterjee.

Is this your first visit to Calcutta?

Yes, this is my first ever visit to Calcutta. In fact this is my first time in India.

Why did you choose Calcutta or did Calcutta choose you?

Well, you can say it happened both ways. I already had an experience in Asia, because I had been posted to Vietnam in the past and I liked the environment. I am a friend of Cesare (Bieller) who is my predecessor here, who told me that the place is actually very nice and it was worth coming here. As diplomats we can apply for a new posting and I was lucky enough to get this.

Apart from Cesare, did you talk to anyone with a Calcutta connect before arriving here?

Yes, I got to talk to some friends of mine who were posted to India. Like Joel Melchiori, who was the consul-general here before Cesare, and he also told me that the city was very pleasant to work in for a tenure. I spoke to other colleagues who had served in India, trying to understand what kind of environment and what kind of challenges I would find in the city.

What has been your first impression of Calcutta?

When I came in February I was happy to see that everything I was told about the city was actually true. The people of Calcutta are so warm and friendly and welcoming and the social environment is also very friendly, and I would say even hectic. And the food is so good!

I play golf and I have discovered that there are two clubs with 18-hole courses. I play at RCGC and it is very nice and really professional. I believe it is the first British golf course opened outside the British Isles, and they tell this with great pride and rightly so. I can confirm that the tradition is well maintained even after two centuries. It is a wonderful place to spend a few hours playing golf.

Even the bad things they told me about Calcutta are not so bad after all. Like the weather. Everybody told me that the weather was a negative factor. Of course there are some periods of the year when the weather is not good but, at the end of the day, it is not worse than it was in Vietnam. In fact, it is better. And the good season is really good. In February when I arrived, and a part of March, the weather was really fine.

The traffic was another negative factor I was told about, which it can be during some periods of the year, some special days and some special hours but for the rest of the time it is acceptable. I come from Rome - I am not from Rome but being a diplomat we serve in Rome - and I will tell you that traffic in Rome is a negative factor because we spend hours moving from one part of the city to the other. Calcutta is not worse than that.

If there is anything negative here it is the quality of the air. It seems to be not so good because of the pollution. It is a factor that should be addressed because it affects the lives of citizens.

You said how hectic the social life in Calcutta is, did you expect that?

Well not so much. They told me, but I did not expect it. For example the races, it is a very special tradition beautifully preserved, which I like very much. The tradition of clubs is also something very unique to Calcutta, which says many things about the culture of the city. In these beautiful mansions used as clubs you can find an atmosphere that takes you back a hundred years. It is really something special.

Another factor that is special to me is the food. I love Bengali food and Indian food. We Italians have our food tradition that is very well known and spread throughout the world, so when we talk about food we want to be sure that what we have on our plate is actually good. And I must tell you that I haven't found anything here in Calcutta that isn't very high level. The local tradition of food and the special dishes is just wonderful.

Bengali cuisine uses ingredients like fresh fish and seafood, which is among my favourites, so I am very lucky. Also the spices you use here like mustard for instance, and you fry in mustard oil, which is something very strange for us but it very tasty and I like it so much.

I have been in five-star hotels eating Bengali food and it was delicious and I've been to other restaurants in town and it is the same. I noticed the great attention given to the freshness of the ingredients and also the presentation of the food.

How are you looking to engage with Calcutta on culture?

We hope to be able to organise something special in November when the minister of foreign affairs launches the first week of Italian cuisine worldwide. As I said earlier, we have our food traditions and you have yours. To my understanding, Italian food is very much appreciated in Calcutta. We will also have discussions and exchange of views on local dishes; we will be inviting someone to present some ideas on Italian cuisine to a local audience. We are looking forward to organising other events like concerts and the screening of a silent movie with music at the end of the year.

Is education going to be one of your focus areas?

Yes. For example, after having this week of Italian cuisine, I would like, if possible, to take it to the next step like trying to bring Italy to the schools here that teach hotel management. We would like to bring in teachers from Italy working in this sector to see if it is possible to arrange some sort of coordination and cooperation.

We have many collaborations with institutes here and many students are applying for student visas for Italy to study in universities like Bocconi and Politecnico, both in Milan and Turin. The figures are smaller as compared to other parts of India but they are increasing. We have cooperation in the area of education and research thanks to the centres of excellence in Italy in fields like physics and I see that there is continuous exchange of researchers. This is an important tool for strengthening bilateral relations.

In terms of business and trade what are your focus areas?

This is a sector where I think we should concentrate more than we have in the past. Bengal has great potential. There is attention towards attracting investors and in improving the business environment. The business summit in January 2017 will be an important event in that regard. I think it is the right move from the state government to attract investors in all sectors but in manufacturing in particular.

By the way, Italy has great expertise in the area of small and medium enterprises. The backbone of Italian economy is based on SMEs and this is something that connects Italy and India. SMEs could explore their full potential because they were working in clusters, exchanging ideas, exchanging labour force, exchanging pattern and modes of production which made the SMEs more agile and flexible than the big companies. This is an experience that I think could be replicated over here.

West Bengal is a great hub of leather industries and even for Italy that sector is very important. This is a specific area where we can concentrate on strengthening our bilateral cooperation.

We would also like to introduce more Italian wines to Calcutta. Wine is an important tradition in Europe and though Calcutta has a love for strong alcohol, especially whisky, many people are becoming more and more interested in tasting wine. So this is another area in which there is scope for cooperation between the two places. I am very happy to hear that Calcuttans are becoming more interested in good wines and I hope that it will be possible to bring more Italian wine labels to the city.

Every Calcuttan on a Europe trip stops in Italy but do you have any plans to encourage tourists from Calcutta to spend time in Italy?

This year we are having the Jubilee celebrations so it is turning out to be an attraction for a number of people in Calcutta. And there's the ceremonial canonisation of Mother Teresa as well. That is also when we will have the visit of the chief minister (Mamata Banerjee) to Italy. We have already received many applications for visas - pilgrims and tourists travelling to Rome for this special occasion. I am sure that on September 4 we'll see that St. Peter's Square will be crowded and most of the crowd I think will be made up of Calcuttans!

My suggestion to people who are interested to travel to Italy is: I understand that most of the people, when they prepare their itinerary they think, 'Okay, 10 days in Europe? Value for money is visiting at least five countries so I can say I visited five countries'. But when you go so wide you cannot go in-depth. And Italy has so many different things to see. The food, as we were saying, is a factor. We are also one of the countries in the world with the most important heritage monuments. We can offer people a chance to enjoy wonderful mountains as many tourists like to go trekking or on walks in the mountains. Also the Alps from the Italian side has wonderful places that can be visited like Trentino-Alto Adige in the north-east of Italy. The landscape is wonderful, nothing less than Switzerland or Austria.

For those who are interested we have wonderful beaches as well. If you go to Sardinia you'll see that we have places almost as beautiful as Thailand for swimming and sunbathing. The pleasure of walking around in ancient and historical towns and sunbathing and swimming in the sea on the same day, it is an experience that you cannot get everywhere.

Love for food apart, do you see any similarities between Italians and Calcuttans?

For Italians family is very important and in India also you have very close-knit large families. In Italy now the families are smaller in size but still the ties in the families are very strong. The other thing of course is that we both have a long and rich history. It is something that brings us closer despite being thousands of kilometres away. Also both Italians and Calcuttans are very happy people. This is a common thing we have which is also a positive thing and something to be proud of.

The consulate has moved to a new office (5G, New Road, Alipore), will there be an expansion in the services the consulate provides?

Well the idea is that since we now have this location in Alipore we will be using this as a hub for organising events, which would bring together people who love Italy or Italian culture and food. It can be a place where they and even Italians can meet and spend some time together. The Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce office will also shift to the new premises. This will become the hub of Italy in Calcutta.

What is your 'welcome to Calcutta' message for the Italian consul-general? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com