In India, B’luru is the place to be: Italy Consul General

Falah Faisal | NT

Bengaluru: In the last few months there have been a slew of Italian cultural events in the city. There was an art show at CKP, a film festival of Italian movies and an Indo-Italian dance performance at Shoonya.

The reason for this is that Italy is opening a consulate in Bengaluru sometime next year and doing these events to promote Italian culture in the city. The man behind it all is Alfonso Tagliaferri, Consul General of Italy in Bengaluru, for whom this is his third posting after Manila, Philippines and Cape Town, South Africa.

He has been in town since January setting up the consulate which is slated to open near Trinity Circle sometime in April 2023. Being a Consul General has far more responsibilities than organizing the cultural events that get visibility, he says “An average day for me includes calls with Rome to organize webinars to promote business between Indian and Italian companies, calls with the consulate in Mumbai to organize Study in Italy fares, inviting the Agriculture Minister of Karnataka to Italy for a conference, approving budgets for next year and dealing with any consular emergency that might pop up.”

With the Italian Embassy in Delhi and consulates in Mumbai and Kolkata, they are making inroads to the south for the first time by opening up in Bengaluru. The reason for that, Alfonso explains, is that “In India, Bengaluru is the place to be.

In 2021, 40% of FDI that came to India came to Karnataka and from that most of it to Bengaluru. Four eyes out of ten that look at India look at Bengaluru.” The other major function of the consulate is to issue visas. “With the war in Russia and Covid still looming over China, India has become the country where we grant the most visas in the world. So opening up in the South will ease the pressure,” says Alfonso, who first came to India in 2020 to process visas in Kolkata right before Covid hit and fell in love with the country and found a reason to get back here.

In terms of what similarities he sees between Indian and Italian cultures, he says “There are no barriers when you sit around and talk with Indians, at least in the cities. I have been invited to so many people’s homes. Both cultures are family oriented, enjoy the little things like food, laughter and have a strong work ethic but don’t let it consume them entirely.”

But he doesn’t find the Italian food in Bengaluru up to the mark. “Italian food is simple but very difficult to recreate. If you don’t have the right olive oil, tomatoes or cheese it tastes quite average and the wine we use in cooking is difficult to import and gets spoiled in the hotter weather here.”

He credits Americans for the invention of Italian cuisine as we know it, he explains, “Italy had a lot of micros states that were very divided. No one from the South would eat rice and no one in the North might eat pizza, but when immigration to America happened in the 19th and early 20th century, people met in New York and put together a cohesive menu. ”

He promises to organize a food fare that will give us a taste of authentic Italian cooking. “We hope to get someone who can talk about Italian food from an Indian perspective,” he says as the Consul looks to fully explore all the possibilities of strengthening ties between the two countries.