On 2 March Damir Grubiša, the former Croatian ambassador to Italy, spoke of his new book at the Italian office of the Council of Europe. This is the second Council of Europe’s Venice Office initiative, coordinated by Venice Municipality, to commemorate the “Giorno del Ricordo” (Remembrance Day). Were present with the author director Luisella Pavan-Woolfe; Paola Mar, Venice City Councilor; Alessandro Cuk, National Vice President Associazione nazionale Venezia Giulia e Dalmazia (ANVGD); Diego Zandel, editor. Silvia Zanlorenzi, ANVGD Venice, moderated the interventions.

In his diplomatic career Damir Grubiša was Advisor to the Yugoslav Delegation at the United Nations in New York, Head of Cabinet of the Yugoslav, and later, Croatian Foreign Affairs Ministers, and finally Ambassador to Italy from 2012 to 2017. He is the author and translator of many books, among which the Croatian edition of Machiavelli’s selected works.

Born in Rijeka in 1946 from an Italian mother and a Croatian father, he was exiled in Italy at the end of the Second World War. Having left Vicenza refugee camp, he went back to Rijeka where he began his diplomatic career.