Joining the M’illumino di Meno energy saving campaign!

Welcome to my blog. I’m the British Ambassador to Italy and I’ve decided to start this blog in order to shine a light on what we get up to here in the Embassy.

The idea is to write about the United Kingdom and Italy, the issues that join us together and perhaps even one or two things that separate us.  Of course, the British Embassy in Rome already uses lots of digital platforms for communication – for example, we have a very active Facebook page, we post on the Embassy website and I tweet (my Twitter address is @AmbPrentice). But blogging takes us one step further, allows me to explain issues in more than 140 characters and gives me an opportunity to have more of a conversation with you.

I’d really welcome your comments. If you want me to talk about a particular issue, let me know. If you want me to answer a particular question, ask it. I’ll be honest in my reply and try to explain why we do what we do.  You may not always like what I write. If you don’t agree with me, don’t abuse me (I get enough of that on Twitter) but explain why not.  The blog will be in Italian and English so you can reply or comment in either language.

I said I would shine a light, so it seems appropriate that I will begin by talking about our support for the M’illumino di Meno (shining less brightly) campaign, run by the popular Rai Radio 2 programme Caterpillar.

The campaign, which celebrates its 10th edition on 14 February this year, advocates energy saving and the use of clean energy – two priorities which are very much in line both with the UK government’s energy policy and with our Embassy’s efforts at making sure that all of our activities are as “green” and sustainable as possible.

The organisers of the campaign ask participants to symbolically turn off their lights for a few minutes on the anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol entering into force. This year’s edition focuses on museums and other cultural sites. On 14 February, the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery in London, the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff and castles and mansions across Wales will be switching off their lights in support of the campaign. We will also be hosting the team from the Caterpillar radio show on 7 February, where they will broadcast live from my Residence (by candle light of course!) I hope that as many of you as possible will join us in the campaign.

Let’s “shine less brightly” together!