After many months of wondering if Marsala would honor Ignazio, as the other cities have honored Piero and Gianluca, the day had finally come for Ignazio! Marsala bestowed upon him the honor of “Ambassador of Marsala in the World!” on February 16 at approximately 17 hundred hours, which is about 5:00pm Marsala time. The ceremony lasted about 45 minutes…and due to the small space where the ceremony took place, the city had staged a “maxischermo” outside of the municipal building, since not everyone could fit inside.
There are several videos floating around out there, but my favorite one has to be the one where he is on the stage in the city and all the townsfolk are there and he is singing Grande Amore and the crowd is singing with him. The crowd is quite good and they already know most of the words to Grande Amore in just a few short days. Then, Ignazio, is Ignazio, gently correcting the crowd on some of their misdirected words and pronunciations! When he is finished, the crowd cheers. I believe his mother was on stage with him, as at one point I think I heard him say “mama” during the refrain of Grande Amore.
Of course, everyone in the city is so proud of Ignazio, their Prince, and now Ambassador! Everyone at home, and around the world, is proud of him, as well as Piero and Gianluca. They are such beautiful souls with grounded thoughts and values. Such a rare thing in this world today!
At last Ignazio has received the accolades and honor of his hometown. But was it too much, too late? If it was, he certainly didn’t portray any of those feelings. He seemed very happy in all of the pictures and videos, and why not? They are flying so high right now, let’s hope they don’t come down for a long, long, time!
