NEW YORK, JULY 1 – “A successful team beats with one heart. From the entire Permanent Mission of Italy to the UN in New York, a sincere ‘thank you’ and best wishes for this new important responsibility”: this was the message to Ambassador Mariangela Zappia shared on Twitter by her colleagues at the the Mission. Today Zappia has taken over the reins of the Italian Embassy in Washington, “with a commitment to strengthen the deep, historic friendship between Italy and the United States with an eye to the future, and the innovative potential of cooperation between two exemplary democracies.”
The appointment was announced today by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs following recent approval by the Council of Ministers and the approval of the US government. Zappia has served a vital role as Permanent Representative to the UN since 2018, and will be the first woman to assume the role as Italian Ambassador to Washington.
Zappia’s place will be taken over by Maurizio Massari, previously the Italian representative to the EU. Massari, a Neapolitan by birth, received a degree in political science from Oriental University in Naples. Working in Moscow until 1990, he oversaw Soviet press content and domestic politics. He then was assigned to London, working in the economic-commercial sector of the Italian Embassy as well as on European politics. Political advisor to Washington during the second term of the Clinton administration, he subsequently collaborated in the negotiations on the revision of the Maastricht Treaty in 1996 and 1997. After returning to Italy in 2003, he served as Ambassador for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Serbia and Montenegro and as Special Envoy for the Mediterranean and the Middle East. In 2013, he was appointed Ambassador to Egypt. He left Cairo for Brussels in 2016. (@BrittanyBryantF)
