Italiani.it brings the history, culture and excellence of each Municipality to 2,5 million users in 108 languages.
Most Italian municipalities, especially small and medium-sized ones, have a structural problem with international communication. It's certainly not for lack of content to share: the history, landscape, traditions, and excellence of these places are often extraordinary. The problem is lack of channels capable of bringing that story outside national borders systematically, professionally, and continuously. An occasional promotional campaign, a social media presence managed with limited resources, a few articles in a trade magazine: these are valuable tools, but they're insufficient to build a stable international presence. Effective communication requires continuity, specific skills, relationships with the right audiences, and the ability to adapt the narrative to widely varying cultural contexts.
It is precisely this gap that the Municipalities Project fills, making the editorial and relational infrastructure of italiani.it available to participating administrations.
A platform built over nearly thirty years
The Fondazione italiani.it editorial platform isn't a hastily constructed product. It's the result of nearly thirty years of daily work on a specific theme: telling the story of Italy and Italianness to those around the world who maintain emotional, cultural, or identity-based ties with our country. Over the years, the Foundation has developed a series of skills and assets that today constitute a truly valuable communications infrastructure: a editorial staff with experience in writing for the Italian diaspora, capable of dealing with historical, cultural and territorial themes with the right sensitivity for each audience; a network of collaborators distributed across multiple countries, capable of contextualizing content for different communities; a multilingual technical architecture which allows simultaneous publication in multiple languages and content optimization for international search engines; a distribution system An integrated platform that coordinates web channels, social networks, newsletters, apps, and associated portals. The result is an editorial machine capable of significantly amplifying the voice of any region that enters the network.
The platform's numbers
The traffic and visibility data for italiani.it speak for themselves.
Every month, the platform records over 2,5 million unique users from all over the world. On the Google search engine, the contents generate among the 3 to 6 million organic impressions per month —which means that just as many people find and view content on italiani.it looking for information related to Italy, their roots, and their places of origin. These numbers are the result of editorial and SEO efforts built over time on topics of high interest to the Italian diaspora. This traffic qualified: comes from people actively seeking information about Italy, not from randomly intercepted users. The geographic distribution covers the main countries of Italian emigration: Argentina, Brazil, the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Venezuela, Uruguay, Chile, and many others. For each of these markets, the platform offers tailored and contextualized content.
The publication in 108 languages This isn't a stylistic exercise. It's a concrete response to a need: the descendants of Italian emigrants, in most cases, don't speak Italian or speak it only to a limited extent. A grandchild of Italian emigrants in Argentina reads in Spanish. A descendant of Calabrians in Australia reads in English. A child of Venetians in Germany reads in German. If content exists only in Italian, this vast audience is excluded. The italiani.it platform produces content in Italian, Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, German, Romanian, and other languages, ensuring that the story of the region reaches even the generations linguistically distant from Italy—those who, paradoxically, often have a stronger desire to rediscover their roots precisely because they feel most distant.
For the Municipalities participating in the Municipalities Project, this means that the story of their territory is not only translated mechanically, but culturally adapted for each audience.
What we tell
The content the Foundation produces for its member municipalities does not follow the institutional press release model. It consists of editorial content, articles, videos, and interviews, designed to emotionally and informatively engage readers. The topics are varied and cover: local history, the origins of the country, the illustrious figures, the events that have marked the community; the landscape and environment the most beautiful places, the paths, the views, the seasons; the gastronomy, traditional dishes, typical products, local producers; traditions and holidays religious and civil celebrations, cultural events, local customs; stories of emigration and return the characters of the diaspora who maintain a link with the territory, the families who have returned, the descendants who have visited their grandparents' country; the opportunities and news calls for repopulation, new municipal services, and events open to external visitors.
Each piece of content is designed to work on multiple levels: it informs those unfamiliar with the area, excites those with roots there, and calls to action those considering a visit.
Social media, newsletters, and apps: integrated distribution
Quality editorial content is of little use if it doesn't reach its audience. The Foundation manages a integrated distribution system which maximizes the visibility of each content produced. Italiani.it social media channels with thousands of followers distributed across the main diaspora communities, they distribute content in a form suitable for different formats: posts, stories, reels, videos. thematic newsletters They reach members directly, with opening rates significantly above the industry average, because the audience is highly motivated and selected.Italiani.it app allows users to continuously follow the contents of their reference area.
All this translates, for the participating Municipality, into a international digital presence which does not require investments in advertising and which produces long-lasting results.
It's important to emphasize that international communication, within the context of the Municipalities Project, is not an end in itself. It's a tool serving concrete objectives: attracting local tourists, stimulating the interest of investors and new residents, building relationships with the diaspora, and enhancing the area's reputation. A municipality that is consistently and qualitatively profiled in multiple languages on a leading platform for the Italian diaspora isn't just "communicating." It's building a international reputational capital which accumulates over time and produces tangible effects: bookings for stays, requests for information, contacts with descendants, interest from foreign media, attention from international institutions.
For many municipalities, this is the first time they've had a tool like this. The Municipalities Project makes it possible.
