The Romeyne Robert and Uguccione Ranieri di Sorbello Foundation is proud to have supported the research carried out by Dr. Antonella Valoroso over the past three years. Her work investigates the complex network of initiatives that, throughout the twentieth century, led to the rediscovery and renewed appreciation of Giovanni da Verrazzano—not only in Italy, but above all in the United States. Central to this process was the active involvement of New York’s Italian diasporic communities and the city’s Italian consular authorities, among whom Uguccione Ranieri di Sorbello played a key role as director of the Cultural Office established in 1963 at the Consulate General of Italy in New York.

Drawing on extensive archival research conducted in both Italy and the United States, Dr. Valoroso has reconstructed this multifaceted historical narrative, now published as a richly illustrated bilingual volume: A Bridge for Giovanni da Verrazzano. Stories of Cultural Diplomacy from Greve in Chianti to New York (Perugia, Morlacchi Editore, 2025). The book was published with the support of the Fondazione Ranieri di Sorbello, the Municipality of Greve in Chianti—Giovanni da Verrazzano’s birthplace—the Verrazzano Foundation, and the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute.

In the introduction to the volume, the author reflects on the layered meanings of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, noting that while millions of people cross it each year—or admire its majestic silhouette in images of the New York Marathon—few are aware of the complex history embedded in its name. “This book—Valoroso writes—aims to tell that story through an interweaving of narratives: the story of how a nearly forgotten Tuscan navigator became a symbol of Italian prestige and pride; of how a largely marginalized community managed to assert its place in the founding myth of New York; and of how a far-sighted and at times visionary form of diplomacy was able to foresee and forge lasting bonds between peoples and culture.”

The impact of A Bridge for Giovanni da Verrazzano is captured in the words of Professor Anthony Julian Tamburri, Dean of the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute. His endorsement, featured on the back cover of the book, reads:

“A Bridge for Giovanni da Verrazzano offers a concise, detailed, and highly accomplished account of one of the longest suspension bridges in the world. Its story is both intriguing and engaging, recounting how Italian and Italian American communities worked together to achieve a remarkable feat—the dedication to a Tuscan explorer of what was, at the time, the longest suspension bridge in the world.”