Manama: A string of events to highlight Italy's culture, culinary and cinematographic traditions have been launched in Bahrain.

"The 10th edition of the Week of the Italian Language in the World aims to spread the Italian language and culture in Bahrain and to strengthen at the same time the long standing relations between Italy and the Arab world," said Italian embassy officials in Manama.

The celebrations, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the Italian Unity, started with a lecture by Professor Ignazio Del Punta, from the University of Pisa, on Italian history and some traits of the Italian culture during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period.

Italian dishes figure high on the agenda of the events and the organisers said that they would welcome anyone keen on the Italian culinary tradition.

Enrico Padula, Italy's ambassador to Bahrain, said that he would host the Italian Conversation Coffee Morning as an opportunity for students and enthusiasts about Italian to practice the language while sipping a cup of tea or enjoying a good Italian coffee.

The ambassador will also receive former Bahraini-Arab students who lived in Italy to examine, through different points of view, the motivations and the expectations that led them to go to Italy as well as the difficulties they faced.

"This is the first time, in fact, that all Bahrainis who have studied in Italian universities or schools or took part in vocational or training courses will gather to talk about their time spent in Italy as students, their feelings, their interaction with another different culture," the embassy official said.

"They will also discuss how they experienced the Italian culture and way of life. Their experiences about their stay will be the basis for a new drive to strengthen relations between Bahrain and Arab world in general and Italy," the official said.

Italian film fans will be treated to three evenings of films that will help viewers gain further insights into Italian society and film-making.

Gli amici del Bar Margherita is a comedy of manners set in the Italian city of Bologna during the 1950s, while Mio Fratello e' figlio unico represents a slice of Italy in the decade between the early 60's and 70's and seeks to reveal the obvious limitations of fascist culture and the contradictions and ingenuity of the movements of extreme left of that time.

Sotto il Cielo Azzurro is about the energy and passion of a group of teachers who are struggling for survival of Cielo Azzurro, a small nursery in the heart of Rome and a great model for dialogue between cultures today.

The film is a powerful immersion into the real lives of a group of passionate individuals committed to a daily rigorous work.