Embassy of Italy

Just up the road from the Danish embassy is the embassy of Italy.  After we left Denmark we walked up to the road to find the line for entry.

We had a bit of a wait  as I think they were metering the entry of guests to prevent overload their security systems.  But it was a nice enough day to wait on the sidewalk in front of the compound while waiting for our turn to enter.

The Embassy of Italy in Washington DC is the largest Italian bilateral embassy worldwide.  The Chief of Mission is Ambassador Armando Varricchio who on March 2, 2016 presented his credentials to U.S. President Barack Obama.

The Embassy coordinates a network of 9 Consulates, 5 Cultural Institutes, 6 Italian Trade Agency offices, and 3 Italian Tourist Board offices. The staff of the embassy based in various offices is composed of personnel from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and from other Italian ministries and public entities.
--from Italian Embassy website

We walked down the sidewalk inside the grounds to towards the main building.

Once inside we saw long lines of people wait for various things.  The longest line was for free coffee samples.  Amy decided to wait in line for a sample and said that it was good.

We discovered that Tic Tacs are manufactured by an Italian company after seeing that they were one of the free samples being given away.  Each country liked to emphasize its native corporations and military and Italy was no exception.

You could even learn about the Italian Navy.

We saw quite a few kids activities.  If we come with kids someday to another one of these events I'm sure they won't be bored.

Information about Enrico Fermi, the Italian-American physicist was prominently on display.

I've always enjoyed historical paintings.

The coffee line was still long.

We next walked outside where we discovered some Roman artifacts.

I guess it makes sense that Italy has enough Roman artifacts lying around that they can afford to just donate several to sit outside on the grounds of the country's embassy in Washington DC where most likely not many people see them except during events.

The back of the building looked quite interesting.

On our way out we spotted a gelato food truck.  As the day got older we spotted more and more food options at the various embassies.  They were definitely prepared for hordes of hungry guests.

All of my pictures from our visit are in this album.

~Matt