Orest Vasylko, an employee of the Center of Information Support at Lviv Polytechnic National University, is an expert on Italy. Having worked in the country for many years, he has mastered its language, culture and traditions, becoming an Italian cultural ambassador to Ukraine. He is also a Secretary General at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Italy – Ukraine which has been operating in Ukraine for about a year. And recently Orest Vasylko has also become the Head of Leonardo da Vinci Center for Italian-Ukrainian Cooperation, which operates at Lviv Polytechnic.
Lviv 032.ua website publishes an exclusive interview with Orest Vasylko who tells about Ukrainians, Italians and what unites two nations. Lviv writer Kostia Hrek conducts the interview.
– Mr. Vasylko, in one of his world-famous song Toto Cutugno complains that there are too many American advertisements in 1980s Italy, but in Ukraine of the 1920s, and especially in Lviv, this can be said about Italy itself. How would you explain it?
– First of all, I think, it is because of Ukrainian migrants who, returning home, bring its culture. Also Italy is well-known for its fashion and food. And besides, Ukrainians and Italians are quite similar in mentality.
– Is this fashion for Italy a global trend or a purely Ukrainian phenomenon?
– It is clear that this is noticeable everywhere. Italian business is looking for new opportunities abroad because of high taxes and crises in its own economy. But, for example, it is difficult to compete with German business. Poland was the first to save it, but now it is back on its feet. There was also Romania, but Italian business has been feeling uncertain there in recent years. So now it is the turn of the countries with even lower economic potential, like Ukraine, for example.
Full text is on Lviv 032.ua.