The Italian Embassy announced that it paid the bill after being ordered to do so by the Premier Meloni, who spent a few days of her vacation in Albania.

“On the instructions of the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, we have settled the bill left unpaid by a group of Italian tourists at a restaurant in the city of Berat,” the Embassy said in a release.

“Italians respect the rules and pay their debts, and we hope that such episodes will not be repeated. It should be noted that the payment was settled through personal funds of Prime Minister Meloni through the Embassy,” the statement reads.

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Addressing a ceremony on the Italian Culture Week, Mayor Veliaj said that the new embassy in Tirana is designed to be one of the most beautiful Italian embassies in the world.

“The three of us were together to launch the tender for construction of the new Italian embassy. We are about to conclude the tender and announce the project winner. The new embassy building is designed to resemble to a gallery, an open door and it will house a small number of offices for the mission, while the rest of the building will be accessible for everyone to visit. The whole design of the new embassy envisages a room, a gallery, a big city space, and it will house also a number of offices for the Italian mission officials. The embassy blueprint will be unveiled this week. It is set to be one of the most Italian embassy buildings in the world,” Veliaj said.

He highlighted a series of events due to take place as part of the Italian Culture Week in Tirana and elsewhere in the country, singling out the day devoted to the Arberesh community.

“I am very pleased that Arberesh community representatives will take part in an event about the old Albanian and Italian cuisine, as well as the traditional cloths, a year after traditional sleeveless woollen dress (xhubleta) has been proposed for inscription on the UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity,” Veliaj said.

Italian Culture Week will see a myriad of cultural and sports events taking place from north to south, namely in Tirana, Shkodra, Vlora, Përmet, Gjirokastra, Korça, Berat etc.

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“Congratulations to the newly elected Director General of the State Police, Gledis Nano! Determined to further strengthen the already excellent cooperation between the law enforcement forces of Italy and Albania, to strengthen the rule of law and the fight against any form of crime,” Italian Embassy said in a press release.

Gledis Nano took over the post of Director General of the State Police today. Nano replaced Ardi Veliu while previously he served as the head of the Counter-Terrorism Directorate at the State Police. //a.i/