Giovanni Caracciolo, an emblematic figure of Italian diplomacy, has passed away after fighting a serious illness. The diplomat from Vietri was Ambassador of Italy to France from 2009 to 2012 after having previously held the position of Consul General of Italy in Paris from 1992 to 1996. As evidence of his special bond with France and of the legacy he left after his years of diplomatic service in this country, the extraordinary memory held by numerous exponents of the world of French institutions, politics, economics, art, and culture is still strongly alive and felt today, as well as the Italian community.
He began his career as an employee in the Cabinet of the then Minister of Foreign Affairs Aldo Moro and subsequently at the Embassies of Addis Ababa and Washington. In Rome, he collaborated as Deputy Diplomatic Advisor with the President of the Republic Francesco Cossiga for the entire seven-year term. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he then held the positions of Deputy Director General of Emigration and Social Affairs and Director General of European Countries. In addition to Paris, he was the Italian Ambassador to Belgrade and to the International Organizations in Geneva.
He had recently finished “Letters from Paris – France and Italy in the new Millennium“, his latest work which the Ugo La Malfa Foundation will publish and present on January 11th
And the La Malfa Foundation itself remembers him, and joins in the condolences of his closest family members, with his words that retraced his first steps in the world that saw him as a protagonist for almost half a century.
“Almost fifty years ago, after a long night flight, I disembarked in a livid and rainy African dawn at Addis Ababa airport, little more than a bumpy landing strip on the Abyssinian plateau and a few scattered sheet metal shacks.
In the imposing Fiat 130 decorated with flags (the Ambassador had reserved the unusual privilege of coming to welcome me in person), the very faithful driver Zawdié who flaunted the build of a bodyguard but was equipped with the wit typical of an informer confidential, asked to be able to keep the radio on […] This was the incipit of my first experience as a young diplomat abroad, which was to prove to be an extraordinary and exciting adventure […]“