ROME, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- The official "twinning" of the Italian town of Recanati and the Xiangcheng district in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou was put on display this week with the launch of the food and cultural festival in Xiangcheng and a related ceremony in Italy.
Though officials from Recanati were prevented from attending the festival in Xiangcheng because of coronavirus travel restrictions, they sent a formal gesture congratulations and promised to attend a future version of the event.
"We send greetings and best wishes for a successful first edition of the festival in our esteemed twin city," Recanati mayor Antonio Bravi said Thursday.
According to city officials, a special video about Recanati was translated into Chinese and screened at the opening of the festival in Xiangcheng on Sept. 13. There was also a small ceremony in Recanati to mark the occasion on Thursday.
When cities "twin" with other cities, the main aim is to strengthen personal and cultural ties across borders.
Recanati, a town of around 21,000 residents near the Adriatic port city of Ancona, is best known as the birthplace of early-20th-century operatic singer Beniamino Gigli and 19th-century poet Giacomo Leopardi.
Plans to formally link Recanati and Xiangcheng have been in the works for more than a year, but could not be finalized because of the pandemic. But that did not prevent Xiangcheng from offering help to Recanati during the most difficult part of the coronavirus pandemic in Italy. Bravi said the Xiangcheng government sent Recanati more than 60,000 face masks when they were in short supply in Italy.