President Karolos Papoulias returns today from a four-day visit to Rome, Perugia, Assisi, Venice and the Vatican, where he confirmed the “strong and age-old bonds, political, cultural and scientific, that united Greece and Italy.”

In Rome he met with his counterpart, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, as well as Mayor Walter Veltroni and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and had a private audience, accompanied by his wife May, at the Vatican with Pope Benedict. Celebrating the 700th anniversary of the University of Perugia, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the School of Philosophy at the European History Faculty. During his acceptance speech, the theme of which was “European integration, challenges and visions,” Papoulias placed particular emphasis on the role of education in the future of the European Union, and that of the active citizen, citing Thucydides’ characterization of those who did not participate in public life as being “not only lazy but base.” Accompanied by Minister for Macedonia and Thrace Nikos Tsiartsionis, Education Marietta Giannakou, Deputy Culture Minister Petros Tatoulis and Health Ministry General Secretary Gianna Despotopoulou, the president also attended a service in the Orthodox Church of Aghios Georgios in Venice, the Capitol Hall for an exhibition of Epirote documents taken there by typographers and merchants who were fleeing the fall of Constantinople. He also visited the Icon Museum at the Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies.