By Eliza Ridgeway

The city of Bassano del Grappa, in the region of Veneto, Italy, sent a delegation to visit Los Altos’ Sister Cities program members last month. Los Altans host Bassano visitors in their homes.

Seven visitors from the Italian city of Bassano del Grappa spent a week in Los Altos last month to share culture and discuss forming a sister cities relationship with the city. The cities first connected through Valeria Bertacco, an Italian student who studied electrical engineering at Stanford on a Los Altos Rotary Club scholarship.

“Our goal is to forge relationships between people in the two countries. We do things on the personal level,” said Chuck Lindauer, executive vice president of the program. “If we visit a sister city, we wouldn’t just stay in a hotel, we would actually stay with the families and get to know them. It’s just one person to another.”

The city of Bassano del Grappa, in the region of Veneto, dates back to the 12th century. Approximately 25 miles north of Venice, the town is one of six walled cities with close economic and cultural ties. Veneto produced some of the great artists of the Renaissance. Program board member Mike Bruno envisions a formal relationship with Bassano that might result in a visiting exhibit at a local museum like Stanford’s Cantor Center.

“They’re in a different class than we are in terms of promotion of culture,” Bruno said. With government support, a Bassano performing group, Le Arti Per Via, has traveled around the world. Here, the Bassano visitors dressed in traditional costumes. One guest staged an impromptu ballet performance, matched in turn by an Uncle Sam rendition by one of the Los Altos hosts.

Volunteers hosted an old-fashioned American barbecue for the visitors. Three local families - the Brunos, the Nelsons and the Blaufarbs - hosted the Italians for the week. They visited city hall, toured Google and the Stanford campus and explored San Francisco, Muir Woods, Monterey and Carmel.

Nicola Tellatin, a university student studying public relations, visited a local public relations firm while Massimo Gianesin, an attorney, and Valentina Tellatin, a law student, visited a local law firm. Andrea Campagnolo, a head chef who has cooked at the Vatican, spent a day preparing a fancy dinner for his traveling companions and Los Altos hosts. A visit to Santa Rita school included a surprise when two third-grade students of Italian descent volunteered to give the visitors a native-language tour.

The delegates met with Mayor David Casas and Councilman King Lear to discuss formalizing a sister city relationship. Exchanges can range from formal delegations to student exchanges to impromptu visits when citizens of either city happen to be traveling in each other’s country. Bassano del Grappa’s exchange programs with other cities are larger and more formally developed than those of Los Altos.

“We’ve never done anything that big,” said Bruno, who has visited Los Altos sister cities Syktyvkar, Russia, and Rustington, England, with his wife.

“We’re an eating and drinking group, we like to meet people and develop friendships around the world. They get financing from local and federal government and local industries. Their road show has gone through every country in Europe, across South America and on the East Coast,” he said.

Bruno and Lindauer envision Los Altos and Bassano benefiting from a relationship, despite their different backgrounds.

Lindauer noted that while the Veneto region possesses amazing artwork, Silicon Valley has equally interesting technological resources. Bruno described the relationship as a constructive challenge for the area.

“You want to go out and represent Silicon Valley - how do you do that? Where do you start? We can’t compete on the culture, so we’re going to win them over with friendship,” Bruno joked.

“Their city was founded before we were even a country,” Lindauer said. “We’re the new guy in every way but also strong. A lot of times the youth in our culture, both as individuals and countries, make the most headway.”

Los Altos’ non-profit Sister Cities program has relationships with cities in Russia, Australia, Taiwan and England. It is a local chapter of Sister Cities International Inc. and is affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce and the city of Los Altos.

For more information, call 948-1491, ext. 204.