Last year, for the first edition of VNY’s Media Award, Italian-American Olivia Nuzzi, White House correspondent for New York Magazine, won—and this year’s winner will also be a woman, a young and brilliant journalist. Gaia Pianigiani, Italian reporter for The New York Times in Rome, will receive the award after being selected from a pool of candidates by an internal panel of judges at La Voce di New York.
36 years old, born in Siena and raised in the hills of Chianti–her family has lived in Tuscany for centuries—she attended the University of Siena, and spent her last year in the Erasmus program at Freie University of Berlin. It was in Germany that she took her first steps in the world of media, writing for the university’s paper, then continued her journalistic path in London. But it was the prestigious Master’s Degree in Journalism from Columbia University in New York that opened the doors for her as Italian correspondent at one of the most highly regarded papers in the world: The New York Times. Ms. Pianigiani had started working as an intern at the Rome office for the daily, where she is now a reporter.
For the New York paper, Ms. Pianigiani has covered organized crime and the consequences of its activity on workers, women, immigrants, and refugees. She has also contributed to reporting on the Morandi bridge tragedy in Genova. She is intensely interested in the connection between politics and social change. Deeply attached to her wine-producing region, her articles have also appeared in Italian media such as La Stampa and Sette. Gaia Pianigiani will receive the “Liberty Meets Beauty VNY Media Award” for her courageous and accurate work, and her precision in reporting on the various aspects of Italy to Americans, during the sixth anniversary celebration of La Voce di New York on April 25th, 2019 at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York. For the occasion, pianist Rosa Antonelli will play “LiberTango” by Astor Piazzolla.
The event on April 25th is made possible thanks to the collaboration with, and support from, the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, the Italy America Chamber of Commerce and United Voices 4 Peace, as well as sponsors Monini, Bastianich, Ribalta, Norma, I Love Panzerotti, Illy, Nutella Caffé, Gladiator Wine.
Translated by Emma Bass
