Madrid – In a ceremony held yesterday at the Italian Embassy in Madrid, Ambassador Giuseppe Buccino Grimaldi awarded the Order of the Star of Italy to three individuals who have significantly contributed to strengthening cultural and diplomatic ties between Italy and Spain. Receiving the Commander’s Cross were professors Manuela Sáez González and Encarnación Sánchez García, both distinguished for their academic work focused on Italo-Spanish relations in the early modern era. Sáez González has spent over a decade researching the political dynamics between Spain and the Kingdom of Naples in the 17th century, especially through her studies on Viceroy Don Pedro Fernández de Castro, Duke of Osuna. Her work has fostered collaborations between universities and cultural organizations on both sides of the Mediterranean. Sánchez García, a longtime professor at the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, has dedicated her career to promoting Spanish literature in Italy, especially the intellectual exchanges that occurred at the Neapolitan court. Both honorees have conducted high-level research at the Real Monte Manso di Scala Foundation, a prestigious Neapolitan institution that maintains a historical archive and an art gallery dating back to 1610, the year of the foundation of the Accademia degli Oziosi, an intellectual society that united Italian and Spanish thinkers. Also honored was Francesco Milani, Italy’s Honorary Vice Consul in La Coruña, who received the Knight’s Cross of the Order in recognition of his unwavering service to Italian residents and tourists in Galicia, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic.