Long-term former head of ANSA's
English service, Anna Maria Miele, has died after a long illness
in Rome at the age of 66.
Miele spent her whole working life at ANSA after qualifying
as a journalist in 1983 where she will be remembered for her
personal warmth, her deep international culture - she graduated
in philosophy at the University of Toronto and in foreign
languages in Rome - and her devoted work in training many young
journalists on ANSA's English desk, which she led from 2000
until her early retirement in 2010.
Her passion for art and her generous and open spirit helped
make her a crucial resource for foreign correspondents in Italy
and a well-known face at the foreign press club.
At ANSA, where she was hired in October 1985, she worked
tirelessly to set up the features division at the end of the
1990s before moving onto the English desk.
Thanks to her typically enthusiastic creative vision and
capacity for inspiring others, the service changed radically
under her lead, becoming a reference point for Italian and
international news in English, especially in its online version.
Anna Maria Miele will not only be remembered for her
multi-faceted journalistic life but also for her passion for
art, in particular 20th-century Italian glass masterpieces which
she collected with her late husband Adalberto Vinciguerra, who
died last year.
Together with him, over many years, she created a precious
collection of rare Venetian glass, plus other jewels such as a
large amber amphora designed by Vittorio Zecchin and a splendid
porcelain box designed by Gio Ponti.
In all the collection totalled 180 pieces, which with her
usual generosity she donated to the civic museum in the Marche
city of Pesaro.
Dignitaries from the town were among the friends, many of
them former colleagues, who attended her funeral in Rome's Sette
Santi Fondatori church Tuesday morning.
As Anna Maria used to say: "Over so many years we learned
that enrichment lies not in possession but in trying to see the
secrets of the soul of those who created these objects".
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