The Italian presence in Venezuela dates back to quite remote times: it was Christopher Columbus in his third journey (1498) who discovered the Country. The Florentine Amerigo Vespucci named Venezuela (“small Venice”) after Venice, given that the native huts built on stilts along the Maracaibo coast brought to this great navigator’s mind the images of the houses in the Italian city. 

    The official relations between the two Countries started on March 17th 1856 with the creation of a Venezuelan Consulate in Naples. The first Italian consular office was installed in Venezuela in the city of Maracaibo in 1858,and in 1859 the second one was opened in La Guaira, aimed to receive the immigrants of the Two Sicilies Reign in Venezuela. With the constitution of the Reign of Italy in 1861, under the mandate of the king Vittorio Emanuele II, came the signature of the Friendship, Commerce and Navigation Treaty (September 29th 1861), which is currently in force. 

    Since 1874, Venezuela, under Guzmán Blanco mandate,  adopts provisions aimed to favor the foreign immigration. However, the Italian presence in the Country assumes certain consistence only since the early 1900s, and above all, after World War II.
 
    Nowadays, the Italian colony in Venezuela is the largest in Latin America after the ones in Brazil and Argentina, with almost 200,000 resident nationals (although only 115,000 are registered at the consular offices). Nevertheless, the Italian-origin colony is estimated over one million people. Numerous nationals have had to acquire the Venezuelan nationality and give up the Italian citizenship in order to exercise certain professions or to participate in commercial societies, given that the Venezuelan juridical system, until the new constitution entered into force, (December 30th 1999) did not admit the possibility to have double nationality. Such modification was obtained thanks to the actions developed by the Diplomatic Representations of  the Countries with greater number of resident nationals in loco (Italy, Spain, and Portugal). 

    The extensive infrastructural programs, particularly under the Perez Jimenez Regime (1948-1958), and the beginning of the financial flows determined by the “oil rent”, bring to Venezuela huge quantities of workmen and specialized technicians occupied mainly in the construction sector and in the services to the companies. Such flow is even greater after WWII, period of remarkable economic growth in Venezuela derived from the high hydrocarbon prices (it is the period of the so-called “Saudi Venezuela”, with the national currency, the Bolívar, with a value of 1 US $ = 4,30 Bolivars, thus increasing the purchasing power of the Venezuelan population). 

    The most significant migratory flows come from the Regions of Center and Southern Italy(Campania 16,5%, Sicily 11,4%, Abruzzo 9,5%, Puglia 7,3%). The Italian emigration in the Country is therefore characterized specifically in the framework of migratory flow in Latin America: the Italian emigrants who arrived in Venezuela mainly since the 50s, have contributed to keep alive the constant bows with Italy and with their own culture, managing to benefit from development opportunities offered by Venezuela in the years of the oil boom. 

    The Italian community results fully inserted within the Venezuelan context, where it is generally esteemed and appreciated. Mostly it is dedicated to economical-commercial activities (particularly construction sector), industrial (mechanical, food, and building) and free professions. Since the beginning, the integration and settling process in the Country has actively been encouraged by the Venezuelan Authorities, who intended to add value to a territory with large dimensions and densely populated only in the coastline. 

    In the first phase of consolidation of the Italian community in the Country (50s), numerous fellowship centers of the colony were created in the main cities of the Country (Caracas, Maracaibo, Valencia, Maracay, Puerto Ordaz). The construction of the first Italian-Venezuelan Centers dates back to those days, as well as the constitution of the first regional associations.

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