On Saturday 13 June at 7.20 in the morning, a flight takes off from Zurich airport towards Rome. On board, three Italian-Swiss kids aged 12 and 13. Waiting for them, peers from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the United States, Venezuela and Australia. For one weekend, the Stadio dei Marmi at the Foro Italico becomes the meeting point of the global Italian community of the youngest.
The initiative is part of the "Roots Tourism" project, the strategy with which the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is bringing the 80 million people of Italian descent around the world closer to Italy. The event of 13-14 June, organised together with CONI, is the chapter dedicated to the youngest. And Switzerland will be there with its own delegation, selected directly by the National Delegation of CONI in Switzerland.
The numbers speak clearly: the Swiss delegation is made up of three athletes. Girls and boys born in 2013 and 2014, of Italian origin, resident in Switzerland, who practise sport at youth level. Football, basketball or multi-sport disciplines are all fine. You do not need to be a champion: you need the desire to play and to test yourself alongside peers who come from the other side of the world.
Applications close on Sunday 17 May 2026 at 12.00. Places will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. Considering the scope of the initiative and the limited number of places, it is worth moving quickly.
The registration form is online at: form.jotform.com/261318325604351
There is no cost for families. Return flights from Zurich to Rome, meals, accommodation, transport in Rome, welcome at the airport, official lunch with all the international delegations, sports activities, guided tour of the city: everything is covered by the organisers. It is an institutional initiative that CONI organises every year, and the Swiss Delegation takes it with the seriousness it deserves.
Saturday 13 June. Departure from Zurich at 7.20 in the morning. On arrival in Rome, welcome by the CONI staff directly at the airport, check-in at the accommodation and, at noon, official lunch with the delegations from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the United States, Venezuela and Australia. In the afternoon, guided tour of the Eternal City: for many of the kids it is their first time in Rome as protagonists, and you can feel the difference.
Sunday 14 June. Sports competitions at the Stadio dei Marmi, the historic facility of the Foro Italico surrounded by the 60 marble statues of athletes that give the venue its name. Competing there is no small thing: it is one of the symbolic places of Italian sport, close to the Olympic Stadium. There is laughter, play, new friendships. In the evening, the return: flight from Rome at 20.15, arrival in Zurich at 21.50. Your daughter or son will come home tired, happy, and with something more than when they left.
For parents, this is the part that matters most. For the entire duration of the trip, the Swiss delegation will be under the direct supervision of the National CONI Delegate in Switzerland, Cirano Tondi, supported by a bilingual Italian-German assistant. It is a structured institutional initiative, organised with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Not an improvised adventure.
Think about it for a moment. Your child is 12 or 13 years old. They speak Italian at home, perhaps a little less well than you would like. They hear about grandparents and cousins in Italy, but for them the country remains a somewhat abstract concept, something that concerns the grown-ups.
Now imagine that same boy, that same girl, walking on the grass of the Stadio dei Marmi next to a Brazilian peer who speaks Italian with a strange accent and laughs at the same things. Playing a match with children from six different countries who all, in some way, have a story similar to theirs.
On the pitch it does not matter what accent you have, it matters how you pass the ball. And when at the end of the day you find yourself eating pizza with an Argentine peer of Calabrian origin and an Australian one of Venetian origin, you understand something that school does not teach you: Italy is not a country, it is a network.
Applications close on Sunday 17 May 2026 at 12.00. Three places available, assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.
Registration form: form.jotform.com/261318325604351
For information and direct contacts:
Cirano Tondi
National Delegate of CONI in Switzerland
Mobile: +41 78 622 96 91
Email: delegato.svizzera (at) coni.it
Website: www.conisvizzera.ch
Rome is calling. Now it is Zurich's turn to answer.
