The "solidity" of bilateral cultural ties will be the focus of a meeting in Milan on Thursday next week between Italy's culture minister Alberto Bonisoli and his French counterpart Franck Riester, the Italian culture ministry said in a statement.
During their talks at Milan's Palazzo Litta, Bonisoli and Riester will also look at ways of deepening cooperation between Italy and France, especially in the publishing and creative industries sectors, the statement said.
The bilateral talks will also cover celebrations this year to mark the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo and those being planned in 2020 for Raffaello's, the statement added.
The meeting comes after France returned its ambassador to Italy Christian Masset on 15 February following the worst diplomatic rift since World War II. The spat was prompted by a meeting in Paris between Italy's deputy premier Luigi Di Maio and leaders of the 'yellow vests' protest movement which followed months of criticism by Di Maio and fellow deputy premier Matteo Salvini of president Emmanuel Macron's policies.
