European Traditional Medicine – International Congress Mayor's Introduction

Vinci is very pleased to host from 4th to the 6th of October 2007, the first European Traditional Medicine Congress organized by the Center of Natural Medicine. The issues that will be discussed excite growing interest not only between scientists and clinicians but also in all European citizens, and merit a wide international discussion at the highest level. I think the quality and quantity of participants will help develop significant objectives, and we hope that this initiative, that we are very honored to endorse, will pave the way towards future meaningful scientific collaborations and developments. The Education Agency of the Azienda USL 11 Sanitary District, in the modern building of Sovigliana, Vinci, hosts many university courses at the University School of Medicine of Florence, and is the destination for hundreds of young men and women who are interested in getting a university education in health care. How it was born and the way that it has been structured, reveals that the Education Agency is not only the place where knowledge is transmitted but also where it is produced. The Municipality of Vinci considers the Agency a real buttonhole flower, and Vinci as Leonardo’s home town, has in the heart of its cultural tradition science and development of new ideas, all built around the natural aspiration of man, as the Leonardo’s drawing called ‘‘Man of Vitruvius’’ reminds us. To this important congress our town with the surrounding landscape that has a magical and enchanted quality, worthy of the most suggestive of Leonardo’s images can be the perfect framework to improve discussion, debate and to foster up new ideas. I would like to thank everyone of the Azienda USL 11 Sanitary District of Empoli and especially Dr. Fabio Firenzuoli, for its engagement in order to realize this important symposium and for the great work he is doing in the Center of Natural Medicine of the San Giuseppe Empoli Hospital.