In Italy there are no airports named after women

officially dedicated to Silvio Berlusconi, former Prime Minister, who passed away in June 2023. Announced by the Minister of Transport Matteo Salvini, the news has raised significant controversies both for ideological and executive reasons, as the SEA company, which manages the airport, was not consulted before the dedication took place. All in all, it is also true that no one ever calls an airport by its designated name, such as Leonardo Da Vinci for Rome Fiumicino (which hosts some reproductions of his inventions), Enrico Forlanini for Linate, or Caravaggio for Bergamo-Orio al Serio. Moreover, it is certain that Milan Malpensa will retain the same airport code, MXP, and the same name for geographical indications. It is worth noting, however, that with the dedication of Milan’s airport to Berlusconi, Italy continues its record for institutions and streets dedicated to male figures. 

Another airport that has been making American tourists and politically correct observers raise their eyebrows for years is the Genoa-Sestri Ponente airport, called Christopher Columbus and inaugurated in 1962 - but in Italy, it is usually political correctness that is questioned. The Turin-Caselle airport is dedicated to the partisan and seventh President of the Republic Sandro Pertini, while Venice and Florence think of great Italian explorers, Marco Polo and Amerigo Vespucci. Bologna is dedicated to Guglielmo Marconi, Naples to Ugo Niutta, Bari to Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II, Cagliari to Mameli, and Palermo to Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. The Lamezia Terme airport is also called Sant'Eufemia, but it is not named after a woman, rather after the plain in which it was built. 

Italy is obviously not the only country that forgets that women in history also deserve dedications. According to the website Mapping Diversity, 94.2% of the streets in Milan and 92.8% in Rome are named after renowned men, but the trend is the same in Paris (91.1%), Brussels (91.4%), and Vienna (89.5%). The capitals of Northern Europe lead the rankings for streets named after female figures, including Copenhagen (86.4%), Stockholm (80.2%), Oslo (87.2%), and even Madrid, which is unrelated but reaches 80.7%. Unsurprisingly, the records belong to some of the world’s most famous countries for their laws supporting gender equality and women's rights. Not that a dedication solves much, but even the ego occasionally needs attention.