Every year since 2005, ISAA association (Italian Space and Astronautics Association) is organizing a 3-days convention, devoted to spread space exploration awareness, and giving the opportunity to many Italian space enthusiasts to speak about their resarches on the same topic. The first three editions were held in Montecatini Terme, Tuscany, but the last one has been moved in Lecco, Lombardy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecco), that is also my hometown. Lecco is, my dear US friends, settled on the same lake, Lago di Como, choosen by George Lucas for many shots of his "Star Wars Episode II" film, and by George Clooney as a pleasant place for one of his magnificent Villas. Here you can finde more infos http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Como .
It is also a tradition of our Convention to host great personalities in space world, and let them have public speeches to share their experiences and anecdotes. In past editions we've hosted Paolo Bellutta, an Italian JPL employee part of the MER's "rover drivers" team, and astronaut Umberto Guidoni (STS-75 and 100), the first European to enter the ISS.
