Massachusetts Girl Power Italy Trip Drips with Irony
The most insufferable women in the Commonwealth have dipped into public funds to fund their springtime junket to Italy.
When last we saw Boston’s fearless leader Mayor Michelle Wu, she was barring Italian-American restaurant owners in the North End from utilizing sidewalks to put out an outdoor table or two for pleasant summer dining.
The natural follow-up to banning outdoor dining in the Italian neighborhood she can see from her office in City Hall was, obviously, jetting off with Gov. Maura Healey and the Commonwealth’s first-ever “climate chief” Melissa Hoffer to the Eternal City.
The ironies seem endless.
According to the governor’s spokeswoman Melissa Hand, Healey and Chief Hoffer paid for their jaunt using the Massachusetts Tourism Trust Fund, a multi-million-dollar account generated in part by local casino revenue. The enabling legislation that created that slush fund mandated that the money be used to bring tourism to Massachusetts, not the other way around.
How much of the Bay State’s marketing money would be budgeted for the trip? No one could be sure, apparently. Hand let the Herald know that the cost of the trip could not be totaled until its conclusion. If Healey & Company used 2023’s excursion to the Emerald Isles is any sort of benchmark, you can expect to see a receipt of, give or take, $83,000 in cannolis and chianti.
Buon appetito!
Mayor Wu’s flights and lodging were covered by the City of Boston, claimed spokesman Ricardo Patrón. It only makes sense that her two school-age sons tagged along on the business trip to experience Rome, champion of recycling and prizewinner of public transportation—more on that later.
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. The most insufferable women in the Commonwealth have dipped into public funds to fund their springtime junket to Italy, with several groan-worthy tasks on the agenda.
The decision to cross the Atlantic came primarily in response to an invitation from the Pontifical Academy of Sciences for the trio to attend a Vatican Climate Summit. The three-day conference, titled “From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience,” promised to feature governors, mayors, deputies, professors and assorted other windbags from across the globe.
Gov. Healey offered a keynote address on “Governing in the Age of Climate Change. Wu tag-teamed with Amazonian professor Virgilio Viana to discuss “Financing Resiliency”—climate resiliency, that is. More than 100 virtue-signaling Beautiful People jetted in to chat over cocktails about net zero emissions.
Many received private audiences with the Holy Father Pope Francis.
Other participants included household names like California Gov. Gavin Newsom and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. It is unclear whether Vatican officials hoped for radical conversion in the hearts of these rabid promoters of abortion on-demand and genital mutilation of minors.
Also unclear is whether the Vatican Science Guys realized that the final day of the conference would land on the 20th anniversary of the redefinition of marriage in Massachusetts — May 17.
But never fear! Neither jet lag nor riveting discussion about the depleted ozone layer could deter the offices of nominal Catholics Healey and Wu from releasing same-sex celebratory statements as the two convened within the walls of Vatican City.
Healey’s gratitude for @Pontifex falls back-to-back with her “love is love” diatribe on X.
The Left has some holy days you cannot miss.
You thought the irony ended there?
According to the Herald, Healey hoped the trip would serve to strengthen “economic and diplomatic” ties between Massachusetts and Italy, its tenth largest trading partner.
Likewise, Mayor Michelle Wu decided to optimize her time in Italy by traveling to Sulmona, known for its connection to Boston’s Italian immigrants. Meanwhile, she’s still in litigation with the restaurant owners in the North End and accused of largely ignoring Italian-Americans a stone’s throw away from her office.
You cannot make this stuff up.
In a statement to (financially failing) GBH News, Mayor Wu claimed she “didn’t see a single example of a street in Italy with the outdoor dining set up that the [North End] litigants are pushing.”
Funny—a quick Yelp search for “Top 10 restaurants in Sulmona” will provide any interested parties with a plethora of options for seating all’aperto. But this wouldn’t be the first time Michelle Wu “didn’t see” something contrary to her authoritarian narrative.
For the grand finale, Mayor Michelle Wu’s trip to the boot could not be complete without one of her #Commute TikToks describing extensively how wonderfully the Europeans manage waste and mass transit.
This time around, the video features her two little boys who accompanied her on the trip. Tour Guide Michelle begins by pointing out Italy’s bio-waste dumpsters. Then, she talks to the kids about the city’s transportation policy.
Each seems like he would probably prefer discussing scrumptious with pizza and pasta rather than their time on a smelly Roman public bus. But did even they notice the lack of potholes and the ease of not having to use a Charlie Card.
Who knows? Perhaps they noticed the happy outdoor diners all over Italy, too.
