(ANSA) – Rome, June 19 – Michelle Obama spoke out against the killings this week of nine people in the United States as she met Friday with American troops and their families based in the northern Italian city of Vicenza.
“Tragedies like this must not happen again,” she said of the killings late Wednesday in a black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
“There is something particularly horrifying about something that happens so senselessly in a house of worship,” she added in a visit to the base.
The murders in the US cast a dark cloud over the first lady’s visit to Italy which began with a stop at Milan Expo 2015 before she travelled to the Veneto region.
During her visit to Vicenza, she thanked American paratroopers at the base and praised the service carried out by their families living far from the United States.
The wife of United States President Barack Obama thanked the parachutists of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, the Vicenza garrison, and the U.S. Army Africa.
The first lady said that too often when Americans imagine the military, they think of the National Guard rather than the many troops who serve their country at critical installations in the international field.
The first lady and her daughters Malia and Sasha also wished Barack Obama an early Happy Father’s Day Friday and presented surprise gifts to a group of pregnant wives of American soldiers based in Vicenza.
Speaking to 22 women expecting babies, she said she wanted to thank them and all American women abroad for their sacrifices in giving birth to and raising a child overseas.
In an ‘Operation Shower’ surprise to welcome unborn children, Obama gave each of the expectant mothers a pram, a child car-seat, baby clothes, discount cards and baby oils.
Her stop in Vicenza in the Veneto region followed her visit to the Milan Expo universal exposition in Italy’s business capital Thursday, where she took her campaign to promote good nutrition and combat obesity. The first lady is engaged in the issues that Expo highlights with its theme: Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.
She long has advocated healthy lifestyles and fighting childhood obesity via her Let’s Move! initiative.
“It is so important that you take the issue seriously (and) help change the world,” Obama told 15 students from the International School of Milan earlier in the week.
The children, aged aged between 8 and 10, had prepared videos on avoiding food waste and combating world hunger.
Obama also told 60 US college students that she hopes more Americans will visit Expo because it is making a contribution to solving the world’s food-related problems.
“We know we can solve these problems,” she said.
“This is why it’s important to be at Expo”.
Obama also lit candles in Milan’s Duomo Thursday for the nine victims of Wednesday night’s shooting.
Later in Venice, Obama was expected to visit the iconic Basilica of San Marco and the Ducal Palace.
She was scheduled to leave shortly before noon on Sunday from Venice’s Marco Polo airport.
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