Mr. President, Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Foreign Minister, Mr. Defense Minister, Ambassador:
On behalf of all the Americans who came on this journey into Europe this summer, I want to express our warmest thanks to you and particularly to the people of Naples who made us sorry to go and happy to come back. This has been a short visit to this great country. But I go now to my own people from whom I carried messages of good will to all of you, and I carry home to them a strong feeling that the efforts that they have made over the last 18 years are understood, are recognized, and that a great flood of friendship, particularly in this country, wells forward for all of my countrymen and for all that we are trying to do, all that we hope to be. And most of all, Mr. President, I want to express my thanks to you and your Government for all that you did to make this very short stay most productive.
Grazie.
Note: The President spoke at 7 p.m. His opening words referred to President Antonio Segni, Prime Minister Giovanni Leone, Foreign Minister Attilio Piccioni, and Defense Minister Giulio Andreotti-all of Italy, and to Sergio Fenoaltea, Ambassador to the United States from Italy.
The text of President Segni's brief farewell remarks was also released.
John F. Kennedy, Remarks at Capodichino Airport in Naples Upon Leaving for the United States. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/237107
