ORTONA, Italy — Rocco Siffredi was honored by his hometown yesterday with the Premio 28 di Dicembre award, bestowed upon notable local figures by the Ortona municipality in the province of Chieti in Abruzzo.
Siffredi, surrounded by family and friends, received the award in person from the mayor of Ortona at the historic Teatro Tosti.
“The Teatro Tosti was packed with ‘Ortonenses,’ who from the gallery, in the stalls and from the boxes cheered the legendary actor, director and producer of cinema for adults, the protagonist of the warm city event,” according to a report today from MOW, an Italian news and lifestyle website that provides most of the local coverage of the adult industry.
Mayor Leo Castiglione headed the bestowing ceremony, which included musical acts and a video tribute to the adult star.
“Rocco, starting from the working class neighborhood of the Madonna Degli Angeli, proved to be the only artist” in the world of porn “who didn’t let himself be marginalized and locked up in that world,” mayor Castiglione declared. “Indeed, he became a producer and director, and today even Netflix is ??dedicating a seven-episode television series to him. So let’s put aside prejudice and questions about ‘respectability’ — we will award someone from Ortona who continues to make people talk about Ortona, and will into the future. Thank you, Rocco.”
Siffredi thanked his birth town saying, “I’m hyper-sincere and I understand those who haven’t understood this award, because it’s not easy to accept someone who chooses to lead my life — sex, movies, that’s all a separate matter. For me it’s a real job.”
The performer then explained that sex for him “became a vocation. I experimented with everything more and more. They say I’m very good, and a series is being dedicated to me in the world, not for nothing. But here, I didn’t come to promote porn, I came to promote having passion for one’s job.”
Siffredi shared the honor with his late cousin, Gabriele Galetta, a trusted collaborator for decades.
End-of-the-year municipal awards like the Premio 28 di Dicembre are customary in Italy, and are equivalent to the orders and medals, such as knighthoods and the OBE, awarded in the U.K. Since the Premio 28 di Dicembre was established in 1958, some 27 notable figures from Ortona have been honored for having “illuminated Abruzzo’s tiny town with glory,” MOW noted.