History

The Cigar Club "Don Alejandro Robaina" of Matelica was founded in 2005 as a Cultural Association, with the aim of creating events for the promotion of the territory and its historical and gastronomic peculiarities, as well as to pursue its passion for slow smoking.

On this philosophy the Cigar Club Matelica has created moments of gathering that have led it to be awarded for several consecutive years as the Best Club in Italy. Currently it has the highest number of members.

The President of the Club, Minetti Francesco, was elected "Hombre Habanos Comunicación 2017" at the XX Festival de l'Habano in Cuba (the most important cigar festival in the world). Another pride of the Club of Matelica was to become part of a world circuit, becoming one of the very few Habanos Lounges in Italy.

The Cigar Club of Matelica is a member of the C.C.A. (Cigar Club Association), the National Association born in 1999 that gathers all the Clubs in Italy and abroad. The association has more than 1500 members. It organizes conventions and events of national and international character, directly or through the associated Clubs. The Association is apolitical and non-profit, with socio-cultural goals, and aims to share the passion for cigars and slow smoking as a moment of gathering and cultural commitment. Since 2003 it publishes the magazine "Cigars!" and organizes courses of Entranimiento Basico (in 2017 the first course entirely for women at our Cigar Club office in Matelica) and Catadores at the various associated Clubs (in 2016 also at our Cigar Club) to teach the history, the culture of the cigar and the tasting technique.

During these years, the Club has organized many cultural events of international caliber, among which stands out the one that most distinguishes it: the Encuentro Amigos de Partagas en Italia. The latter is now a world-class event: it has attracted participants from all over the world, has seen the participation of Members of the French Parliament, leading politicians, representatives of the Republic of Cuba and other nations, faces from the world of entertainment, music and fashion, painters, journalists, several writers, as well as the Presidents of various Clubs scattered throughout the country and internationally.

The Encuentro Amigos de Partagas en Italia is organised with the collaboration of the Cigar Club Matelica and Diadema S.p.a.. It boasts the Patronage of the Municipality of Matelica, of the Marche Region and of the Cuban Embassy in Italy. The Consortium of Producers of Verdicchio di Matelica, Mintur Cuba-Si and several commercial partners representing real local and national excellences have made contributed.

This project is the final result of a wide-ranging program that includes a presentation of the territory: of its award-winning wines, of its peculiarities, be they gastronomic, cultural or historical.

The many ties with the Republic of Cuba and with the world of Slow Smoke allow us to have the presence, every year, of prominent national and international participants linked to the world of cigars and enogastronomy.

This allows us every time to create an event with many participants, attracted thanks to the various tasting opportunities and to the presence of great guests that we manage to introduce in the program and the event.

The many editions have been attended by people from all over the world: Cuba, Spain, France, Great Britain, Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal, Cayman Islands, Albania, Greece, United States, Mexico, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates and Oman, just to mention a few.

What has happened in recent years with the previous editions has placed our city at the center of the world of the culture of slow smoking, to the point of proclaiming L'encuentro Amigos de Partagas en Italia the second event of cigarlo in the world, of course after that of Cuba.

The collaboration of the citizenship and businesses has shown how much our city can offer. From 2016 to 2019, the numbers of participants have grown exponentially.  In 2020, for obvious reasons related to the health emergency involved, the event did not take place, resuming with the XV Encuentro in July 2021.

Despite the attendance limitations imposed by the situation, the fifteenth edition was a complete success: it was a huge success and we felt the same atmosphere as in previous years. It was for everyone a return (hopefully definitive) to "normality".

The presence of a Hombre Habanos at the festival, an extremely important recognition in the world of cigars, just like the one of the Habanos Lounge obtained by the Cigar Club, the great enthusiasm found among the guests and the impactful publicity received by famous newspapers and important TV channels, gives us the certainty of a further increase in bookings for future editions.

You can find our event on the website www.amigosdepartagas.it, right here, you can have access to the related Wordpress blog and the various social profiles: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. 

The event has been published by several newspapers such as: Monsieur, Cigar Journal, Gentleman, Epicure, STILL, L'Azione, Geronimo, SIGARI, Live In Magazine, Corriere Adriatico, Messaggero, QN, Resto del Carlino, Orizzonti della Marca and on many newspapers or online blogs such as: Cronache Maceratesi, Vivere Camerino, Il Bicchere Di Verso, SigariAvana, StileMaschile, Uomo&Manager and Cucinaevini.it.

In the past we also had a dedicated segment on local radio stations such as Radio Blu and Radio Arancia. Local television stations like E' TV and TV Centro Marche have been involved and in 2017 and 2018 we even had a segment on TG5.