Eric Adams too sick to visit migrant school in Italy — as language school offers advice to NYC

Mayor Eric Adams called out sick on the third day of his weekend visit to Rome – cancelling a tour of an Italian school teaching migrants the local language to help them assimilate to society.

Adams, who left for the Eternal City on Thursday and is due back in the Big Apple on Monday, seemed the image of health earlier in his trip, but fell ill and was coughing before his visit to the school Sunday and decided to cancel.

Hizzoner was due to tour the Sant’Egidio Community, which is housed in a 1700s building in Rome’s Piazza di Santa Maria and teaches over 3,500 people Italian on a weekly basis as part of a multi-year course to teach migrants the language – vital work as fluency is a requirement to be a legal resident in Italy.

“He was not able to see that it is possible to build a multi-cultural society,” a spokesperson for the group said. “We would love to help in this also by putting him in contact with our people in New York.

Claudio Betti, who volunteers with the group Sant’Egidi, told The Post he and his colleagues were disappointed to miss the mayor. They were hoping to show him how well a cultural assimilation program can work as NYC struggles to deal with its own migrant crisis – but that they were happy to put him in touch with one of their centers in New York, he said.

“The image you have seen today in those classes is the image of the new world that we want and I’m sure that he would love that,” said Betti, who is a director at the Australian Catholic University Rome Campus.

Sant’Egidio has taught Italian to over 8,000 migrants and refugees, with most coming through the program from Syria but also 120 other countries including Peru, Georgia, Colombia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Libya, Sri Lanka, Ecuador and Paraguay.

Many live at the facility and are encouraged to interact with the local community as part of their education.

“They are hosted here in this neighborhood house and the house next to us. They are hosting you for a certain period of time. They studied Italian, they studied dining culture. In the meantime, we searched for final destination,” Betti said.

“We need to integrate languages – [it] is a crucial, crucial issue in Italy. You need to learn in order to be recognized as an as a citizen or even to ask for a restaurant. You are not allowed to be a resident here legally unless you speak [Italian],” Betti said.

Most of those 8,000 have gone on to obtain sponsorships to take up residences across Italy – which Betti believes is a vital part of keeping Italy alive as its population dwindles.

“It’s not only placing them in a place but making them a healthy part of society,” Betti said.