Since the days leading up to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, posters have been used to transmit pro-European messages, promote democracy, and inform citizens about the rights and opportunities of membership in the European Union (EU).
A selection of these posters, taken from the Nicola Di Gioia (NDG) collection held at the Historical Archives of the European Union (HAEU), is now on display in the dining hall of the Badia Fiesolana. These posters were previously displayed in a larger exhibition organised by Fabio Di Gioia at Spazio Europa, an educational space in Rome managed by the offices of the European Parliament in Italy and the European Commission's Representation in Italy.
The NDG collection comprises 1045 posters. They were collected by Nicola Di Gioia, who served as a European Commission officer at the DG for Information, Communication, Culture and Audiovisual of the European Commission and at the Representation in Rome, from 1962 to 2003. They were deposited at the HAEU by his son, Fabio Di Gioia, in 2018. The entire collection has been digitised and may be explored online.
In 2024, the Historical Archives published a catalogue based on the NDG collection entititled The art of integration: 40 posters promoting Europe.