Taormina hosted the Summit of the Heads of State and of Government of the G7, the group of most industrialized economies, plus the European Union, which is a non-enumerated member. This was the sixth time that Italy took over the rotating G7 Presidency. The first occasion was in 1980 in Venice, which also hosted the event in 1987. Summits were then held in Naples in 1994, Genoa in 2001 and L’Aquila in 2009.