The Italian COPD Patients' Association has recently approved its event and activity programme for 2011. One of the association's main objectives will be to have the Italian Health Ministry's "Essential Levels of Care" officially revised to include COPD as a chronic disabling disease, and various activities and joint actions are planned to help bring this about. Another annual objective is to foster and improve knowledge and research on COPD by participating in an update of the GOLD Italy Guidelines. GOLD is a global initiative to raise awareness and improve the quality of treatment of COPD patients. The association is also planning many activities to raise awareness of respiratory health: on May 2 it will celebrate "Breath Fest" by setting up stands where spirometry tests will be available. It will attend the EFA AGM in May where it will present on the topic of on-going needs of COPD patients in Italy. Presentations will also be given at a conference in Texas and at the ICC World Conference in Shanghai. On November 16th it will help organise a national Italian conference on COPD. Its slogan will be 'Short Of Breath But Not Alone', in an attempt to raise awareness and understanding of the challenges and issues surrounding COPD.