date popup default value problem

Hi,

I am creating a form with date popup (see code below).
The form returned has the default date 01-01-2009.

Please can you help me to sort it?

Thanks a lot

$format = 'd-m-Y';
 $date = 'now'; 

 $form['data_partenza'] = array(
    '#type' => 'date_popup', 
     '#title' => 'Data partenza',
    '#default_value' => $date,
     '#date_format' => $format,
     '#date_label_position' => 'within',
     '#date_timezone' => 'Europe/Rome', 
     '#date_increment' => 15, 
     '#date_year_range' => '0:+1', 
 );