When I was a student, researchers always talked about Arcavacata, the new Calabrian university in Rende, a stone's throw from Cosenza. For us Roman-centric people, it was seen as a lost bet, for the Calabrians it was experienced with pride together with the figure of the minister Giacomo Mancini who had strongly desired it. The Calabrians bet on its success and were sure that it would become important.
A few years later, last week I was at the Unical in Arcavacata for a conference on tourism and the growth of smaller villages and I thought back to all my Calabrian friends who were right.
Not only is the university campus majestic, well-organized and above all well-kept, but the entire Rende area is home to approximately 40,000 students who fill it with life, culture and hopes for the future.
Thanks to Professor Tullio Romita, the Faculty of Sociology and Tourism has raised generations of well-prepared young people and the courtesy I have encountered is comparable only to that of more famous areas such as Rimini. A courtesy that I often do not find even in our beloved Ciociaria.
But let's go back to Unical, Tullio Romita is a sociologist with an aptitude for analyzing changes and in recent years he has studied the socioeconomic dynamics of small villages in order to study intervention actions that would stop the phenomenon of abandonment.
Calabria is a land of emigration since the Unification of Italy, before it was one of the capitals of the European steel industry and it is also thanks to the Calabrians that the great overseas steel industry was born, as Pino Aprile writes in Terroni (one of the few books that made me cry).
The Calabrians are proud people, with a strong territorial bond and the association of Calabrians in the world is one of the most participated (and therefore strong). It was natural that the phenomenon of roots tourism was analyzed in this land. And together with tourism, also the desire to create new ties between the countries of origin and the grandchildren of those who had left and had succeeded in their new homeland.
A new bond that can only be socioeconomic with the community and with the micro-enterprises that are the beating heart of the community. Tullio Romita understood all these dynamics and adapted the training of Unical by changing the name of the Degree Courses so that the new attitude of future professionals was better understood.
From Tourism Sciences to Tourism Sciences of Tourism Services, while the master's degree is called Planning, organization and management of tourist destinations. As we have been doing for years in our own small way with the tourism stories of our portal and with the Town Ambassador Award intended to create new ties between young people.
Arcavacata was therefore the ideal location for the international conference on Root Tourism in which the section "Synergies for the future: businesses, communities and administrations in root tourism" was included, dedicated to best practices and curated by Letizia Sinisi (ItalyRooting Consulting).
In this session we were able to tell our story that surprisingly in some ways resembles the personal story of Prof. Tullio Romita. With our magazine Discoverplaces (www.discoverplaces.travel) we toured the villages of Lazio and especially in the summer we heard that in some squares people spoke more English and French than Italian.
Intrigued, we began to ask questions interviewing people but we were more curious about their overseas present than their past. In this way we discovered fantastic and unexpected people (like the Los Angeles Lakers coach who had brought the players to Settefrati in Ciociaria) who had only one problem: how to convey their love for their town to the rest of the family.
For them we created the Town Ambassador Award (www.townambassador.org), which we give together with the mayor of the city, to reward them for everything they do and did for their town. An award that in some editions has had the patronage of the MAECI and the Enit and has been promoted by the Metropolitan Area of Rome for the municipalities of the internal areas.
There are some people who have truly revolutionized the country where they returned or where they chose to live, which are often small inland towns in depressed areas. In some way their example should be valued so that others can emulate them but above all because they should be thanked for their courage.
The day ended in the splendid village of San Marco Argentano where a Norman tower expertly lit in blue dominated the whole scene and where the famous Turdiddri of the Christmas tradition could not be missed (which I finally got to taste!).
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