Affile town is the home of the Cesanese grape, which has found its finest expression in this area straddling the provinces of Rome and Frosinone. But is this enough to give our region an identity and make it a magnet for tourists from around the world?
With these concerns in mind, the Strada del Cesanese organized a conference in Affile during the Fallone Festival, where Professor Ernesto di Renzo gave one of his remarkable lectures, what he calls a "traveling chair of agriculture." "The name harks back to a postwar tradition when peasant needed to be transformed into farmers, and universities were accustomed to meeting with local communities," the professor explains at the beginning of his captivating story.
Ernesto is an anthropologist, and all his research stems from analyzing changing needs and behaviors.
What is happening in the world of wine is a true shift in meaning, because postmodern generations have different needs and values than previous generations.
If wine and food were once simply nourishment, today they are an element of well-being. Today, when young people eat, they add a surplus of value to the act of sitting at the table, which becomes a way to satisfy a need for pleasure.
Well-being has taken on a psychophysical and relational aspect, making eating important, but also the story of what you eat and the company with which you share this act. And finally, it becomes essential to transform this experience into an indelible memory that can also be shared verbally or on social media to increase its relational value.
We could almost say that the lack of prospects of the younger generations focuses them on the present much more than the future, and therefore the pursuit of well-being becomes a fundamental aspect of their daily lives.
"The same chicory picked in the field that was once consumed every day and became monotonous, today takes on a value of authenticity, tradition, and identity when eaten by a tourist or visitor." Almost as if picking chicory and consuming it has become a social value.
For these reasons, we can say that those operating in a certain area must invest in food and the social relationships associated with it, much more than in the past, when works of art were given greater importance.
Wineries, like trattorias and wine bars, must reflect on the memorable nature of a wine or food experience when welcoming a customer or traveller. This is a real opportunity for our area, dotted with small, family-run wineries where you can meet the owner and bombard him with questions.
An incredible thing happened to me, the full significance of which I still haven't fully grasped. Last year, I starred in two episodes of a Korean TV series (My name is Maria produced by Disney Channel) alongside the famous Jennie Kim, who has over 90 million followers and is set in our Donna Vittori winery/agritourism (www.donnavittori.com).
After the show aired in Asia and the US, people from the United States, Korea, and China (and even a group from Italy) slowly began to come to visit us, simply wanting to spend a day (or more) with me or my daughter Maria.
At first, it seemed strange, but then, thinking about it, I realized that I, too, would like to visit a foreign country and spend a day or two in the company of a local who was already, in a certain sense, "familiar," to better immerse myself in the spirit of the place.
Today, we have created a true tourist experience where people can experience our daily lives as people who tend the fields and vineyards, produce wine, and offer hospitality (plus a few tourist surprises as they discover the local area).
Thanks to the mayor of Affile, Paolo Pacifici, Maria Berucci, president of the Strada del Cesanese del Piglio, and Marco Antonelli, president of the Strada del Cesanese di Olevano Romano, for their joint work promoting our wonderful regions, in association with wine and more.
And then everyone was happy to taste the traditional products of the Cesanese lands and to see UNESCO's first approval of Italian cuisine as a world heritage site.
Follow us