If you think of Lazio, large emigrations abroad do not immediately come to mind. Most of the towns of Lazio were attracted by the capital Rome which tripled its inhabitants acting as a magnet for all the neighboring countries.
Yet, the lower Lazio was crossed by the Gustav Line during the Second World War and with the Abbey of Montecassino many neighboring villages and those of the Liri Valley were also destroyed.
This is why Councilor Valentina Corrado wanted to be at the forefront of a project that concerns Return Tourism and which has set itself the goal of a series of events starting in 2023.
The organizer of the meeting was Michelangelo Lurgi, with the Rete Destination Sud project, which I met 5 years ago in Naples on the occasion of the Mediterranean Tourism Exchange. Even then he had impressed me for the vision with which he had created a first network of operators in Cilento, but it was limited to Campania and I could not join.
Over time, the network has expanded and a vision increasingly linked to root tourism (which I like to call nostalgia tourism) has taken hold.
We spoke by phone and with our Town Ambassador Award we joined the promoting committee. But we have always worked in parallel because we had to develop a model of encounter between communities of Italian descendants and residents that could be replicated in every country.
We focused on Settefrati and, working with its Town Ambassadors from Canada and the USA, we developed the Felicita Back Home project, Michelangelo worked on all of Italy and South America, weaving a web of relationships and involving the conference of regions.
At this point we are all ready, first of all the Lazio region. Councilor Valentina Corrado once again proved to be an attentive person who deeply knows what she is talking about and who involves everyone with her positivity about her. She was the first to arrive and the last to leave the seminar, speaking several times with the speakers to deepen some strategic aspects.
The day was particularly sparkling and each speaker wanted to make a positive contribution starting from the mayor Emanuela Panzironi of Zagarolo who remembered our first exhibition at the Toy Museum (when Maria was still a beginner).
It was an opportunity to meet many friends starting with Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio who is very active in promoting our country and was the protagonist of the recognition of the Art of Neapolitan Pizza Makers as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
A big hug with Claudio Nardocci with whom we have collaborated in many events that told how the Pro Loco Foundation is being born.
Among the speakers Letizia Sinisi, a great connoisseur of tourism and author of the book on Rooting Experience Planning, and Dario Fiorentini of the most beautiful villages in the Lazio Region.
But the real surprise was Luisa Piacentini, Anci Lazio tourism delegate and Italian representative of the small villages at the Conference of the Regions of Brussels, who lives in the beautiful village of Marano Equo, the land of waters.
For a series of coincidences we had crossed paths the day before in the Radio Radio program 'Amico Comune' where every Thursday I have a space to tell the village of the week and where I had made an introduction to Marano Equo.
This detail suddenly made us complicit, as if we had known each other forever. A woman with a vision on the destiny of small villages that she knows how to express with sweetness and determination. A woman to envy with her 12 fuchsia pink heel. Councilor Valentina Corrado and I will never be able to emulate it.
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