On June 13, we went to the magnificent hall of the Parliamentary Groups Building for the presentation of the 2023-2028 program on Return Tourism. The meeting was organized by Rete Destination Sud (https://www.retedestinazionesud.it) which with its president Michelangelo Lurgi in these years of work has managed to involve the Italian regions, many municipalities, the association of municipalities, the association of Pro Loco, hundreds of local operators as well as various associations of Italians abroad.We went to meet friends but above all because the subject of the relationship with Italians abroad and their descendants is very dear to us.
I come from a family that had emigrated to Aprilia and then to Colleferro during the drainage of the Pontine swamps and I know well the emotional dynamics of emigration from having lived them personally.
I know the stories of my grandparents and the relationship that brought them home every year. Each trip was carefully prepared because it had to convey the idea that leaving home did not mean being a loser. We bought new shoes and clothes and left with a clean car. After crossing the river Po and arriving in the Venetian plain, tears began to flow and every time we stopped in Rovigo to immediately eat a sandwich made with local bread.
My town Colleferro was born just over 80 years ago around a bomb factory, and all the families who had come to work in the factory had left their lands and came from all over Italy. In a sense each one of us had roots elsewhere trying to create bonds with this land that had welcomed us. So we lived in a multicultural environment.
I don't tell the rest of my life, but today we have reached the 4th generation and my daughter's feelings for the places of origin of the family are very different but still alive. These are feelings that could be rekindled with dynamic projects (as is the language of young people), experiential and intercultural. Projects that start from respect and enhancement of feelings to create new modern 'roots' bonds.
The issue of generations was addressed by various speakers because it is one of the issues to be addressed if we want to reach out to young people. The recent elections of the COMITES abroad, which had a turnout of only 4%, are a clear signal of how new ties with Italian descendants should be immediately imagined if you do not want to lose an enormous heritage of relationships and love.
And this is the spirit that led us to build the Felicita Back Home project (Settefrati regenerates with young people from Canada and the USA) For Settefrati working with the American and Canadian communities. And our message seems to hit the hearts of those who listen to us (in Italy as well as abroad) to the point that on Monday we had a wonderful surprise.
We met many wonderful friends such as Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio of the Univerde Foundation, the journalist Pino Aprile, Al Bano (How Albano Carrisi and Romina Power rediscovered Cellino San Marco )
https://youtu.be/6GyNJbBUjMU
and among the speakers there was the Councilor for Tourism and Local Authorities of the Lazio Region, Valentina Corrado.
Valentina is an energetic and samrt woman who is making a professional change to tourism in Lazio and chooses with care the strategy to boost tourism in our region. She too knows some emotional dynamics of emigration from having tried them on her skin and we were already met in events on root tourism (Nostalgia tourism among the key actions of the Lazio Region) where we had illustrated our Felicita Back Home project. Perhaps our novelty is also that we have always presented ourselves as a team of professionals from various parts of the world but also as skilled friends who want to revive our territories.
Among the best practices identified by the Lazio Region, the councillor named our Felicita Back Home project as an example of intergenerational collaboration! This filled us with pride, and we increasingly want to put our legs to the idea to make it real, to become a true example for the regeneration of all small Italian villages.
https://youtu.be/4EqVJoI4TAM
I want to thank all the group of friends that took part in the project, and with whom we are always in contact in our chat, starting with the disruptive mayor Riccardo Frattaroli to get to Tony Malizia, Cesidio Di Ciacca, Davide del Prete, Caroline di Cocco, Diego Collareda , Enrico Rossi, Enzo Borrelli, Gianni Lattanzio, Maria Pia, Salvo Bendici, Roberta Centonze and I apologize to all the others that I have not mentioned.
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