THE APENNINE IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY – Matteo Manfredini

Marola, Carpineti – Bruxelles

From Marola to Bruxelles, passing through Normandy, Australia and Germany. He works at the House of European History. 1000 km of physical distance zeroed in the heart.

I’m very attached to the Apennine. Every occasion is an excuse to come back and every connection with my mountains is active. I collaborate with online journals and local magazines and I’ve strongly wished to bring to light an illuminated and silent leading character of the local and national politics. Since the 1950s he would come up the mountains to teach civic education; Alessandro Carri, un comunista emiliano nelle storie del 900 (Aliberti, 2017). I love his foresight and his special sensitivity for the development of highland territories which he tried to realize during his mandate as Carpineti mayor.

Many of his projects have been frozen on paper. While dusting them during my research for my book, I felt my heart sink: I realized how avant-garde they were. After the initial astonishment, my critical sense came forth and I immediately perceived that our Apennine is blocked 20 years back .

I hear people talking about economy, tourism development, but in a standardized manner. Non of this can really work in our land unless we first leverage upon the people , on the culture and the history. Carpineti’s castle isn’t just “ours”, it’s a culture spot and it belongs to Europe’s history, an important heritage, a symbol of an era and of a woman unique in her kind. We have the duty to preserve it, love it and communicate it. By the pride of being bearers of culture and history we may develop an organized tourism and restart economy. All this may be possible only once we’ve grasped the meaning and value of this heritage, which belongs to anyone studying middle ages and not only to us mountain dwellers.

Many of the activities developing on the Apennine, for some strange reason, end up finding more obstacles than supporters. In my opinion, this is the reason our mountain has met with immobility.

If only we could commit, without envy, we could, for example, make it possible for the tourist to find solutions, offers and decide to prolong his stay for a couple more days. What a value that could bring to our economy!

A lot of initiatives full of potential are getting started, I think about the Val Tassobbio Association or the huge success of the partisan treks held by Istoreco. What’s bizarre is that these ideas come from the private citizens rather than from the institutions..

I’m trying to act as an Emilia-Romagna ambassador, but I see that around me that’s not always the case, I don’t share the implied anti-italianism common to many Italians living abroad. I’ve been living in Brussels for ten years now and my sense of belonging gets stronger every day.

The Reggian Apennine is a goldmine of culture, history, good food, nature and genuine people and it’s a pity to hide it from the world. It’s not beauty that will save the world, we can’t keep leaning on this concept but we must safeguard, organize and love our land. We have a hard life (vita quotidiana molto dura) in our past but in a beautiful italy, now that we’re doing well, we risk to ruin our environment because of laziness.

Italiano