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A trip with Mario Placidini between Literary Parks and Borghi d'Italia

11 Gennaio 2021
A trip with Mario Placidini between Literary Parks and Borghi d'Italia Foto: Annalisa Nicastro Annalisa Nicastro
The Literary Parks are a great reality that enhances the municipalities included in the territory. Mario Placidini tells us that in the last 5 years he has presented a very large part of it. by Annalisa Nicastro

translated by Annalisa Nicastro

In these last years is Borghi d'Italia's program in someway, both in technological and content methods?
The substance is always the same. The program is simply told by the protagonists of the territory. In the last three seasons we have also added special episodes dedicated to the Italian capitals to the usual Borghi d’Italia event. We recorded in Palermo, Verona, Vicenza, Pistoia, Genoa, Siena, Matera, Cesena, Rieti, Urbino. In 2021 we are on air with the XII series and in the technological methods we have introduced a second camera and enhanced the use of the drone. However, we remain a slim crew made up of me, the camera operator Roberto Evangelista and the sound engineer and drone operator Marco Pocetta. For the registration of the 38 seasonal episodes we always travel by car, covering about 60,000 kilometers from October to June.

Borghi d’Italia will accompany us throughout 2021. Have this new edition a new format?
The lenght is always 30 minutes and the program is focused on the characteristics of the municipality that we are going to present. The fixed points are the mayor, the parish priest, the chef or the restaurateur for typical products, the museum director and a young person. However, it may happen to include the craftsman, the farmer, the historian, the archaeologist, the band, the folk group, or the fisherman if we are in a seaside location. 
The narrative is simple because the villages mainly want to intrigue. Then it will be up to the viewer to go and investigate directly on the spot. In this new season I am more present with questions and listening, while in the format of the past I was mostly off screen.

Your program is very popular, what are the ingredients of this success?
By now there are many programs that give a voice to small Italian villages and all of good quality; this is undoubtedly a good thing because in particular the small mountain communities are at risk of depopulation. In recent years, however, there has been a revival and some young people, even after studying in the capital, have returned and invested in his native town. The wonder of our peninsula is that we move a few kilometers and between one place and another we find completely different monuments, traditions, dialects, dishes, habits.
For example, in each episode we have the mayor describe the banner of the Municipality because the history of the town is concentrated in that coat of arms. You ask me what the ingredients of the program's success are. It is easy to answer: Italy! The truth, authenticity, beauty, spirituality of our territories. We have villages in the mountains, on the sea, in the plains, on rivers, in the hills. 
Places like the Cinque Terre, created and safeguarded by the ingenuity of the human being. Municipalities such as Arpino (Frosinone), the birthplace of Cicero, where in the Acropolis there is the "pointed arch" of the seventh-sixth century. B.C. the only survivor of its kind in the whole Mediterranean area. But I could talk about Matera, Tivoli with two Unesco sites, Asolo (Treviso), San Leo (Rimini), Apricale (Imperia), Greccio (Rieti), Labro (Rieti), Agnone (Isernia), Otranto (Lecce), Ischia ( Naples), Polizzi Generosa (Palermo), Petralia Sottana (Palermo) and many other towns visited by our troupe. There are 7,982 municipalities in Italy and of these 54.1 percent are small municipalities.

Borghi d'Italia always tries to involve the young public as much as possible?
Most of the messages and emails we receive come to us from young people. Many follow us on Youtube. Currently the subscribers on the page are 16,100 with an average age of 24; the views for the 30-minute episodes are around 4,000,000. For some years we have included in the program the presence of a young man who tells the love he has for his country of him. When we meet young people who are investing, especially in local businesses, we try to enhance and make their work known.

Unfortunately, we have been living in an emergency situation for a long time. What kind of tourism will we have as soon as we can travel?
Small villages need a “gentle and polite” tourism. In this particular summer, many have rediscovered the Italian villages, and there has been a great increase in attendance. The small village is once again the undisputed protagonist of healthy life and the rediscovery of places with uncontaminated nature. It is necessary seasonally to diversify the offer. This summer, for example, there was a boom with campers in the villages.

What do you think about the Literary Parks?
They are a great reality that enhances the municipalities included in the Italian Literary Parks also connected to the network of the Dante Alighieri Society. In the last 5 years we have presented most of the municipalities belonging to the Italian Literary Parks.
We cannot talk about Monterosso al Mare without thinking of Eugenio Montale, or Aliano where we can relive both the places and the events described by Carlo Levi in ​​“Christ stopped at Eboli”. As well as in Polizzi Generosa with Giuseppe Antonio Borgese, Aliminusa with Giuseppe Giovanni Battaglia, Anversa degli Abruzzi with Gabriele D'Annunzio, Borgo Virgilio with Virgilio, Valsinni with the poet Isabella Morra, Ferramonti di Tarsia with Ernst Bernhard, Pico with Tommaso Landolfi, Arquà Petrarca with Francesco Petrarca, Tursi with Albino Pierro and Cassano d'Adda with Alessandro Manzoni.
They are all municipalities that we have told, by interviewing the head of the Literary Park or the national president Stanislao De Marsanich. To review the episodes just consult the website: www.tv2000.it/borghiditalia

You also shot an episode in Galtellì, where there is the literary park dedicated to Grazia Deledda. What memories do you have of that place and of the people?
The inhabitants of municipalities that are custodians of a Literary Park, are proud of their illustrious fellow citizens, poets or writers. Particularly in Galtellì (Nuoro) with Grazia Deledda because we are talking about a great writer, The Nobel Prize for Literature in 1926. Turning around the town, everything connects us to the book “Canne al vento”. All the places, from the house where the Sardinian writer stayed, to the church, to the landscape, are accompanied by beautiful ceramic pictures with the writings of the book. I remember we stayed in a period residence with rooms named after the characters of the novel.
I could say many things about Galtellì. The town is beautiful both from an architectural and naturalistic point of view. The views are breathtaking. The religious itinerary is interesting. The cuisine is very tasty. There are the singers who pass on their tradition from father to son. But the real genius of the Grazia Deledda di Galtellì Literary Park is the figure of the "Guest Tutor" who offers to accompany the traveler step by step during his stay in the village.

Borghi d'Italia is available both on the radio but also in China?
The weekly episode in on air on Saturday at 2.25 pm, with a repeat on the following Sunday at 2.20 pm, on the national broadcaster Tv2000, promoted by the Italian Episcopal Conference and broadcast on digital terrestrial channels 128, Sky 157 or 18 of TV Sat. Streaming on the website: www.tv2000.it.
The thirty-minute television episode is reduced to twenty minutes and with a radio format it is broadcast on Sunday at 2.00 pm on Radio InBlu and at 5.00 pm on Vatican Radio Italy.
As for China, in 2018 we entered into an agreement with the GB Times, an Italian-Chinese company for the distribution in various Chinese platforms of 50 episodes of Borghi d’Italia dubbed in Chinese. www.tv2000.it/borghiditalia

Placidini you can see that she loves doing her job, what do you like best about it?
It is easy to love authenticity and beauty. I consider myself to be privileged because I carry on a job that I like and for this I thank the Lord every day. There are so many beautiful things! Each place is different, many new realities are discovered. What I like most, however, is the relationship that is created with the many people I meet during the recording of the program. Places become unique and unrepeatable if inhabited. The country can be architecturally beautiful, have an incredible history, but without the inhabitants who animate it, it is an empty box. I have an indelible memory of every town I have visited and I want to close this chat with the slogan that has accompanied me for years: "The villages of Italy should be enjoyed not only with the eyes but also with the heart".

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