L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 6 where people have been living since the Paleolithic. Looking at the place, one'd think to be in Israel: no wonder it was used in movies to s tand fo r G alilee. There is something powerful about Matera, something that goes well beyond architecture and history, something that calls you back to the most ancestral spirits of nature, all guarded into that white stone and those barren hills surrounding it. There is silence you can hear, in Matera: and that's something pretty rare to experience. So, yes, Basilicata is beauti- ful, but things haven't always been simple in this tiny southern region. Between the times of the Greeks and the times of Matera European Capital of Culture, the region was a diamond in the rough. For decades, Basilicata was the poorest area of the coun- try and the most isolated; Matera was ridden by malaria until the 1950s and many people lived in the now beautiful and trendy Sassi (many on them have been transformed in diffused hotels) without any running water or electricity. A stark description of life in the region was given by T u r i n e s e a u t h o r a n d p a i n t e r Carlo Levi in Cristo si è Ferma- to a Eboli, a must read for all lovers of Italian literature, where the author described the time he had spent forcibly segregated in Eboli, a small village on the mountains of Basilicata, because of his political ideas during the 1930s. Somehow, one wonders, this l o n g h i s t o r y o f b e a u t y a n d poverty, of secret treasures and roughness, must have shaped the people of Basilicata, generation after generation. And in many ways, it did. Lucani (that's peo- ple of Basilicata for you: the Romans used to call the region Lucania and we Italians still use the term quite often) are simple and sincere, welcoming but with s o m e r o u g h e d g e s h e r e a n d there, just like it's typical of mountain people. You won't get much pat-on-the-back action and superficial hugs going on there, but rest assured, once Lucani open their home to you, that's forever. Welcoming people, living in a region that has been rightly acquiring momentum and popu- larity, after too much time spent in neglect. Finally the world k n o w s a b o u t B a s i l i c a t a a n d wants to see it, to visit it, bring- ing recognition to the area and, one hopes, wealth too. But then the words of Matera's mayor Raffaello de Ruggieri, collected and published by Danielle Perga- ment of the NY Times, strike us like that, out of the blue: "We don't want tourists. We don't w a n t t o b e o c c u p i e d b y tourists." Stark, cold even. But a thought shared by other Lucani, namely Mr Daniele Kihlgren, the owner of Matera' Sextantio Le Grotte della Civita, a diffused hotel in the city, who chimes in saying we need to be careful, or tourism could take away the soul of Basilicata. Here the concept gets clearer and mirrors very much the idea of de Ruggieri, who also underlined how, in the end, Basilicata and Matera are places with a profound connec- tion to history and tradition that t h e y m a n a g e d t o m a i n t a i n t h r o u g h o u t c e n t u r i e s a n d i t would be a shame to lose it all in name of the glitz and glamour of tourism. Think about it though: there is a precise truth in these words, a truth that resound powerfully in the experiences of other regions and other locations all over Italy. Tourism is necessary for our country to survive, because it is o n e o f o u r m a i n s o u r c e s o f income. And I'll tell you more: w h e n y o u a r e a c o u n t r y l i k e Italy, with such an incomparable wealth of archaeological, artistic and natural beauty, you do have a duty towards the world and its people to open you arms and let them come and see: it's the his- tory and the achievement of Man we celebrate in every corner of this country, the wonders of Nature, and they belong to all, not only to us Italians. Yet, there is a very fine line that needs to be respected and this is where the words of de Ruggieri and Kihlgren come in: tourism mustn't change the soul of a place, it mustn't turn it into a fun fair to meet visitors' expec- tations of what it should be. Kihlgren says well in Perga- ment's piece, when he explains the only way to make the most of tourism without loosing a place's essence and identity is, quite simply, to become "obsessive about it." One of reasons Italy is adored around the world, beside the undeniable wealth of culture and nature it hosts, is its authentici- ty. Think about it, authenticity is the very heart of our Made in Italy philosophy: philosophy yes, b e c a u s e l i m i t i n g t h e i d e a o f M a d e i n I t a l y t o t h e t e r m "brand" would be unfair. Every- thing produced in Italy comes from a history of people, skills a n d t r a d i t i o n s w e h a v e b e e n proudly and stubbornly trying to keep alive and protected, in spite of the many attempts of today's trends and economy to trick peo- ple into believing that cheaper is always better, and Italian sound- ing is just fine. And everything within our national borders should keep its essence intact, too, never mind how many people visit and what their expectations may be. There is beauty in rough edges, too. Only by becoming one with our history and what it represents we can look at the future with hope, and only by keeping truthful to our heritage we can remain rele- vant. The country's uniqueness is made also of its contradictions, its gritty people and its not- always-picture-perfect locations (although, let's be honest, they are hard to find). With this always in mind, the whole uni- verse can come meet us, without a single crumble of our essence disappearing. The article that inspired this piece, An Ancient Corner of Italy Finds the World on its Doorstep, by D anielle Per gam ent, was published by the NY Times on the 3rd of December. One of the reasons Italy is adored around the world is the authenticity of its traditions © Milla74 | Dreamstime.com The white walls of Matera, reminiscent of those of cities of the Middle East© Cineberg Ug | Dreamstime.com NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS Continued from page 4

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