I PARCHI LETTERARI® IN CALABRIA “JOURNEYS TO THE FUTURE OF MEMORY” - DISCOVERING "MAGNA GRECIA"

I Parchi Letterari® is the name of the national project for cultural tourism, created by Stanislao Nievo and managed by the Ippolito Nievo Foundation. I Parchi Letterari® are places that have inspired many of the great authors of Italian literature, places that still exist and can be visited today. In fact, the reinterpretation of a territory, through the works of poets and writers, allows for the discovery of genuine cultural itineraries to be preserved and promoted.
There are a number of different initiatives that animate I Parchi Letterari®. The common denominator is an interest in rediscovering the identity of these places and their deep roots that unite diverse human activities not only with art and artisan craftsmanship but also in agriculture and commerce.
Creating I Parchi Letterari® means interpreting the territory in a transversal manner, ideally uniting history and stories, customs and traditions, environment, art, music, food and local legends, proposing itineraries that are far from the beaten path which has been followed by traditional tourism, while also keeping in mind the radical change that has taken place in tourism with regard to the supply-demand ratio: the visitor is no longer a passive subject, but wants to play a starring role with regard to the realization of a quality offering; and I Parchi Letterari® also respond to this requirement.
The novelty of the itineraries that we propose lies mainly in their ability to arouse emotions in the participant on a wave of stupor and curiosity which involves all five senses. The modern traveller is seduced and transported to other dimensions of space and time. In the end, the “traveller” may discover that he has actually taken a journey within himself, finding those lost echoes, and reawakening ancient and comforting memories.

“In Search of Magna Graecia”

These lands of Italy and this shore / shall be turned to us and shall be close to our struggles, / it is all from enemies and from brigands / civilised and cultured Greece: and however far away/ it escapes from them: The Locrians of Narizia / here they rest; and here in the Salentines / Idomeneo brought his Cretians here; / here Philoctetes the Melibeoan champion / his little Petilius. (Virgil, Eneid, Book III, Translated by Annibal Caro)

Between the 8th and 7th centuries B.C., people from civilised Greece (merchants, peasants, breeders, artisans) came ashore en masse along the coasts and settled a series of colonies that would soon become rich and powerful, to the degree that they would collectively become known as Magna Graecia.
Several phases, with the supremacy of different cities, characterised this era, Reggio Calabria was the first Greek colony to be founded by the Ionians of the Sicilian coast, then a group of Acheans founded Sibari, then Crotone and then Locri, all between 744 B.C. and 670 B.C. The period of greatest interest is certainly that of the Greek colonisations, which in the 8th Century B.C. designated this point of the peninsula with the name of “Italia”. In fact, the inhabitants of the southern part of Calabria were known as Italians, prior to the Roman conquest and when Rome united the various regions under a single dominion, the name “Italia” extended from the south to the north, until it was used in 42 B.C. to refer to the entire Italian peninsula during the reign of Augustus.

The traces of Greek civilisation left throughout the territory of Calabria are numerous and immeasurable, but contributions were also made by later populations, from the time of the Byzantines up to the unification of Italy, civilisations and great cultural and spiritual figures.

During recent years, there has been an attempt to rediscover this great legacy of traditions and culture that has been conquered by Calabria thanks to the changing populations and cultures that have arrived from throughout the Mediterranean basin.