The National Bergamot Museum has chosen not to lend the ancient tools, materials and documents kept inside for the filming of a film in the Cosentino area. «It is a decision that I take with conviction, even in the face of those who argue that we should have lent them, rented them or rented them in exchange for a mention in the credits. Those instruments are not simple props – says the prof. Vittorio Caminiti, coordinator of the Bergamot Center of Reggio Calabria and president of the National Bergamot Museum -. They tell of generations of work, knowledge and life in the Bergamot lands of Reggio Calabria. I would find it inappropriate to transfer them elsewhere to represent a story that has its roots here, especially at a time when the cultivation of bergamot is also proposed in the Upper Ionian area of Cosenza. I recognize each territory’s right to develop its own activities; I equally clearly claim Reggio’s right to have its history recognized.”
Caminiti is a raging river: «If the film is supported by public resources, the choice of places in which to talk about bergamot takes on public importance. Why not wander around the bergamot lands of Reggio? Don’t the splendid Gerace, Bova, Amendolea, Locride and Reggio itself have landscapes, people, crops and testimonies capable of giving authenticity to a cinematographic shot? And how can the microclimate of the Strait be described elsewhere, so important in the history and cultivation of this fruit, so much studied and described by the esteemed professor. Angelo Vazzana, and even a crucial element of the specification for the recognition of the “Bergamotto PGI of Reggio Calabria”?”.
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