Disappointment in Fiuggi: the broken dream of the national competition “Superbelli e Superbravi d’Italia”. Months of preparation and a lot of enthusiasm for those who dreamed of walking a catwalk of national importance. Even for the delegation of 17 participants who left from Sicily, together with the agent Laura Campanozzi (owner of the New Star cultural association of Spadafora), the journey to Fiuggi turned into a nightmare and deep bitterness. Arriving in the well-known spa town of Lazio from different regions of Italy, the competitors discovered the bitter reality.
In fact, there was no organization waiting for them. No hotel ready to host them. The project started under the best auspices from the Sicilian territory. The same regional final was successfully held last July 29th in Santa Lucia del Mela, providing an evening of celebration and deciding who should represent the island at the national stages. “I strongly believed in this competition – Laura Campanozzi says today, visibly tired and worn out – My only objective was to offer an opportunity for national visibility to the competitors in our area, enhancing the talent and commitment of each of them”. The signs of at least chaotic management, however, had already emerged in the weeks preceding the departure. “The venue of the event – says Camponazzi – had undergone continuous and sudden changes. First the competition should have been held in Puglia, then in Calabria, until the definitive (and at this point theoretical) transfer to Fiuggi”.
Once they arrived in Fiuggi, in fact, the Sicilian delegation (along with all the others) collided with the harsh reality of an apparently phantom organization. The cold shower came at check-in. There were no hotels booked or paid for for the participants. The group had to face, together with other delegations from all over Italy, out-of-pocket expenses for their stay. “The inconveniences of managing such a heterogeneous group, which included both very young people and adults (from 3 to 65 years old), were enormous”, explains Laura Campanozzi, forced to look for emergency solutions with a heavy economic loss linked to the costs of travel and alternative accommodation. Today, having worn off the tiredness of the return journey, there remains a lot of bitterness among the participants and the manager of Spadafora’s New Star and, above all, a strong desire to clarify things to understand what is really behind this affair.