There is an Italy that continues to empty, that slowly loses pieces and memory. It is the Italy of shops that are giving up, of squares that are emptying, of historic centers that are losing their functions and identities. Yet, within this slow erosion of the commercial and civil fabric, the narrative of Calabria appears different. Not immune to the crisis, but still capable of putting up silent resistance entrusted to its public businesses, bars and restaurants, the last outposts of the real economy and daily sociality.
The report created by Fipe with the Guglielmo Tagliacarne Study Center photographs a country undergoing profound transformations. From 2015 to today, almost ten thousand businesses have disappeared, including ice cream parlors and pastry shops. Those who suffered the most were the bars, which lost over twenty-two thousand signs. In the cities of the Centre-North the balance is often negative, while the South continues to show unexpected vitality. This is where the Calabrian peculiarity emerges.
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