The minister of civil protection Nello Musumeci, on Saturday 12 September in San Giovanni di Gerace, will participate in the event which involves the naming of an avenue after the lawyer. Fortunato Cavaleri, former mayor in the 1950s, and a moment of reflection on the role of hillside villages. The demographic decline has been constant in over 2300 municipalities for some time, even more widespread in Calabria, a topic that will be explored in depth in the professors’ speeches. Aurelio Misiti, former president of the Superior Council for Public Works, and Ottavio Amaro of the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria.
The meeting, starting at 11 am, will be held in the council room of the Town Hall, with the regional councilor Eulalia Micheli present (also representing the president of the Region Roberto Occhiuto, who is busy in Montesilvano, Abruzzo, at the national convention of FI youth) and, via video link, the undersecretary for relations with Parliament the Hon. Matilde Siracusano. We will therefore talk about the birth rate decline, youth emigration, the marginalization of smaller communities, penalized by major road and rail transport plans as well as by a tourism industry that has aggressively focused on the coast, not only in Calabria and Sicily. A privileged occasion that will bring together numerous mayors of the district, in particular those of the Unione Valle del Torbido, chaired by Antonio Barillaro, mayor of San Giovanni di Gerace, who in the brochure prepared for the occasion entitled “Among the vineji of history” underlines how “these are villages shining with history and culture which, in making them unique, can represent the heritage from which to start again for a reversal of the trend”. After the unveiling of the toponymy plaque, guests will be invited to a tasting of typical products prepared on site, a further reason to turn the spotlight back on the country which “among the vineji of history” presents preciousness to be rediscovered: from the landscape, to the architectural heritage, to the works of art.