The idea is clear. Indeed, it is very clear: to specifically create a network of cities of Hellenic origins, founded by settlers from Euboean Chalcis. But not only. Promote synergies with these cities that share the same historical and cultural roots and make them the object of an event that can attract international tourism.
For Fulvia Toscano, creator of the NaxosLegge literary review and currently councilor for Culture and Equal Opportunities of the Municipality of Giardini Naxos, this is the objective of the so-called “Hellenic Springs”, an event that will be held tomorrow and on 17 March, in the archaeological park of Naxos-Taormina, promoted in collaboration with the latter and with the Hellenic Community of the Straits and the Italian-Cypriot Chamber of Commerce. An initiative of considerable importance, which will recur every year, and which in the 2024 edition, the first ever, will see the presence of the four mayors of Catania, Giardini Naxos, Messina and Lentini, who will be protagonists, given that their cities They boast Greek Chalcidian origins. But among other things, the directors of the parks of the entities involved, superintendents, archaeologists and scholars of this subject will also be present, as well as the mayor of Kalkida, Greece, Elena Vaka.
An event that will therefore open the doors to the entire Hellenic universe, with which eastern Sicily, and therefore Giardini Naxos, has a very old connection. An event which, in a certain sense, will promote synergies between territories involving, guaranteeing integrated planning, cities in eastern Sicily such as Naxos, Zancle, Leontinoi and Katane, which were founded by settlers from Euboean Chalcis.
«The intention is to encourage exchange, both on a cultural and tourist level, with the establishment of the “Network of Chalcidian cities in Sicily” – explained the promoter Fulvia Toscano – but also to entertain interlocutions of international standing, as well as to establish the implementation of shared strategies which, starting from the documented scientific data of the common Greek-Chalcidese origin, can become fruitful and concrete project activations, capable of both consolidating a common historical and identity perimeter and attracting an important segment of international tourism ».
Over the course of the two days, round tables, seminars, meetings-debates and much more will alternate on various topics. From the conference on “Philia and Xenia. The City of Giardini Naxos meets Kalkida and Naxos”, which will be held in the council room of Palazzo dei Naxioti, at the seminar “Ancient wine routes – Cultivating the vine, producing wine: experimental archeology in the chora of Naxos”, which will take place at Bistro Lido di Naxos.
But there will also be space to talk about the ancient wine produced in the Taormina district called “Tauromenitanum”: a particular vine on which the municipal administrations of the centers of Giardini Naxos and Taormina long ago carried out a project to reproduce it and put it back on the market.
It will therefore be a weekend during which scholars and administrators will discuss the entire Hellenic universe and, in particular, the western Chalcidian world. The one of which Naxos and its entire community are also part.