L'Italo Americano
Procida will be the Italian Capital of Culture for 2022
Minister of Culture and Heritage Dario Franceschini announced it just two weeks ago: Procida, one of the pearls of Campania, will be Italy’s Capital of Culture for the year 2022.Procida had already made the headlines even before being selected, because it was the first island to seek candidature since the inception of the competition, in 2014. Considered by many a symbol of that very traditional, very mediterranean lifestyle made of hard work on the sea and simplicity, Procida has been defined the epitome of that “slow tourism” that, in the eye of many, should relaunch the sector after the pandemic. The beautiful Tyrrhenian island entered the competition with a dossier entitled La Cultura non Isola, “Culture does not Isolate,” a word game on the Italian word for “island,” isola, and the verb “to isolate,” isolare. According to official communications, Procida was chosen in name of a well structured and well endorsed development project, sustained by a strong network of public and private local support, says the official committee motivation. Moreover, it has an “extraordinary artistic and natural patrimony,” second to none in the region. Perhaps, however, what weighted the most on the jury’s final selection was how Procida, a small fishermen island, with a strong, traditional heritage, has managed to keep these essential aspects of its own identity while embracing modernity, thanks to a thorough diffusion of communication technology and sustainable development, a process that could become an example for other islands and coastal areas of the country. Strong, in the official motivation for the choice, was also the idea that the project presented by Procida carries “a poetical message, a vision of culture that, from this small island, is sent to the whole country as a wish for the future.”