Saturday, December 06, 2003

EUROPA/N'DO' ... at Castello di Rossena

A while back I took part in organising a miniseminar on youth mobility, together with Nicola Bigi, highly prized collaborator in my semiotics course at the School of Communication, Economic and Information Science of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia; Stefano Spaggiare, a young italian lone world traveller, due shortly to leave from Carpi for a round world trip of about two years; and Marilena Cataldi, with a new Master in the Economics and Ethics of Tourism (MEET) of the University of Bologna (organised in Rimini), who is working on a microeconomics project to develop responsibile/sustainable forms of tourism in Albania.
The miniseminar, titled suggestively "Viaggiamo o spostiamo: gli sviluppi del turismo dopo che il baco del duemila non ha cancellato il mondo" (here is the visual support for my presentation), was part of a larger event named EUROPA/N'DO' which has as its objective to inform interested young people from university and European volunteer environments about mobility policies and programmes promoted by the European Commission.
We were joined by 30-40 enthusastic participants on Saturday, November 15 at the antique Castello di Rossena, in the beautiful Reggio Emilia Appennines , in countryside clothed in stupendous autumn colours.
EUROP/AN'DO' was organised in its entirety by the Reggio Emilia based cultural association microsophia, founded recently by a group of students and other young people active in european and internatrional volunteer work.
Saturday evening there was also the opening of a small but excellent photograpy exhibition entitled "Di êter pòst", with work by four young photographers from Reggio Emilia: Alessandro Mortari, Federico Salsi, Silvia Sai and Cosimo Bizzarri, represent themes and motives which are both pungent and esthetic from places so different as São Paolo in Brazil, Lisbon in Portugal and Berlìn in Germany.
Sunday morning there was also time for us to follow a very interesting and informative guided tour thanks to our hospitable and well-informed castle custodian.
This whole weekend has been an inspiring and pleasing experience!