In the land confiscated to mafia
Where: Sicilia.
Who: Il gusto di viaggiare
Libera is a network of young women and men working to build new enterprises where once was mafia
Discovering Sicily with its inhabitants is a journey with an extra value. It is not for nothing that the guides who bring between vineyards and monuments, are keen to make it known that their cooperative, like all the associations born from the first nucleus of the Libera association, have been important for young unemployed, including many women in difficulty. Libera has an important history: since it promoted the law that allows tenders to manage the assets confiscated from the mafias, were born farms, bookshops, farmhouses, products marketed under the brand "Libera Terra" by the "Consorzio Libera Terra Mediterraneo"which now sells thousands of packages of wine, biscuits, pasta, jams, oil, from organic farming around the world.
The products come from the cooperatives Libera Terra of the "Valle del Marro" of Gioia Tauro in Calabria, from the "Placido Rizzotto" and from the Cooperative "Pio La Torre" of San Giuseppe Jato in Sicily, from the Cooperative "Terre di Puglia" of Mesagne, from the Coop "Lavoro e non solo" of Palermo and the Coop "Gabbiano" of Latina.Of course, in a land so rich in goods you could not think of tourism. "Libera il g(i)usto di viaggiare" is the new responsible tourism activity of Libera, created with the aim of enhancing the confiscated assets managed by the social cooperatives of the Libera Terra project and the territory in which they are located. Here, too, many women are busy: five girls organize the itineraries, two in the office and three guides, true "cultural mediators" between their land and visitors.
Private or schools, they have a wide choice. You can visit the whole of Sicily with customized itineraries, or you can choose from about fifteen trips, from one to five days: from Palermo to Castelbuono, in the province of Palermo, in Western Sicily, in the Jato valley. Or, with Liberaterrapuglia you can visit Salento or the province of Brindisi. And so, between culture and monuments, tastes and local products, you meet those who work in confiscated goods. Some examples?
In Pietralunga the excellent vineyard Cento Passi. In Corleone you go to the Arab fortress, the churches, the waterfall, but also to the Laboratory of Legality, with the newspaper and the Documentation Centre, where are kept the files of the acts of the maxi trial of Falcone and Borsellino and where Massimiliana and Marilena accompany to discover the true history of Corleone, with the courageous photos of Letizia Battaglia. In Palermo, in Piazza della Memoria, the combative Giada Licalzi organizes meetings with the magistrates who have inherited the legacy of Chinnici, Falcone, Borsellino. And in the magnificent Piazza Castelnuovo, in front of the theater, the confiscated shop has been transformed into a very active Bottega dei Sapori e dei Saperi by Cinzia and Marina, always ready to recommend the bio-gift to take home or the last book. In the forest of Ficuzza and the Zingaro Nature Reserve there are nature trips. In Erice, after seeing Segesta and Selinunte, you go to the bakery, to try the ancient and precious Ericini Maria Grammatico.
And between one stage and another, Agata and Annalisa do the honors at the farms Portella della Ginestra and Terra di Corleone. An eighteenth-century farmhouse, nestled in the nature reserve of Serre della Pizzuta with equestrian center, transformed into a charming destination the first. Five rooms in the stone houses with five-star views and fantastic panelle (chickpea flour pancakes) and eggplant caponata, the second.
