NAPLES - It is the first time that an island has won the coveted title of Italian Capital of Culture.
In 2022 Procida, pearl of the Gulf of Naples, will be the protagonist of a year full of events and encounters, thanks to its timeless charm and its projects with the evocative title "Culture does not isolate".
"It's a complicated year for everyone", commented the Minister for Cultural Heritage and Tourism Dario Franceschini.
"We are trying to support cultural and tourist activities in every way, and the designation of the Italian capital of culture for 2022 is a signal for the future, it is recovery".
Waiting to discover the 44 cultural projects, the programming of the 330 days of events, the 240 artists who will perform with 40 original works and the 8 completely renovated cultural spaces, we discover the wonders of Procida in this walking itinerary, from Terra Murata to Marina Corricella.
Procida is the smallest of the three islands in the Gulf of Naples, the most hidden and secret, outside the classic tourist itineraries of those who generally prefer Capri or Ischia.
The island of Procida is a succession of colorful houses that are reflected on the sea in its 4 kilometers of extension, in the shadow of the nearby Ischia and Mount Epomeo, which never disappears from view from any angle you are on the island.
Procida can be discovered walking on foot, by motorbike or using the many electric bicycles and stopping in its suggestive panoramic points.
Ischia and Nisida are part of the Flegrean islands with Vivara, to which it is connected by a bridge;
its nine ancient districts host houses with colorful facades, in particular in the village of Marina Corricella which with its amphitheater of painted houses offers the most beautiful polychrome spectacle of the Gulf of Naples.
It is a suggestive stretch of sea, often used as a location for advertising and cinema: Massimo Troisi and Michael Radford chose it to shoot the scenes of "
Il Postino
";
just as Anthony Minghella set the film "
Mr Ripley's talent
" with Matt Damon and Nanni Loy, the drama "
Detainee awaiting trial
" with Alberto Sordi.
Marina Grande
, or "Sent'Co" as the Procidans call it, welcomes tourists who land on the island starting from Naples: in addition to the colorful houses, the museum of the sea and the former prison, closed since 1988 and now transformed, are worth a visit in the museum site, overlooking the village of
Terra Murata
, the oldest on the island.
The former penitentiary, which can be reached with a steep walk, is a beautiful monumental complex, consisting of the sixteenth-century
Palazzo d'Avalos
which in 1729 became the royal residence and hunting lodge of Charles III of Bourbon.
From 1815 it housed a military school and later a prison citadel overlooking the sea with high walls, some sentry boxes and an imposing access door.
Today it is a museum, a place where you can visit the courtyard, the cells, the infirmary and the factories where the prisoners worked.
On display are, among others, the relics and documents of famous personalities imprisoned there such as, among others, the writer Luigi Settembrini, political prisoner of the Bourbons, some fascist hierarchs and criminals of the well-known armed band of Salvatore Giuliano.
Going down the panoramic steps towards the sea you reach the picturesque district of
Corricella
, a fishing village with its cluster houses and colored walls, dominated by the sanctuary of Santa Maria delle Grazie.
Inside the village a network of streets with a unique atmosphere, made of colors and light, small restaurants and welcoming hotels and houses inhabited by fishermen.
Pending the opening of the events of 2022 and in these months of health emergency, however, it is possible to learn more about Procida by reading the novel "
L'isola di Arturo
" by Elsa Morante, written in 1957, but set shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War.
It tells of a boy from Procida who has lost his mother and whose father is always far away, who only knows the place where he was born and who lives life through the books he reads.
Retracing her steps among the places of the novel, one discovers a Procida full of charm and that magic that seduced Elsa Morante when in 1955, in the shade of the citrus grove in the garden of the then Albergo Eldorado, she had the inspiration for the novel which earned her the Strega Award.
Up the hills towards the countryside, my island has lonely lanes enclosed between ancient walls, beyond which orchards and vineyards stretch like imperial gardens.
It has various beaches with light and delicate sand, and other smaller shores, covered with pebbles and shells, and hidden among the great cliffs.
On the other hand, it was not only Morante who fell in love with Procida, but also
Vasco Pratolini
and
Alberto Moravia
loved the splendid view of the sea and the lemon garden of that hotel where the "Elsa Morante Literary Park" is now located.
Walking along the steep via San Michele you reach the
former Conservatory of the orphans
, founded in 1656 to welcome the victims of the plague;
today the building houses the Palazzo della Cultura where the house-museum of Graziella has been set up on the second floor, which refers us to another literary character: it is the
girl from Procida
who gives the title to the work of the same name by Alphonse de Lamartine, poet French who during a trip to Italy chose to stop and live for more than a year in Procida where he met and fell in love with Graziella, a young girl from the island whom he immortalized in his novel.
For more information: visitprocida.com
.
