On 28 September 2023, the journalist Maria Rosaria Sannino, one of the founding members of the Acarbio association, was in Rai3 television studios together with Sveva Sagramola, host at the show “GEO” to talk about the “restance” and an Amalfi Coast made not only of tourism, but also of resilience choices against the abandonment of the terraces. Antonio Di Martino, coordinator of the association, also contributed live together with international and local volunteers. We reported live on a national level the issues that have seen us involved in the area since 2009: protection of the terraced landscape, rural biodiversity, recovery of abandoned spaces, and young people who come to Tramonti from all over Europe, even for a year of volunteering, in a land where even today many young people with a qualification decide to emigrate. And then the youth projects in collaboration with the Agenzia Nazionale per la Gioventù (National Agency) for the Erasmus+ program and the European Solidarity Corps. The show broadcast (which reached a very wide national audiance) is significantly helping to raise awareness of a local association that looks at the territory by expanding the network with various partners (Greece, Spain, Germany, France) also with the format of “The Greeners” (groups of young people who are committed to environmental issues), and in Eastern Europe, but also with many local associations, gathered in partnership. With small and large actions, we are trying to stem a phenomenon which, reading various data such as emigration and birth rates, may seem unstoppable: that of the abandonment of rural areas. But perhaps nothing is lost yet.

ACARBIO closed the year with a RESCUE dissemination event on the 18th of December, in Tramonti, to share the concept and the outcomes of the project with the local organizations and citizens. The RESCUE project has been an ongoing international Erasmus+ program with participating organizations from France, Greece, Italy, and Romania. With the aim of rescuing abandoned public spaces and training local stakeholders on how to make changes in their communities, the project has realized many diversified results. The new functionality of these places is just the surface of what this initiative had an impact on. Involving local actors in the process meant that now they have a personal connection to the cause and the network to continue taking care of the ambiance of their community. This ownership will help them to create a change in the long term, bringing alive the legacy of the RESCUE project.  With a new Resource Book, all this information can be found in one place summarized and categorized. To help the effectiveness of the dissemination, the book is available in all the languages of the participating organizations (French, Greek, Italian, and Hungarian) and also in an interactive form.

One of the public places of the Amalfi Coast rescued by ACARBIO is the pathway of Eleonora d’Aragona, starting from Corsano, Tramonti reaching up to the breathtaking view of the top of the mountain where the cemetery is located and from where you can look down to the whole valley surrounded by the Monti Lattari all the way to the sea. In 2021 and 2022 the rescuing team researched the history of the place, made interviews with neighbors and local stakeholders, cleaned the path of waste, and created signage that can show the direction for the hikers. On this cleaned path we held the dissemination event for interested locals such as cultural associations, tourism actors (e. g. hiking guides), educators, administration, citizens, and passionates.

Sunday morning we met outside the office of ACARBIO, and had a few conversations and introductions both about the event and the participating experts. Then slowly started to walk up the path: the sun was shining, and people were smiling meanwhile we were climbing the mountain asking questions and giving insights on nature, landscape, and other specifics about the surrounding. Though we presented the restoration work, historical research, and the hiking value of the path, the group also interacted with each other all along the way without us facilitating the discussions.

Finally, at the end of the event we visited the local cultural association, Paranza ro Tramuntan, where we first regained our energy with lunch and some sweets then learned about local ancient bread-making and folklore music. We also took this opportunity to present the other RESCUE places, the guide, and the resource book.

It was a day of admiring local nature and culture through learning more about their hidden details and to be honest, it wasn’t hard to enjoy the event with the weather and a group of people like this.

At the organization, we always have volunteers and interns from all over the world, which means that we use English as the common language every single day. This gives us the great opportunity to share our knowledge and practice with the locals who thrive to learn English. The result? Now two of our interns have a new name among the habitants of Tramonti: My teacher.

After the tourist season, when the everyday life slows down a bit on the Amalfi Coast and the locals have more time to prepare for the next year, we invited the interested habitants of the area to join us in the office of ACARBIO, in Corsano, Tramonti. We met every week two times and spent over an hour together reading, speaking, and playing in English. Participants were interested in the lessons because they wanted to improve their level of English, or for some, start their journey with the language. Most of them work in tourism and hospitality, which means that in the season they get in contact with many people who don’t speak Italian. So learning English would make their job way easier and less stressful.

Class after class we repeated the new knowledge we had gained and like this strengthened our confidence in communication. Dividing the participants into two groups based on their level of English we tried to optimize the learning conditions of the groups. Like this, we could construct lessons that were interesting and challenging enough for everyone. In the beginner class, we focused on learning the necessary words, while for the advanced class, we prepared more talking exercises.

For us, the biggest moments were the ones when the participating locals talked to each other in English. That showed the improvement they have made since the first class we had in the office of ACARBIO. Step by step we could talk more during the classes without having to write down the words we were using. The participants learned, for instance, how to introduce themselves, how to describe programs available on the Amalfi coast, how to get around in Tramonti, and how to explain the prices of services. With these topics, we tried to prepare them for realistic situations that can occur in the future and at their workplaces.

At the end of the classes, both the participants and we left in a good mood, feeling that we had made progress that day. The locals showing up again and again, gave us the motivation to prepare useful and interesting lessons. We hope that the result will stay with them and when the situation comes they can activate their new English knowledge.

The first part of the project took place in December and January, when the 30 students from the 3rd class of IC “G.Pascoli” participated in a 6 hour long workshop on active participation facilitated by the members of the association ACARBIO.

How do you create active political participation? In the first place, these workshops had the objective of understand, express and confront the needs and ideas for the future of the place. Throughout the dialogues, discussions, debates, and ideas for the future of Tramonti and for a more sustainable Tramonti, the pupils practiced how to express their opinion, and exchange and confront with the others. The evaluation of the first results brought it into the light that in the workshops students gained confidence and the ability to express themselves.

After the first part of the project, in March a Youth Conference will be held in the Municipality where we meet with the Mayor and the members of the Municipality of Tramonti to exchange on the needs of the local youth. Do you have a question, idea or comment that you want to share with us? Do it now!

Link to the next in-depth article:

My first steps in political dialogue: What will remain?

Downloads

The results of the Youth Survey: Italian copy of Survey report – I miei primi passi nel dialogo politico

Evaluation to estimate the outcome of the project: Evaluation-of-the-project-I-miei-primi-passi-nel-dialogo-politico

The Youth Charter of Tramonti: Carta dei Giovani di Tramonti 

Social Media

Video summary of all the steps of the project: https://youtu.be/trW7VoGGvck

Local press

https://www.positanonotizie.it/it/territorio-e-ambiente-23/nasce-la-carta-dei-giovani-di-tramonti-ecco-le-117405/articolo

https://www.ilvescovado.it/it/territorio-e-ambiente-23/a-tramonti-la-prima-conferenza-dei-giovani-per-dar-116909/article

https://amalfinotizie.it/tramonti-5-aprile-conferenza-giovani-municipio/

Nasce la “Carta dei Giovani di Tramonti”: in 17 punti proposte e desideri

Tramonti, i ragazzi nella politica attiva: nasce la prima Conferenza dei Giovani

MORE THAN BREAD: PIZZA, SWEETS and BAKERY

Wooden ovens were used in this village all year around for different purposes. For Easter the typical dish “Pastiera napoletana” – a tart made with wheat, ricotta, eggs, and cheese – was baked. Nearly every family had an oven. In some other cases people used a community oven, where they used shifts to organise them. Also, the traditional “Pizza di Tramonti” was born in these traditional ovens. 

THE “PANE BISCOTTATO”

Today, this oven is often used to bake the traditional bread of the region. Pane biscottato, or in Napoletan “Vascuott”. It is known for its long storage life, around two to three months! Sailors used this feature to have food on their long journey on the sea.

This bread does not contain any moisture, so to make it easier to eat you put in water.
For today’s use the dough contains salt, but for the sailors it didn’t. They already had salt in the sea water.

TAMMURRIATA DANCE

The Tammurriata is a traditional dance here and around the Vesuvio. The dance is accompanied by singing and the tammorra, a drum. It is hard to date the exact appearance of the dance, since no written documents exists, but it is clear, that this dance has been here for a long time.

Often the dancers use Castagnetts, small wooden instruments for accompanying the rhythm. While dancing the persons don’t have any physical contact with their partner.
Find out more: https://www.facebook.com/aparanzarotramuntan

The PATHWAY OF TERRACES

This element is on the pathway of terraces which was created in the ESC Solidarity project Incontriamoci nei terrazzamenti. Find out more: www.acarbio.org/en/icontriamoci-nei-terrazzamenti or https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1d41bjKkL4b_PqDAnVSB4NGr7PKnHWpo&ll=40.70315258759983%2C14.634084051706061&z=20

As part of this project, ACARBIO has RESCUEed an abandoned shelter in the forest of the mountain chain Monti Lattari. We saved the shelter from further deterioration and turned it into a resting place and centre for educational activities. Today we use it to explore the flora and fauna of the area and learn how to be respectful hikers with young people from Tramonti, the metropolitan area and international volunteers. 

The project’s results have been put together on https://e-rescue.eu, in an interactive e-learning platform accessible to anyone. Create an account for free and learn more more about RESCUE and its different projects.

All e-learning materials and resources on the website are available in English, Italian, Hungarian, French, and Greek. You can download research reports, the RESCUE guides and the RESCUE magazines. The RESOURCE BOOK of RESCUE is an interactive book which takes you through the different projects of each country, events, tools, and social businesses to create change. There is also an interactive GIS map showing the location of each RESCUEed space with photos and descriptions.

Interactive learning material

Moreover, there are interactive video tutorials showing the projects and the work of each partner organization. Currently, there are also three training courses which you can access and attend:

• Identification of abandoned spaces
• Involving the Community in renewing spaces
• Organizing events in abandoned and rehabilitated spaces

This interactive e-learning platform is not only trying to summarize the results of the project but also aims to offer resources and tools for those who want to get involved in rescuing and restoring abandoned spaces in their own communities. These e-learning resources can be used by youth workers, teachers and anyone who is involved in community work. Sounds like something you’re interested in? Then click here to find out more. 

The pathway is part of the hike of the “13 churches’ ‘, a popular hike in Tramonti and can be walked as part of the whole trail or just by itself to visit the cemetery (contact facebook@giovanipertramonti). Unfortunately many hiking paths have been forgotten over the last decades. For us, an important impact of the RESCUE project is to lead people towards nature and its beauty again.

What is nowadays the cemetery of the town has not always been. It used to be a Castle of Medieval Age, lying on a central position on a hill in the middle of Tramonti, from where the view extends over most part of the territory and is limited only by the Sea in the South and by the mountain chain of the Monti Latteri in the East, West and North. Tramonti is a city rich in its food history.

From chestnut honey to mozzarella, through ReFiascone tomatoes and especially its own school of Pizza, the village offers you a breath of fresh air by its authenticity. This is why the perfect Tramonti experience means a hike followed by a good and shared meal.

To RESCUE this pathway, we cleaned it from trash, we published a research about its history, we created signs along the pathway, we registered the track remotely and we inserted it in a local popular hiking trail. All this was done together with the members of Acarbio, volunteers, and a local hiking association “Tramonti Amalfi Coast Trekking” facebook@giovanipertramonti.

In February 2022, we discussed with young people from the area: What identifies Tramonti for you? Find here a report and the method: post on facebook@rescue

Two excursions were organized in July 2022, a visit to the site was organized with 15 international volunteers. The pathway was covered with grass and trash and together we decided to make it walkable again. Together, we started with cleaning the surrounding area. Then with a fresh lemonade discussed the curiosity of the day: How did the Castle of Eleonora D’Aragona become the cemetery? We did also discuss the general importance of public spaces and the particular importance of the pathways and terraced landscape for people of Tramonti.

The DISSEMINATION EVENT

To present this new pathway, we organized an event with members of the municipality, other local oraganisations, Tramonti Amalfi Coast Trekking, a local historian, and locals.

Thanks to the huge team and support we received we managed to RESCUE the pathway of Eleonora di Aragona.

Find the whole pathway on wikiloc: https://it.wikiloc.com/percorsi-escursionismo/percorso-castello-santa-maria-la-nova-corsano-castello-93630539

Authors: Laura Clement, Cornelia Kramsall

The Shelter is the first space that we reclaimed. This wonderful spot located in Monti Lattari  looks like it comes out of a fairy tale. Built in the 1900’s it was used by Forest Guards to protect nature. Having been abandoned since the 1990’s, it has been inhabited for some time only to be abandoned again afterwards. We discovered it many decades afterwards, and identified the good potential in this shelter – and, despite the huge amount of work that we had ahead of us, we went into this adventure.

The building was damaged: the walls and the roof were destroyed and nature overwhelmed the area. The idea was to reclaim the space and convert the Shelter into a resting place for hikers, a vivid camping site and a nature exploring area for young people. 

More than that, the RESCUE  project has also the purpose of making us question our link with nature, what do we know about nature, how do we spend our time in nature?

The renovation process

In order for the Shelter to be ready,the  ACARBIO team had to get ready! More than 20 work excursions were organized where we collected trash, fixed the roof, carried cement and much more.

A typical work excursion ‘Let’s build the Shelter!’ always started thanks to previous organizational meetings. With the help of locals and volunteers we first went to collect the materials. It is important for the association to recycle because  sustainability is our future. It is also a perfect place to discover some aspects of geology and the volcanic territory, and some players in the ecosystem, such as pollinators or lichens and mosses. Together, we renovated the ceiling, filled the cracks in the walls, trash was moved and a dining table was built.  The place still needs some work done but is already available for spending good time as we already did with the children from the school of Giovanni Pascoli in Tramonti. 

A day at the Shelter

‘Discover Tramonti’s nature’ is an activity that ACARBIO organized in the interest of showing to the children the beauty of nature surrounding us. After a nice hike, the children and the ACARBIO team arrived at the Shelter. 

Divided in groups we did a few activities: doing an Herbarium (identifying plants and flowers), learn how to map a place, learn how to sow plants and in a fourth activity learn how to take beautiful landscape pictures with their phones. It is important that the children learn how to love and respect nature because we are the future and hope of tomorrow. 

The Shelter still needs some work on but is already happy to welcome anyone who would like to discover its magic!

A night at the Shelter

As a group and team building experience, we organized a camping adventure in the Shelter. With 20 volunteers, we started the hike in the morning followed by a picnic lunch and a mountain climbing in the afternoon. From the top of the mountain, you can have an amazing view over the valley of Salerno.

The end of the day was organized with the setup of the tents, a nice hot meal and the happiness of spending a night outside. The next morning, after breakfast, the team started to hike back home but found a really dirty path with a lot of trash. We stopped for an hour and collected it. It is important not to ignore trash if we have the ability to collect it. 

In order to finish this article about Tramonti’s hidden landmarks let me give you the beautiful meaning of its name : sunsets. The village invites you by his name to come and explore it the way he deserves to.

The Hiking Path:

http://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1CfInAVsLBoSUOhPzYVvxm-HQIXY10ZGy&ll=40.71811739340069%2C14.649914937354364&z=16

Together with a team of 20 international volunteers and the tattoo artists Stefano Liotti and Gaia Lembo; we worked to give the walls of the kindergarten “Scuola dell’Infanzia Raffaele Fierro” in Tramonti a new look.

In a first step, Stefano did a workshop for the volunteers on how to do sketches. Then we divided into groups to think of what to draw on the wall with sketches and present it to the others. During these 4 weeks , we also thought about which colors to put on the wall and paint.

Follow Stefano and Gaia here on facebook or instagram: @AmalfiCoastINK

„We aimed to perceive the atmosphere of Tramonti, the empathy, the sympathy of its citizens – said Joana – and the spirit of sharing, characteristics that are not seen but felt in these parts“.The painting depicts churches, mountains, grapes, our ancient tomatoes, lemons, mozzarella, pizzas, and is an idea of a „neighborhood“.

The painting depicts churches, green spaces, mountains, grapes, our ancient tomatoes, lemons, mozzarella, pizzas, liqueurs. It is an idea of a “neighborhood” with peasants, pizza chefs, vendors, activities such as trekking, traditional dances and the most characteristic vehicles that can be encountered. They thus represented the place that welcomed them, as they saw their eyes and their hearts. 

The Murales on the Central Market is an important step of the RESCUE project. It is very important for us to be able to lead people towards art. Indeed, art can help to make changes. Located in Polvica, this marketplace looked abandoned for who did not know that on saturdays the local market was held there. The walls were sad and didn’t invite you to spend some time around the square. The idea was not only to RESCUE it but to give people inspiration to come and organize other activities, workshops or to play around. Also it can be a source of inspiration for other art RESCUE projects. They started by cleaning and painting the walls in white, in order for them to paint and draw on it. Then, they were able to make this beautiful manifesto.

Find us @ https://goo.gl/maps/ZEVkBKbt94hRGauU7