Social Tours in Scampia Cooked Up by ​​Francesco Riccio

Caribbean News…
12 May 2021 7:15am
the tours cooked by Francesco Riccio

By Massimo Terracina

Have you ever heard of “Gomorrah” the TV series based on the mafia/camorra story? 

Well, one of the places where it has been set is Scampia, one of the Neaples suburbs in Italy, sadly known for its urban degradation.

Francesco Riccio is an Italian travel agent who, like the whole category, found himself displaced and depleted of work at the outbreak of the pandemic. Hard times…so what to do?

This is his story of rebirth, managing capability and courage.

the tours of Francesco Riccio

 

As we all know, inventiveness often saves us from the worst situations, so Riccio has appealed to the imagination, the territory, the social, the myths, often incorrectly created by television, and has cooked up a completely new and interesting tour to enhance the territory, the social causes and all the good things there (because there are some, despite what you could think) in Scampia.

“Certainly it is a difficult neighborhood,” explains Francesco Riccio. “It’s a place which has had, and perhaps continues to have, its problems, exacerbated by the unfair fictional fame of the Gomorrah TV series. Our idea combines the possibility of showing the area as it really is and all the initiatives with a social redevelopment of the territory”.

And so we set off to discover the neighborhood and its virtuous realities, on a tour that has a tourist patina, but a noble soul.

The tours, which are available from Monday to Friday with a minimum of ten people, starts from an appointment with the participants at the Scampia art underground station.

the tours of Francesco Riccio

 

“It is here that we will meet the soul of the neighborhood, a guide-witness who will tell us the story of Scampia starting from the artistic installations by Felice Pignataro del Felimetrò, up to the recent mural works by Jorit and the recently inaugurated exhibition gallery,” explains Riccio. “The highlight of the tour will be the guided walk to Scampia, skirting the famous "Le Vele (The Sails)" and the new public housing famous for being the set of various television and film series.”

Then it will be the turn of the visit to the garden of the Five Continents - Pangea Project (Largo Dino Battaglia) a space entirely redeveloped from scratch by associations, inhabitants and the schools of Scampia, a living testimony that there is a strong desire for social, aesthetic and life redemption.

“Another important moment of the tour will be the visit to the Scugnizzeria, which will be followed by a meeting with the founders and volunteers,” adds Riccio. The Scugnizzeria is the “Casa degli Scugnizzi (House of Street Guys), 140 square meters of revolution on the outskirts halfway between Scampia and Melito. The Scugnizzeria is a multitude, it is a shop, a bazaar, a “Piazza di Spaccio Creativa (Creativity Deal Square)”. 

the tours of Francesco Riccio

 

The location is home to the first wine bookshop in the north of Naples, where books from independent publishing houses and wine are sold, together with homemade honey, rice, typical handicraft products, audio books, ebooks, music CDs and vinyls, and solidarity favors, proudly Made in Scampia. In short, it’s a place that combines all the tourist and human ingredients to show the desire for redemption. We continue with a walk that runs alongside the Mammut Territorial Center, the municipal Villa Parco Ciro Esposito, the Hurtado Center, run by the Jesuits, and the social cooperatives of tailoring and typography.

And as always, "dulcis in fundo (sweet at the end), we end up at Chikù for a meeting with the association that operates in Scampia, made up of members of the Neapolitan community and with La Kumpania Impresa Sociale, consisting of Italian and Rome women (in Scampia there was a huge Rome camp from which this mixture was born) who found in the local cuisine, mixed with the ethnic one, a form of collaboration and commendable integration.

“So, returning to the subway, our three-hour tour ends, a proposal that I hope will take root,” concludes Riccio. “It is important that you know the truth and let yourself be touched, because the truth is sometimes distorted and, at the end of the day, you don't know what a disruptive effect it can have on the territory. And precisely to make realities known, we have given life to this initiative.”

the tours of Francesco Riccio
Francesco Riccio

 

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