With over 400 delegates from institutions and member countries of the Council of Europe and representatives of European cultural itineraries, the 11th Annual Meeting of Cultural Routes was held in Chania from 5 to 7 October 2022. It was attended by the President of ‘Rotta di Enea Association’, Giovanni Cafiero, after the certification obtained in 2021 from the cultural itinerary Rotta di Aeneas.
Mr. Cafiero oversaw the meeting of the Cultural Routes task force on the opening day on October 5th. He was also present for the special working session on sustainable the tourism products present along the Cultural Routes held on the final day on October 7th where he spoke as a speaker.
During the seminar organized within the framework of European policies for the Adriatic macro-region, Cafiero illustrated the principles of tourism and cultural promotion that are at the basis of the Route of Enea itinerary: subsidiarity, attention to the generative processes of local resources and organization of pilot actions that stimulate local resources towards quality cultural tourism.
An example of a tourism that combines culture, promotion of the territory and its typical involvement of local institutions, is constituted by the activities carried out by the Rotta di Enea Association. As illustrated by Cafiero, these were implemented in the Archaeological Park of the Phlegraean Fields through the organization of a Festival, among other initiatives. In addition activies were carried out through the realization of the Cruise of Values project, which promotes sailing and the integration of sea and land through the organization of artistic events and cultural visits, with the supply of local and regional food to sailors, thanks to the Slow Food collaboration.
“Aeneas’ Route”, said Cafiero, “represents the meeting between the civilizations of the Mediterranean that from the east moved towards the west and their spread through Roman civilization throughout Europe and the then-known world. Aeneas’ Route is a project that promotes a cultural community made up of a kaleidoscope of linguistic, artistic, literary and philosophical contributions that had already spread everywhere in the ancient world: from Asia to the Mediterranean, from the Iberian Peninsula to Eastern Europe, from the coasts of Africa to north of Great Britain, forming a common base to which we can proudly recognize ourselves as heirs ”.
During the Forum, Albania’s entry into the Cultural Routes Program of the Council of Europe was celebrated. In the welcome speech to the Albanian republic, represented by the Deputy Minister for Culture Ms Meri Kumbe, Ambassador Patrick Engelberg, head of the Statutory Committee of the Program, underlined the importance of the passage in Albania of the Route of Aeneas, defined as one of the new, more interesting cultural itineraries of the Council of Europe.
In Meri Kumbe’s speech, it was highlighted how Albania, thanks to projects such as the Route of Aeneas, is proposed as a place of encounter and fusion of great cultures of the ancient world between East and West, in particular the Greek and Roman ones.
The meeting in Chania was an opportunity for the Route of Aeneas to strengthen the ties of cooperation with other cultural routes and to strengthen the links with the 4 European countries crossed by Aeneas’ journey: Turkey, Greece, Albania and Italy, present with representatives of the ministries of culture or with the respective tourism development agencies, including during bilateral meetings. A similar action to strengthen cooperative ties is pursued by the Association towards Tunisia with its millenary cultural impact that has contributed significantly and lastingly to the history of the civilizations of the Ancient World.
