Intercultural Study Trip: Social Change & anti-Mafia struggles in Southern Italy
September 1-10, 2013

This trip will take us to the Southern Italian regions Campania and Sicily. We will explore the bustling cities of Napoli and Palermo and the beautiful Sicilian inlands around Corleone (home town of the fictional character Don Corleone in The Godfather). Walking the paths of the Southern Italian labour rights, social equality and anti-Mafia movements, we will discuss the history and contemporary role of organised crime, corruption, and mismanagement in Southern Italy. We will look at these realities through the eyes of civil society movements, activists and young urban creatives (artists and entrepreneurs) and explore how they oppose and redefine their cultural, economic and socio-political heritage in a time of crisis and new opportunities.

Activists explaining how they work, Palermo

Program highlights:

•    Meeting with academics at University of Napoli Federico II with inputs on the links between organised crime and failures of public institutions in Italy
•    Guided city tours with local students, street artists, immigrants and activists “Napoli/Palermo through the eyes of…”
•    Visit to Roma community restaurant in informal settlement in Scampia (Napoli), musical performances by Roma-Napolitanian folk band
•    Project visits to confiscated Mafia goods transformed into social enterprises (work reintegration projects for disabled people or unemployed people, organic farms, Agriturismi)
•    Project visit to “Caffè Lazzarelle” - work reintegration project for incarcerated women
•    Overnight ferry from Napoli to Palermo
•    Meeting and guided tour with “Addio Pizzo” (goodbye racket) in Palermo, local NGO promoting “pizzo-free” (racket-free), fair businesses opposing Mafia practices
•    Lunches and dinners at Agriturismi in Sicilian inlands with locally grown, organic food produced on confiscated Mafia land
•    Possibility to go on hikes, swim in waterholes in Corleone or visit beaches near Palermo and Napoli during free time

Terre di Corleone - Agriturismo established in confiscated Mafia villa

Costs & logistics

700-900 Euros per person, depending on number of participants, including 9 nights’ accommodation in 2-4 bed rooms, breakfast, overnight ferry trip Napoli-Palermo and 3 delicious 3-course lunches/dinners with organic products at Agriturismi in Sicily. Excluding travel costs to and from Italy. Travel to and from Italy has to be organised by participants themselves.

Stuffed and baked vegetables for starters, Agriturismo, Italy

Organisers, tour guides and participants

The tour guides and trip organisers are myself and Laura Solinas. We are two young Italians in our late 20s and early 30s, both passionate about sustainable and responsible lifestyles and of course travel! We both have roots in Southern Italy but have lived abroad and have now returned to Italy because we feel very strongly about sharing the hopeful and inspiring sides of this beautiful country with international travellers and students.

Piazza de Plebiscito Napoli with all the past kings

We are organising this trip through a Swiss-based study travel organisation – Initiative for Intercultural Learning (IFIL). This is a volunteer-based organisation run by students and alumni of Swiss and European universities, all of which have extensive travel and living abroad experience. The trip is open to young travellers from anywhere in the world, and we hope to have a very diverse group of participants! IFIL trip participants are usually in their early 20s to early 30s. Most participants are students or young professionals, open-minded and ready to be inspired.

Detailed program and registration: www.ifil.ch/page/en/projects?re_id=56

Custom made tours & study trips

We are currently registering our own association and will be offering custom made trips on these and related topics starting from July 2013 on. Please contact me for further information and requests:

Loredana Monte
loredana.monte [at] gmail.com
Mobile:     +39 345 0204 165 or +41 76 468 0059