The Network of Virgilian cities was born. The Route of Aeneas met Virgil in Mantua

The Network of Virgilian cities was born. The Route of Aeneas met Virgil in Mantua.

Mantua. The cities linked to Virgil's biography met in Mantua thanks to Route of Aeneas, the cultural itinerary certified by Council of Europe in 2021, to give life to a network of “Virgilian cities" promotional vehicle for the cultural heritage of the Mantuan poet and the territories and places sung in the Aeneid. The network of Virgilian cities was born from the will of the Municipalities of Mantua and Borgo Virgilio, ofNational Virgilian Academy and the Virgilio Foundation, in collaboration with the Association Route of Aeneas. The symbolic date of October 15, Virgil's birthday, was chosen for its constitution. The appointment at Bibiena was the central moment of three days, "Virgil and the Route of Aeneas” (13-15 October), entirely dedicated to the Mantuan poet.

The deputy mayor of Mantua spoke for institutional greetings Giovanni Buvoli, the mayor of Borgo Virgilio Aporti, Paola Besutti of the Virgiliana Academy, the Tourism Councilor of the Lombardy Region Barbara Mazzali, the President of the Rotta Association of Aeneas Giovanni Cafiero. Then the administrators who signed up to the Charter spoke. Representatives of the Municipalities attended in attendance Atella, Centola-Palinuro, Cremona, Erice, Verona, while Naples sent a video with the mayor's intervention Gaetano Manfredi. At the end of the morning, the Charter of Values, the Mantua Manifesto, inspired by the work and spiritual legacy of Virgil, was signed.

Therefore, there are already numerous municipalities that have joined the "net": beyond Mantua and Borgo Virgilio, the Municipalities of the site of atella (Orta di Atella, Sant'Arpino, Succivo, Frattaminore) which are linked to the ancient Italic theatrical traditions, cremone, where Virgil stayed during his training and where musical traditions are linked to the numerous musical transpositions of the myth of Aeneas and Dido, Centola Palinuro, linked to the memory of the faithful helmsman of the Trojan fleet, Bedroom, one of the cities of that Flegrean area that Virgil frequented for a long time during his stays in Campania, bacoli, theater of the crucial events of the VI book of the Aeneid (Capo Miseno), Naples, where Virgil stayed for a long time, leaving an indelible mark in the history of the cities and in popular devotion ("Virgil the Magician"). I am in the process of joining: Erice, summit of the Sicilian triangle (with Trapani and Segesta) linked to the figure of Anchises where Aeneas, a unique example in the Aeneid, goes twice, first to bury and then to honor his father, Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, a fateful place in Virgil's life, which is also home to its metropolitan area Lavinium, the city founded by Aeneas, Pozzuoli, also the scene of the crucial events of the VI book of the Aeneid, the meeting with the Sibyl in Cuma and the descent into hell through the Lake Averno.

Contacts are ongoing with Milano, another stage in Virgil's education and where Mozart wrote his Ascanio in Alba with a libretto by Parini, Verona, where the presence of the gens Vergilia is attested, Toast, where Virgil died on 21 September 19 BC. All places linked to Virgil's life or to the stages of Aeneas' journey to Italy. Virgilian cities recognize themselves in the values ​​represented by the work of Virgilio, European poet par excellence with the story of the Mediterranean cultural origins of European civilization represented by the Aeneid; poem capable of a wonderful synthesis between the cultures coming from the East, the Italic virtues of pietas, respect and devotion for the elderly (Anchises), responsibility towards the new generations (Ascanio) and the new attention to the person that will find expression in few decades later in early Christianity.

“The establishment of the Virgilian Cities Network here in Mantua with the Municipalities of Mantua and Borgo Virgilio, the National Virgilian Academy and the Virgilio Foundation – declared the President of the Rotta di Enea Association, Giovanni Cafiero - completes a path started with the certification of the Aeneas Route in 2021 as a cultural itinerary of the Council of Europe. Virgil remains an inexhaustible source of inspiration for us: the love for nature, the yearning for peace, the dimension of care, the sense of the mission carried out for the community and the young generations, are part of a message that has supported us during the pandemic and which still guides us today to face the climate and environmental crisis, the prospects of overcoming the wars on Europe's borders, the solidarity co-management of Mediterranean emergencies".

The Mantua meeting “Virgil and the Route of Aeneas” started on October 13thVirgilian National Academy with the schools of Mantua, a conference was held on 14 October in Virgilio Museum Park – Forte di Pietole in the municipality of Borgo Virgilio. During the "three days" internationally renowned scholars such as Julia Caneva of the Department of Natural Sciences ofUniversity of Rome 3 who spoke in detail about the world of nature with the speech Dall'Ara Pacis to the Aeneid: the botanical code of Aeneas's Route. Stephen Harrison of Oxford University, focused on Mantua in Virgil's poetry. They were introduced by Filomena Giannotti of the Department of Philology and Literature Criticism Ancient and Modern of the University of Siena. Also worth highlighting is the intervention of Giordano Bruno Guerri, direttore generale Garda Museums. The event concluded on the 15th afternoon at the Bibiena theater with the celebrations of Virgil's birthday organized by the Virgiliana Academy, with the Lectio magistralis of Alessandro Schiesaro of the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa on The stormy Aeneid: poetics, philosophy, metaphor and a classical music concert edited by Paola Besutti, with introduction by Arnoldo Mosca Mondadori, in which the Quartet ofVirgilian Academy he plays instruments made with wood recovered from migrant boats.