Italy Grand Tour: the Biodiversity Park of Catanzaro

This article is published in number 23 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until June 8, 2021

The Biodiversity Park for me it is not only the great green lung nestled in the city of Catanzaro: it is above all the place of the heart to which I am most attached. As a boyfriend, then a husband and then again a father, I spent many moments in the paths of this splendid space which, over time, have become some of my best memories. Walks with Francesca in the open air, among nature trails, immersed in the scents, sounds and colors that characterize the floristic and faunal richness of an area to be discovered every day. The park has restored life and dignity to an area otherwise destined to be abandoned. Over the years, it has also been transformed into an open-air museum, enriched by sculptures that bear the signature of authors of absolute international fame: walking in the green, one cannot fail to feel genuine amazement in front of the majestic works of Dennis Oppenheim, Jan Fabre, Mimmo Paladino, Marc Quinn, Antony Gormley and many others…

Even my little ones, Andrea, Maria Sole and Giuseppe, were immediately captured by it, running at breakneck speed among the many art gems, not sparing smiles and curiosities from which we should all be infected. Yes, because this is an ideal place for children to grow up, letting them experience the thrill of the first discoveries, of contact with vegetation and animals, of the joy of aggregation. Children who then become adolescents and continue to experience it through the many sports and play facilities, such as the space dedicated to skaters or the long viaduct illuminated by graffiti.

Not only that: when the sun goes down, the large amphitheater becomes a natural location for shows and concerts, making young couples savor the taste of being together, side by side … How much would it be needed today! It is also for this reason that I wanted to go back with my mother, who had never seen him: we are children of the provinces, raised far from the city. I accompanied her after the Covid vaccine: I experienced the emotion of a great generational embrace, I saw in his eyes the joy of surprise that knows no age differences. In this historical moment, it is necessary to protect and keep close to places such as the Biodiversity Park, which represent small oases of happiness, far away
from the urban dullness we are all too used to. A treasure to be discovered, in this land of Calabria, victim of prejudices which, on the other hand, needs to be told in its beauty. Because, as the Calabrian anthropologist Vito Teti says: “Every place contains the world”.

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