Telling stories, making connections

It all began with a journey. Not in the rhetorical sense of the term, but with real steps, into emptying villages, along silent streets, alongside faces filled with expectation and questions. It was the summer of 2015, and I had an urgent need: to tell the story of Basilicata not as a remote place, but as a space of possibility.

Thus was born #IdealPlace — more than a project, a gentle obsession. A way of saying that even in territories considered peripheral, new words are being generated, visions capable of touching the heart of Italy’s transformations. Not just beauty, but work, innovation, citizenship.

Over these 10 years, I have tried to construct a narrative that is neither nostalgic nor promotional but militant, in the best sense of the word. Because talking about a region like Basilicata inevitably means talking about the entire country. Talking about depopulation, inequality, youth on the run and roots that resist. But it also means listening to the stories of those who choose to stay, return, reinvent. It means viewing the territory not as a problem to be solved but as a laboratory for social, cultural and political experiments.

#LuogoIdeale has become a blog, a social media hashtag, a radio program, a series of books and a collection of videos, meetings, and urban walks. Each stop has been a way to explore the questions of the present.

We tried to recount Potenza on the eve of RAI’s New Year’s Eve; to convey the authentic image of Maratea beyond the postcards; to walk among the contradictions and expectations of Matera, overcoming 2019 but still not knowing the fate of humanity, profoundly affected by COVID; to seek out stories of innovation and courage in the most unexpected places. We gave voice to women and men who are building change from the bottom up, to entrepreneurs, teachers, artists, administrators and activists.

My 2024 book “Game Changer” celebrates the stories of these men and women: brave souls capable of transforming their communities, sparking processes of change and innovation in the complex region of Basilicata.

Above all, we tried to restore dignity to the narrative of a territory often simplified or forgotten. It wasn’t about creating a brand but about building a community. Of words, of course, but also of faces, gestures, presences. Of connections between generations, countries, experiences. Of affections that become visions.

This is why the project has found space in institutions, festivals, schools and public squares. It has transcended the internet to enter our lives. Over the past 10 years, we have experienced epochal ruptures — a pandemic, new wars, climate crises — but the need for ideal places has never diminished. Indeed, it has grown. Because an ideal place is not a perfect place: it is a space where we try, together, to make another idea of the future possible.

Telling the story of Basilicata back then was — and still is — a way to question the country about what it means to grow without uprooting. It is a way of affirming that there are no lesser territories, only unheard narratives. And perhaps today, more than ever, we need maps that lead not only to global cities, but to the margins that teach patience, loyalty and care. We need places where time becomes more human, and the future can still sprout like a seed in a crack.

#LuogoIdeale is this: a way to stay. A way to leave without forgetting. A way to believe, once again, that another story is possible. That Basilicata is the land of the future.

The article above appears in the October 2025 issue of the print version of Fra Noi. Our gorgeous, monthly magazine contains a veritable feast of news and views, profiles and features, entertainment and culture.

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