Road to from Rome Day 8: Rest day in Fondi - Excursion to Ventotene
Il sogno produce la realtà
Dreams make reality
- written by the gate to the Monastery of San Magno
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| The island of Ventotene |
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| Leaving Formia on the ferry |
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| Gaeta- we will be passing through here when we resume our walk tomorrow! |
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| The harbour of Ventotene, dating back to Roman times |
This morning a group of representatives of the Road to Rome 2021 project and the European Association of the Vie Francigene, including President Massimo Tedeschi, took the ferry to Ventotene to participate in the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Ventotene Manifesto (Italian: Manifesto di Ventotene), officially entitled "For a Free and United Europe. A Draft Manifesto" (Per un'Europa libera e unita. Progetto d'un manifesto), a political statement written by Altiero Spinelli while he was imprisoned on the Italian island of Ventotene during World War II. Completed in June 1941, the Manifesto was circulated within the Italian Resistance, and it soon became the programme of the Movimento Federalista Europeo, calling for a socialist federation of Europe and the world as a way to prevent future wars.
The Ventotene manifesto is considered to mark the birth of European federalism. It called for a break with Europe's past to form a new political system through a restructuring of politics and extensive social reform, presented not as an ideal, but as the best option for postwar Europe.
The idea arose out of discussions among the federalists among the 250 or so political prisoners who were confined to the island between 1932 and 1945. They also included communists, anarchists, foreigners, and the socialists under the leadership of Sandro Pertini, accommodated in a dozen pavilions, including one solely for women and one for those afflicted with tubercolosis. The prisoners were allowed to walk about only within the boundaries of the area assigned to them, guarded by a staff of military personnel who practically outnumbered the prisoners. They could not walk in the countryside or in the port area, except to carry barrels of imported drinking water up the hill. They had to report for roll call three times a day, and considering that there were 250 to 300 prisoners on the island, this took up a considerable amount of their time! But many of them managed to fraternise with the local community of Ventotene despite this, and one even stayed behind after the war was over, he liked living on the island so much!
The prisoners ate their meals in canteens, which were divided by political affiliation, meaning that you only had to ask a man what he'd eaten for lunch to determine his political inclinations! Mealtimes represented the only opportunity the prisoners had to communicate, as they were forbidden to gather in groups of more than two. Nonetheless they somehow managed to smuggle forbidden books onto the island, even with notes inside them informing them of the latest news from the resistance movement on the mainland, and set up their own clandestine library in addition to the two official ones approved by the authorities: Marco Maoviz library, now the town library of Ventotene.
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| The rules |
It is amazing that these men and women, living as prisoners under these conditions, with war raging all over the continent, could have come up with the dream of a European federation united to live in peace, and given this dream a written expression in the Ventotene Manifesto drafted by Altiero Spinelli: the seed of the idea that was to become the European Union.
So what does Ventotene have to do with the Via Francigena, and why are we invited to represent the Road to Rome at the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Ventotene Manifesto? The Via Francigena is a single, unified cultural heritage route uniting northern and southern Europe, a single path joining England, France, Switzerland and Italy, as well as, of course, the Vatican State. Our President is fond of quoting Jacques Le Goff, who pointed out that it was not only people and goods but ideas and cultures that travelled and were exchanged along the ancient pilgrimage routes.
The Via Francigena was recognised as a “Cultural Route of the Council of Europe” in 1994. The Cultural Routes programme was launched by the Council of Europe in 1987 with the Declaration of Santiago de Compostela: “May the faith which has inspired pilgrims throughout history, uniting them in a common aspiration and transcending national differences and interests, inspire us today, and young people in particular, to travel along these routes in order to build a society founded on tolerance, respect for others, freedom and solidarity.” Read the full version here https://rm.coe.int/16806f57d6
This is why we were welcomed to the island by a committee including Mayor Gerardo Santomauro, Government Commissioner Silvia Costa, Regional Councillor for Culture of Lazio Gaia Pernarella, and Professor Renato de Gregorio, municipal delegate for the Europe project. They all spoke at a meeting in the city hall, along with the two leaders of our group today: Massimo Tedeschi, President of the European Association of the Vie Francigene, and Gerardo Venezia, Vice President of the association Gruppo dei Dodici, who have been accompanying us since Rome.
We were treated to a tour of the island by the curator of the archeological museum and by historian Filomena Gargiulo, and then enjoyed a delicious seafood lunch in the company of our new friends at Ristorante Mast'Aniello, with magnificent views of the sea and the island of Santo Stefano, with its Bourbon prison...
But that is a whole other story!
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