Procida: Italian Capital of Culture 2022

Procida is the Italian Capital of Culture for 2022.

The small island in the Bay of Naples beat 10 other candidate cities — Ancona, Bari, Cerveteri, L’Aquila, Pieve di Soligo (Treviso), Taranto, Trapani, Verbania, Lake Maggiore, and Volterra — for the designation.

“The patrimonial and landscape dimension of the place is extraordinary.,” said Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini when announcing Procida as the Italian Capital of Culture 2022 on 18 January 2021. “The project could represent a model for sustainable projects and cultural development of the island and coastal realities of the country.”

Here is the video that Procida boosters submitted for consideration:

An island city with a population of approximately 10,000, Procida is located in Campania, a short ferry ride from Naples. It is, along with Capri and Ischia, one of the Flegrean Islands.

Pastel and pastoral, the island is defined by its calm marinas and quiet beaches.

Il Postino, the beloved 1994 film that mingled the poetry of Pablo Neruda with a tender love story, was filmed in Pozzo Vecchio in the wide cove now known as Spiaggia del Postino. “The project is also capable of transmitting a poetic message,” said Franceschini, alluding to the film. “A vision of culture that extends from the small reality of the island as a wish for all of us, to the country in the months that await us.”

Italian Capital of Culture designations began in 2014. This year, once again, the Ps have it.

Procida follows Parma, which held the title of Italian Capital of Culture in 2020 and 2021, an extended tenure owing to the disruption of the pandemic. Palermo was the “capital” in 2018, and Pistoia before that.

There was no Italian Capital of Culture in 2019, as Matera, Basilicata, held the title of European Capital of Culture that year.

The Italian Cultural Ministry has already announced that Brescia and Bergamo, two Lombardy towns that were hard hit by COVID-19, will be the dual Italian Capitals of Culture for 2023.

Post first published on January 20, 2021