Settesoli for Selinunte

Amid all the bad news, problems with the economy and even an end of harvest that is proving to be more complicated than expected, here is an initiative I think anyone who is interested in the world of wine should support as best they can. Cantine Settesoli, a major Sicilian wine cooperative, has decided to offer concrete support for the Selinunte Archeological Park which is just a few kilometers from their headquarters in Menfi and that is going through, like many other Italian artistic historical gems, a particularly difficult time. They do not have, for example, sufficient funds to illuminate at night the walls surrounding the site of which only 10% is visitable.

Were it in France or Spain, this archeological site would be an important tourist attraction while in Italy it risks being abandoned. And this in a region with special statutes that allow it pass its own laws to deal with such situations without having to go through the long process of dealing with the central government. But this is not the case and it is outrageous.

And so the executives at Settesoli, a board of directors composed of winemakers, decided to launch an initiative to raise the funds the archeological site needs, including those for illuminating it at night and this keeping it open to the public. For every bottle of Settesoli wine acquired, those that publicize the initiative on the label, ten euro cents will be donated to the initiative. Some 2.5 million bottles are involved which means that 250,000 euros will be made available every year to help support the archeological site. A tidy sum that will help do many useful things and will arrive directly to the park without having to go through regional bureaucracy. All this raises a million questions, first among these being why the Region of Sicily has not done anything and why, in the end, farmers are the ones who have to defend archeological treasures that are the patrimony of the State and thus everyone. But perhaps it is better in the end not to go there.

For sure I will be going to the supermarket to buy some of those bottles and I hope many of you will do the same. And I hope that those who should be finding solutions to similar questions find the time of realize why they have not.