Discovering Molise between nature, culture and food & wine

Mino Reganato explains the problems and opportunities related to his delicate professional role in Molise, in a difficult area from the point of view of tourist visibility. Mino Reganato, born in 1961, is originally from Formia (LT). A long-time hospitality professional, in 1998 he was also the Manager of different tour operators in Lazio. In 2010 he developed a consulting business company, such as Hotel Tourism Management Group (HTMG). With HTMG he arrives in Campobasso for a Hotel consultancy at Centrum Palace Hotel ****.

Molise is a small region with an extension comparable to that of a large city but with a much smaller number of inhabitants. We are talking about 4400 square kilometers of a surface with 380,000 inhabitants, 230,000 in the province of Campobasso, and 70,000 in the metropolitan area of the capital. The Region was established only in 1963 by detaching it from Abruzzo. In Molise nature prevails, space, the alternation of the sea with the mountain with large green valleys and lakes of great beauty. Molise is a treasure chest steeped in history and culture, with the phenomenon of transhumance at the center of its cultural anthropology. At the same time, it is a region that has never worked hard enough to make itself known, to discover its in-credible excellences, both historical and cultural, food and wine. In Molise, small is beautiful but unfortunately, it also risks being completely unknown. The tourist, like the tour operator who arrives in the area and does not know it, must immediately find an interlocutor who can provide him with both the information and the feeling of having arrived at a quality tourist destination. Often it is the hotel manager who has to make up for the lack of information and image on the part of the territory. In situations like Molise, an area rich in history but poor in tourism culture, the hotel replaces the area's shortcomings by providing tourist information and assuming a role that should not compete with it. Sometimes there is even a lack of tourist information in English, the ABC of tourism communication in the contemporary world. Those who arrive, after all, have chosen Molise as their destination. He probably documented. The real question concerns those who do not find adequate information and tourist suggestions and discard Molise a priori as a destination for their trip. And damage, this, which is not even quantifiable. In my professional life, I have also been a tour operator. This experience has facilitated me in setting up co-marketing operations with the territory to make it known in Italy and the world. We have created tailor-made tourist itineraries for various market segments.

Molise boasts excellent food and wine and valuable professionals but the former often remain unknown, the latter are forced to go to work elsewhere.

In Molise, a truly remarkable red wine is produced, "Tintilia", almost unknown outside the region, partly because the production is quite limited, such as "Fumin" in Val d'Aosta, but above all, because it is not promoted.

Tintilia was born in vineyards cultivated facing the sea from which a velvet-flavored, intense, fragrant wine is obtained. A truly remarkable wine. At Vinitaly he collected some prizes but they are rarely talked about. The cavatelli del Molise, a homemade pasta, is very good. They accompany a traditional Molise ragù that contains three different types of meat. There are very special soups that refer to the tradition of transhumant shepherds.

They are notable dishes that remain limited to the territory. The paradox of Molise, which has been defined as the region that does not exist, while on the contrary, and I can say it after three years of working in Campobasso, has incredible tourist potential. There is the city of bells, Agnone, where they still manufacture important bells, such as the one that opened the Jubilee in Rome in 2000. In its foundries, it is still possible to witness the story of how a bell is made, the voice of our civilization for at least 1500 years. Frosolone, the home of knives, has been for centuries. His swords were much sought after in the past, also famous for the pierced steel.

Molise has a millenary history that should be better promoted. There are archaeological sites, especially from the Roman era, which deserve greater visibility. There is a truly intense, green, and wooded area. In the Christmas period from Isernia to Campobasso, there are ancient villages perched on the mountain, wrapped in snow, which become real living nativity scenes. To be seen. Molise still has craftsmanship that is very well rooted in the territory and tradition. With local artisans at Christmas, I organized a sort of Christmas market in Campobasso. Those who had the opportunity to visit them were very happy. What is lacking is continuity and public commitment to organize and promote them every year. Campobasso is 280 kilometers from Rome. Unfortunately, the motorway does not reach us, but there is always little traffic on the state and provincial roads. The railway connection is decidedly insufficient: the line is not even electrified.

As for the accommodation system, even in Molise, we suffer from unfair, if not abusive, competition from Bed & breakfast accommodation, which has never been controlled. A situation of both tax avoidance and evasion and widespread illegality that heavily affects our economic accounts as well as the quality and safety of the tourist offer.

What is certain is that the future of tourism in Molise should be included in territorial product clubs, territorially much wider: the phenomenon of transhumance concerns Abruzzo, Molise, Puglia, and Basilicata, and the Samnite civilization concerns Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Basilicata, the segment bike also concerns most of Central Italy and not just our territory. Contemporary tourism reasons by-product clubs, by experiences. The regions have become a drag both in the formation of Product Clubs and in their promotion. On the territory, if anything, we must create supply chains of excellence that involve everything that is produced in the region so that they are certified and guaranteed according to shared quality parameters. Tourism, its cultural and political growth, represents a great chance for all of Italy and in particular for the South to maintain the social and cultural achievements acquired in the last 70 years and further expand them. The tourism industry is the winning answer to the irreversible crisis of the traditional manufacturing industry, the only winning answer for the whole country but in particular for the South of Italy and above all for those territories that have maintained remarkable environmental integrity, such as Molise, which combines with the relaunch of quality craftsmanship and the other great winning supply chain, the agri-food sector, where we have always been protagonists also on world markets. We must emancipate ourselves from the illusion linked to the traditional manufacturing industry, which in the past played a role in growth but which today in its final phase, replacing it with modern tourism with an ancient heart that only Italy, and Molise in Italy, possess, excellence that many copies but which is ours and ours alone. Tourism as a world phenomenon continues to grow, it would be absurd if we, who have been protagonists of it for at least fifty years, do not take this incredible opportunity.

Interview and article by Renato Andreoletti - Hotel Domani