The municipalities: we will meet the deadlines

"Lucanian municipalities will respect the timeframe dictated by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan and will be quick to spend the substantial resources allocated. To date, there are commitments of about 45% and expenditure of over 10%'. Andrea Bernardo, former President of Anci Basilicata, is convinced of this during the period of programming of the NRP and participation in the calls for tenders by the 131 municipalities in Basilicata: 693 candidate projects (an average of almost 6 projects each) for EUR 1.1 billion and funding obtained for EUR 348 million, plus other resources from the Region, Provinces, and other sub-regional authorities.

All eyes are on the 'Borgo Monticchio Bagni' pilot project led by the municipality of Rionero in Vulture, the beneficiary of EUR 20 million in funding, which is part of the NRP's 'attractiveness of small villages' line of activity and an integral part of the regional strategic plan.

The Region, responding to the public notice of the Ministry of Culture, has focused on the revitalisation of an area of particular historical, archaeological and landscape-environmental value, an element that represents its greatest criticality due to the slow authorisation times of the Region's Environment Department and the Superintendency of Cultural Heritage, which, in some cases, have exceeded 10 months and have not yet been completed.

A project consisting of 14 actions that aims to turn the Monticchio Bagni village into a large widespread laboratory of innovation and creativity with important socio-economic spin-offs, through the creation of attractions for slow and sustainable tourism: the 'monks' raft' will unite the two shores of Lake Grande, travelling along the surface of the water on an ecological floating platform, and the flight of the Bramea, a Sky Glider, inspired by the flight of the Vulture moth, which will run along the old cableway of Mount Vulture. In both cases, the Region has started the Via procedures and the OK is awaited to start the contract.

'Despite the bureaucratic difficulties, we are moving forward,' said the mayor of Rionero in Vulture Mario De Nitto, 'in the next few months the Monticchio Bagni Visitors' Centre and the Borgo Trail will be finished. Excavation campaigns in the archaeological area of Sant'Ippolito and cultural promotion activities have been completed: Ninfea Festival, conferences, video production, performances in the Borgo di Monticchio Bagni'.