On July 12 a meeting between a 69-year-old bicycle traveller Francesca Filippi from Italy and representatives of the Russian-Italian Association “SIBITA” took place in Krasnoyarsk.
Francesca Filippi was born in Rome and moved to Teramo, an Italian city in the region of Abruzzo. She got interested in bicycling and since 2004 has travelled by bicycle through Europe, India and China. Francesca set out on a long journey to Russia from Moscow to Vladivostok to learn more about Russian culture and traditions.
“The Russians are a nation little known in Europe. There exist many wrong stereotypes, that’s why I wanted to get my personal experience of the Russian people and dispel popular myths. The Italians are also curious about Russian lifestyle.”
This journey is a part of the cooperation project called “Know to understand”, started by Francesca Filippi and the Russian-Italian Association “SIBITA” and aimed to study genuine Russia, its people, their values and to develop strong friendly relations between Italy and Russia.
On July 13 Francesca visited Krasnoyarsk National Reserve “Stolby”. The Italian traveller went on a tour in the reserve, from which she learned about its history and current developments. The reserve employees told Francesca about such directions of development as volunteer programs, social tourism and popularization of environment protection and the idea of waste separation. They have also expressed their readiness to welcome Italian students at the reserve research and development complex “Narym” in order to organize collaborative studies and research.
The highlight of the meeting was the signing of a cooperation agreement between Krasnoyarsk Nature Reserve “Stolby” and “Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga” National Park in Italy, with Francesca Filippi playing the role of the official representative of the Italian National Park.
In cooperation with Fernando Bustelli, the head of the Russian-Italian Association “SIBITA”, she showed a film about “Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga”, told about its current challenges and expressed hope that joint efforts and cooperation would help to cope with common problems.
“I was sure to get as much warmth as I had already got while travelling through Russia. <...> Thanks to your help I managed to implement the project that unites different nations with the power of love.” - said Francesca during the meeting.
One more agreement, on cultural and scientific cooperation between the University of Teramo and the Law Institute of the Siberian Federal University, was also signed to strengthen Russian-Italian relations.
During the meeting the Head of the Chair of Psychological Studies of the Siberian Institute of Business, Management and Psychology, Natalya Suvorova, introduced a future international conference that would be held in Krasnoyarsk. Italian psychologist and psychiatrist Prof. Giulio De Citti will participate in it and will introduce his concept of multifactorial psychology and hold a workshop on various hypnosis techniques. A publication of the results of joint scientific research is planned within the conference.
Natalya Suvorova also presented to Francesca and other guests the results of students’ graduation works on how ecotourism influences elderly people’s (65-75 year old) psychological types. In their research the students compared levels of happiness and positive well-being among elderly people who often visit “Stolby” and the ones who don’t. The research shows that frequent elderely visitors of the reserve maintain high level of happiness and well-being.
The next stop of the Italian traveller’s journey will be in Irkutsk. And she promised to come back to Krasnoyarsk in autumn.