When Paris Vitale thought of writing a book dedicated to Abruzzo, the region where he was born and raised and to which he feels he must return several times during the year, few would have bet on the fact that it would surpass the guides of countries such as Japan and of cities like New York. Since it came out, Of love and Abruzzo, published by Cairo, it has in fact entered not only the ranking of best-selling books in the Amazon travel section, but also the general one reported every week in the cultural inserts of newspapers: «The fact that Abruzzo beats New York has a bit of an effect on me, especially if we consider the fact that, when I was asked to write the book, I was afraid to understand where I would start from. Once started, however, it was a river in flood, so much so that it took me six months to finish it, taking advantage of wherever I was, including the plane”, says Vitale, prince of Milanese PR but, for some time now, also TV personality thanks to the adventure of Beijing Express and of Crazy Tripsboth with the friend of a lifetime Victoria Cabello. In short, we like Abruzzo and Paride Vitale wrote this book for everyone: for the people of Abruzzo who often don’t realize the beauties that surround them but also for all the friends who, every time they go to Abruzzo, write to Paride to send him advice on what to do, what to see and, above all, where to eat. Well, Of love and Abruzzo it’s mostly for them.
In short, he wrote a book so you no longer have to send advice on what to do in Abruzzo.
«Over the years I have refined my senses by developing a guide of my favorite places, including those that I have discovered recently because Abruzzo never ceases to amaze you».
You were born in Castel di Sangro and lived in Pescasseroli: what was the color of your childhood?
«Green like the National Park, with a delicious hint of the forest that I chose to enclose in the perfume of my company, Parco1923. I had a very lonely childhood because I had few friends, I liked reading but, above all, walking, going to the mountains and horseback riding.”
At the age of 10 he wrote that he organized the first nocturnal bonfires and asked for a participation fee: did he already lay the foundations for his current work there?
«A little yes, especially because I was the only one my friends in Rome and Naples relied on to organize their holidays. I asked for three thousand lire to organize a nice barbecue with a piece of bread, two sausages and a very cheap wine which was very similar to a lubricant.”
Have you ever felt the burden of responsibility to always organize everything?
«A lot at the beginning. I’ve been doing this job for 24 years and I can tell you that, until I was 30, I had everything: shingles, panic and anxiety attacks. At the beginning of my job I was afraid that the events I organized wouldn’t turn out perfectly but then, fortunately, my Abruzzo side came out and I learned to let things slide over me. I don’t save human lives and, above all, I can’t control everything like the weather, even if I have always worked seriously to ensure that everything goes well.”
Another thing that stressed her was going to high school in Avezzano, about 60 kilometers from Pescasseroli: which forced her to get up very early to catch the bus.
«It all depended on my 6am alarm, considering that my parents certainly didn’t wake up with me. I had a very tight schedule, considering that I then returned home at 3 in the afternoon having lunch together with the episodes of Maurizio Costanzo Show and of It’s not Rai that my mother recorded for me the night before.”
Luca Parisse
Did you suffer from not seeing your school friends because of the distance?
«Enough, also because my youth was very different from that of others. However, when I moved to Bologna at the age of 19 to go to university, I recovered the social life that I hadn’t had with my interests, thanks to Margarita and Caipiroska.”
Did Pescasseroli start being close to you at 19?
«On the one hand I was happy with my life, my walks and my books, but on the other I felt the urgency to share something with the rest of the world. I wanted to see a different reality from the one I grew up in, I wanted to see what the world outside was like.”
What did you miss about Abruzzo when you were in Bologna?
«Nature and the peace that it has always given me, as well as the silence and the mountains, which have always given me a serenity that I feel I want to return to every time I feel overloaded».
Now that you live in Milan, what do you miss most about your homeland?
«The desire to do something to enhance it as it deserves. Being a person who never stays still, I chose to dedicate myself to more projects that revolved around Abruzzo: with my brand Parco1923 I gave myself one more reason to return home, not to mention other events such as Arteparco and a hotel that I’m building right there, in Pescasseroli.”
In Pescasseroli, as he explains in the book, every summer he forces his friends to gods tour de force to discover the beauties of the area.
«Since I host so many of them every year, I understood that the only system to manage them is a dictatorial one: I develop a very precise Excel file that regulates the rhythms of the days in August with the different things to do and see. At the center of everything there is, obviously, the mountain, the lake, and our many beauties.”
Have you always been in love with Abruzzo or have you learned to love it over the years?
«We Abruzzo people are true ultras of our reason, and I can say this because many of them write to me that they bought the book with a certain pride. With the work I do and the possibilities I have I’m trying to make it discover more and more, not so much in quantity but in quality. In my opinion Abruzzo doesn’t need more tourists, but better tourism. All I try to do with my initiatives is to enhance a region that has a very high level on a tourist and cultural level even if it doesn’t know it. The problem with us Abruzzo people is that we lack self-esteem: we have never been too good at promoting ourselves, but fortunately this is changing.”
