The University in Marsala? Things aren’t going very well. There is only one resident at the hospital. And on the Enology front there is yet another flop from Mayor Massimo Grillo. The mayor rejoices because the Degree Course in Viticulture and Oenology returns, perhaps, in spring… 2025. In a year, if the work on the new headquarters finishes on time.
Mayor Grillo continues to cling to pompous announcements to try to give credibility to his administration, which has lost another councilor in recent weeks following the resignation of Valentina Piraino.
In recent days Grillo met with the rector of the University of Palermo who reported the return of the Oenology Degree Course to Marsala, in fact, in May 2025. And thank goodness he was supposed to return in January. Grillo turned the tables and spoke of a “meeting full of satisfactions, taking into account that it goes beyond the simple confirmation of the return of the university course to Marsala to embrace a broader project”.
Meanwhile, Marsala has been without a university for over a year and a half due to a misunderstanding created by the mayor himself.
Brief summary of the story: the former Province housed the university, in Marsala, in the premises of Via Dante Alighieri. There, now, however, is the Itet Garibaldi, which has moved after having been rented for decades in a dilapidated former hotel in Via Trapani (a rent of 180 thousand euros a year, for 45 years…) . Mayor Grillo had undertaken to find premises for the University, but he failed. Previously the premises had to be those of the Convitto Audiofonolesi in Via Grotta del Toro. But the Convitto has not closed, far from it: the Sicilian Region has relaunched its activity. The Mayor then retreated to the premises occupied by Marsala Schola (the former Crimi school). But they were on the second floor of the building, and without adequate space for laboratories. In short, it was the Mayor who created the misunderstanding, so much so that the Free Consortium, during a meeting in October 2022 (a year and a half ago…) is clear, and specifies to the Mayor of Marsala: “If If the University wishes to maintain its headquarters in the Marsala area, it will have the Municipality of Marsala as its interlocutor, which will have to find premises suitable and compatible with university activities…”.
In a year and a half we went from location to location, from proposal to proposal. Fearing that the Faculty would have a collapse in enrollments, given that it was not clear where the courses would be held, the University moved everything to Trapani. “The transfer to Trapani is only temporary – he told Grillo – and the faculty will return in January”. But a few days ago the Rector denied the mayor, the author of another of his bluffs. The Viticulture and Oenology course of studies should reopen at the IPAB “Antonietta Genna – Spanò” premises in Via Frisella. But there are huge renovations to do. Work that will cost 400 thousand euros will begin in September and will end in May. Then we need to see when lessons will actually begin.
Grillo speaks of an “ambitious project” linked to the history of the city, to its territorial characteristics in order to systematize resources, skills and potential. In practice, the foundations are laid to make Marsala a university city.” Grillo has ambitious ideas, which have been heard billions of times and from many quarters, “to stop the exodus of young Sicilians towards the north”.
There is talk of a “widespread university” with courses linked to the territory: nursing, radiological technician, gastronomic sciences and marine archaeology. All in the former IPAB in via Frisella.
“We have taken the necessary steps to involve the Region in the project, in order to have the necessary resources to welcome the students in the best possible way,” said Rector Midiri. “Along with the courses, including those of an international nature, we intend to propose a training offer that has regard to residential aspects, master’s degrees, doctorates, summer schools, experimental camps”. The project of the University of Palermo says the municipality will involve “local training entities in teaching, starting with the Agricultural Institute, the Consortium for the protection of Sicilia DOC wines (Bivisi project of c.da Bosco, present at the meeting with Dr. ssa Tiziana Lipari) and from the experimental field of Biesina, as well as the Consorzio Tutela Vini Marsala and the Strada del Vino”.
Mayor Grillo also announced the return, much later in time, of Enology at Vinitaly, in recent days in Verona, presenting the Wine Museum. Small parenthesis, it should have been ready a year ago, however, if all goes well, it will open its doors on May 12th.
Not only wine, but also medicine. Just a month ago Grillo complimented the new degree courses in Trapani, and spoke of degree and specialization courses at the Biomedical Campus, an old passion of his. Specialization, in part, has arrived in Marsala. But there is a shortage of specialists. In recent days, the training center for specialists in Infectious Diseases was inaugurated at the Paolo Borsellino Hospital in partnership with the University of Palermo. Trainees can work at Marsala hospital. At the moment there is only one. Better than nothing and the desert created by the mayor in Oenology.
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