L’Aquila, Italian Capital of Culture 2026, arrives at the Glocal Genoa Journalism Festival, on the occasion of the two Ligurian days dedicated to digital journalism. Guest Mayor Pierluigi Biondi: “In our city there is no boredom. L’Aquila is a continuous experiment and now we are called to demonstrate that there is a possible reconstruction, beyond the material one, which passes through Culture”.
The first citizen of L’Aquila Pierluigi Biondi among the guests of Glocal Digital Journalism Festival: the event that is bringing together industry professionals in the extraordinary setting of the Aquarium Congress Center Genoa.
Marco Giovannelli, President, ANSO and Director, Varesenews, conducted the interview with Mayor Biondi, broadcast live on the web publications of the Presscom circuit throughout Italy. The capital showed you the live broadcast here.
The spotlight is on the title recently won by L’Aquila, that of Italian Capital of Culture 2026.
“A path that arises as part of an overall strategy that the city of L’Aquila has described in the so-called ‘Eagle Charter’, signed together with the mayors of Carpi, Avellino and Ascoli. These are places that have suffered moments of fracture as heavy as those that an earthquake brings with it. With these realities we have identified culture as the key element through which to relaunch our areas. The candidacy proposal, therefore, was the natural outcome of this process. Not only that, because it was, is and will be a great challenge. As I have had occasion to point out previously, the title is not compensation for what we have suffered, since there is no possible compensation for the pain suffered. It is a great and prestigious challenge in which we will have to demonstrate that territorial development can be achieved through culture and that the L’Aquila experiment can become a model for internal areas. Because of this – continues Biondi – in our dossier there is no city closed within its walls, but there are initiatives shared with the territories, especially Rieti. There is a possible reconstruction beyond the material one, a reconstruction that passes through Culture.”
Reconstruction: where are we at?
Thus the mayor Pierluigi Biondi, “We must always distinguish between private and public reconstruction. – highlights the mayor – Private reconstruction has quicker rules and we, as the Municipality of L’Aquila, have instructed almost all the procedures, however our work stops at the administrative aspect. Public Reconstruction, on the other hand, is based on the rules of public procurement and, over the years, public works have been characterized by an exasperating slowness. With the simplifications that arrived from a certain point onwards, with the innovations introduced by the PNRR and with the new provision of the Meloni Government, the situation has changed. In Italy, however, there is still too much resistance regarding the speed of procurement.”
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What kind of life is there in the historic center today?
“In L’Aquila there is no risk of getting bored. We are not a sleepy provincial city: L’Aquila is a constant experiment, a city in constant evolution. I am not speaking as a mayor, I am actually providing some data that may be indicative from this point of view.
L’Aquila is the only provincial capital of Abruzzo that does not lose residents, has a’University which recorded +7% in registrations, the GSSI continues to attract dozens and dozens of young people for high post-graduate specialization, from all over the world, the Conservatory has increased registrations, as well asAcademy of Fine Arts. They are all young people who come to L’Aquila and choose to stay in L’Aquila. We estimated around 10 thousand off-site students: I believe that all these young people would not choose a city where people don’t live well. Certain – adds Biondi – Living in L’Aquila is complex: you just need to look out of a window to see cranes and construction sites. And this causes inconvenience, alterations in daily life, continuous changes to traffic, but all this is leading us to the future, to a massive reconstruction and to an even more beautiful city. Today anyone who comes to L’Aquila is amazed by what is there, by the progress made and by the opportunities that can materialize here”.
Therefore, the role of L’Aquila as a “territory city”.
“The capital of Abruzzo is, by its very history, a territorial city. L’Aquila was founded by the surrounding castles. If today we considered our walls as a defense perimeter, we would be making a serious strategic mistake. Today, national cohesion policies are suffering from a delay in defining the role that medium-sized cities like L’Aquila can have in the social and development dynamics of the nation. For years we have had great attention towards metropolitan areas and, on the other hand, formal but not very concrete attention towards internal areas. It was believed that a museum conservation of those places that were becoming empty was enough: for this reason there was a lack of resources and services. As a result, emptying has become a constant process. At a certain point the Covid, which led to new perspectives and points of view: it made us rediscover the functionality of living in small towns or, in any case, in our medium-sized cities. Let’s think of L’Aquila, 100 km from Rome, an hour away: the same time it takes Romans living on the outskirts to enter the capital”.
Depopulation vs “Restancy”issues brought to national attention also by Riccardo Milani’s film “A world apart”, which also raised the problem of the closure of schools in small mountain villages.
“Our areas cannot be subject to stringent parameters that apply to large cities. In some of our areas, the nearest level I hospital is 50 km away and it becomes difficult to even enjoy an essential service such as healthcare. The same goes for school sizing. The birth rate decline and depopulation are concepts that are almost overlapping, because we are witnessing the phenomenon of emigration from small municipalities: we need to go back to focusing on services, but do it in a functional way. When funding is given to a municipality – reiterates Mayor Pierluigi Biondi in conclusion – we cannot think of binding them to the parameters applied to large cities”.
