"World Picnic" a journey to regenerate hope: Madonna di Campiglio

The “World Picnic – 2022 Tour“ a journey to regenerate hope finally begins: it starts from Madonna di Campiglio with great emotion. But what is the “World Picnic”?

It is a journey to unique places in the world, where we will have experiential picnics to share food in nature and to get to know people committed to safeguarding creation, to generative art, to brotherhood, regenerating hope.

How was “World Picnic” born?

The world stood still for a long time, as if buried under a blanket of frost. Millions of people fell ill, businesses and activities closed down, and psychological distress increased dramatically. But at the end of the darkest night comes the dawn, a little light that heralds the coming of the sun. And under the sun we can only have a nice picnic, a symbol of sharing, life in creation, good food.

Where do we start again?

To start again, it is essential to focus on the important values that bring us together. We are never saved alone. We never start again alone. And, as the encyclical Laudato Si explains, we must care passionately for the “common home”, our earth.

We feel compelled to go and seek out those people who, like a new light, in the various cultures and traditions have not ceased to carry out generative projects, bearers of hope. It will be the encounter with those people that will motivate us to give life to new ideas, to redesign a new future.

What is happening?

We will travel around the world in stages. At each stage, we will stop for as long as necessary to meet the protagonists, sharing a special picnic, very evocative, we will learn about their projects, to tell the world about them. We will invite the protagonists of projects for the protection of creation, dialogue and generative art.

Each picnic will be reported in the blog, on social networks, with video interviews, in the press. At the end of the tour a documentary and a photo book will be produced.

The place – “World Picnic” a journey to regenerate hope: Madonna di Campiglio!

The place – “World Picnic” a journey to regenerate hope: Madonna di Campiglio! On 29 September 2021, on the occasion of the closing of the 24th edition of the Religion Today Film Festival, we organised the first picnic of the long journey. The place chosen was the Malga Montagnoli refuge, in Madonna di Campiglio nelle Dolomiti di Brenta, where Marisa prepared an unforgettable picnic for us, a picnic in true “alpine style”.

Food

The base of the alpine picnic is polenta fried into cubes, accompanied by 0 km mountain cheese, because it is made by Marisa herself. 3 samples of different cheeses. We tasted the typical potato cake with hams from the valley, speck ham and mortandella (which is not mortadella, but a typical sliced meat from the Val di Non, Trentino), with a chicken alternative for those who don’t eat pork and spinach gnocchi for vegans.

The guests got involved, creating a real harmony of hearts, objectives, values and concrete actions. Under the sky, among the rocks and the woods, we felt part of a single human family, grateful for the privilege of experiencing at first hand the conviviality of differences.

The protagonists

Elaheh Noback, a film producer from Iran. She is very young and determined. She told us how cinema is for her a vehicle for common values. Through co-productions and the promotion of young talent, she transforms cinema into a generative art and builds indissoluble links between different cultures.

Miljan Gocic is the director of a beautiful spiritual film festival in Zaiecar, Serbia. He invites people from different backgrounds, even from areas of conflict, to his festival. He walks the path of dialogue through cinema, thus bringing hope.

Davide Menguzzato is a young entrepreneur working with Montura, a visionary and innovative company producing outdoor clothing. Montura is involved in development projects in difficult contexts, such as in Mongolia with the nomadic tent village created to host single mothers with disabled children, run by Davide Bellatalla. In Nepal it supports the “Rarahil Memorial School”, a school for a thousand children, a centre of excellence in the field of education, with a focus on the environment and sustainability designed by Fausto De Stefani. In Peru Montura is with the volunteers of Operation Mato Grosso, to support people in great fragility.

Barbara Monte is an Italian-French singer-songwriter who will follow several stages of the “Picnic World Tour”, a journey to regenerate hope. Departure: Madonna di Campiglio! She performed in Madonna di Campiglio accompanied by musician Valerio Carboni. Her songs, written with passion, create a link between humanity and the power of nature.