Vibo Valentia is emerging as a European crossroads for ideas, rights and youth participation. This is highlighted by Anthony Lo Bianco, who in a powerful statement underscores the symbolic and concrete significance of a major European event reaching the heart of Calabria, involving more than one hundred young people from across Italy.
Walking through the streets of the Calabrian city, young Europeans discussed the future, rights and the meaning of Europe with a clarity that, as Lo Bianco notes, “both shakes and inspires hope.” What took place went far beyond a formal institutional gathering, becoming instead a true passing of the torch — a bridge between what the territory has been and what it can become.
This achievement is rooted in years of quiet, persistent work by the Valentia Association, long committed to building cultural and civic pathways even in areas often considered marginal. “For years we worked in the silence of difficult things, with the patience of daily commitment, convinced that events capable of changing perspectives could also happen here,” Lo Bianco explains.
The recognition, he adds, did not come through words alone, but through concrete actions, clear choices and genuine trust. Signs that show how Calabria, when it decides to believe in itself, does not simply follow the path of others, but is able to set the pace.
The final message is clear: it is no longer time to think that certain opportunities belong only elsewhere. Today it is evident that they can be born here as well. And when they are born here, they carry the force of an earthquake, capable of shaking both places and consciences.