Surely tiny Corigliano d’Otranto — population 5,889 — tucked away in the heel of Italy, must have the world’s most enlightened town council:
It could have something to do with the fact that Corigliano is in the so-called Grecìa Salentina, a stronghold of Italy’s ethnic Greek minority, which has been there since long before Plato put pen to papyrus. It certainly has a lot to do with the town’s centre-left mayor, Ada Fiore, being a philosophy teacher. At all events, Corigliano is bent on turning itself into Italy’s most philosophical town.
Resolution No 72, which cited the aforementioned thinkers, created the new post of municipal philosopher, stipulating that the first holder of the office, Graziella Lupo, would be available for consultation at the town hall “between 15.00 and 19.00 on Fridays”.
Under Fiore’s mayorship, the council has put up ceramic plaques with quotations from the likes of Saint Augustine. It has given out postcards for distribution in bars and shops that ask existential questions, such as “Why were you born?”.
It has invited distinguished foreign philosophers to seminars in the town. And, most recently, the council inaugurated what the mayor called Italy’s first “multimedia philosophy park” in the old quarter. An announcement promising “trees that talk, walls that light up and images that flow” has been posted on the council website above a notice about sorting rubbish.
Bravo! We need more of these!
