Perugia - The Integrated Action Plan in action

Sixty children of different ages and classes in a primary and a secondary school in the city center, together with their supporting teachers, were the main role in a sort of open-air lesson, guided by the direction of Radici di Pietra, in the area of the Cupa, right under one of the best-preserved portions of the Etruscan Walls of Perugia. During the “lesson” the children read in turn sentences of a message destined to their European peers of the city partners of Perugia in the Find Your Greatness project. Such a message (with an English version) has been filmed in order to have a short video where the children become actual Ambassadors and Promoters of the Great History of Perugia, the history that the city can show live still today thanks to the Etruscan Walls. 

The event has been chaired by Leonardo Varasano, Deputy Mayor for Culture of Perugia Municipality, and Maria Chiara Radi, vice-president of the Association Radici di Pietra. “In this really special open-air school room – said the Deputy Mayor – the roof is the sky and the walls are the city walls, our city walls, telling a millennial story.   They do not represent a divisive element, but on the contrary, a sharing one, since they were used not only as a defensive tool for the city but also as a communicative one between inside and outside, through its Gates. Today, at the foot of this witness constituting a real worldly unicum, we look to Europe sending a peace message, a message of friendship and hope”.

At the end of the event the kids, all wearing a special T-shirt, created for the occasion, rose to the sky the letters composing the message: “Abbracciamo le nostre mura, abbracciamo tutti i bambini d’Europa – We embrace our walls, we embrace all children of Europe”. 

Perugia aims to enhance the Etruscan Walls cultural heritage, a feature of singular originality and beauty, combining the original defensive target with a strong aesthetic value. It is to be remembered that, also thanks to the cooperation with ABA (Academy of Fine Arts) an Urban Branding strategy has been set that, pivoting around the unchallenged importance of this monumental asset, promotes a more evocative and immaterial valorization of the city and its treasures, using the symbolic values of peace and inclusion, founding features of Perugia since its very origins – Etruscans!