In the center of Reggio Calabria – Italy – there is a beautiful Art Nouveau building that has sat empty for years: the Grande Albergo Miramare. Why do I mention this?
Because there is a fact: the Right in Italy is truly uncouth.
It isn’t just those of us who vote—or have voted—for them (myself included) who are uncouth; the elected right-wing politicians are, too. Take Meloni and Salvini: one had a poor education (Meloni), while the other performed poorly at a good school (Salvini), and neither understands the value of culture. Then there’s Crosetto, Defence Secretary who invented a degree in Economics for himself—only to be forced to remove it from his CV at the insistence of the university he claimed to have attended (in Milan). Yet Meloni wanted this man—Mr. Crosetto—to be President of the Republic. Now, this “Gang of Dunces” in government wants to rebrand every high school as a Liceo—but without Latin, Greek, Art History, or Philosophy. What kind of Liceo is that? Liceo means Preparatory High School I mean, Eton is a Liceo.
It stems from the fact that Meloni attended a technical institute a non preparatory high school; it eats at her liver that she can’t claim to have gone to a Liceo—or if she does, she’s lying—and people make sure she knows it (some motivation, that). But there is a recurring phenomenon in Reggio Calabria regarding this uncouth Right: the right-wing mayor always wants to evict long-standing institutions from prestigious buildings on the seafront or in the city center—be it a Liceo, a teacher-training college, or a convent. The official excuse is always “to create a luxury hotel and kickstart the economy.” But no—that’s not true. That wretch Scopelliti evicted the nuns from the Convent of the Visitation to build a luxury hotel, and now the historic convent sits empty; he never managed to build the hotel. He simply evicted the nuns. And then, as for luxury hotels, it remains unknown why the Miramare—a truly historic luxury hotel that is already built and boasts a genuinely luxurious structure—has been closed for years.
In the photo above, it was still open; today, it is closed:
The building is suitable for a luxury hotel—it’s centrally located and right on the seafront—yet it sits shuttered, with no one buying it or getting it up and running again. So, if no one is restarting the Miramare, what is the point of kicking the students out of the Magistrale school next door “to create a luxury hotel”? Why can’t they build a luxury hotel where the luxury hotel already is? And besides, would you trust a boor like Cannizzaro to create luxury hotels? He’d do the same job Scopelliti did with the Convent. In Taormina, the San Domenico Convent became a luxury hotel; in Reggio Calabria, it didn’t.
StrettoWeb is full of rants about students and “caveman Leftists” who supposedly oppose modernization—that is, moving to the beautiful outskirts of Reggio, which are filthy and lack running water. I can just imagine how Cannizzaro would make them “even more beautiful,” just like all the schools and homes outside the city center are beautiful. It’s all under the guise of “modernity”—an old excuse dating back to the seventies, when they started building monstrosities in the name of progress and modern architecture. Give me a break, you idiots.
So, before kicking people out of the center—students, teachers, and the like—to make way for luxury hospitality facilities and whatever else he mentioned while pretending to have grand ideas (ah yes, “luxury museal and exhibition spaces”—everything in Reggio Calabria has to be “luxury” now)…
BEFORE YOU GO KICKING STUDENTS OUT OF THE MAGISTRALE, YOU NEED TO DO WHAT THE BOORISH SCOPELLITI PROMISED TO DO: build a luxury hotel in the now empty Nuns’ Convent—the one Scopelliti another Rightwing Mayor cleared out to send the nuns off to Gallico, of all places.
This above is a former convent that is currently empty; couldn’t they create a museum and exhibition space there?
And perhaps create a “museal and exhibition space—as well as a luxury hotel”—at the Miramare? And at Villa Zerbi?
THIS IS THE ECONOMY OF REGGIO CALABRIA: Hotel Miramare auction fails to attract bids; a second attempt to sell is now underway.
No bids for the heritage-listed property, and the starting price drops further, devaluing the Reggio gem.
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Hotel Miramare in Reggio Calabria, auction fails: a second attempt will be made to sell the historic property.
https://www.reggiotoday.it/cronaca/hote-miramare-asta-deserta-comune-secondo-tentativo.html
© ReggioToday
Then there is Villa Zerbi—or rather, Gelateria – Ice Cremerie Zerbi. According to Wikipedia, Villa Genoese Zerbi (sometimes simply called Villa Zerbi) is a historic building in the city of Reggio Calabria. It stands on Corso Vittorio Emanuele III, on the site where—prior to 1860—there once stood an Art Nouveau villa featuring Venetian Neo-Gothic elements. That earlier villa belonged to the Genoese family, an old patrician clan from Reggio that, in the late 19th century, appended the name “Zerbi” to its own, becoming Genoese Zerbi. Destroyed in the 1908 earthquake, the villa was rebuilt based on a design by engineers Zerbi, Pertini, and Marzats in 1915. The villa is no longer owned by the Genoese Zerbi family; for several years, it served as an exhibition center managed by the Municipality of Reggio Calabria. In 2023, following years of neglect, its management was handed over to the Sottozero ice cream parlor, and the noble residence’s spaces were repurposed for high-end pastry making.
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I imagine that for StrettoWeb, handing over a historic villa to an ice-cream maker counts as a victory of modernity over the cavemen. The Municipality had tried to turn Villa Zerbi into a “Museal and Exhibition Space”—why do they talk like that? “Museal”—but how long did that last?
They aren’t up to the task. They’re good at shutting things down and kicking out whoever is already there, but not at reopening or revitalizing anything. They’ve got the Miramare sitting empty and closed, and Villa Zerbi occupied by an ice-cream maker who needs—at most—two of the rooms he’s taken over; couldn’t the rest be turned into a museum? Maybe even an Ice-Cream Museum? And then there’s the Convent—also empty and closed, haunted by the ghosts of nuns—where they could host horror movie screenings, or a Halloween-themed museum space, or that famous luxury hotel Scopelliti promised, but never built.
The Right-wingers are crude here in Italy; they don’t understand the value of schools—or maybe even bookstores. Nobody wants to buy the Miramare, so what makes you think they’d want to buy the historic High School building? You know, the one just a stone’s throw from the Miramare, right there in the city center? If they aren’t buying the Miramare, the empty Convent, or Villa Zerbi, why on earth would they buy the High School building to turn it into a hotel?
What is that asshole doing?
I can picture it now: the auction gets no bids, and the building ends up closed and crumbling too. Better to just leave the school be. Young people coming and going from the center, teachers chatting—how exactly do they bother the tourists?
It makes no sense; this Right is strange. Forza Italia wanted to abolish the legal validity of educational qualifications – maybe because they all lack the Univeristy Degree and lie about their High School, seriously; they always pretend they want to boost tourism and business but never actually do it, and then—from Rome—they just raise taxes. If no one wants to buy the Miramare on the Reggio Calabria seafront with the local airport that drops you just ten minutes from the city center where it is, and boasting a historic structure worthy itself alone of a four-star rating—then pay attention, because… I’m feeling a bit on edge, and there must be a reason for it: if you want a Hotel you buy that, why no one buys it? As Vasco Rossi used to say.
Get the Miramare, the Convento, Villa Zerbi up and running again, Mr Cannizzaro, then we can talk about the other buildings. Tourists aren’t unsophisticated; they appreciate a real city. Reggio isn’t an Alpitour holiday village, and it never will be. But it might just become a beautiful, authentic city.
This Is Villa Zerbi, The Ice Cream Shop – Sic –
This Is Hotel Miramare – Shut – On The Seafront – Best Of City Center
And This Is The Convent – Shut –
This is the Principe di Piemonte elementary and middle school that Cannizzaro wants to transform into a hotel and museum, kicking out the children:
In a normal, vibrant city, yes, there are schools in the city center too, and they are generally considered the best.
THIS IS A HIGH SCHOOL IN THE CITY CENTER CANNIZZARO WANTS TO EMPTY TO MAKE IT HOTEL:
This is a beautiful, modern school outside the city center, THIS IS THE KIND OF STUFF CALLED “MODERN”:
Villa Zerbi, the Miramare, and the Convent would be far better suited as hotels… yet that transformationnever happened. What about all those tourists who will be staying in the former teacher-training college?
Come on, there is no comparison for tourism:
In my opinion: If Reggio fails to sell Villa Zerbi and the Miramare for use as hotels (and who knows why), it certainly won’t sell the Principe di Piemonte elementary school, etc. This mayor is a strange one.