Sunday 21st May at 17:00
Piazza Leon Battista Alberti – Mantua
The Food&Science Festival is a unique event of scientific popularisation of national and international importance that addresses and explores in a creative and accessible manner the issues related to the science of food production and consumption.
The 2023 edition will take place from Friday 19th to Sunday 21st May, with a packed programme of events hosted in various locations in the centre of Mantua.
Sunday 21st May: The Italian Silk Route
with Silvia Cappellozza of CREA Agricolture and Environment – Laboratory of Sericulture of Padua
The cultural heritage linked to silk covered all European territories until the mid-20th century. Then it was quickly forgotten although it still characterises so much of our agricultural and architectural landscape. Silk production also translated into an intangible heritage of knowledge, traditions, literature, art, music and painting. Today, the ARACNE project aims to recover this industry by reconstituting and safeguarding ancient mulberry and silkworm varieties, to revive a niche cultivation, typical of every European country. It envisages the involvement of local territories, citizenship, schools and cultural and creative industries related to silk (fashion, design, etc.). The idea is also to re-establish a tourist itinerary, ideally retracing the European Silk Road from the eastern borders to the Caucasus to the Mediterranean.