The neverending story of the project MARE

We are now at the dawn of the 4th edition of the project MARE. In April we will host another 4 new volunteers, who still can not imagine how this project will upset their lives and the perception of nature and the sea.

But before you start a new round of tournament, it is worth to consider something that is born in the last years of the project: the MARElini community — an unexpected product, the unplanned and very interesting consequence, which must have a name to be more real and tangible: I propose M.A.R.E. NE.ST.

MARElini Community

MARE NeSt stands for: M.A.R.E. Neverending Story — The Neverending Story of the project MARE, just like the magnificent book by Michael Ende (here is the movie in English and the song by Limahl) or a story that will never end! The connections in the MARElini community that were made in these years — even among the several generations of volunteers who meet and exchange experiences and energies, often outside of Italy — are inseparable. We shared many experiences together and continue to do so: this is what unites us!

The love for nature, love for the human beings, the wish to “feel involved” and to face new challenges, to communicate in different languages, to jump into the distant cultures and try different flavors, to meet many countries even without going there but by looking into the eyes — black, brown, green and blue — of the people who are coming here, to the magnificent landscapes of the Sorrento Peninsula, with the wish to restore the sense of “being young” (which is often considered as a weak category in Italy and Europe) and “the sense of returning to nature” (also nature is now often considered as weak, weary, almost defeated by the strength of the human — as we know it is totally not true, and every time we take one of the paths in Ieranto, we experience maximum expression of nature’s force).

The NEST-CRADLE-HIDEOUT-REFUGE

MARE NEST is also the nest, the cradle, the hideout, the refuge. I think the project is like a springboard — to test yourself. And going back to my internship at the AMP Punta Campanella in 2003, it was a very good experience during which I compared the theory with practice — what was written in the University books with what reality offers you, my environmentalist’s ideals with the actual work that the Organization for Protection of Nature can do. I remember before starting the internship, I had promised myself to visit the Bay of Ieranto — mythological place but not known to me. I could not start my work experience at the park without knowing its soul. It was May 7, 2003 and since then the Bay of Ieranto came into my life and there is no longer any other way! I had a unique opportunity and the best way to honor it is to give the opportunity to other young people to have the same experience.

Where MARElini are now?

The project MARE is a starting point to live and rediscover the once made experience in a new destinations. Here is the map of where the MARElini have migrated. They all spread in different directions in search of new ideas, with the same blue flag in heart and with tentacles instead of hands, sure to make the same migration sooner or later towards that mythical cove opposite the Island of Capri, with rich nature and archaeology, and home place for a permanent laboratory where the human is seeking for nature and the new ways to interact with it.