Ecomaretona: past and future for a successful project

by Valeria Rocca

A passion for the sport, and a love for the environment. These are the values that for about twenty years have been driving Giuseppe Tamburino, the Turin marathon runner and entrepreneur, in his work leading the company Ecoevents.

In order to promote these ideals, Tamburino has created a very special project: the Ecomaretona, a staged race along the Italian coast, from north to south, to document the situation, pointing out locations of excellence, but also of neglect and finding beauty in forgotten places and beaches which are relatively famous.

After three editions Ecomaretona monitored and documented the status of all the Italian coast, from Ventimiglia to Reggio Calabria in 2008, from Reggio Calabria in Trieste in 2009 and finally, in the latest edition in summer 2010, the coast of Sardinia, Sicily and small island of Elba for a total of 1200 km.

It is an engaging and exciting experience that has made the communication and documentation of the event one of its continued strengths.

Chiara Como, communications manager of the project, tells us that "The communication campaign Ecomaretona is based on a series of initiatives that work in synergy to ensure a coordinated event. Mainly working for a website [www.ecomaretona.it] which is updated daily, a daily press review in relation to each stage tested on the local area, national and trade magazines, other media outlets about some of the members before, during and after event, a daily press conference and finally the continuous dialogue with local institutions, citizens, and sportsmen active in the places effected by the event in the space set Ecovillage".

And for 2011? Ecomaretona will follow the path of the Expedition of the Thousand of Marsala which is starting to reach the fourth in 49 stages for a total of 1000 km.

The objective is to further investigate the recognition and documentation on the status of coastal areas and implement a true census of the beaches, through interviews, testimonies, photographs and videos of the areas.

Also at the resort which has been used for 150 years since the unification of Italy, the organizers would like to give space to the historical theme of the expedition retracing the steps of a thousand for implementing a reflection on evolution of the identity process in our country and to watch our shores from the standpoint of a comparison between the past and the present.