Instagram and the discovery of Italy
In the last months I have become Instagram addicted.
I want to become famous so that I will be paid to travel and do many cool things. Well, probably I’m actually already too old for that. But I enjoy Instagram and keep posting with the passion and enthusiasm of a teenager.
Instagram has become my favorite Social network. On Facebook I read too much maliciousness and stupidity; Twitter, I don’t understand its utility, Google+ is boring, Tumblr is like arabic, on Flickr nobody cares about me. Instagram is a popular photographic social, for everyone, while Flickr is for professionals or for those who are already good at taking pictures. I am still quite mediocre, so I prefer Instagram, that thanks to the small size of its images and the various filters, gives a nice look to my pictures.
But what I actually like most about Instagram is that it created a Community. You can choose who to follow, you like and comment the pictures, you live others’ lives through their pictures, and you discover new places. And in real too. As it happened last Sunday. The IgersBelluno account was created one month ago (every city and region of Italy has an Instagram official account, where the administrators share the best pictures of the area). To celebrate the admins organized an “Instameet” (a meeting of Instagrammers) in Mel, a small town not far from Belluno. I also participated. And that was an amazing idea.
Mel was awarded the Orange Flag by the Touring Club Italiano, a prize to celebrate the effort of the town towards a sustainable tourism, environmental friendly, with the offer of local produce, a good tourism receptiveness, the valorization of the local heritage. At the moment 211 Italian towns got this prize. And last Sunday all “Bandiere Arancioni” in Italy celebrated the prize. It’s not only a recognition, but also an incentive for the towns and their inhabitants to keep this standard and organize events. So last Sunday in every town with an Orange Flag there was a festival.
In Mel there was an apple festival (Mele a Mel). The beautiful private courtyards and palaces of the town were exceptionally open for the event; it was a celebration of the apple harvest, and the whole town was dressed up with costumes from the 50s. There was a dance hall with a table football and an old bar, a cinema with old movies, dancers, beautiful women in vintage dresses, the local blacksmith opened its old workshop to visits. And obviously food and drink were there too, as in all good Italian festivals.
I didn’t know Mel, before this event I had never even heard of it. Maybe because of the festive atmosphere, the amazing courtyards open exclusively for us, the Dolomites that surround the town, the beautiful people that I met, I found it really charming. And all this thanks to Instagram. So I welcome technology and the virtual world, if they help you discover part of the real World that you didn’t know.