At lunchtime, Monzuno’s square is packed with people. They are wayfarers on their lunch break. When they resume their walk, they parade one after the other, in groups or alone, in front of the dirt track that leads to Acatù: the Way of the Gods passes through here, just outside the village centre, and then, after running along the sports field, plunges back into the forest one kilometre away from the refuge.

Five years ago, Lilith returned to Italy from the Camino de Santiago (the pilgrimage to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia) and began to explore Italy and the various Italian walking itineraries. Along her journey, she realised that there was a general lack of basic, affordable accommodation – places that could offer rest and refreshment but also the opportunity to share one’s experience along the way; places that would create a sense of fraternity and friendship. The first seed was thus sown. When Lilith met Nico and moved to Emilia, she was actually about to leave for India, to work in international cooperation after completing a Master’s degree course. “At the time I wasn’t sure about anything”, she says. Covid-19 and Fondazione Edoardo Garrone’s call for proposals for the ReStartApp ‘on-campus’ initiative did the rest: “We were toying with the idea of opening a hiking refuge, but knew we would hardly be able to do it. Without the pandemic, I’m not sure Acatù would have come to life”.

Lilith and Nicola wrote their project for ReStartApp thinking of implementing it in Casa Sant’Anna, a farmhouse located in Pontecchio Marconi (Bologna) where, for the past two years, the Mangialafoglia association, in cooperation with Angsa Bologna, had been carrying out activities with teenagers and adults suffering from autism spectrum disorder. Nicola, who is an educator (as well as a popular reggae artist, known by the stage name of Nico Royale) was one of the tutors there. “As things moved on, talking with Casa Sant’Anna’s staff, we realised it would be appropriate to find a different space for our refuge, and that is how we came to Monzuno. Not to mention that Pontecchio Marconi is not exactly on the Via degli Dei, and travellers would have had to make a detour to reach us” explains Lilith. At the end of the ‘on-campus’ course, Lilith’s project was rewarded with a free consultancy.

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