The Sican Network: partners

An adventure park was born in Joppolo Giancaxio
from a landfill

Run by a cooperative
which in peak season
also has 15 people working

From an abandoned and degraded area to the beating heart of the town. This is the story of a great little “miracle” that occurred thanks to the enthusiasm and determination of a group of young people who did not give in to the status quo and have, quite literally, rolled up their sleeves.
We are in Joppolo Giancaxio, a small village in the Agrigento area with just over a thousand inhabitants. Once a hamlet of nearby Raffadali, it has instead been a separate municipality since 1926. It was here that about fifteen years ago, a group of young people decided to stop standing idly by and to go and clean up the village’s “grove,” which, in the meantime, had become an illegal dump. An area in the heart of the township, complete with an unfinished amphitheater. The area, formerly in a state of total abandonment, is now an adventure park run by a cooperative of forty-somethings and so on; and in the high season even fifteen people work there. Quite a reality for such a small center.

“It all started,” says Carmelo Argento, president of the “Il Boschetto ” cooperative, “with a spontaneous ecological day, which was also attended by the mayor at the time, Giuseppe Portella, who provided the municipality’s vehicles for waste collection. Subsequently, the same municipal administration issued a call for bids for the construction of an adventure park. And here we are.”
Of the “Il Boschetto” cooperative, which was formed in 2018 and is included in the Sicani Quality Rural District, in addition to Argento, Carmelina Quaranta, Gianni La Rocca and Pierluigi Cacciatori are members.
.

But what is there to do in the adventure park “Il Boschetto” in Joppolo Giancaxio? Between acrobatic courses of varying difficulty and heights, the zip-line for free fall from fifteen meters, climbing and power found for jumping into the void, but in controlled descent, you are spoiled for choice. For lovers of simulated combat, there is also paintball. And since movement stimulates the appetite, after the appropriate stunts, if you want, there is also room for a nice barbecue.

“In the nearly two and a half hectares we have available,” says Carmelo Argento, “we have created an inclusive space, suitable for everyone and also indicated for families with children, who can organize their grilling here, with the possibility of booking meat from the Cacciatore butcher shop in Joppolo Giancaxio. We provide the grill, wood and a nice table in the shade all day long as well.” Il Boschetto also has an equipped camping area, often used by pilgrims on the Via Magna Francigena or on August bank holiday nights.

Among the plans for the cooperative’s future, there is always a greater openness to the Sicani territory. “From the park,” says Argento, “we want to be able to go out and give the possibility to make our territory better and better known, also by activating synergies with the most interesting realities of the area. We are thinking, for example, of electric bike routes and small off-road vehicles to also involve the differently abled.”
Meanwhile, there is already a project to complete the amphitheater. “The municipality,” says Argento, led by Mayor Domenico Migliara, “has financed the work with six hundred thousand euros; and an Ariadne’s labyrinth bordered by hedges will also be built.