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| Beatrice di Borbone |
The Princess recounts the history of the wonders of southern Italy: places, scents, artists, artisans, landscapes and specialties
By Nadia Verdile | May 14, 2020
Naples – Beatrice of Bourbon, princess of the Two Sicilies, is a woman of disarming simplicity. Smiling, welcoming, generous, her beautiful blue eyes without frills, without trimmings.
A friend of the south of Italy to which she is tied by a rapport of history and love, she left her adopted land of France a few months ago to come “home.”
After a life lived in France, you picked Italy, you picked Sicily, as your home of choice. Why?
I lived for many years in France where I studied, I worked, I married and raised my daughter and son; now I have a little free time and I want to spend it in the best way possible. I am a big traveler, and I have chosen to spend more time in Italy because this country is a melting pot of culture and beauty. Why Sicily? Because I love this island and its inhabitants. I have visited it far and wide; I am fascinated by the incredible city of Noto. But everywhere in Sicily, everywhere is beautiful. From Catania to Palermo, one end to the other of the island gives off a perfume of history, made up of extraordinary people.
But Naples remains in your heart…
How can one not love Naples? I try to be there as much as I can, whenever possible. I deeply love this city and I hope, one day, to move there permanently.
Before the pandemic brought the world to its knees, you were ready to launch a platform for promoting southern Italy: tourism, small businesses, artisans. Where does your project stand?
Yes, that’s right, and never before has this project been as timely as it is now. We’re working on it every day, we count a lot on tourism which everyone knows has been suffering greatly during these months in which the world has stopped due to the pandemic. I have brought different partners to this project, and through this interview, I invite others to join us. This platform will move along three lines:
– recounting the history of the wonders of southern Italy, its places, its scents, its artists, its artisans, its landscapes, its specialties;
– promoting and marketing the region’s different products. Silks, porcelain, ceramics, accessories, excellent agricultural produce.
– developing and offering trips with original, themed itineraries, visits to private palaces, hidden villages, islands, to make known the excellence of the south, its extraordinary artisan-keepers of centuries-old traditions.
Princess, is it true that you are working on a collection you have designed?
Yes, that’s right. A designer shop in line with what the platform will be promoting will offer a selection of products by different artisans, as well as a collection designed by myself which will be available exclusively on the site. I will tell you that various products will soon be presented in a boutique in New York where I am designing the décor and furnishings. Another will soon be opened in France, in Paris.
A citizen of the world, you have always worked to make southern Italy known, you have always believed in the south’s potential. What ties you to this land?
The south has much potential, much talent, much beauty. I am tied to this land above all because of my family’s history, but here everything is another reason to always desire it: its beauty for example, but also its hospitality, and its proofs of friendship and fidelity which have always accompanied me and my family; when I am here in the beautiful south I always breath friendly air, I feel the affection, the community. It is an extraordinary experience.
If Aladdin’s fabled lamp granted you three wishes, for what would you ask its genie?
If I had that special chance, I would express a single wish: that the platform to which I am dedicating all of my energy and my whole heart would contribute to building up this territory, and to anchor young people to their origins so that they no longer would have to look far from home for those opportunities in which their land can and must be rich.
Beatrice of Bourbon, the princess, is like this. A businesswoman, a builder of possible dreams and concrete paths. And a generous woman.
Through the nonprofit organization Constantinian Order Charity, a fundraiser was launched a few weeks ago for southern Italian hospitals. To date, over 200,000 euros have been allocated to hospitals on the frontline of the fight against Covid-19. Would you like to talk about this?
The Constantinian Order Charity nonprofit organization is directed by my brother, Prince Carlo, head of the Royal Family. He decided to personally involve himself in contributing to our Country at such a difficult time, to help hospitals and those who work on the frontline of the battle, and the fight against Covid. At the end of the week there will be another two donations made in Puglia, in Foggia and Bari.
With a family tree speaking the languages of half of Europe, Beatrice of Bourbon chose to speak in Italian, with forays of the heart between the Trinacria (Sicily) and Partenope (Naples). And she brings the south to the world.
