Centuripe fights depopulation with prehistoric site and Picasso exhibition

In Centuripe, a Sicilian town of 5,000 inhabitants between Enna and Catania, mayor Salvatore La Spina is using culture to combat depopulation. He inaugurated a prehistoric rock art site dating from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age and a graphic works exhibition featuring Pablo Picasso and Emilio Vedova. La Spina, a former journalist and press officer for Florence museums, has been in office for nearly a year. He plans to change the cathedral's facade colors, build steps to the prehistoric site on private land, renovate the Regional Archaeological Museum, develop the Roman Mausoleum area with a panoramic view, excavate the Hellenistic and Roman area around Calvary in partnership with universities and the ministry, and host an archaeological film festival in August titled 'Scendi che c'è il cinema'. The exhibition 'Segni, da Cézanne a Picasso, da Kandinskij a Miró' is currently at the Antiquarium. La Spina became mayor by opposing a landfill and is focusing on beauty to revive the town.