“Up until thirty or forty years ago in northern Italy, there were (and there still are, albeit increasingly fewer in number and in increasingly remote, distant places) unintentional, oblivious and practically unknown “pockets of resistance”, where ancient buildings, age-old customs and time-honoured craftsmanship could be observed and admired in all their intriguing integrity.”
Due to a deep-seated and profound belief, on which I have also theorised, I have always thought that the undeniable technological and civil process of humankind does not inevitably consist of the systematic, indiscriminate and total destruction of the past, but only of the sacrifice of those manifestations of the past that are most contrary or harmful to progress; also, I have always believed that the better future world we all aspire to will never be just that unless, in creating it, we also preserve, respect and show reverence for all that was better in the past world.”
– Mario Soldati, A trip to Ozzano, the city of Brandy, 1970