The Caltagirone Staircase in the Video «Open to Meraviglia»

The famous staircase of Santa Maria del Monte in Caltagirone, a UNESCO heritage site, has been included in the new campaign created by the National Tourism Agency in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism to promote Italy in the world. The video shows the protagonist virtual influencer “Venere di Botticelli” (@venereitalia23 ) portrayed in the most important Italian monuments: on a bike in front of the colosseum, on a boat in front of the faraglioni of Capri, in Piazza Ducale Doge of Venice, and sitting on the famous Caltagirone Staircase. The Caltagirone stairway built in 1606 in order to connect the ancient part of Caltagirone to the new city built in the upper part, renovated in 1844, has 142 steps which in 1954 were decorated on a project by prof. Antonino Ragona by applying polychrome ceramic tiles produced by Maioliche Artigianali Caltagironesi to the risers. The figurative, floral or geometric motifs represented on the 142 steps recall Arab, Norman, Swabian, Angevin – Aragonese, Chiaramonte, Spanish, Renaissance, Baroque, eighteenth century, nineteenth century, contemporary styles and decorations and range from the tenth to the twentieth century, as they are collected and adapted by Antonino Ragona. On 24 and 25 July on the occasion of the celebrations of San Giacomo Patron of the City, on 14 and 15 August on the occasion of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary which coincides with the anniversary of the apparition of the Madonna del Ponte (co-patroness of Caltagirone) in a source of the ancient city and on some extraordinary occasions, the stairway is illuminated with colored paper tiles inside which small ceramic lanterns whose flame is fed with oil of olive, which make up drawings.