The Path of Listening

Hiking trail

The Path of Listening

A path to walk together with Alcide De Gasperi in search of the purest springs of political commitment. The "Listening Path" starts from the De Gasperi House Museum, where the statesman was born in 1881, and focuses on the first part of his life. That of formation, growth, preparation: the one in which the young Alcide, more than giving, learned to receive, to listen.

On April 3, 1881, Alcide De Gasperi was born in Pieve Tesino, an ordinary child, destined, however, to become a key figure in European history. His life would be a high road, between the glittering peaks and tremendous ravines of the twentieth century. A personal but also a collective path, summing up an entire era. A path always uphill, at a determined pace, which unexpectedly began here, in the silence of a small town nestled in the green Tesino Plateau. For Alcide, mountains and politics were two passions united by a deep bond: both places of research, confrontation and truth. The mountains taught him humility, limitation, and courage: values that he brought to his political experience and that made him one of the protagonists of the democratic history of the twentieth century. Even from a small mountain town like Pieve Tesino great stories can be born. Alcide takes his first steps in a world populated by travelers and peddlers forced by necessity to leave and go far away, learning to live with different languages, customs and habits. In the mountains, climbing partners make all the difference. Sometimes, however, they are not enough and one must rely on guides. The same happens in life. For Alcide, the first guide was Don Celestino Endrici: a demanding and attentive teacher who taught him to think clearly, act responsibly and fight for the common good. One does not improvise as a mountaineer or even as a citizen. For Alcide, as for many of us, the first gymnasium of life was school. A path he faced together with a special companion, his brother Mario. His untimely death will leave an immense void, but it will also become one more reason to stretch and go far. Selbsthilfe: helping oneself to help others as well. This will be one of the great lessons Alcide learns from his people, from the mountain people. He will experience it firsthand in his university years in Vienna and pour it into his early political experiences, learning the value of civic participation. Even the young Alcide has to come to terms with his weaknesses and some hardness of character. The criticism he received as a young man helps him understand the value of silence, which becomes a space for listening and growth, teaching the power of humility and respect. World War I breaks the secure rhythm of Alcide's life and changes forever his view of politics. No longer programs and theories, but service to those who suffer. Like his brother Augustus, like thousands and thousands of others. To feel on oneself the pain of one's neighbor and to discover oneself in a rope: bound, fragile, responsible for one another.