Varvilla

At the gates of the National Park of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, in the Val d'Enza, more precisely in Succiso of Ramiseto in the province of Reggio Emilia, the inhabitants of a small village have managed to save the country from abandonment by creating a cooperative community.

The Valley of the Knights, the name of the cooperative, now runs a bar, a farm, a grocery store and is active in the tourism, farming of sheep, the maintenance of the territory and in the management of the national park's visitor center . A unique example of co-operative community in Italy, which is useful to prevent the depopulation of the smaller countries. Economics professor Naori Tsuda Osaka University who is conducting a study of cooperative communities spread throughout the world, says that a similar pattern exists only in Australia.