Coventry University Trip 2011

As part of an ongoing relationship between Addiopizzo and MA students of Terrorism, Organised crime and Global Security at Coventry University, 24 students attended a study trip in Sicily with Addiopizzo Travel to learn, first person, about the mafia and antimafia. This also gave them an opportunity to explore and experience Italian and Sicilian culture, cuisine and history.



The group visited key locations in Palermo which gave them the opportunity to expand their knowledge, including the "Bunker Room" of the Maxi-trial, the Courthouse, meetings with Gaetano Paci and Gerardo Ferrara, two current antimafia prosecutors, the place of Falcone's murder in Capaci, and also the Giuseppe Impastato Centre for Sicilian Documentation where the students had the opportunity to propose questions to Umberto Santino and Anna Puglisi, two of Italy's leading scholars on the mafia. 
 
The students spent a day in Corleone to visit CIDMA, the antimafia museum, and the Laboratorio/Bottega della Legalità of Libera, where a new display of paintings chronicles the history of the fight between the mafia and the antimafia.

Also organised were visits to meet the brother of Peppino Impastato in the family's memorial house in Cinisi, to learn about Peppino's struggle against the mafia in his family and in his town.
 
Throughout the students were given a series of talks and tours from Addiopizzo, and had the opportunity meet with shop and business owners in the pizzo-free shops and restaurants visited.
 
Finally on May 23rd the students participated in a march in memory of Giovanni Falcone and the others who have lost their life in the fight against the mafia, completing an understanding of both the sacrifice  given in and importance of defeating the mafia.