Walking through the narrow lanes of Termoli’s borgo antico, the medieval promontory felt unusually quiet this mid-spring: laundry snapped in the Adriatic breeze, pastel walls stood in silence, and the beauty of the moment was mostly denoted by its emptiness.

This scene, delicately captured by the Financial Times, set the stage for a bold cultural rebirth led by Giorgio Pace, an internationally renowned curator and ex-Venice Biennale commissioner, who returned to his hometown of Termoli to lead a transformation that could redefine Molise’s cultural identity.