Corso di geografia turistica

Unit F1

p.181

• In recent years there has been increased demand for products aimed at so called “slow” tourism. Slow travel is the philosophy that has travelling slowly as its motto, to discover a deeper knowledge of places, people and traditions. A type of holiday that makes a point of the simplicity of the style of travel, in the name of a sense of responsibility towards the environment, living things and diverse cultures.
• In Italy, this mode of travel has taken the shape of various walking itineraries and holidays with low environmental impact.
• In Lombardy, the Cammino di sant’Agostino (Way of St. Augustine) can be walked that connects the 25 Marian shrines situated in the Brianza area and includes the most important artistic sites in the area (churches, monuments, parks and villas). In the Valle Santa (Sacred Valley) in the province of Rieti, the Cammino di Francesco (Way of St Francis) can be travelled by foot, bicycle or on horseback, through the places where the Saint of Assisi lived and preached for many years.
• In the vicinity of Biella, the Wool Road (Via della Lana) crosses the lands of the historic textile district that has been active since the fourteenth century. Here the Oasi Zegna can also be visited: an extraordinary protected area that offers great walking and hiking in a natural environment.
• Proposals for walking and slow travel holidays can also be found in the Piccole Dolomiti Lucane (Lucanian Dolomites) and the lands of the Alta Badia, where initiatives have been implemented for the development of sustainable tourism and the protection of the environment by expanding nature reserves, and by encouraging environmentally friendly building and the use public transport.

Unit F2

p.189

• Venice, Italian’s most visited city, thrives on tourism and suffers because of it. The approximately 20 million annual visitors translate into uncontrollable numbers of visitors, almost always concentrated around the city’s famous landmarks. This has put serious pressure on urban and architectural structures, on the operation of transport systems and, more generally, on the fragile lagoon ecosystem.
• During the course of the twentieth century the hydro-geological health of the lagoon has deteriorated drastically, aggravating high water phenomena such as subsidence (sinking of the land) and the rising sea level, which in fact has made all the ground floors of the historic centre uninhabitable.
• The number of residents continues to fall, ground down by the high costs of living and housing, as well as the discomfort caused by the massive daily presence of tourists, whilst the phenomenon of “hit and run” tourism is growing, which consumes the city and aggravates it general condition.
• Beyond the answers provided by science and technology to control the tides (the Mose project – Experimental Electromechanical Module), tools need to be urgently developed to control tourist numbers. The most promising way is to use the Internet, through which those who give advanced warning of their arrival and itinerary are rewarded. A portal for ticket reservations and municipal services has already been launched, offering incentives and discounts for those who book in advance and who choose to visit during the less busy periods indicated by the online calendar.

Unit F3

p.195

• Sardinia has also not been left unscathed by speculative construction projects that have marred so many Italian coastal areas.
• In 1962, various financiers, including the arab prince the Aga Khan, formed the Consorzio Costa Smeralda with the aim of making the most of the coast of Gallura, in north-eastern Sardegnia, through tourism. Initially they tried as far as possible to protect the landscape: hotels, residences and second homes were low buildings, well camouflaged amongst the mediterranean vegetation and typical rocks of the area.
• Mass tourism subsequently arrived and, to rapidly increase the accommodation capacity, urbanisation grew out of control and transformed part of the coast into an unbroken succession of tourist resorts, hotels, residences and second homes.
• Only in recent years has the irretrievable damage to the environment created by this kind of consumer tourism been understood and a more far-sighted policy been tried in the belief that respecting the territory and safeguarding the environment are already in themselves powerful tourism resources.

Unit F4

p.203

• The land of Italy, for the most part mountainous and hilly, and its climate have not favoured the development of cyclotourism, contrary to what has happened in other European countries, where the bicycle is a common means of transportation and where there are many long and medium distance cycle routes.
• Increased attention towards environmental protection has led to the spread of this form of clean and ecofriendly tourism in Italy.
• Agreeable scenery, natural and artistic beauty, cycle lanes, simple hospitality services, and rest areas are the demands of cyclotourists who aspire to a slow holiday, a direct contact with local reality, in search of places that are far removed from mass tourism.
• Several associations, including Bicitalia, promote the construction of bike trails that also re-use existing infrastructure such as canal banks, disused railways and rural roads. Diverse routes have already been realised in Trentino-Alto Adige, Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio, Marche and Tuscany.
• Large and small cities have been equipped to encourage citizens and visitors to use bicycles, with the preparation of cycle paths, bike sharing services, dedicated parking, and areas with 30 km/h speed limits on cars.