Geographies of the sacred: the sanctuary of the SS. Trinità of Vallepietra between tradi-tion, territorial identity, and new practices. – The Sanctuary of the Santissima Trinità of Vallepietra represents an emblematic place where faith, tradition, and new social and territorial practices converge. This study examines how this sacred space continues to hold strong spiritual significance while also embracing new dynamics related to slow and sustainable travel. Younger generations are rediscovering pilgrimage through paths that combine spirituality with a search for territorial authenticity, maintaining a strong connection with tradition. The “companies” of pilgrims, symbolically united by banners and the practice of gatherings, perpetuate an identity bond with the territory, reinterpreting their belonging through a lens of re-territorialization. In this context, events related to pilgrimages and gatherings of banners are seen as practices of reclaiming the territory, strengthening the bond with the local community, and reaffirming the collective meaning of the sacred site. The approach of the Holy Year 2025 and the extraordinary Jubilee of 2033 has renewed attention to these places, intensifying the process of re-territorialization and reinforcing the bond between spirituality and territory. This study shows that, although influenced by socio-cultural changes, sanctuaries remain focal points of collective identity and territorial relationships, able to evolve without losing their original religious significance.

Glaciers and Water bodies: Considerations and Emerging Prospects in Alpine Settings. – This research highlights the importance of the relationship between glacier health, snow cover, water resources availability and territories in the Alpine region. Snow has the strategic task of protecting glaciers, feeding freshwater reserves, regulating sea level and supporting local communities. However, snowfall is decreasing and snow and ice are melting faster due to global warming. Therefore, planning future risk management strategies is mandatory for water governance and environmental protection. In this regard Engadin represents an interesting case study. In this region, a local project aims at slowing down the retreat of the Morteratsch glacier. Moreover, a watercourse renaturation project has also been implemented in order to overcome the problem of substantially increased river flow due to rapidly melting glaciers. These are examples of policies that should take into account current climate changes and the physical conditions of the mountain environment.

Inland, trails and local tourism as a tool for local development: the case of Centola in Campania. – The municipality of Centola, in Campania, in his hinterland is rich in naturalistic resources, in particular linked to paths and slow routes, which are rather marginal when compared to the popularity of the coastal area. In the framework of a proximity tourism oriented to the rediscovery of less valued resources (paths, green ways, nature trails, etc.), this contribution, through a field survey and the aid of qualitative instruments, investigates the underestimated potential of some paths, located in the immediate surroundings of the most popular coastal attractions in the municipality of Centola. The work aims to understand how the potential of slow and proximity tourism can be seized for the valorisation of the areas investigated in view of new forms of local development

Nearby tourism and local development. The unexpressed potential of the Lazio lakes. – In the last few years, due to global events, traveling has become increasingly complex. These difficulties have produced the birth of a new type of tourism: slow and proximity tourism. A type of tourism directed to nearby and little-known places. a type of tourism looking for outdoor activities, uncontaminated territories, a different way of appreciating local culture and the landscape. The Lazio Region is a large container of this type of tourism: historic villages, religious destinations, typical products and a landscape rich in rivers and lakes. In 2021, ARPA Lazio detected the presence of 20 lakes, different in geomorphological and hydrogeological characteristics, located throughout the regional territory, which are perfect for welcoming tourists looking for slow and proximity tourism. These lakes are exploited for tourism purposes only to a small extent. The objective of this contribution is to start a reflection on what has been done and what should be done, placing lakes at the center of sustainable development projects.

Textures and scalar relationships of transhumance between tradition and innovation. The Sportumanza project for a slow and responsible tourism. – Recalling the importance of transhumance as a territorial process and as the demonstration of the three attributes of space - scale, metric, substance – we can reveal the power of this ancient practice: it proceeds by multiscale relationships, foresees multiple metrics and it shows all its richness in substance, through the three characterizations of inhabiting (relational, functional and temporal). Through the case study of the vertical transhumance of the Orobic pre-Alpine context, we investigate how it generates relationships between human and non-human agents, functional practices for pastoral activity and for other ecosystemic services, care and preservation of biodiversity sites, enabling the shepherd and his animals to become sensors of environmental changes on a global scale. We then move on to the analysis of transhumance as an opportunity for innovation in the forms of living and doing tourism, especially in areas defined as peripheral and internal, by presenting the “Sportumanza” project.

The National Recovery and Resilience Plan: recovery of inner areas for sustainable tourism and economy. – European Commission and European Parliament have issued the Recovery Plan, also called Next Generation EU, to revive the finance and the economy of European countries compromised by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Italian Government has developed a specific plan for the recovery of inner areas with particular attention to the redevelopment of the villages: very emblematic, in this sense, The National Borough Plan, promoted and managed directly by The Italian Ministry of Culture. The Recovery of inner areas perfectly coincides whit the great challenges of contemporary society: ecological transition, climate change, environmental sustainability, better quality of life. Concepts such as slow philosophy, slow food, slow tourism are increasingly popular and form the basis for a profound cultural change, to build a slow life that is more compatible with the needs and sensibilities of humanity.

A slow way of enjoying the landscape: photographic cycle tourism

Covid-19: crisis of globalization and “revenge of the border”. The effects of the pandemic on the world economic and political future. – The rapid global spread of the Covid-19 virus has strongly highlighted, on multiple and transcalar levels, some problems that emerged worldwide after the end of bipolarism and the advent of the 21st century, i.e. the crisis of globalization and the “revenge of the borders”, which have clear repercussions on the world economic and political situation. The pandemic is entering a phase of global instability, linked to the tensions caused by the trade war between the United States and China, as well as the slowdown of the economy and the growth of populisms. In this sense, the consequences of the pandemic have caused the greatest shock to the international order since the Second World War.

The tourist attractivity of Italy in post covid-19 scenario. – The current world scenario, with the declared pandemic by Covid-19, is characterized by unprecedented crisis in all economic activities and in particular in tour-ism. After the pandemic, when the science finds a medicine with which the contagion will not be so widespread – vaccine or other “medicine” that cures it –, travel will resume inevitably but slowly in different ways from those we all know. Imagining new scenarios of international tour-ism and redesigning the geography of tourist flows will not be easy, es-pecially in Italy where the reasons of beauty probably will not be the only ones to attract millions of tourists. Therefore, tourism activities must be reconsidered with respect to the “new normality” and the limitations to tourism by health authorities and the results of the economic crisis in-duced by social distancing measures. The paper, therefore, after a careful assessment of the forecasts already made by international organizations at different levels of scale post Covid-19, will verify how the Covid-19 phenomenon will affect per-ceived geographies, in relation to markets. To this end, the results of a survey will be used both to monitor the travel “sentiment” of Italians, in relation to the forecasts for the summer of 2020 and in the coming years, and to outline the future behavior of all travelers – Italian and foreign –. It is assumed, in fact, that the reputation of the Italian territory, due to the need to have new models related to health security in the different Italian locations, will change, requiring a very complex time.

Breathing the Atmosphere of the Past. The “Strada dello stracchino e della pietra”. – Since many decades the cultural heritage has a very important role in the construction and development of territories. It can be tangible and intangible and it is a factor of the territorial production. Among them several cultural expressions, one of the most important is the typical magri-food production. In this article the attention is focused on the traditional production of stracchino and to its related civilization, which has produced tangible signs in the territories which today represent the authenticity of the territorial development. This is strictly connected to the new and modern forms of tourism, which compose the frame of a “total leisure experience”, such as the one of the valleys studied in this case study.