Western Italian Boundaries. The geopolitics of Sabaudian space in Giovanni Botero’s Relazione di Piamonte. – In recent decades, the historiography dedicated to the Duchy of Savoy has reflected at length on the theme of the borders and frontiers of the pre-alpine dominions, investigating in depth the composite nature of those territories between discontinuities (the Monferrato, the marquisate of Saluzzo, imperial and papal fiefs ...) and attempts at assimilation. Reasoning around a text such as Giovanni Botero’s Relazione di Piamonte of 1607, we intend to retrace in a geopolitical key the agglutination of the Savoy territories, taking into account both local and international dynamics of the second half of the 16th century. Amidst tensions with France along the Alpine ridge, internal frictions with the Waldensian valleys, and Mediterranean projections, the complex picture will emerge within which Charles Emmanuel I on the one hand consolidated the achievements of his father Emmanuel Philibert with the peace of Cateau-Cambrésis, and on the other prepared the breakaway from Spain in the wake of the conflicts over the succession of Mantua and Monferrato (1613-1618; 1627-1631).

Ecomuseums, Biodiversity, and Contemporary Art in Europe. – In recent years, the growing dialogue between contemporary art and sustainability has found fertile ground also in ecomuseums. Inspired by international experiences such as Ice Watch by Olafur Eliasson and Minik Rosing, or Aerocene by Tomás Saraceno, art has become a key driver in raising awareness of ecological crises. Creative interventions now resonate in European ecomuseums, particularly those in the Mediterranean area, where context-sensitive installations, and collaborative workshops are reshaping the connections between people, biodiversity, and place. This article explores how, between 2011 and 2024, artistic approaches in 26 case studies from France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal have contributed to a new artistic geography. Artistic languages serve as tools for ecological engagement, blending local knowledge and visual culture. The study proposes a framework in which art and biodiversity converge to foster shared ecological responsibility.

Culture e patrimoni dell’acqua nel Mediterraneo: una proposta sull’onda del “futuro liquido”. – Nuove prospettive di sviluppo economico e sostenibile possono nascere da una perfetta combinazione di turismo e digitalizzazione, conoscenza storica e valorizzazione del patrimonio nel Mediterraneo. La creazione di reti per condividere le migliori esperienze turistiche nazionali e internazionali nella tutela del patrimonio liquido è senza dubbio un aspetto fondamentale. In questo quadro, emergono esperienze e musei legati al mare volte a offrire al grande pubblico piattaforme rappresentative - sia fisiche che digitali - del patrimonio esemplare delle civiltà e delle culture nel Mediterraneo. Questo consente ai turisti di entrare in contatto con realtà istituzionali e imprenditoriali che implementano, in una logica sinergica, pratiche turistiche sostenibili; connettere turisti e comunità favorisce, inoltre, un dialogo che può motivare soprattutto i giovani a diventare narratori consapevoli e attori del proprio “futuro liquido”.

Geospatial methodologies for the monitoring of eutrophication of water bodies. – As collective awareness of environmental issues increases, the debate on water pollution becomes more focused on all anthropogenic activities (industrial, agricultural and domestic discharges, waste management) that cause water eutrophication. This paper aims to highlight how the use of GIS makes it possible to examine soil erosion and to calculate the theoretical load re-located over time in watersheds by human activities. The USLE/RUSLE and CREAMS models, coupled with satellitary data, allow to examine the evolution of land and watersheds. In the first part of the paper, the focus was on the Mediterranean, one of the most polluted seas on the planet; in the second part, the watersheds of the Rio Santa Lucia, Rio San Girolamo and other minor ones in south-western Sardinia were investigated. The research highlighted the connection between spatial planning and environmental processes, underlining the importance of best practices of territory management, especially in contexts with water vulnerability. The objective is to set up an integrated methodology to monitor soil erosion and eutrophication of water resources, in order to identify strategies and actions to mitigate these phenomena.

Sardinia between transhumance and the Blue Zone. Socio-spatial dynamics, rural lifestyle and diet of a geographical area of exceptional longevity: Ogliastra. – The rural dimension of Sardinia is strongly represented by the historical and social role assumed by agricultural activities on the island, which have always been characterised by transhumance phenomena (in Sardinia Tramuda) that, at different scales from the rest of Italy, have characterised some Sardinian rural territories (Ortu, 1988; Lai, 1998). Ogliastra has long been one of the lands of transhumance in Sardinia (Schiavone, Schiavone, 2014), and is marked by a high number of long-lived individuals (Blue Zone), for which, the rural environment, lifestyle and local interrelation-ships and genetics have influenced the health status in this area (Pes and Poulain, 2014). The work aims to investigate the socio-spatial dimension of food production linked to the rural (transhumant) culture of Ogliastra, trying to understand the configurations of territoriality (Turco, 2010) and how this socio-spatial, rural and food model may have influenced the particular longevity of the area. The Blue Zone diet, in fact, typical of transhumant territories, can become a catalyst for the sustainable devel-opment not only of Sardinia but also of many small Mediterranean rural areas and, furthermore, can facilitate the re-appropriation by the younger generations of their ancient identity heritage.

The enclave of Melilla: an urban area on the edge of the Mediterranean. – The Autonomous City of Melilla as well as that of Ceuta, located on the edge of the Mediterranean, represents the only two land borders between Africa and Europe. Given the particular geographical position that covers the enclave, Melilla is considered as a peripheral territory of the European Union (Sánchez, 2022). The Spatial, cultural and linguistic conflicts are reflected in the urban geography of the enclave and in the division of the city’s neighborhoods. In districts I and II, located in the center of the city, the Spanish language and the Catholic religion are pre-dominant, while the presence of Muslims and the use of the Tamazight language, mainly characterized the peripheral districts of the cities belonging to districts III, IV and V; “Language is also a place of struggle” (hooks, 1998, p. 64). The aim of this work is to analyze the marginal role that the enclave plays between urban, linguistic and religious conflicts.

More-than-wet Geographies of the Black Mediterranean: marginality, excesses, re-genera(c)tion. – Interweaving the production on the contemporary Black Mediterranean with the recent Oceanic Turn (Peters, Anderson, Davies, Steinberg, 2022), which repositions the sea from the margin to the centre of the geographic discipline, this specific sea-space emerges as a space co-composed of two fundamental elements: the trans-colonial (Sharpe, 2016) wake (Harrison, 2018) that connects the pre-modern Black Mediterranean to the Black Atlantic of modernity and the contemporary Black Mediterranean; the waves (de Spuches, Palermo, 2020; Palermo, 2023), matter and metaphor of moving bodies of challenge, resistance, conflicts. The latter, specifically, become re-genera(c)tions from the margin to imagine and practice possible trans-Mediterranean alliances, thus revealing how thinking with the sea can function as a decolonial tool for decentralising the gaze on a space of colonial margins production such as the Black Mediterranean.

"Waters, stones and stories. Mediterranean waterfronts, coastal urban landscapes"

The Importance of the Mediterranean for a Different Centrality in the European Union – The Eu needs a cultural political design that goes back to enhancing the fundamental aspects of the Ventotene Manifesto. The Mediterranean macro region is experiencing ever increasing difficulties which would deserve joint intervention policies and, if these had no positive effects, which could undermine the foundations of the same European mechanism. This article aims to trigger a reflection on the future of the Eu that lies in the ability to give life to a new order of centrality, giving back to the     Mediterranean the role that geography has always assigned to it.

Southern Italy and Euro-Mediterranean development. Cultural Routes for a new territorial vision – Cultural routes have assumed, for our country and especially for the South, a particularly important value and are becoming nowadays ever more instrument and opportunities for tourism innovation. The perception is that we are at the gates of a new historical phase in which a substantial reflection on new forms of enjoyment of territories contrasts with the aggression of the great cultural heritage.
To the south and along the trajectories of cultural and historical itineraries, the common Euro-Mediterranean root of crossed territories and the ties between communities deserve a different consideration, new forms of integrated tourism and a different narrative ability.
For these reasons an organic reflection on the prospects of territorial development, starting from the routes that run through and give life to the Southern Italy and Mediterranean tourist realities, erroneously defined minor, becomes particularly important nowadays, and probably one of the concrete sources of feasible sustainable development.

Ambitions and cultural exploitations in response to the crisis. Discourses and urban metamorphosis in Cagliari. – This contribution reflects on how the cultural dimension is embedded in the "narrative" on the city (Cagliari) as a pos-sible answer to the problems of the current economic and social crisis. Our hypothesis is that the use of "miraculous" values of culture is the 'Trojan Horse' to legitimize neoliberal policies and actions on the city, where almost get confused public interventions of actual value but also speculative interests of private individuals. This hypothesis is argued by analyzing the speeches and achievements of some projects based on ex-plicit cultural and symbolic values, ambitions and/or exploitations. These also involve the ambition of a projection of the city on the international scene: from "Cagliari capital of the Mediterranean" to "Cagliari Europe-an Capital of Culture".

The European Mediterranean region. Management and valorization of landscape transformations. – If on the one hand, many Mediterranean landscapes show the signs of an upset of ecological equilibrium and of a loss of identity-making peculiarities, on the other hand we see a renewed social demand, centered on the cultural, social and environmental values of each landscape, which induces to a reconsideration of politics as well. Hence, we have an increasing of regulative documents, agreements, projects and measures about all the different territorial scales. The main objective of this work is to analyze some of these planning proposals and programmatic documents which have been produced in Europe, to discover sustainable ways of territorial regeneration. The leading thread of this paper consists in investigating the meaning and value assumed by some instruments within a territorial planning directed towards innovation and collaborative planning.

This paper intends to consider a epochmaking experience for the west European society, caused by the discovery of the New World: the crossing over the borders of the consolidated knowledge and of the domesticated spaces of Mediterranean Europe, and then the projection onto the reconfiguration and the refoundation of a new vision of the world. A new vision that is constructed on this triple dynamism – travelling, discovering, knowing – from then on part of the European historic consciousness and its cultural memory.