Central Italy earthquake evacuees, icon of a forgotten internal area

Dante, Celestino and the Forgiveness: from the Comedy to a destination branding. – Despite references to Celestino V on the Divine Comedy are not clear, the lives of Dante Alighieri and the Pope are certainly intertwined. Dante’s expectations on a spiritual renewal of the Roman Church, disappointed by Celestino’s resignation, seem to find acknowledgment today in a series of actions devoted to promoting his main bequest, the Forgiveness, a new territorial brand that is also serving the purpose to help the territory of L’Aquila recover from the 2009 earthquake, especially in trying to fostering a tourism development around Celestino’s figure.

Geographers and cartographers from Sicily between the 16th and 19th centuries. – The study aims to analyze the development of geo-cartographic culture in Sicily between the 16th and 19th centuries in relation to the evolution of geographical studies in Europe induced by the progress of scientific knowledge and the discovery of new territories, the result of great geographical explorations.
After a brief examination of the affirmation of Geography between the Renaissance and the modern age in the various European countries and in Italy, the study will proceed in the delineation of the development of geo-cartographic culture in Sicily through the examination of the production of Sicilian geographers and cartographers, certainly minors and often misunderstood, active on the island between the 16th and 19th centuries, trying to grasp the most significant aspects in relation to the various events which, over time, have conditioned the island’s culture.
They are often exponents of the local aristocracy and of the clerical class open to culture and relationships with scholars from other countries who, acknowledging scientific progress, devoted themselves to geographical studies and elaborated cartographic surveys no less significant than those produced outside the Isola, certainly stimulated by the desire to know the peculiarities of the island in different historical moments, but sometimes by the need to study and graphically represent the changes induced on the land structure by natural events, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and plagues, or by episodes of war that exploded between the various political forces which tended to impose their power on the island.

“The Land of my Dreams”: Ideas of Sustainable Tourism between Research and Participation in the Territory of the Gran Sasso-Laga National Park – The Project “The land of my dreams” is part of the activities of the Cartolab laboratory’s research activities (Department of Human Sciences, University of L’Aquila) and of the initiatives planned by the National Park for the elaboration of the Economic and Social multi-year Plan. In the framework of a participatory research-action, the aim of the Project is to study the social and territorial potential of the National Park, in terms of social capital, expectations, hopes and “dreams” of its inhabitants. In the current post-disaster situation in which a large part of the Park’s territory is involved, through the research and participation actions planned by the Project, it is possible to give shape to the hope of rebuilding one’s own life, one’s own community, one’s own land starting from those traces of future that obstinately and stubbornly persist. To this purpose, one of the topics on which the second phase of the Project, concerning the formulation of choices and decisions, focuses its attention is tourism as it represents one of the most recurring themes in the narratives about the future of the 428 people interviewed.