Since the 1970s but with greater intensity in the 1980s, strong, social, economic, and cultural transformations have led to the post-Fordist or post-productivist countryside determining what researchers identify as “rural restructuring”

In the settlement network of Italian small towns (the so-called “borghi”, with a population ceiling lower than 5000 inhabitants), not lacking in discontinuities and patches, a “common thread” is increasingly noticeable, which allows to look optimistically beyond several weaknesses (economy depending on a relatively unprofitable or declining agriculture, social and economic stasis, demographic decline and consequent contraction of public and private services, hydrogeological instability, etc.): we are talking of the firm, pigheaded determination of an increasing number of local communities to become sustainable and responsible realities, get involved, and undertake a process of “hot authentication” of their milieu. Since 2013, such resilient attitude is at the heart of the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI, Strategia Nazionale per le Aree Interne) aimed at promoting coordinated, multi-scalar projects of self-enhancement; in April 2019, the above innovative form of territorial planning was selected by the European Parliament as a model for the 2021–2027 programming period of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).This paper reviews the original and creative bottom-up enhancement process being implemented in several towns of the “Monti Dauni” sub-region, a pilot marginal area identified by Apulian regional authorities within the SNAI. In these small towns, local players aim at maximizing the opportunities of sustainable, experiential tourism by offering an uncontaminated environment, ancient knowledge, genuine flavours and deep emotions to all visitors who wish to achieve a deeper knowledge of the territorial identity instead of being mere spectators, by adopting an active and engaged attitude.

This research paper presents the key elements of the strategic project “European Capital of Culture 2019” initiated by the city of Matera in 2014. Through the “big event”, defined by the combination “diluted time/diffuse space”, the “Città dei Sassi”, UNESCO World Heritage since 1993, is innovating the symbolic, material, and organizational levels of all the Basilicata municipalities whose tourist resources were almost unknown both at national and international levels, thus showing high resiliency, i.e., flexibility, inclusiveness, integration, and initiative. Through a self-centered and sustainable model of tourist accommodation that minimizes the infrastructure fixed capital investment aiming, at the same time, to increase collective empowerment processes, it is planned to accommodate about 700,000 “temporary citizens” who, by adopting an active and participative approach, wish to live a unique and unrepeatable identity experience in the Lucanian community instead of being mere spectators. Special attention is paid to “virtual” communication by using the world wide web not only as a showcase to promote the bottom-up identification and enhancement process of the heritage, but also as a tool to manage contacts with potential visitors in order to avoid any adverse impact of the event on the environmental and cultural components of the city and of the regional planning.

The present research work analyzes the path of territorial reconfiguration that has led to the new uses of agricultural land. In particular, the analysis focuses on the conflict of use between agriculture and sport. Is the sporting practice of golf a new form of sustainable tourism or a violation of traditional rural vocations? The paper compares two case studies in Italy and Brazil to try to answer the aforementioned research question. The two cases under study represent a conflict of land use between the hypothesis of persevering solely agricultural activity and the possibility of introducing new activities. Often, however, agriculture as the only activity practiced by a population is not enough to ensure a sufficient income; it is therefore necessary to diversify economic activities. As will be seen in the text, this does not mean a total abandonment of the primary activity in favor of other land uses apparently in contrast with it.

WELLNESS AND THERMAL TOURISM: AN INSIGHT FROM ITALY Antonietta Ivona University of Bari Aldo Moro, Piazza Umberto I, No.1, 70121, Bari, Italy Adrian Nedelcu Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti,...

Geographical space must be understood as a progressive and conscious construction in which the geographical elements and the relationships between the elements themselves are placed. From the post-World War II period and for the following twenty years, the coastal area has maintained an albeit minimal break with the man-made spaces; since the seventies of the last century, rapid industrial development has increasingly occupied the coasts. Among the most evident coastal territorial signs are the lighthouses. The analysis intends to reflect on the path of transformation of some coastal structures in Italy.