While being relatively protected from the direct costs of the COVID-19 pandemic measured in terms of human losses, in Italy, rural and natural areas have been instead severely hit by the negative impacts of the subsequent socioeconomic crisis. In this scenario, food and wine local tourism could be a key driver in supporting Italian rural territories, during and after the pandemic outbreak, as culinary traditions are an important part of the territorial identity, and also a vehicle for experiencing natural and cultural amenities. Based on a data collection that highlights the main characteristics of a sample of small municipalities located in natural and rural areas of Southern Latium, an evaluative exercise was implemented to identify opportunities and limits for developing a culturally sustainable local tourism offer based on a mix of culture, food and wine, rural, and natural amenities. The evaluative exercise was based on the analysis of ten elementary indexes aggregated in two composite indexes measuring tourism attractiveness and territorial development. The results of this study may contribute to reinterpreting local excursions toward regional peripheries as enhancers of the culturally sustainable development of rural and natural areas.

The aim of this study is to analyze the well-being of young music teachers working in Trentino Music Schools (TMS). Specifically, we assess (i) the extent to which the interaction between teaching and playing affects the well-being of young musicians using a satisfaction measure for their overall professional path as teachers and musicians, and (ii) what extrinsic and intrinsic drivers may guide their involvement in teaching activities in the early stages of their careers. To this end, we analyze original survey data on young musicians teaching in TMS to estimate their relative satisfaction and identify their motivational drivers. Specifically, we estimate from elementary items six constructs concerning material work conditions, immaterial welfare (i.e., the capabilities activated by the schools), and initial monetary and non-monetary motivations to become a music teacher, then we run two ordered logit regressions to test whether a set of variables of interest and the estimated constructs contribute to explaining junior teachers’ satisfaction. Our findings highlight that junior teachers are satisfied if they can preserve the desired proportion of artistic activity and can teach a consistent number of hours so as to leave the desired space and time for making music independently of school activities. They consider teaching to be one of the components of their professional activities and can be expected to try to maintain sufficient space to be able to also develop the independent artistic sphere of their career as musicians.

The Italian small islands are characterized by high social and territorial distances from the mainland; however, on average, they do not seem affected by depopulation processes that, instead, characterize many other peripheral areas. On the other hand, the multifaceted nature and the tiny size of the Italian small islands call for political actions along multiple dimensions and pose unusual epistemological challenges. Against this background, a research gap is identified in the lack of a multidimensional analysis of the Italian small islands encompassing at least the main dimensions of local development. To narrow the gap, the research illustrates a multidimensional analysis based on the development of a composite index measuring the consistency of the territorial capital of the 33 insular municipalities located in the Italian small islands. The results suggest how the extreme heterogeneity of the insular municipalities and their social and economic vulnerabilities may negatively affect the digital transformation and the ecological transition of the Italian small islands. Consequently, the effectiveness of public policies may depend on the ability of policymakers to develop a transdisciplinary cognitive map of the local contexts and to codesign, with all local and external stakeholders, policies aimed at leaving (and keeping) no one behind.