Progetto Recycle

“The landscape along the footprints of the Lion of Venice” by Lucia Ammendolia is the third article in Quaderno 16 “Human landscapes, urban landscapes” available from this link in July

The first reaction we have when thinking of the word landscape, or panorama which is its amplified extension, is something external to us, a postcard view, something abstract, which we can only grasp through a single sense, the view. Instead, it is something much more complex. Let’s think, for example, of the “soundscape”, given by the set of acoustic elements that compose it, like the sound of the bells in an old village or the cicadas in a mountain meadow. The place, in addition to the physiocratic aspect, also expresses its identity through the sounds of the environment.

“Il paesaggio era come un verso di poesia che crea sé stesso” (The landscape was like a line of poetry creating itself) (Corrado Alvaro)

 The term LANDSCAPE derives from country, from the Latin pagus (= village); hence the adjective pagensis which means “the space around an agricultural village”.

This concept stands out even more in the term landscape. According to one of the fathers of the “Convention of the landscape”, the French geographer Yves Luginbuhl, this term is composed of land (earth) and schaft (to transform, model) therefore spaces of territories in continuous construction and consequent interaction between human being and nature. All this highlights the natural correlation between the territory and its anthropic part. Within the landscape, human being is not a mere observer but, quoting Jacob, he/she is an “active inhabitant”.

There are different ways of relating to the landscape, every people define and shape the context through their own experiences, lived in relation to it. This concept is summed up in a single word that we usually use: culture. Its etymology derives from the Latin “cultura” which means to cultivate, to honor the earth, from which lessons are learned. Landscape is a complex cultural process.

Continue reading The landscape along the footprints of the Lion of Venice here

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“The territory is not a map and the map is not the territory” by Roberto Ervas is the second article in Quaderno 16 “Human landscapes, urban landscapes” available from this link in July

We can compare the territorial body to the biological body.

In the territorial body agricultural and/or open areas, residential and productive infrastructures, infrastructures of energy, water, data services, etc., road and/or transport infrastructures, such as carriageways, railways, air, sea, cycle, and pedestrian ways coexist.

In addition to this, cognitive, relational, biological, social, anthropological, cultural, etc. “networks” exist and operate in the territory.

All this demonstrates that territorial dynamics are multidimensional, integrated and complex phenomena.[…]

The territorial body cannot stand on the anthropic-entropic dimension alone and compared to the biological body the prevalence of structures and/or organs leads to its death and/or dysfunction,

There is now a quantity of literature and studies, as well as urban models, which have incontrovertibly placed the question of the limit at the center of their reflection, for solving problems.

The most livable – and coincidentally the richest – urban realities are those that have accepted this challenge and “setting themselves a limit” is the opportunity for their relaunch and success. […]

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Earthquake, human and urban landscape is the first article in Quaderno 16 “Human landscapes, urban landscapes” available from this link in July

On 30 October 2016 at 7:40 a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Norcia and the surrounding areas. A much stronger shock than the one that only a few days earlier (August 24) had hit the same area, destroying Amatrice. In those hours of August 24, Central Italy saw entire inhabited areas razed to the ground and suffered considerable losses both in terms of human lives and of buildings and places full of art.

The relief efforts started immediately as did the promise of reconstruction and reorganization of the territory. To date, entire areas still see the damage of the earthquake and the reconstruction works have not been completed.

The 2016 earthquake: the damages

The town of Norcia has suffered serious damage to its artistic and cultural heritage, its symbol is the Basilica of San Benedetto. Some hamlets such as San Pellegrino, Campi di Norcia and Castelluccio di Norcia have been almost destroyed.

The slow rebuilding

The aid machine was set in motion from the very first hours. A great deployment of civil and military protection means intervening to bring aid and secure the areas devastated by the main shocks and subsequent aftershocks […]

How the territory has changed

The earthquakes in 2016 produced numerous changes to the morphology of the territory. The earthquake produced a variation of the soil that affects an area of over one thousand square kilometres, the area of Norcia underwent a shift towards the west, with surface faults reaching up to 180 centimetres. In some areas the hilly or mountainous level has decreased, and the watercourses have undergone variations. The opening and closing of natural springs have also caused a change in the economies that revolve around these water sources.

The territory has changed because of the damages and because of reconstruction. The surface occupied by houses has significantly increased up to doubling in various areas. This to the detriment of the green areas around Norcia that were once the pride of the area […]

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The restart after the pandemic

Revenge Tourism or…forget tourism ? The restart after the pandemic by Fabio Casilli is the second article of Quaderno 15 “Tourism between revenge and regeneration” available in May from this link

Tourism in recent years, i.e. from the end of 2019 to today, has undergone a real tsunami that has profoundly changed the way of “doing” tourism, both by those who use it as a tourist/traveller, whose needs have radically changed, and by tourist operators

Indeed, “before” health safety did not even appear among the top twenty selection criteria.

Beyond the devastating effects of the pandemic, the seriousness of Covid as a disease, its spread around the world at a speed and ease unimaginable until then, there were important and no less serious terrible and important effects from a psychological point of view.[…]

Tourism has restarted very slowly, but inexorably.

After a long time locked up and repressed, people have developed a will to move, travel, like never before.

The need to find a “normal” life has pushed the desire to go out to excess.

This phenomenon of almost spasmodic desire to travel has been given a name that explains very well the state of mind we all had when we were able to do it again: revenge tourism

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Urban regeneration, sociability, and tourism by Fabrizia Greta Silvestri is the first article of Quaderno 15 “Tourism between revenge and regeneration” available in May from this link

“During my visit to Paris for COP21 last December, I really wanted to visit La Recyclerie before going to Bourget. Their approach is entirely ecological and demonstrates that the economy and the environment can go hand in hand”. (DEBORA O.RAPHAEL, Director of the Environment of the city of San Francisco)

I have always believed in recycling as an opportunity not to pollute our planet but also to give new life to something that was no longer used. Perhaps as I grew up with a seamstress grandmother at home, since I was a child, I have had the habit of wearing clothes created from “old” customers’ clothes. This made me proud because nobody had clothes like mine!

In 2021, during my first post Pandemic trip to Paris, a friend introduced me to a place that has become my refuge every time I go back. La Recyclerie: it could not have had a more suitable name for the post-COVID period we were going through.

Continue reading Urban regeneration, sociability, and tourism here

“Music culture and tourism” by Chiara Pegge is the third article of our Quaderno 14

The phenomenon of Tourism and, probably, the word tourism derive from the long journey undertaken by the young European aristocrats in the eighteenth century, the so -called “Grand Tour”. Goethe, Stendhal, Burney are some of the most famous names that left significant evidence in Italy, the “Bel Paese”.

The Grand Tour was a cultural journey during which the knowledge of the travelers was deepened. The printed books on this experience can be considered a sort of tourist guides. Today the methods of experiencing many events have changed considerably with the advent of technology, especially in the past three years.

Continue reading “Music, culture and tourism” here

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“Digital maps, inclusion and tourism” is the second article of Quaderno 14

Social inclusion, environmental sustainability, territory, and digital services can be combined in many, different ways.

Social inclusion and environmental sustainability are elements that are often viewed with suspicion or annoyance by commercial activities. In fact the first word that is often associated with these is “costs”, and the second “enforcement”. “Making a place Inclusive, Accessible and Sustainable means spending, but I have to do it because it’s the law”.

Therefore I have started to write this article as an  itinerary through a sequence of keywords linked together by a logical sequence.

Continue reading “Digital maps,inclusion and tourism ” here

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Tourist or temporary citizen? By Lucia Ammendolia

According to the latest international tourist trends, the most popular sector today is related to non-hospitality activities: B&Bs, holiday homes and apartments.

The context in which this socio-cultural evolution develops is also the one in which a new concept of enjoying tourism is taking shape.

The request is about an all-round experience, in which the traveler begins to discover the places, to calmly observe what is around him/her. A real journey for an active, proactive traveler, who cares about what he/she hears, what he/she tastes, what excites him/her. A tourist who is dramatically different from a “one- day – on – a -run” tourist.

An experience that is not foreseen in organized trips, with scheduled itineraries and daredevils, in which the visits are races to be able to see most of the things in the shortest possible time, without any interaction with “the locals”.

Continue reading “Tourist or temporary citizen” here

“Tourist or traveler” introduction to Quaderno 14

There is a quote taken from a book that I love – The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles – saying:

“We’re probably the first tourists they’ve had since the war.

Tunner, we’re not tourists. We’re travelers.
Oh. What’s the difference?
A tourist is someone who thinks about going home the moment they arrive, Tunner.
Whereas a traveler might not come back at all.”

The novel is not a novel on tourism, for sure, but the point is: what do we want to be? A tourist or a traveller? What do we want to learn from our travelling?

Continue reading on the Italian version