But do places have a soul? Introduction to Quaderno18 edited by il prato publishing house
I have been asking myself this question quite often recently, I even wrote about it some time ago, when I had already made a distinction between identity and soul.
My answer to the question is YES, without a doubt on my part. But really, I’m thinking about this matter over and over. I think there is a crucial distinction between identity and soul if we want to develop a real sustainable tourism. So, I will try to answer myself. Again.
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Identity or soul
Here I go back to my initial question and introduce the identity variable. Nowadays it is quite common to link the word identity to places. In my opinion this word is divisive, we are looking for the characteristics that differentiate one place from another rather than what they have in common. A phenomenon that I find worrying since I have the clear impression – walking around the villages – that they are all becoming the same, with similar promotions and with a strong emphasis on food and wine and typical products. Don’t get me wrong, typical products are fine but when, to push a product and a territory, tourist operators invent “the way (cammino) of the prosecco hills” you can easily understand that it is not a pilgrims’ way […]
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