Food and Religion in Sicily—A New Green Tourist Destination by an Ancient Route from the Past

Claudio Bellia,Marzia Ingrassia,Valeria Scavone

doi:10.3390/su13126686

Claudio Bellia, Marzia Ingrassia + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126686

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Jun 12, 2021
Citations: 14	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Catania, University of Palermo

Abstract

The Francigena Way (Via Francigena) is a long international itinerary that was awarded recognition as a Culture Route of the Council of Europe. It starts in Canterbury (UK), touches 13 European regions and ends in Rome. An ancient track of this route is in Sicily (Southern Italy), and its name is Magna Via Francigena (Great Francigena Way). This track is a pilgrimage route that connects two ancient port cities, Palermo and Agrigento, passing through internal rural territories that now deal with the exodus of population from rural to urban areas. The route passes through the Sicilian territory named “Upper-Belìce corleonese”, a rural area around the city of Corleone (a little village known worldwide for the sad Mafia events) that includes a number of municipalities. In the past, this religious pilgrimage was a fundamental part of the expression of faith for Christians and now still represents for Sicilians a strong symbol of Christian identity. In recent decades, pilgrimage tourism around the world has grown significantly each year. The aim of the study is to know the pilgrims’ motivations for choosing the Magna Via Francigena pilgrimage as a vacation and any possible similarities between pilgrimage tourism and food and wine tourism, in the wider context of sustainable and slow tourism. The Policy Delphi method was applied to collect the opinions of the stakeholders involved. The study highlighted the strong link between religious motivations and local enogastronomy, culture, art and nature. Results will support policy-making in the development of integrated territorial tourist marketing strategies.

Highlights

The UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) and other institutional or academic sources give several definitions of the tourist
The tourist/pilgrim is the main stakeholder of a pilgrimage route, he/she is a particular visitor who is driven by faith or curiosity to know sacred places belonging to different religions and undertakes this type of walk along which he or she has the possibility to carry out other desired activities [77]
“European Cultural Itineraries” (1985), the Magna Via Francigena passes along Sicilian rural territories that today face problems of depopulation as a result of the economic crisis, population decline, and abandonment of the countryside [7,8], but it is a territory of great importance for the production of high quality food and wines with quality certifications

Summary

Introduction

The UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) and other institutional or academic sources give several definitions of the tourist. According to these references, the tourist is “any person on a trip outside his/her own country of residence (irrespective of the purpose of travel and means of transport used, and even though s/he may be traveling on foot)”. Tourism comprises “the activities of persons traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes.”. Tourism “refers to all activities of visitors, including both tourists (over-night visitors) and same-day visitors” [1]. Tourism comprises “the activities of persons traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes.” tourism “refers to all activities of visitors, including both tourists (over-night visitors) and same-day visitors” [1].

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