Italian Villages Research Articles

Agroecology for migrant ‘emplacement’ in the left‐behind European countryside

AbstractWe explore the nexus between the green and demographic transitions in the European Union (EU) through the analysis of the challenges and opportunities that agroecology offers for the settlement and socioeconomic participation of Italian city‐dwellers‐turned agroecological farmers and non‐EU agroecological farmworkers in ageing and marginalised rural areas in Italy. Many such areas in Italy have recently experienced an influx of newcomers, including non‐EU labour migrants, refugees and asylum seekers and Italian city‐dwellers looking for a different lifestyle. Municipalities and NGOs have developed initiatives, like agroecology, for newcomers to participate in local societies while simultaneously contributing to sustainable rural (re)development in the context of the EU Green Deal. We discuss the potential of agroecology for the ‘emplacement’ of diverse groups of newcomers in these unlikely places through the analysis of the interpersonal, cultural, economic and institutional relations between newcomers and long‐time residents, and across different groups of newcomers, in two Italian villages. Our findings suggest that everyday interactions among long‐time residents and newcomers contribute to the emplacement of the latter. The analysed agroecological initiatives show potential for the emplacement of newcomers through their strong ethical stance and aspirations for environmental sustainability and improved life quality. However, short‐term contracts for the non‐EU farmworkers combined with tight economic returns for the Italian agroecological farmers may lead to distributional and procedural injustices, including the hyper‐exploitation of migrant farmworkers in the name of environmental sustainability.

Return tourism and sustainable enhancement of deserted Italian villages: description, analysis, and evaluation of an existing project

To outline and critically evaluate an existing project called: "Return to Italy 2023-2028", already started with the title "2023: Year of Return Tourism. The Discovery of the Origins" desired and managed by the “Rete Destinazione Sud” (Destination South Network), as part of the various Italian initiatives typical of 'Roots Tourism'. It focuses, in particular, on the revaluation of the villages of Colliano and Collianello. After a broad theoretical framework referring to previous national and international studies, the article draws on the direct experience of one of the co-authors who implemented the project and is currently managing it. The authors' presence at some of the numerous planned initiatives also facilitated a critical assessment of the results obtained and the expected perspectives. The initiative of southern private enterprises in a network aimed at enhancing economically depressed inland areas has considerable social value, especially since it is built following the latest canons of sustainability. We hope for the multiplication of initiatives similar to the positive ones that have already characterised Colliano and Collianello, giving back to the community ancient buildings and abandoned dwellings, transformed into widespread accommodation facilities. This study enriches the scientific bibliography, but also and above all proposes a praiseworthy concrete case of co-participation of private enterprises in the enhancement of depressed marginal areas, normally taken care of by public authorities. This fosters a business culture that is more sensitive to social issues and concretises the hope of entrepreneurs' active participation in a geography of tourism spread throughout Italy, decongesting traditional itineraries that suffer from over-tourism.

Exploring the restorative benefits of work in smart working structures on vacations in small villages.

Processes of redefinition of work, already in place in the pre-pandemic era, with the advent of COVID-19, have become widely required. A "model of work" that uses new technologies and the development of existing ones to improve workers' performance and satisfaction has emerged. Smart working has changed how people work and, as a result, spaces must also change to support them. The use of prefabricated movable buildings (PMB) could represent an opportunity to create smart (and co-) working spaces in a regenerative contest. Small villages with historical, architectural, and naturalistic elements and slow-life features are potential platforms where vacation and work could merge easily. This paper aims to establish if working in movable offices, like the PMBs, which provide a high level of visual and acoustics interaction with the surroundings, and which is positioned in small villages' squares, can affect workers' sense of restoration and working performance. In a laboratory setting, in the SENS i-Lab, a videowall and a 3D spatial audio system were used to compare, in terms of restorativeness and self-reported cognitive performance, the effects of a high-rise building context of a City Business District (CBD), i.e. the control scenario, and of two typical squares of small Italian villages with historic buildings, without (HIS) and with water elements (HIS-W). The findings of the experimental sessions showed that when working in close contact (visual and auditory) with historical or water elements, where life flows slowly, workers perceived a higher sense of restoration while job performance was unchanged. Implementing smart working policies in small villages that encourage the use of energy-efficient prefabricated movable buildings and that offer a high level of visual and acoustic interaction with the surrounding environment may represent a promising strategy to foster the development of the local economy and contrast the depopulation of small villages, improving the worker well-being and the reducing the impact of their activities of the environment.

Gastronomy Tourism and the Revival of Italian Villages After the Pandemic

The effects of COVID-19 on tourism include a rapid growth of some consumption behavior trends, such as an urge for escapism, a desire to (re)discover minor and rural destinations, and a wish to live memorable moments. Moreover, literature and industry reports highlight the importance of contemporary demand for authenticity and experientiality. This work analyzes visitors' perceptions once in the destination, focusing in particular on small villages' gastronomic tourist offer. An exploratory study was conducted on tourists visiting Italian small villages of historical origin, the borghi, and nearby wine producers to record their perceptions and sense any significant difference. In-depth interviews were combined with participating observation to test elements from the literature on consumption behavior and identify a set of parameters, which could be applied in further studies. The results show that the borghi offer is perceived as authentic and not replicable, that wine- and foodrelated activities, often more direct and totalizing, helped the visitors to connect with the destination; thus, gastronomic tourism can represent a valuable asset in the sustainable development of the minor communities. Nevertheless, destination competitiveness is the result of an interplay of multiple factors and on top of the experiences offered (prerequisite of the tourist activity) additional aspects have to be considered in order to properly enhance small villages' tourist offer.

Renaissance of villages for the revitalization of marginal areas

There is now a clear disparity between major cities and villages located in marginal areas of Italy. Progressive depopulation of inland areas and urban polarization such as consolidated territorial dynamics are difficult to dampen and adapt to the new paradigms of sustainable territorial development, although they have been abruptly redirected by the Covid 19 pandemic. The instability created by this pandemic offers the opportunity to redefine new parameters of intervention and new scenarios for the development of territories in relation to the new needs of decentralization and physical distancing. The project “Renaissance of villages for the revitalization of marginal areas” aims to create the conditions to repopulate and rebalance shrinking territories by establishing new centers of attractiveness. This project envisages the active involvement of municipalities and local authorities with the aims at implementing the multi-sectoral analysis of the tangible and intangible values of territories. It intends to develop an interactive web dashboard to be provided to municipalities in order to create both a learning environment and a spatial decision support system for future local policy actions towards a sustainable participatory local development. In this way, it is proposed a functional method with a place-based approach to managing the existing territorial complexity through innovative models of territorial governance and policymaking, among them the effective implementation of participatory and multi-actor visions of territorial development. Specifically, this paper provides the Italian villages’ archetypes through the quantitative spatial cluster multivariate analysis, which is the basis for the construction of the dashboard. To cluster the villages, the main variables have been identified, assesses, and mapped. The results are fundamental in order to define the future scenarios for each archetype assessing the Key Performance indicators (KPIs).

Genetic characterization of two North Italian villages: A story of isolation, ancient admixture, and genetic drift

AbstractObjectivesPopulation isolates represent a focus of interest because of their particular genetic history and the possibility of mapping peculiar deleterious variants. Here we investigated the pattern of genetic variation in two North Italian villages: Rotzo (RTZ) and Stoccareddo (STC), in the Asiago plateau.Materials and methodsWe genotyped over 800 individuals for more than 600.000 markers. We investigated the isolation level by analyzing runs of homozygosity (ROH) and the level of population structure. Then we estimated the time of admixture and the relationship between ancient genomes and these two villages. Finally, we looked at the effect of genetic drift on deleterious variants.ResultsWe highlighted a different isolation level between RTZ and STC; despite the average number of ROH being similar between the two villages, RTZ shows a higher level of total homozygosity. We estimated, from different sources, that the time of admixture for the ancestors of these two populations was between 113 and 88 generations ago.We discovered that a deleterious variant in MCUB gene (rs78025076), which is linked to several lipid traits, is entirely absent in RTZ and at 1%frequency in STC. In contrast, the risk allele frequency is 2% in Europe and 2.4% in North‐East Italy.DiscussionThese results show the importance of a genetic characterization of geographically isolated populations. Their vast array of past history could highlight specific events in the past and help describe deleterious variants and traits distribution in different regions.

Reinhabiting villages: the residential heritage of small towns between evaluation and prospects

Small Italian villages, despite their significant variety , share the abundance of precious natural and cultural assets, the poor accessibility and the polycentrism that, historically, qualifies their settlements and a potential development process focused on the combination of innovation and tradition i.e. on the conservation and enhancement of their heritages. Scholars from different backgrounds have recently been emphasising the need to adopt integrated revitalisation policies in this regard, highlighting the role historic fabrics assume in their relationships – past, present and future – with contexts. Investigating the current state of studies on the subject, this paper highlights the instances, methods, purposes and limits of the approaches reserved for “residence” in this scenario, composing their possible critic appraisal.

LE VIE CALABRESI: ITINERARI RELIGIOSI PER UNA GEOGRAFIA DEI CAMMINI

Calabrian ways: religious itinerary for Geography’s path. – In recent years, historical, religious, food and wine and cultural itineraries have become increas-ingly important for the discovery of Italian villages and landscapes: in constant growth is the interest in these tools of knowledge of the history and heritage of Italy. This work proposes the creation of geo-itineraries based on historical studies concerning the life of two Calabrian monks. The creation of these itineraries, through Gis technology, would lead to the enhancement of still little-known villages, belonging to the internal areas of Calabria, and, at the same time, the rediscovery of the relationship between the tourist and the landscape.

Digital innovation for the post-earthquake “second emergency phase” (SEP). Research experience in Central Italy

The housing emergency that follows natural disasters is generally dealt with “temporary” prefabricated housing, usually designed for short and medium-term life cycle and often arranged in dormitory suburbs, mostly devoid of any basic facility. When the rebuilding processes takes time, as usually happens, those settlements end up causing a “second emergency”, with dramatic repercussions on people's health and communities' cohesion.Facing this problem, some international experiences match digital technologies with lightweight building systems and local unskilled labor to produce innovative and temporary shelters. Among these studies, the works of Hiroto Kobayashi in the Far East and his “veneer building system” are particularly significant.Italy is a seismic land where “reconstruction” has always been a disputed process that forces people to live a long time in those kinds of settlements. A recent example is the 2016/17 Central-Italy earthquake. After four years, less than 5% of the 80 thousand uninhabitable houses have been rebuilt or recovered. People are worried about an uncertain future.This paper presents the outcome of a design experience carried out, in partnership, with the Italian University of Camerino and the Japanese Keio University. Two innovative “mobile” pavilions (for cultural activities) were built in Amandola, one of the Italian villages heavily damaged by the 2016/17 earthquake. The local student community was engaged; digital technologies were applied; the veneer system was experienced. This work represents an unusual application of digital technologies in the Central-Italy disaster area as well as an original implementation of the veneer system.

The Canova Association: “Historical Continuation” and the Rebirth of Two Northern Italian Villages

The Canova Association is an international non-profit organization founded in 2001 in the medieval village of Canova, in Oira di Crevoladossola (Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Italy). The main purpose and the goal of the association are the re-evaluation of local stone architecture and raising awareness and appreciation of its importance, all of it through educational, cultural and artistic events and activities. During these years, Mauricio Cesprini and Ken Marquardt have witnessed the gradual transformation of this historic enclave into a habitable environment following the teachings of the local building tradition.

Translating the village

Abstract This article explores translation in the lives of asylum seekers from various African countries living in state-provided accommodation in the region of Umbria, Italy. While (semi) professional translators and interpreters play a crucial part in interactions between institutions and asylum seekers, translation invests the totality of the asylum experience. Translation is a vital skill for asylum seekers, and their interactions with the landscape of Italian villages involve the transfer of meaning across different languages and semiotic systems (such as body language, social norms, and cultural practices). Building on recent semiotic and spatial approaches to translation, this article examines the experience of translation that emerged from conversations with asylum seekers, providing an overview of a complex ecosystem of translation and shedding light on the everyday reality of refugee integration.

New Opportunities for Cruise Tourism: The Case of Italian Historic Towns

The cruise industry has grown worldwide in the last decades and, today, it is often associated with high levels of pollution and overtourism. This is especially true of areas where tourism cruises are a long-established sector, such as the Mediterranean and Italy in particular, where there is growing concern of the consequences of excessive pressure on popular tourist destinations. To reduce such side effects, it is necessary to develop new and sustainable tourism management policies. Our study explores the potential of the diversification of shore excursions offered by cruise lines to relieve pressure on popular destinations. As a case study, we focus on a subset of Italian villages that have received quality certifications (Bandiere arancioni and/or Borghi più belli d’Italia) because of their artistic, historical, cultural, and aesthetic values. Thanks to their proximity to major Italian ports, these villages offer opportunities for shore excursions alternative to some classic and very popular destinations such as Rome, Venice, Pisa, and Florence. The benefits of shore excursions to peripheral destinations are particularly relevant when visits include overnights.

Sustainable Fruition of Cultural Heritage in Areas Affected by Rockfalls

This paper deals with the evaluation of rockfall risk in cultural heritage, in the frame of a quick protocol for a preliminary zonation, to ensure the safe management and sustainable fruition of the sites. Several historical complexes in mountainous areas are indeed threatened by rock slope instability, and rockfalls can be counted among the main causes of fatality. In such a complex, a rockfall risk zonation would represent a useful management tool for both the choice of specific safe tourist paths, but also for the proper employment of economic resources allocated for mitigation measures. Nevertheless, the management of cultural heritage lacks such plans and tourists are often exposed to risks, while funds are often employed without a specific priority. In this paper, a quick procedure was tested at the historical complex of Taormina (southern Italy), which hosts numerous tourist spots often affected by rockfalls. The Saracen castle, for example, is currently closed to the public due to the rockfalls that repeatedly affected the entrance road, while Castelmola village, counted among one of the most beautiful Italian villages, stands on the top of a cliff affected by frequent rockfalls involving the only access road. The approach is composed of several steps and requires a heavy site characterization in terms of historical records and geostructural setting. The risk assessment procedure was chosen among the semiquantitative ones available in literature, and the final assessed risk was represented on a thematic map to provide a tool which could be used as a base for the planning of final remedial works.

Adherence to Mediterranean diet of children living in small Southern Italian villages

A cross-sectional study was conducted in the primary schools of five small villages of Salento Peninsula to evaluate the adherence to the Mediterranean Diet (MD) of 282 6-8-years old children in relation to lifestyles and socio-economic factors. The parents of children completed a self-administered questionnaire to evaluate the prevalence of personal, behavioural and socio-economic factors of their sons. Children’s anthropometric measurements were also taken. The adherence to the MD was assessed using the Mediterranean Diet Quality Index for Children and Adolescents (KIDMED). The chi-square test was used to detect any differences among groups of children. Overall, 27.0% of children showed low adherence to the MD (KIDMED ≤3), 59.6% medium adherence (KIDMED 4–7) and 13.5% high adherence (KIDMED ≥8). The adherence to the MD was associated with the educational level (whether graduated or not) of the mother and the occupational status (whether employed or not) of both parents.

Agrarian landscapes: from marginal areas to cultural landscapes—paths to sustainable tourism in small villages—the case of Vico Del Gargano in the club of the Borghi più belli d’Italia

Agrarian landscapes: from marginal areas to cultural landscapes—paths to sustainable tourism in small villages—the case of Vico Del Gargano in the club of the Borghi più belli d’Italia

Embroidered Stories: Interpreting Women's Domestic Needlework from the Italian Diaspora

Embroidered Stories: Interpreting Women's Domestic Needlework from the Italian Diaspora

Definition of a multi-criteria, web-based approach to managing the illegal dumping of solid waste in Italian villages

The aim of this study is to define a multi-criteria, web-based approach that can be used to manage the illegal dumping of solid waste, which is a serious environmental concern both in developing and developed countries. A simplified web-based geographic information system (SI-WEB-GIS) was designed to identify illegal dumpsites, and to allow sharing resources among authorities, technicians and citizens. A self-made multi-criteria technique was designed to establish the intervention priorities, in seven steps: (1) constructing the alternatives matrix; (2) giving a qualitative value or a combination of qualitative values to each individual dumpsite and to all criteria; (3) giving a numeric value to each qualitative value or combination of qualitative values in the alternatives matrix (three methods were adopted); (4) calculating the Average Hazard Index (AHI); (5) ranking the dumpsites of each alternatives matrix, in the order of decreasing AHI; (6) comparing the first 50% of the dumpsites in the three rankings, in order to evaluate which had the most intervention priorities and (7) performing a sensitivity analysis, giving different priorities to the four criteria adopted (relative quantity of waste, soil permeability level, pollution targets and types of solid waste). The application of the multi-criteria, web-based approach to managing the illegal dumping of solid waste allows minimizing the total social cost of pollution, rehabilitating dumpsites and monitoring illegal dumping. Although the system was applied to a village in Southern Italy, with around 14,000 inhabitants, it can easily be customized for use in similar villages in Italy and in other countries.

The condition of ‘Cosmo-housewives’: leisure shopping, the mainstream and its ambiguities

‘Leisure shopping’ is a particular kind of shopping activity that is devoted mainly to fashion clothes and accessories. Women are commonly represented as the main leisure shoppers, and consequently, they tend to be at the centre of shopping centres' mainstream discourses. This article argues that interpretations of representations of ‘leisure shopping’ and the corresponding practice have too often ignored the daily and seemingly ‘banal’ experiences of the social actors involved. The primary purpose of this article is to show how gender roles are performed and reified in high-end factory outlet villages in Italy. It adopts a cross-sectional approach to ‘leisure shopping’ that includes an analysis of the ‘languages’ of two Italian high-end factory outlet villages, the ‘social space’ represented by the same sites and the ‘stories’ about a few ideal-typical female shopping experiences. These aspects are situated in the Italian cultural and political context at the time the research was conducted. Very different demands – such as sensuality, efficiency and motherly care – are put on women in Italy, as well as in the majority of Western societies. The analysis reveals that through their practice of browsing in a high-end factory outlet village, women often reproduce stereotypes while simultaneously trying – though ambiguously – to challenge them.

“A garden in the middle of the sea”: Henry James’s <em>The Aspern Papers</em> and Transnational American Studies

Author(s): Waller, Nicole | Abstract: Nicole Waller’s study of Henry James’s The Aspern Papers examines how conventional literary studies’ approaches (those that depend on biography and character analysis) may tether James’s work to a set of values that reinscribe the hierarchies that his narrative specifically sets adrift. Reviewing various newer paradigms in American Studies—the border, immigrant studies, the Black Atlantic, Native American encounters—Waller relies on a subset of transnational studies, Atlantic studies, to utilize the metaphors of circulation and exchange, of fluidity and drift, of space and dislocation, to argue for a reading of James’s The Aspern Papers as a dislocated response to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s work The House of the Seven Gables. Reading The Aspern Papers closely against Hawthorne’s work, and comparing the European perspectives in both James’s and Hawthorne’s works, Waller suggests that in The Aspern Papers James affords a reading of the transnational experience as a generative gesture, where a Venetian “garden in the middle of the sea” may serve as an abode more fruitful (despite losses) and more productive than the fires to which Hawthorne condemns Italian villages in The Marble Faun. Waller’s interest in the fluid spaces between the works of James and Hawthorne is echoed by both transnational American Studies and the essay itself in the unnamed narrator’s instructions to the gondolier: “Go anywhere. . . .”

Age-related hearing loss in four Italian genetic isolates: An epidemiological study

The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of hearing impairment in four genetically isolated Italian villages (Carlantino, Campora, Gioi-Cardile, and Stoccareddo), 1682 subjects were recruited from all the individuals participating in a multidisciplinary study. They underwent otoscopy and pure-tone audiometry and completed a questionnaire. The audiological data show that the percentage of impaired people increases with age and in particular becomes relevant aged over 40. For this reason we decided to compare the PTA values of individuals aged 40 or older. The PTA values of Stoccareddo and Carlantino are statistically different from PTAs of the other villages. Campora and Gioi-Cardile, both located within the Cilento National Park, have similar middle-low frequency PTA values while some differences are present at high frequencies. Using pedigrees it was possible to calculate the heritability of the trait. For Carlantino and Gioi-Cardile the percentage of the phenotype variation attributable to genetic variation is not significant, while for Campora the heritability value is 0.49 (p = 0.01) suggesting that genetic factors may have an important role.