Development of sustainable tourism to preserve and enhance the Romanesque cultural heritage in Tuscany with Itinera +

Title Itinera Romanica +

Location Tuscany

Duration 2019-2022

Partner Municipality of Lucca

Framework Programma INTERREG Italia-Francia Marittimo 2014-2020

Ente finanziatore European Fund for Regional Development (FESR)

Context

Itinera Romanica + is a cross-border project between Italy and France with the aim of enhancing the minor Romanesque cultural heritage widespread in Tuscany, Liguria, Sardinia, Corsica, the Provence-Alpes-Cote-d’Azur (PACA) region, the five regions of cooperation area.

The project aims to create an integrated offer of 13 Romanesque itineraries of the Upper Tyrrhenian to be jointly promoted in Italy and France. By integrating some of the already existing sustainable tourism routes, it also intends to improve accessibility to Romanesque sites such as churches, monasteries and hermitages. The project therefore focuses on the issues of accessibility and involvement of local communities. Physical and virtual accessibility intends to make it accessible to the greatest number of users including people with motor or sensory disabilities.

With the involvement of associations, groups of citizens and businesses in the area and all key-players, the project intends to promote respect for and the value of cultural heritage and guarantee the long-term sustainability of the actions undertaken. Local communities have been in fact invited to actively participate in the multiple project activities.

General Objective

To enhance and preserve the Romanesque cultural heritage, the Local Development Unit – involved by the Municipality of Lucca – will carry out a SWOT analysis to deepen the strengths and weaknesses of the program with particular regard to the areas of Monte Pisano that fall within the Municipalities of Buti, Calci, Capannori, Lucca, San Giuliano Terme, Vecchiano and Vicopisano.

Our contribution

The SWOT analysis is based on field visits to the key points of the itinerary and interviews with the different economic subjects of the area. The analysis will also use geospatial data which allows to give a cartographic representation of the spatial phenomena inherent to the itinerary and to conduct statistical analyzes on data that have a geographical and spatial extension.

Researchers will investigate the economic and cultural connections that caharacterize the area, in particular they will pay attention to the quality and intensity of the relationships between the actors and the Romanesque heritage, based on ad hoc questionnaires and using the methodology of Social Network Analysis.

Given the particular start of the year 2020, the Local Development Unit will investigate the challenges and opportunities for enhancing the context and development of sustainable tourism following COVID19.

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