Geografie del verde, geografie del gusto: riflessioni sull’attrattività turistica dei giardini

Gardens and tourism, a combinational pairing that brings back to a dense and articulated history of relationships and experiences rooted in distant epochs, according to visiting and fruition modalities that have sedimented and defined the outlines of the so-called, and more recent, garden tourism. A well-known and popular phenomenon in Europe, a consolidated tourist product in England and France, it still finds some resistance in Italy in terms of systemic and integrated proposals at a territorial level, making gardens “extras” rather than “protagonists” in the tourist scenario of that destinations looking for renewed steps and ways to attract, depolarise and de-seasonalise their flows.In this framework, the paper aims at questioning the attractiveness and motivational capacity of gardens, choosing the case study of Cusio, in Piedmont region, as the field of geographical investigation developed through a survey created ad hoc. This makes it possible to identify requests and perceptions on the tourist demand side and possible suggestions on the supply side, in order to promote the garden tourism in the context of Lake Orta, subject of the survey. It follows that garden tourism proposals have here to be based on real data and needs, which measure their sustainability, and correlate with the expectations of visitors and the potential of local “green resources”, which enhance their heritage.