Pavia crocevia d'Europa nei cammini culturali europei

[Machine translation] Between the end of the first millennium and the beginning of the second, the practice of pilgrimage assumed increasing importance and routes such as the Francigena or the Way of Saint James became real communication channels for the creation of that cultural unity that characterized Europe during the Middle Ages., Although in the following centuries sacred and cultural paths began to lose importance, due to a progressive secularization of free time, in more recent times there has been a rediscovery of interest in spirituality, history and culture. In the tourism sector, new models of enjoyment are thus emerging and pilgrimage, understood as a form of cultural tourism, can today be defined as a physical movement of people along paths that cross space and time in search of a meaning, religious or secular, that depends on each individual. , The objective of the article is to illustrate the cultural and religious routes that cross the city of Pavia. Adopting a descriptive methodology and starting from the analysis of the scientific literature on the subject, the role assumed by this crossroads of Europe as a cultural tourist destination and the opportunities that may arise from Expo Milano 2015 are defined.