Turismo religioso e pellegrinaggio nei Sacri Monti di Piemonte e Lombardia

[Machine translation] Over the past few decades, religious tourism has experienced a significant revival. Religious visitors are driven by various motivations such as devotion, repentance, the request for graces, but also by curiosity, by the desire to discover new cultures and to participate in spiritual rituals. Every year, many pilgrims and tourists visit St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, the holy places of Jerusalem in Israel, the Sanctuary of Fatima in Portugal, etc. There are also other destinations that, while not attracting large flows of visitors, are places of high cultural and spiritual value. The Sacred Mountains of Piedmont and Lombardy represent a significant example of this type that we can define as 'secondary'. This term does not refer to their value, but to the modest number of visitors who visit them annually. They are not “mass” destinations, despite having great artistic and religious importance (in 2003 they were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List). Based on an exploratory study, the article, after a careful examination of the literature on the subject, analyzes the motivations and experiences of tourists visiting the Sacred Mountains of Piedmont and Lombardy and describes the enhancement projects.