Abstract
Religious tourism has experienced a strong growth in recent years. It represents a
complex and articulate phenomenon, in which the reasons and proposals related to the
devotional and personal sphere are combined with a series of innovative opportunities
that help reach a depth knowledge of a territory. The religious motive often means that
pilgrims travel along specific routes to visit a number of shrines or even to complete
lengthy itineraries. Increasingly, purely religious motives are becoming mixed with
more secular forms of religious tourism, which often centre around specific religious
sites. In this perspective, faith itineraries can be interpreted as drivers for territorial
development able to evaluate the resources, the peculiarities and the identity of each
place. This justifies and motivates the increase of several important initiatives which
aim to make a significant contribution to the enhancement of cultural heritage and local
development. Many of them are related to the most famous European cultural routes. As
regard the Via Francigena, various projects are being hatched, highlighting some
‘minor’ ways of pilgrimage: this is what is currently happening in Piacenza Valleys, in
the north of Italy, the case study of the research presented in this paper.
Lingua originale | Inglese |
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pagine (da-a) | 83-92 |
Numero di pagine | 10 |
Rivista | International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage |
Volume | 1 |
Numero di pubblicazione | 1 |
Stato di pubblicazione | Pubblicato - 2014 |
Keywords
- Via Francigena
- cultural heritage
- faith itineraries
- local development
- religious tourism