This paper illustrates a typology of 14 natural and anthropogenic hazards, the evidence for their causes and consequences for society and their role as vectors of change in estuaries, vulnerable coasts and marine areas. It uses hazard as the potential that there will be damage to the natural or human system and so is the product of an event which could occur and the probability of it occurring whereas the degree of risk then relates to the amount of assets, natural or societal, which may be affected. We give long- and short-term and large- and small-scale perspectives showing that the hazards leading to disasters for society will include flooding, erosion and tsunamis. Global examples include the effects of wetland loss and the exacerbation of problems by building on vulnerable coasts. Hence we emphasise the importance of considering hazard and risk on such coasts and consider the tools for assessing and managing the impacts of risk and hazard. These allow policy-makers to determine the consequences for natural and human systems. We separate locally-derived problems from large-scale effects (e.g. climate change, sea-level rise and isostatic rebound); we emphasise that the latter unmanaged exogenic pressures require a response to the consequences rather than the causes whereas within a management area there are endogenic managed pressures in which we address both to causes and consequences. The problems are put into context by assessing hazards and the conflicts between different uses and users and hence the management responses needed. We emphasise that integrated and sustainable management of the hazards and risk requires 10-tenets to be fulfilled.

This paper illustrates a typology of 14 natural and anthropogenic hazards, the evidence for their causes and consequences for society and their role as vectors of change in estuaries, vulnerable coasts and marine areas. It uses hazard as the potential that there will be damage to the natural or human system and so is the product of an event which could occur and the probability of it occurring whereas the degree of risk then relates to the amount of assets, natural or societal, which may be affected. We give long- and short-term and large- and small-scale perspectives showing that the hazards leading to disasters for society will include flooding, erosion and tsunamis. Global examples include the effects of wetland loss and the exacerbation of problems by building on vulnerable coasts. Hence we emphasise the importance of considering hazard and risk on such coasts and consider the tools for assessing and managing the impacts of risk and hazard. These allow policy-makers to determine the consequences for natural and human systems. We separate locally-derived problems from large-scale effects (e.g. climate change, sea-level rise and isostatic rebound); we emphasise that the latter unmanaged exogenic pressures require a response to the consequences rather than the causes whereas within a management area there are endogenic managed pressures in which we address both to causes and consequences. The problems are put into context by assessing hazards and the conflicts between different uses and users and hence the management responses needed. We emphasise that integrated and sustainable management of the hazards and risk requires 10-tenets to be fulfilled.

Tourism is growing and the way in which people take their holidays is also changing. Travellers are more aware now of the importance of their free time and are more selective in their choice of holiday: they demand greater value, more experiences and higher levels of quality. The duration of holiday trips is shorter but people are tasking them more frequently over the course of the year. There is also a tendency to organise independent holidays, outside the package deals offered by tour operators. There is a preference for physically and intellectually active holidays, with a growing demand not only for recreational activities, sport and adventure, but also for knowledge of the history, culture and environment of the places being visited. New types of tourism that are more closely linked to culture, nature, health, religion, etc., are growing three times faster than more traditional forms. In the wake of this, numerous thematic tourist routes have been set up, based on food and wine, nature, culture and religion (e.g. the pilgrims' road to Santiago de Compostela, the Via Francigena, etc.). Cultural tourism is one of the most popular and fastest growing sectors, within which religious tourism is growing rapidly, despite being highly complex and fragmentary in its implementation and despite the management issues linked to the various and sometimes incompatible interests that are associated with it. Not the least of these is the highly diversified variety of players, public and private, secular and ecclesiastical, who consider themselves to be responsible for managing the sector and seek to benefit from it. Following a theoretical approach to the concepts of cultural and religious tourism, this paper analyses its features and recent tendencies, stressing its role as an important factor in local development with reference to specific European stories.

The introduction of ICT in the tourism sector has had a significant impact on competitiveness that goes way beyond the traditional approach of mere conservation of cultural heritage. Innovative methods in the cultural sector can be useful for tackling the organizational problems and critical issues that affect operators in the various phases of a guided tour. This study analyses the opportunities for the tourism sector and Intangible Cultural Heritage arising from approaches such as Business Process Management (BPM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). These models, already in place in many areas of the industrial sector, could easily be extended to the tourism and cultural sectors. The purpose is to extrapolate a meta-model able to manage the organizational variables and critical issues emerging in the evolution of cultural routes. The model will provide guidelines to the backend unit that organizes guided tours and various kinds of event. This aspect is key to the success of replicable events because it provides a Management Information System that supports future planning with historical data. The management model investigated was applied to a specific case study: “The Ways to Jerusalem: Maritime, Cultural and Pilgrimage Routes, an itinerary of cultural and spiritual interest”.

Cultural events are an important driver of socio-cultural-economic transformation. The growth of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has affected the ways in which people can play an active role in cultural event management and urban planning. This work proposes a methodological approach that identifies the key elements for building bottom-up urban e-planning strategies. After a brief theoretical analysis of the impact of cultural activities, tourism and ICTs on urban planning, this paper presents the results of an empirical study carried out in the Puglia region (south of Italy) during the cultural event known as “La Notte della Taranta”, in which the crowd created added-value information via comments posted on social media. Data were collected using a mobile application specifically created for this event as part of the Folkture project, as well as from Facebook and Twitter posts. Using network-analytic and sentiment/semantic algorithms, the work aims to support the event management decisional process and produce results valuable to the field of urban planning.

This paper focuses on cultural itineraries as a new category of heritage, a specific product for the promotion of cultural tourism in inland regions and a tool for defending small settlements from depopulation. The study describes the main characteristics of cultural itineraries, considering the factors that influence their creation and the strategies to adopt in order for them to realistically have a future and generate sustainable tourism in the regions through which the routes pass. In order for a cultural itinerary to be successful it is clearly indispensable to highlight the meaning of the ancient road but it is also necessary to identify the importance that it has today and can have in the future. Following the path taken by St Peter the Apostle towards Rome, this paper reconstructs stretches of that ancient itinerary, which has been historically and geographically documented. It proposes to highlight the value of a journey that undoubtedly appeals to those who are full of intellectual enthusiasm but appears to have little relevance for the faithful. Indeed, the latter have always been primarily interested in the journey’s final destination, i.e. the great devotional route inside the Eternal City. Conferring importance on the Way of St Peter from Jerusalem to Rome would certainly help promote the inland areas of southern Italy that conserve traces of the saint’s presence. However, it would also perhaps succeed in restoring pride and confidence in this important ancient cultural presence to the Mare Nostrum and in recognising the Way’s key role in initiating intercultural dialogue and cooperation between Europe and the Mediterranean countries.

Social events are an important driver of spatial and socio-cultural transformation. Their implementation activates socio-cultural dynamics that are quite different from those of other development strategies. Their enormous potential lies above all in the high level of visibility attained by the host territories and their relative socio-cultural values in national and international markets. This helps them to attract new types of consumer (visitors, tourists, investors, companies...) in return for relatively low investment.Events can generate significant socio-economic changes in a community, especially those of small dimensions. The capacity of such communities to perceive their potential benefits is crucial. Their perception is not necessarily objective, and is influenced by numerous factors and variables (Vargas-Sánchez 2011) that induce the local community to share or reject the development strategies adopted. Measuring this perception is more complicated than measuring the economic impact, due to a lack of shared models and to the use of qualitative techniques of inquiry whose results are not strictly comparable. The present study uses a qualitative methodology that combines the Nominal Group Technique with the “Value Stretch Model”. It presents the results of a direct investigation of the perception of possible socio-economic changes brought about by events in certain rural communities in a region in southern Italy: the Salento peninsula in Puglia.

Lecce city is considered to be one of the most interesting tourist destinations in southern Italy due to its rich cultural heritage: a sort of perfect delirium of architecture, light, colours, allegories and symbols. The explosion of baroque is joined by the renaissance elements and the magic appeal of the Norman period. Gems in the city are the churches, the amphitheatre and the theatre, and the unique tangle of ancient streets, courtyards and mansions illuminated by the characteristic Lecce building stone. The city offers a broad range of cultural services, which have given rise to new entrepreneurial forms of urban governance in the cultural sector, but continues to be stressed by sustainability issues (pertaining to transport, waste and quality of life), which represent the major challenges of its future. After an analysis of the city of Lecce’s recent socio-economic, cultural dynamics and sustainability issues this paper analyses its urban development strategies with a view to achieving a more sustainable city.

The future of the Mediterranean lies in the history of its civilisation, its cultural, social and economic processes, which mark its identity and generate tourism interest. The management and conservation of its resources is complex and challenging due to its distinctive political and geographical fault lines and its recent internal conflicts, which since the start of the Arab spring have altered the geopolitical equilibria of the countries of the southern Mediterranean with disastrous consequences for tourism, despite the strong growth it had enjoyed over the previous two decades. After a brief description of the region’s essential features, this study will examine the recent tourist dynamics and the main factors conditioning the development of the sector (pollution, climate change and security) and then argue that cooperation offers the possibility of sustainable tourism.

Il saggio, dopo una breve analisi dei problemi di carattere ambientale e di natura economica che ne conseguono, tra i vari, articolati e complessi interventi proposti da tecnici e politici locali, indica come importante soluzione la necessità di un attivo coinvolgimento della comunità locale, nella consapevolezza che gli obiettivi di sostenibilità devono essere individuati in un’ottica di informazione e concertazione. La cultura di rispetto del territorio, passa attraverso strategie di controllo e regolazione, di conoscenza e monitoraggio ma anche attraverso processi di governance.

In some cities of the Puglia region, as in many parts of Italy, Spain and Portugal, Holy Week is characterised by significant expressions of devotion linked to the celebration of religious rites, performed in a manner that is highly moving for the onlookers, in a sort of collective mourning marked by the hushed involvement of the crowds. An important role is played in these by the “confraternities”, public associations of worshippers, initially created to promote worship and acts of charity, penitence and a form of evangelism that was not disconnected from the culture of the ordinary people. The success and the distinctiveness of the rites in Taranto lie in the slow step of the hooded penitents, the costumes of the confraternities and above all in the musicality of the words (spoken in the local dialect) used for the individual moments, symbols and participants of the rites. After a brief description of the religious event, this paper analyses the role of the Holy Week rites in Taranto and its social economic impacts and ethical management.

Il lavoro produce un'analisi dei flussi migratori in Italia negli ultimi quindici anni, loro distribuzione geografiche, dinamiche demografiche, di genere, socio-economiche e politiche sociali ad essi destinate. Attenzione viene destinata ad un caso di studio regionale (Puglia).

Gli itinerari culturali legati agli antichi percorsi devozionali non solo permettono di sperimentare il fascino delle antiche vie di pellegrinaggio, di soddisfare esigenze emotive e intellettuali, alla ricerca di cultura, autenticità e spiritualità, ma consentono anche di cogliere le valenze culturali, naturalistiche e paesaggistiche del territorio visitato. È quel che offre il costituendo percorso della Via Francigena salentina, al quale il presente lavoro destina particolare attenzione, indicandone i motivi d’interesse storico-culturale e le qualità territoriali che ne accrescono il valore, considerando le possibilità di soddisfare le esigenze di un turismo fiorente e in forte espansione, nel rispetto delle necessità culturali e spirituali del viaggiatore ma anche dell’ambiente e delle tradizioni locali.

Il lavoro, dopo una presentazione del valore dei percorsi ed itinerari religiosi con breve riferimento ai siti inseriti dall’Unesco nella Lista del Patrimonio mondiale e agli itinerari religiosi riconosciuti dal Consiglio d’Europa, analizza i principi fondamentali che riguardano la loro gestione, considera i soggetti protagonisti e propone come caso di studio adottato in una progettazione della programmazione internazionale europea un itinerario religioso di interesse mariano.

Percorsi ed itinerari religiosi sono di grande attualità. Sono praticati più che per il loro valore storico, per le dimensioni psicologiche e spirituali che sottendono: il cammino lungo un percorso d’interesse culturale e religioso consente di vivere un’esperienza, di aprirsi ad una dimensione spirituale, sollecitata da una società oggi sempre più confusa, che cerca nel religioso e nel mistico un’àncora di salvataggio. Gli itinerari religiosi non solo richiamano e danno vigore alle antiche vie di pellegrinaggio, permettendo un approccio meno auto-referenziale al patrimonio religioso e più strettamente legato al contesto territoriale, ma consentono anche la conoscenza completa del paesaggio, delle qualità territoriali e favoriscono il contatto diretto con il flusso creativo della cultura vivente della comunità locale. Sono considerati a ragione il nuovo magnete di sviluppo locale. Questa variegata compagine di interessi ha ispirato il presente progetto editoriale al quale hanno collaborato ricercatori e studiosi di vari Paesi e profilo disciplinare. Nel quadro di una società percorsa da una mobilità stupefacente, storici e storici dell’arte, seguendo le rotte del Mediterraneo e pellegrinando lungo le vie della fede che solcano l’Occidente europeo, hanno fatto emergere una “geografia del sacro” che pone al centro il culto mariano, indagato nelle sue infinite manifestazioni materiali, spirituali e culturali. I geografi, animati dalla medesima tensione spirituale, hanno raccontato le vicende che, nella logica dell’homo viator, accomunano nel tempo l’antico pellegrino al moderno viandante e turista alla ricerca di una dimensione trascendente la quotidianità, desideroso di cogliere nella vestigia esteriori dei luoghi mariani la spiritualità di cui esse sono espressione.

After briefly analysing the characteristics of visitors to holy places, the chapter explores the identity and role of large and small operators, both secular and religious, in the organization of pilgrimages and the management of certain holy places in the Western world. It considers the benefits and the limits of the work they do, as well as the risks and opportunities that ‘modern’ pilgrimage offers the host regions, with reference to some of the most famous and popular European places of pilgrimage such as Pompei and San Giovanni Rotondo, but also some smaller and less popular sites.

After a brief analysis of the role played by environmental planning in modelling the future of the places and spaces in which we live, this chapter focuses on the opportunities for sustainable development that protected areas provide. Specifically, it analyses the management of protected areas in Italy, with reference to the relevant planning measures that are designed to ensure sustainable development, a goal which must be reached above all via the individuals who make up the community and are participants in the economic system.

I temi discussi nel presente lavoro ruotano intorno a un unico concetto geografico: il paesaggio e la sua organizzazione innovativa con riferimento, in particolare, ad ambienti rurali, considerando: - l’obiettivo di sviluppo sostenibile nella gestione del paesaggio; - le interazioni fra ambiente sociale e contesto produttivo, fattore principale del processo politico, che produce la nuova territorialità; - l’innovazione legislativa e la gestione partecipata in una politica integrata del paesaggio, cui fanno riferimento azioni pubbliche maturate per lo più a livello europeo.

Il lavoro, dopo una breve analisi dei caratteri che distinguono il pellegrinaggio e lo differenziano dal turismo religioso, indicato come espressione di turismo culturale, individua nei percorsi religiosi un’opportunità di sviluppo turistico, con riferimento ad un “caso” di studio: il Salento in Puglia.

This study presents a brief analysis of religious tourism routes as an expression of spiritual, cultural and environmental interest. As recognized by the Council of Europe in its Cultural Routes programme, they play a role in the consolidation of European identity. The route known as The Ways to Jerusalem: Maritime Cultural and Pilgrimage Routes, which recreates the medieval system of terrestrial and maritime commercial and pilgrimage routes to Jerusalem, can also be seen in this framework. Its current promotion entails the adoption of technologies and applications that will enable "pilgrims 2.0" to access multiple virtual readings of the places along the route, facilitating orientation and on demand knowledge of the contexts.

The chapter discusses about the creation and management of protected areas and the measures adopted on a international and European Union level to set up them and safeguard biodiversity

The Premise introduces the proceedings of the Second International Conference on Sustainable Religious Tourism – Commandments,Obstacles & Challenges, hold in Lecce e Tricase,26-28 ottobre 2012.

This chapter focuses on the implementation of European Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21.May 1992 (concerning the conservation of natural habitats and wild fauna and flora) and European Council Directive 79/409/EEC of 2 April 1979 (concerning the conservation of wild birds). This analysis describes the state of the art of the protected areas in Italy, with reference to the European, National and/or Regional legislation which created them, looking in detail at the situation in the Puglia region, in the South of Italy.

Religious sites/assets are reacquiring pre-eminence, partly in the role of mainsprings for local development: they are privileged witnesses to collective memory and depositories for symbolic, historical, cultural and spiritual values that they have contributed towards forging. These are essential keys for interpreting “places” and their evolution, as well as for studying their various facets and nuances in greater detail. In full knowledge of this, we are presenting here a study on the subject of cultural (and religious) itineraries as a determining element in territorial conservation and as an instrument for: a) promoting a type of tourism that is sustainable, alternative and aware, in which the approach towards “exploitation” changes (contributing towards not only the “consumption” of experiences, but also the enrichment of the tourist); b) highlighting the value of authenticity and contact with local culture, as well as promoting contextual elements that are highly distinctive. In line with the need to make better use of local religious heritage, we identified anchor sites (sanctuaries and “minor” churches) around which to develop further forms of (religious) tourism. We devised an itinerary some 300 km long that “expresses” the diverse environmental/cultural/gastronomic realities that have the sanctuaries at their centre. This itinerary and its sub-routes – created via GIS – cover the central and western parts of the Veneto (Italy), as well as the south of the Region. The main route connects the sites in an attempt to link the area under examination, thanks to a ring, to the ancient Via Romea (the subject of research and reclamation as a long-distance route).

Analysis of cultural heritage in Veneto, looking at the creation of a religious tourism related to the ancient Via Romea

Religious ceremonies play an important role when understood as an opportunity for improving the image of a city, improving the socio-economic situation and promoting regional development. These are the objectives of the local administration in Novoli, a small town in the Salento peninsula in Puglia, south-eastern Italy. The most important religious, social and tourist event of the year in Novoli is the feast of Saint Anthony Abbot, which falls on the 17th of January. The festivities continue for many days and include religious rites, street lights, exhibitions, food stands, popular music and brass band concerts, markets and conferences. There are numerous attractions not only for pilgrims and those devoted to the saint, but also for lovers of folklore and the simply curious. There is a wine fair, a market and the museum of contemporary art, as well as conferences and meetings of various kinds. The event that sees the greatest involvement of the local community is the building of the monumental bonfire known as the fòcara, made up mainly of vine branches, which is set alight the evening before the day of the saint. In the afternoon before the lighting of the fire, after mass, the statue of the saint is carried in procession through the streets of the town. In the evening the pyre is lit by setting off batteries of fireworks that run up the sides of the bonfire to the top, with spectacular effects. The other key location during the festivities is the sanctuary of the saint, which sees a constant flow of worshippers and pilgrims. This study seeks to analyse the event of the Fòcara of Sant’Antonio in Novoli, the biggest bonfire in the Mediterranean, attracting more than 150,000 spectators a year. Making extensive use of mass media, the event involves a substantial commitment in terms of finance and human resources. Although this is clearly necessary for the promotion of local identity, in terms of the hoped-for increase in tourism and the development of a marginal rural area in the Italian Mezzogiorno, the results have been poor

Overall, our research aims at, on the one hand, contributing to the specific objectives identified by regional development programmes (i.e. incentivizing sustainable tourist activity through the promotion of various routes) and, on the other, creating a segment to be included in a larger itinerary to be submitted to the Council of Europe. Accordingly, we selected “clusters” of sanctuaries throughout the Veneto Region, away from main roads, to increase their visibility and make them appealing to outsiders, thereby fostering a kind of “slow” tourism. Here, we propose a methodology aimed at assessing if the area can withstand greater usage and sustain the presence of tourists with services and resources that are complementary to those already identified. With this in mind - and convinced of the opportunity given to local development by inserting “holy tourist resources” on a par with other elements of the (rural/urban) environment – we created a buffer zone around the route using ArcGIS10.1. This procedure allows one to provide added information compared to that which is specific to the itinerary, and identify any weaknesses.

The Second International Conference on Sustainable Religious Tourism- Commandments, Obstacles and Challenges focuses on the relationship between religious tourism and its host environment. The Congress aims to launch a debate on the theoretical and practical aspects of these relations, considered on a transversal and multi-dimensional level, with reference to case studies. It seeks to gather practical indications that may facilitate the planning, promotion and management of religious tourism in a way that respects cultural heritage and benefits all stakeholders and the involved interested parties. Promoting religious tourism also entails drawing up a synergistic plan for the study and recovery and effective usability of the various religious monuments and places of worship, with care taken to ensure the involvement of the ecclesiastical communities and local government. Moreover it creates a range of quality goods and services and establishes a link between religious tourism and other economic activities.

Pilgrimage is defined as a journey to the Holy but more specifically as an inner journey to one’s deepest religious feelings. This type of journey has assumed new forms and types that bring it closer to modern tourism in general, though it maintains its distinctive characteristics, which will be the object of this paper. These changes in the nature of pilgrimage, which in part reflect the parallel socio-cultural transformation of the average visitor, have brought about a major reorganisation of the places involved and have had a significant socio-economic impact on the territories involved. The concentration of visitors and in some cases the presence of various categories of visit have led to structural changes in holy places and their surroundings. These changes, which arise from the need to meet the requirements of travellers as consumers, in turn have social and environmental impacts on the surrounding area that are similar to those caused by mass tourism. The most evident types of impact are structural, resulting from the creation or expansion of hotel and catering infrastructure and the start-up of new businesses such as travel agencies, specialised tour operators, shops selling religious souvenirs and establishments providing entertainment. All this alters the physiognomy and the layout of the towns where the religious sites are located, in some cases completely transforming the economy of the location and the use of land. The aim of this research is to study pilgrimage flows associated with the cult of Saint Nicholas (San Nicola) in Bari, specifically concerning the pilgrimage's main characteristics and the most significant impacts on the district. The study follows a mixed approach that includes participant observation, use of archival documents and empirical evaluation of the material landscape and observed practices

The paper, on the basis of the available information and data coming mainly from official sources at the territorial level, shows those areas of the Italian coast that are most compromised by alteration of the state of the water resources, with reference to indicators and indices relating to various elements of the DPSIR framework: urban discharges, industrial waste and the use of agro-chemicals, as well as the policies aiming at better management of water resources, to ensure the prevention and reduction of the pollution of water bodies and make available resources for uses that are legitimate, sustainable and long-lasting in accordance with economic and rational principles. Altre informazioni The contents of this number of the journal are related to a NEAR curriculum in natural environmental science. There are different modules: Module on "Social interaction in water related science and sustainability(with some regiona case of study in Europe) "; Module on Impact and management of reservoirs; Module on Theaching implementation at the Summers School: Danube, Delat, Ukraine

Inseriti nel paesaggio attuale e nella stratificazione culturale in esso presente, gli itinerari culturali d’interesse storico e religioso costituiscono un importante strumento di valorizzazione territoriale legato al turismo lento ed esperienziale ed indirizzato alla scoperta e al recupero di antichi luoghi e “valori”. In essi il filo conduttore resta il paesaggio geografico. E’ il caso della la Via Francigena salentina che, seguendo il tracciato dell’antica via Traiana, si svolge da Fasano a Brindisi spingendosi fino ad Otranto anche innervandosi ai numerosi “diverticula” che spesso incrociavano antichi percorsi devozionali. Dell’antico tracciato storico della Via Francigena meridionale il presente lavoro ricostruisce il tratto pugliese che si svolge da Fasano ad Ostuni ed offre, contestualmente, un’attenta lettura dell’articolato paesaggio salentino e del patrimonio culturale e naturalistico oggi messo a sistema da un’interessante progettualità locale. Sulle tracce di un antico e importante cammino di fede la Via Francigena salentina mette a disposizione di studiosi e turisti un percorso storico, puntigliosamente studiato e cartografato, che è certo un’interessante alternativa ai tradizionali circuiti di viaggio, ma è anche un’ importante occasione di sviluppo locale. In esso l’offerta di servizi e di buone strutture ricettive favorisce una fruizione sostenibile e “consapevole” del territorio, in particolare di quello rurale, perfettamente in linea con i principi della Green Economy.

This volume presents the Via Francigena in its European dimension and illustrates the distinctive features of the areas it passes through. The rich cultural and environmental heritage, imbued with ancient memories and a religious devotion that is still very much alive, also constitutes a substantial and variegated asset that is increasingly recognised as a resource for development. The Salento peninsula, represented more fully but not yet exhaustively, continues to play a role as a “land of transit” while maintaining its unique character and timeless charm

Il lavoro, dopo un breve approccio teorico ai concetti di turismo culturale e dell’heritage, indica in esso un’importante occasione di sviluppo regionale

This chapter considers urban renewal policies involving Italian cities over the last 20 years with reference to public and private measures designed to resolve situations of environmental and socio-economic blight in degraded urban areas. Presenting a case-based empirical examination of private initiatives and public policies adopted by local government, the chapter seeks to verify the capacity for management of public funding by local government and to assess the important role played by the private sector in supporting public bodies in the process of urban regeneration and therefore on urban governance. Three case studies are analysed: two medium-sized cities in the South of Italy, Lecce and Taranto, and a large city in the North, Milan.