The public image of the Italian regional wine and food tourism: new ‘travelling ideas’ about traditional flavours? In spite of the globalization process, that caused a consumer standardization, a constant rise in the widespread attention towards the sustainability of development pathways and typical gastronomy was started in Italy in the last decade of the past century. This has led public institutions to focus their attention on the preservation of the agricultural and food productions that are strictly related to their specific territories. Therefore this study aims at evaluating, through a careful examination of the online institutional Italian regional portals, the public administration abilities to promote and to bring out the many different products related to those territories that are still unknown and unexplored.

Il presente lavoro di ricerca illustra il progetto realizzato dal Club per l’UNESCO Cassano delle Murge (Bari), in collaborazione con gli enti pubblici, per promuovere le testimonianze simboliche del territorio comunale, al fine di evidenziare come tale località collinare – ubicata a soli 30 km dal capoluogo regionale e interessata fin dagli anni Settanta da un boom turistico delle seconde case disorganico e incontrollato intorno al “polmone verde” della Foresta Mercadante – stia diventando il palcoscenico per la promozione di nuovi percorsi identitari capaci di conservare, incrementare e comunicare l’“armatura culturale del territorio” come linea maestra per lo sviluppo locale.