Some examples in the field of Geotourism in Emilia Romagna, Marche and Abruzzo Regions (Northern-Central Italy)

Italy is a country with a rich natural heritage that is having difficulty in finding the right areas for acquiring knowledge, protection and improvement. In particular, the geological component of the landscape has not yet acquired a sufficient value as a cultural asset which people can learn about and share. Within the Italian territory geotourism activities and products are recently widespread. In this work examples of activities on geotourism in Emilia Romagna, Marche and Abruzzo regions are described. They are focused particularly on: analysis and enhancement of protected areas and geosites; geotourist and tourist-environmental maps; geological itineraries; portable and on-site geological illustrative materials.The described examples illustrate the documents implemented for the enhancement of the geological (s.l.) landscapes, at different spatial (from regional to local) and temporal (from Trias to Holocene and present) scales. This is focused on developing the sensitivity of people to read in the landscape long term temporal scales processes, that lead to the present landscape of a region, as well as short term temporal scale processes characterising the resource management or the local geological and geomorphological risks.The examples include activities at regional and institutional level, as well as at university level, in same cases in collaboration with upper school institutions. They also include activities developed specifically for tourism at local and regional scale or private initiatives, within the Park areas or within the Italian Association for Geology and Tourism. Besides the several possible approach to geological heritage enhancement, they show a different development level of geotourism in Italy. Indeed, only a wide interregional tourism network integrating initiatives targeted at various potential users and connecting universities, local and regional institutions, Parks and local reserves, schools, private initiatives etc., can lead to reach the goal in term of educational dissemination of geological and geomorphological themes, awareness of the complex meaning of the landscape. The integrated approach to the discovery of geological heritage - as presented in this work - through various tools and activities and targeted at various potential users can be summarised by quoting a famous statement by Marcel Proust: “the real voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes”.