Paesaggio e cibo, qualità della vita e attrattività dei luoghi

"Landscape, food, quality of life and and attractiveness of places" (Massimo Sargolini) Landscape, food, quality of life and and attractiveness of places are close linked. In particular, in this text, the food is the focus of a series of connections. In recent years food traditions and traditional products have taken on considerable importance, increasingly taking shape as a privileged object of study through which to read and understand the territory. Every society, in every historical context tends to invest the food of social, cultural and economic values. The recognition of the cultural value of "intangible" food was enshrined in 2010 by UNESCO with the recognition and inclusion in the list of '"Intangible Cultural Heritage" of the French Gourmet meal of traditional Mexican cuisine and the Mediterranean diet. The concept of "food of the area", acting as a vehicle of tradition, culture and memory, not only enriched food products, but it creates a huge value for the same territories, which are in their products a significant component of identity. Leon Rappoport, investigating the socio-psychological components of food, wanted to reiterate that concept with the 'expression: "... Whether we are aware or not, when we eat a particular food, we are swallowing not only that food, but also the concept, [culture, territory] represented by that food". Moreover, this reflection extends from food primary to the accessory, from areas to regional urban environments circumscribed. The tight bond between the product and the environment in which it appears has weight, in the sense that the quality of the landscape heavily affects the product value and vice versa. In line with this reasoning, the landscape defined by the European Landscape Convention, "as part of the territory, as it is perceived by the populations, whose features come from natural and anthropic factors and Their interactions", as an instrument capable of synthesizing , represent and communicate the planning of local companies, can have the value of "strategic asset" for promoting new and more sustainable forms of development, able to interconnect the different sectors (culture, agribusiness, environmental, manufacturing and tourism) that characterize the territory.