Three Northern Italian regions, Valle d'Aosta, Piedmont and Liguria, have specific identities though united by deep geographical and historical common traits. They are traditional wine-growing regions, producing several renowned wines, often in difficult areas. The 'heroic' viticulture, vineyard sites at altitudes over 500 meters (1,600 feet), vines planted on slopes greater than 30% on terraces or embankments, is a cultural element of the wine-growing system in all the three regions, each having a share of mountain and slope areas. Liguria and Valle d'Aosta are much smaller regions than Piedmont; they have a big share of mountain area of the total regional surface. The paper aims describing the diversity of wine landscapes in the three regions, all of them having a large mountain and slope area within the respective total geographical surface. Data have been collected following the Grounded theory, i.e. retrieving data from very diverse sources, including direct observations. Results are that the reality of the heroic viticulture is a fundamental part of the local wine-making in Valle d'Aosta and Liguria.

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The paper analyses the relationship between sport and tourism. Starting from the literature on sport tourism and tourism sport, we examine the impact of a sporting event in terms of tourist flow in relation to the provision of sporting facilities in the Italian regions. The sport tourism is an original product, taking into account both relations between tourism and sport, but also a real osmosis of sport activities with the touristic ones. Mega events, like the Olympics, or local events, as city marathons, exert an increasingly significant role in positioning the resort in the tourist market, improving image, local amenities and infrastructure in general. Sports tourism could be a driving force for local development, community cohesiveness, economics benefits, social incentives, positioning the localities in the touristic market, improving their image.

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