Through summer schools, the Laboratorio del cammino proposes a learning method based on the direct and slow experience of walking. After a period in which the pandemic prevented teaching in presence, this approach was considered even more valuable. It combines and does not replace a digital experience with one of proximity, making it possible to compare what is visible when crossing a territory with what is seen from afar. The article reports the participation in the 2021 edition of the summer school, focused on the industrial and territorial contraction of north-eastern Pied- mont. Moving around and staying in the area made it possible to reveal an articulation of open spaces that make up the countryside, which is thus highlighted concerning an image obscured by the factory. Themes and problems of agricultural and silvo-pastoral shrinkage emerge, and initiatives take care of the territory.