Gastronomy and Tourism in Remote European Areas: Toward a Food and Wine Atlas of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria

Abstract

The European Union, apart from its well-developed socio-economic regions, is also characterized by marginal, remote rural areas, where the difficult socio-economic conditions and gentrification are the basis of an increasing phenomenon of depopulation and territorial abandonment. In some of these areas, sometimes, not only the development of inland and/or mountainous areas is complex, but also coastal development is not easy, and it calls for synergies between regional authorities, enterprises, universities, schools, and, more in general, local private and public stakeholders. In such vulnerable areas, there is a greater necessity to build proper governance systems, where local communities and public and private stakeholders have the responsibility to meet, discuss and actively participate as public-private partnerships (PPP) in local development processes. In such a context this paper highlights some of the research themes that have been developed in the research project on Gastronomy and Tourism in remote European Areas with particular reference to the creation of a gastronomic Atlas, still under development, of the Italian area of study, the Metropolitan Town of Reggio Calabria.