In one region in Italy, some are rethinking the future of tourism, writes Venetia Sherson.
The blonde marketer from Oxford, England, sees a bright future for Sulmona, one of the oldest towns in the Italian region of Abruzzo. Three years ago she swapped the leaden skies of England for the golden warmth of the city, known for its arts, almond sweets and opera singers. So much potential here. So little being done.
"These people ..." she starts to say, glancing across at the Tourist Information Office housed in the 800-year-old Palazzo Annunziato; then checks herself. It's clear what she means. The locals aren't doing enough to put the region on the map. "They are not backward, but time has stood still."
She hopes to change that. Ovid, the Roman poet, looks pensive on his plinth in the piazza.
Fifty kilometres away, in a hamlet nestled at the foot of the Maiella Ranges, another person has dreams of bringing more people to Abruzzo. Marcello Di Martino is the mayor of Taranta Peligna, within a pebble's fall of the magnificent Cavallone Caves. The mayor is on a mission to prevent his town, which has fewer than 500 residents, from dying. But not at any cost.
"My country is full of little towns. They are the best things about Italy. They respect the environment and the traditions. But they can also produce new and innovative ways of thinking. They can offer an alternative vision for tourism that is sustainable."
The battle for Abruzzo's heart is being waged on two fronts. Marketers, mesmerised by the region's natural beauty and lack of package tours, see potential unrealised.
There is no question that Abruzzo is untapped in comparison to, say, Tuscany and Umbria. The region, two hours east of Rome, is made up of vertiginous peaks, long, narrow valleys and remote hamlets. It takes time and a head for heights to discover them. But inevitably, as travellers seek new backdrops for their selfies, eyes have turned south. There are now daily flights from Stanstead, England to Pescara, Abruzzo's Adriatic airport. Towns like Pescocostanzo, Introdacqua, and Castelli are the new beachheads on the tourist map.
The picturesque town of Abruzzo. Photo / Supplied
Abruzzo people are not averse to the trend. They could do with the tourist euro. Unemployment sits just under 14 per cent and most young people head to the cities for jobs. The region was hit hard by the GFC, and a major earthquake in the region's capital, L'Aquila, in 2009. Many have strong views on how tourism should proceed.
Nunzio Marcelli was born and raised in Anversa, a medieval town of around 300. Like many young people he left home to study but returned to rear sheep and goats. Like Di Martino he is a dreamer, but also a pragmatist. "The only way to be economically independent is to add something like tourism."
So, four times a year, tourists pay to join his shepherds on the transumanza - in which around 500 sheep and goats are taken between winter pastures in the lower valley and summer pastures in the high country. The 35km trek takes three days, with a rest day in the middle. Walkers stay in small towns, eat local food, dance in the piazza and learn how to make pecorino cheese and pasta.
Marcelli says the transumanza is fun and functional. It means he can farm productively, preserve a ritual that has been practised in Abruzzo for 3000 years, plus provide employment.
At dusk, as the sun sinks behind the Maiella Ranges, William Santoleri trains his powerful binoculars on a forest about a kilometre away. "There she is," he says, quietly. A female brown bear is loping along the forest edge. "It is Peppina," he adds. "She weighs about 150kg."
Only around 50 Marsican bears survive in Italy. People like Santoleri are doing their best to preserve the numbers by observing their movements.
But balancing the needs of tourists and the needs of nature is a complex equation. One plan to save the bears is to give them more space in an alpine area popular with skiers and hunters. But the regional government is negotiating with a company to build a luxury ski resort there.
A shepherd and his flock in Abruzzo, Italy. Photo / Venetia Sherson
Santoleri knows the region needs to encourage economic growth. But to wipe out one species in the interests of another? He shakes his head.
Anna Lebedeva is not an Abruzzo native. She was born is Siberia, and came to Italy via Ireland. She lives with her Italian partner and a dog named Modigliani in a small mountain town just out of Pescara. She runs a tourist agency so, by rights, she should be in the "big-is-better camp". But her ideas have more in common with the shepherd, the poet and the mayor.
She began her business, Green Holiday Italy, by researching words she likes: "food, natural, traditional, authentic". That led to discovering ancient culinary traditions, such as the rare aglio rosso (red garlic), canestrato (an endangered heritage cheese eaten by shepherds) maccheroni alla chitarra or "guitar pasta" and Navelli saffron.
A conservationist and foodie, Lebedeva helps independent travellers interested in learning about the provenance of local food. They may want to help with a harvest, learn to cook in a local kitchen or join a family for lunch. Her blog about sustainable travel (greenholidayitaly.com) won the single best post in last year's Italy Blog Awards. She believes Abruzzo's future lies in slow tourism, in which travellers are more interested in learning how the locals live.
Meanwhile, back in Taranta Peligna, Mayor Di Martino is showing off a set of biodegradable crockery stacked on his desk. His town is plastic-free and every piece of rubbish is recycled. A poster opposes a power generator planned for the Aventino River, which runs through his valley - "the river sustains life. We will not let this happen".
He is well known as an environmental activist, but he is no wishy-washy eco-warrior. One of his initiatives to boost tourism is a summer food festival in which young chefs come to Taranta Peligna to learn to prepare food from the mountains. He hopes some chefs will return to set up business in the town.
Another initiative is to create links with other cave towns in Italy to provide a network for travelling cavers.
Like Nunzio Marcelli, he is also encouraging young people to return to the region to farm and build tourism around that. "People who come to Abruzzo can experience our traditional ways of life - the activities that have sustained us for thousands of years."
His plans for a sustainable future go even further. He has invited African immigrants to settle in Taranta Peligna, which he believes is in keeping with traditional Abruzzi values of generosity and hospitality: "The planet should be shared."
In other parts of Europe, where refugees are shunned, those ideas would have a mayor booted out of office. Di Martino was last year re-elected unopposed for a second five-year term.
