Railway Tourism and Heritage: From the Trenino Verde to New Trajectories of Development in Sardinia, Italy

Sonia Malvica; Federico Cuomo; Gianluca Scanu; Donatella Carboni

doi:10.36253/bsgi-7501

Authors

Sonia Malvica Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche e Sociali, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Italia
Federico Cuomo Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche e Sociali, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Italia
Gianluca Scanu Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche e Sociali, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Italia
Donatella Carboni Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche e Sociali, Università degli Studi di Sassari, Italia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.36253/bsgi-7501

Keywords:

Slow Tourism, Heritage, Trenino Verde, Environmental Sustainabilty, Sardinia

Abstract

In line with the inclusion of tourism activity in the Sustainable Development Goals, the current post COVID-19 era has recorded a preference towards slow tourism, whose various declinations aim to reduce the environmental impact of transport, reevaluating, for instance, the use of train. The role of the railway infrastructure in tourism is currently the subject of interest in international projects and plans, with particular attention towards the rediscovery of heritage through the slowness of train travel. In Sardinia, railway tourism is represented by the Sardinia’s Trenino Verde, the most extended tourist railway network in Europe. This work starts with the reflection that heritage storytelling should begin in railway stations, non-places that can confirm or disregard the expectations the tourist has already outlined before the journey. A landscape analysis and field research were applied on the Trenino Verde’s route of Mandas-Laconi, focusing on the potential and weaknesses of a peculiar trait for the Inland Sardinia’s storytelling.

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