There are many examples of outright cynicism when it comes to development – such as  shoe-horning blocks of poorly constructed hotel rooms into a beautiful stretch of coastline in an attempt to make a quick buck. But, quite often, development is something that gets thrust upon a destination in an an attempt to forestall the impact of booming popularity. In these cases, unfortunately, there simply isn’t time to handle it in a responsible manner.

Such was the case with the Italian town of Cortona. Forced into the limelight as a result of a book (Under the Tuscan Sun) that was adapted into a Hollywood movie, Cortona went from being a beautiful quiet backwater to a hugely in-demand tourist hotspot. It happened practically overnight.

While the sudden rush of tourist dollars was a welcome boon to the local economy, things began to change very rapidly. The town had to adapt to cope with the crowds, the types of jobs available shifted dramatically and the very character of the place began to be affected.

The creative team behind the upcoming film ‘The Genius of a Place‘ – a title taken from the works of Alexander Pope – noticed the change that was taking place in Cortona and set out to document it. While steps are being taken to mitigate against the damage being done to this particular destination, it serves as an example for other towns likely to be affected by similar issues.

While we agree that the residents of places like Cortona have a responsibility to protect the beauty and uniqueness of their home, it’s far from easy to do so. Financial pressures are an unavoidable fact of life.

That’s why we agree with the filmmakers that there is a real onus on us as travellers to ensure that we experience a destination in a responsible manner, whenever possible.

If we want to share in the beauty, we should also share the burden of maintaining that quality, or else pretty soon there won’t be anything left to enjoy.

This beautiful section of the Italian Riviera is known for its eponymous Cinque Terre or ‘Five Lands’ – five picturesque villages and the surrounding carefully-terraced farmland that have been insulated from outside influences for generations. This spectacular territory was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, but tourism has proven to be something of a poisoned chalice. The sudden inflow of visitors has placed major strain on the area’s infrastructure and the desire to capitalise has seen tension between developers and local residents grow.

It was the problems that these growing pains posed for the region that the Vendemmia documentary team set out to document when filming began in 2008. Then, unexpectedly, after the team wrapped up their filming in late 2010, a sudden series of events struck the area.

A scandal broke, revealing evidence of widespread political corruption, compounding the problems already facing Cinque Terre. Land deals and development projects that posed a threat to the area’s outstanding natural beauty and traditional ways of life were under way.

Local residents, already facing the challenge of coping with a booming tourist industry that threatened to destroy their livelihoods, were outraged at the extent to which the land which they called home was being exploited.

Further disaster came in the form of severe rainfall in October 2011. The extreme weather caused widespread flooding and mudslides, resulting in several deaths and major damage to two of Cinque Terre’s villages, Vernazza and Monterosso al Mare.

Knowing that they could not let these new problems go undocumented and compelled by their love of the region and its people, Weller and Boeckle realised that they would have to revisit major sections of their film if it was to achieve its objective of bringing awareness and support to Cinque Terre.

In order to finance the project, the team at Harvest Films Productions have opted to use kickstarter.com to raise the necessary funds. With nine days still to run, the project has already secured its ‘bare-bones’ funding package of $2,600, but additional support will contribute greatly to their ability to deliver an excellent and effective product.

We wish Weller, Boeckle and their team all the best for the project and join them in spreading the message about the importance of sustainability in tourism. The situation in Cinque Terre could apply to any number of other destinations.

Let’s not destroy what we’re trying to love.

St. Peter's Cathedral from the outside

No, I didn’t join the priesthood, but the place did leave a lasting impression on my mind. So much so that when I write about it now, even though I’ve forgotten much about what the ceiling actually looked like, I still remember that feeling.

The spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle describes this feeling as a connection to consciousness. There are moments when we witness beauty so great that it overwhelms the mind’s faculty to describe it. It is in these moments, these moments of ‘no thought,’ that we reconnect with Being or God or the Collective Consciousness or one of the many other labels that religions ascribe to the feeling of oneness.

Tolle recommends travel as a spiritual practice because we have many opportunities to encounter great beauty. Great beauty silences the chatter of the mind, and in that space of silence one can get in touch with stillness and peace. One thing he cautions against, however, is spending too much time studying and learning about the history of a place before you actually go there. If you do so, the mind is prepared for what it will see and your knowledge of a place will trigger an endless stream of thoughts: “Aha,” you might think, “this was designed by Michelangelo,” or, “this must be the edifice that was destroyed in the year 1678 and later repaired in the mid-1700s.”  Such thoughts interfere with experiencing the place and the moment as it is.

I noticed the effect that forehand knowledge had when I visited the Sistine Chapel. Although it was my first time in Rome, I had already seen many pictures and read many articles about Michelangelo, the chapel and its restoration. There was no disputing the fact that the chapel was beautiful, but instead of that feeling of stillness and awe, I felt as though I needed to pick apart and dissect everything that I saw in order to appreciate it. I didn’t just receive the place as it was. Because I already knew a lot about the place on an intellectual level, I couldn’t get in touch with it on a deeper level.

Castel St. Angelo, right next to St. Peter's Cathedral

This is not to say that you shouldn’t read up on a place after you visit it, however. Even Tolle himself enjoys reading up on the places he has travelled after visiting them. Knowing a place’s history does add a certain level of depth to your experience. It can’t compare, however, to feeling the beauty of a place, to walking past the threshold of the dome and: wow…silence.

It is said that a spiritual master can see (and I mean ‘see’ in the sense of the ‘feeling’ mentioned above) the beauty in the most mundane of things, in the most mundane places. For the rest of us, however, we need to visit places like St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome or the Grand Canyon to pull us out of our incessant stream of thoughts and feel the awe and the stillness that comes when we witness great beauty. Travel is important because even if you live in a beautiful place, you become desensitised to the beauty, so much so that you forget that it is even there. Sometimes you need a complete change of scene to jolt you out of your reverie and truly ‘see’ beauty at its deepest level.

The Getaway crew could not have made a better choice for their first foray into Urban Adventures outside of North America. Taken under the wing of the local Urban Adventures guide, Mauro Scarparti, Getaway presenter Catriona Rowntree took a leisurely three-hour stroll through this romantic European metropolis, following the pages of Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling book, Eat Pray Love.

Urban Adventures look a little closer, like this detail from a fountain at the Pantheon in Rome, Italy

While Rome has a reputation for being overwhelming or disorientating to outsiders, Mauro made everything seem simple and understandable, and the Urban Adventures Dolce Vita Tour provided wonderful insight into the real character of the Eternal City. With stops at crowd-pleasing locations such as the Pantheon and Piazza Navona, indulgence in a variety of Eat Pray Love-inspired culinary delights, and a few quiet moments in known-to-locals locales, like Tiber Island, the Dolce Vita tour is an unparalleled glimpse into the soul of the city. Better yet, Mauro’s commentary is a perfect overlay of the kind of insider perspectives that make Urban Adventures experiences truly unique.

If you were not able to watch the episode live, you can whet your appetite online and learn about Catriona’s satisfaction following the Urban Adventures model of small tours that take in the sights, tastes and smells most outsiders don’t come across. Urban Adventures in Rome is just one of a growing portfolio of destinations that is expected to include over 100 cities by the end of 2010.

Remember: When in Rome…!

Tavolara is quite a small islet, but reaches a height of more than 500 metres, with towering walls of granite rock that make this place a paradise for birds and other wild animals. It’s also home to a small number of families and the last remnants of the Kingdom of Tavolara, as it was an independent state for much of the previous two centuries, before becoming part of Italy.

Tavolara is a spectacular spot for diving as, in 1997, the Marine Protected Area of Tavolara was established to preserve the natural wonders of the surrounding seabed. This initiative has seen the implementation of significant measures to protect the area, offering care and protection to the territory in keeping with the idea of a sustainable use in the long run.

During the summer, Tavolara hosts a cinema festival. This is particularly interesting because it’s such an unusual location to watch a movie. An outdoor screen is set up at the Arena Cinema isola di Tavolara for the whole week and films are projected with Tavolara’s rocky peaks towering above.

This year’s festival starts this week, with the first screening on Wednesday (21 July 2010).

On the geographical map of Italy, at the bottom of the peninsula, lies the island of Sicily, which looks like a football being kicked away by the boot of the Italian peninsula. This might be the heartfelt wish of some Italians, mainly because of the island’s historic link with the mafia. I live in a quiet little village of Sant’Ambrogio, just five kilometres from a bustling tourist town. Founder of Sicilian Experience, I’m a firm believer that Sicily can become known as a haven for ecotourism and sustainable tourism opportunities, rather than for its Il Padrino (The Godfather) reputation.

Coastal view of Sant’Ambrogio e Rocca

My love of learning, travelling and discovering has taken me to many far-flung corners of the world. I’ve worked on projects to help build schools for Bedouin children in Egypt, and worked as a sustainable tourism consultant in the Central African country of Gabon. My family moved to Australia when I was seven years old, and all these experiences from my travels stayed with my as I returned to my roots in Sicily.

It was in Sicily, however, that I felt the sense of belonging, and it quickly became my obsession to tell the world about the unpretentious beauty of the land, its culture and its people and the relatively untainted village life. Sicily is a vibrant island surrounded by clear, blue seas and blessed with magnificent mountain scenery, ancient monuments and traditional villages where the local way of life has changed little since centuries ago. It is an island with its own unique character, still relatively untouched by mass tourism and Sant’Ambrogio is a testimonial to all this.

Through my website, SicilianExperience.com, I promote responsible tourism practices that support the local economy. By focusing on uniquely local experiences, I’ve worked to avoid promoting the kind of tourism that would turn Sant’Ambrogio and its surroundings into yet another popular mass tourism destination. Sicilian Experience provides the opportunity for keen travellers to taste the simple life of a Sicilian villager, and to experience the villagers’ day-to-day life first-hand through a ‘full immersion’ tour.

A Sicilian cheese-making demonstration from the Sicilian Experience Track of the Shepherds Walking Tour

I believe that the ability to see the world through the eyes of a local is what travel is all about – otherwise you might just as well sit by the pool in your hotel and read travel brochures.

We don’t simply rent out villas and apartments to travellers. It is my mission in life to promote a personalised type of responsible tourism in this area. One example of the personal touch I’d like to insist on is the bottle of olive oil given to each visitor in the Sicilian Experience accommodation – olive oil made from the olives I picked myself from the trees on my property.

A bottle of complementary wine from the local winery is always on the table waiting for the tired traveller on arrival. Also available to each guest is an extremely detailed (explaining such details as how to get in and out of the barriers of a nearby supermarket!) information book with advice on what to do and where to go on the island, and encouraging them to shop locally and patronise local restaurants thus supporting the local economy. I also encourage travellers to leave their cars behind and put on their walking boots and follow some of my itineraries, trekking in the national parks of the Madonie and Nebrodi mountains.

More importantly, the villagers are involved in developing local projects – organizing the ‘best flowered balcony’ contest, fundraising to install elegant, wooden recycling bins made by the local carpenter, working with the local art school to develop a ‘folkloristic’ mural to paint on an unsightly retaining wall on the outskirts of the village.

Casa Sole & Amore, one of the local accommodations on Sicilian Experience's Sustainable Properties List

The villagers have participated in Sunday morning walks through the woods and fields outside the village and on cultural excursions to different places on the island. There will also be a branch office in the village to be overseen by some of the local people so that they will have a direct say in their own local projects.

My latest idea has been to open up the Museo degli Incontri (meeting place for people to gather and share with each other) where visitors are asked to send something of their own homelands: a postcard, illustrated books or pictures telling stories about their own countries, in order to share with the villagers, most of whom have never been out of their country, ways of life in other parts of the world. This will be a great way for travelers who visit our area and learn about our lives to establish stronger personal connections with the locals by exchanging the sharing experiences.

It is definitely a long-term journey to put Sant’Ambrogio on the world map for responsible tourism, and cultural and social differences can sometimes be obstacles, but I continue to strive to overcome them by promoting the true Sicilian lifestyle.

Sardinia, the Italian island south of Corsica in the Mediterranean Sea, is an adventure traveler’s paradise: rock climbing over turquoise waters, the ancient granite mountain top of Gennargentu covered in snow and mist, well-defined treks across the island and a mysterious prehistoric past defined by 6000-year-old stone temples.

In Sardinia, a three-wheeled vehicle herds sheep into pasture for a daily milking. The shepherds and their sheep produce local milk and cheese for the surrounding area.

I recently returned from a rock climbing trip to the Golfo di Orosei on Sardinia’s eastern coast. I was based out of the small town of Cala Gonone and either walked or drove to world-class limestone sport climbing.

What I saw was both inspiring and perplexing: yet another example of the tension tourism, even in our favorite form – adventure tourism – can introduce in a destination.

Turning More to Tourism

Many travelers know Sardinia for the glitzy and glamorous Costa Smeralda in the north. The economic changes on the coast, however, contrast sharply with the rugged and rural agricultural interior. As the mining industry fails and the population of the country drops, the Sardinians are turning to tourism, increasingly looking to maximize nature and adventure tourism resources as a source of income.

The self-reliant Sardinians have kept a close eye on this progress and tenaciously defended their land against unchecked coastal development.  Although Sardinia and the Costa Smeralda enjoyed a reputation as the destinations for clientele such as Jackie Onassis and a long list of the rich and famous in the 1960s, this exclusive resort has opened up to more than just the super wealthy. Tourists now storm in from all over Europe for the sparkling beaches all over the island. This has brought the Sardinians much-needed economic relief.

Yet when Silvio Berlusconi proposed developing the protected Costa Turchese wetlands, the Sardinians put their collective foot down and, through years of protests and petitions, lobbied to save the fragile area from thousands of new buildings, a golf course and a new marina.

Keeping an Environmental Conscience

The Sardinians are a politically active people. They have been enduring the onslaught of foreign interests since the Phoenicians and the Romans started fighting over the island over 2000 years ago and they held fast in their fight against insensitive and unsustainable development. As a result, in July 2004, the government suspended all development along the coast, then turned this into a law, the Decreto Soru, which prohibited all new buildings within two kilometers of the oceanside. This law was named for the new president of the island, billionaire Renato Soru, who won his election based on a promise to address nagging environmental issues.

Katja Wichland leads a climb on limestone cliffs only a few meters from the oceanside near Cala Gonone, Sardinia

Even the fierce independence of Sardinia has its down side though: the strong regional identity of areas throughout Italy creates division where the country needs unification.

Sardinia is still plagued by environmental problems, including ancient water and sewage lines that cause frightening water shortages in the capitol city of Cagliari and beyond. The charm of the rugged and old-fashioned ways of Sardinia is also being pressed and tested by an influx of tourists who want to see this still-wild side of Italy but with the services of the more modern and connected mainland.

So where is the balance? There is great hope that President Soru will be able to work his coalescent magic and help create a strong, unified Sardinia that honors its cultural and rugged past, retains the integrity of its stunning and untouched landscapes, yet keeps abreast of modern improvements.

But then there’s also the Sardinians’ long memory and the tendency of the arrival of foreigners to signal a negative deal. The locals of the island seems to remain wary of development, yet are obliged to entertain it as a way to survive.

As in many places Xola Consulting works, Sardinia teeters on the edge of economic prosperity. We see a destination in which creativity and cooperation can drive adventure tourism as source of revenue, while preserving an unspoiled landscape, but only if development restraint and strong environmental management is also present.

More About Sardinia

The Italian government recognizes the Sardinians as a people distinct from the rest of the Italians. Closer to North Africa than Italy but just a short flight from Rome, Sardinia has retained its own language, Sardo, that is more closely related to Latin than to Italian. All of the locals speak Sardo as well as Italian.

The food may be unmistakably Italian, with incredible local cheeses and wines, yet the Sardinians have their own unique dishes, including a slow-roasted pork dish called porceddu.

The tourist season stretches from a very quiet beginning of May to an apex in July and August, and peters out in October. Nearly the entire coast shutters its windows for the cool winter months.