After years of "extractive tourism," a new trend is emerging among travelers: a return to vacationing, to nearby destinations, to holidays where time actually slows down. And one truly rests.
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There is a place, near Genoa, designed for vacationing. It is the Pineta di Arenzano, a large coastal area that in 1956 was subjected to a development plan, according to the project that Ignazio Gardella and Marco Zanuso had devised for the clients, the Marchesa Negrotto Cambiaso and her son-in-law, the Marchese Marcello Cattaneo Adorno. It is there that 70 years ago, two of the architects who made history in Italian design imagined, designed, and created the retreat for the summer holidays of the Milanese upper middle class. The same year saw the project that architect Vittorio Giorgini realized in the pine forest of the Gulf of Baratti, in Tuscany: the hexagon house, a fascinating structure made of wood and suspended above the ground, followed a few years later by the Balena (Villa Seldrini), intended for the same purpose.But they are just two dots in a constellation of more or less illustrious projects that have reshaped the coasts and mountain locations of the national territory. This is the focus of the festival Abitare la Vacanza, which this year concentrates on Arenzano and Baratti, but which since 2023 aims to reflect on the cultural value of these realities. Interesting, because it is not just an architectural – urban planning – environmental issue, nor merely a socio-economic one for the country. The emphasis of the title falls precisely on the verb “to inhabit”: applied to the idea of vacation, it precisely defines a philosophy, that of vacationing. It involves moving a short distance from where one lives to reach a location chosen for its pleasantness and comfort, where one can spend the entire (mainly summer) period of rest from work. That is, the opposite of the idea that has prevailed in the last decade (at least) of “bite and run” tourism, based on checklists (compiled to ensure everything is seen) in places that are as exotic as they are distant, as if the possibility of reaching the coveted dimension that allows one to “unplug” from daily routine depended mainly on these factors.
Current discourse refers to hypermobile tourism to indicate the trend of constantly moving, in short times and to multiple destinations, in a sort of permanent itinerancy, and now also of extractive tourism, made up of travelers who “extract” symbolic value from the destination, mainly in the form of photos, experiences, and status: being there (having been there) is the central element to share during and after the trip. Social media indeed overflow with photos of magnificent places, local delicacies, and unmissable views. Certainly, they have the undeniable merit of sparing friends from enduring the evening slide show of vacations as was done in the last century, and they guarantee travelers to provide everyone with proof of their “having been there,” in the “right” place. However. There is a however, which is becoming increasingly disruptive in everyone’s perception: the possibility of building relationships with the explored territories is lacking. This is the characteristic that is highlighted today when discussing “extractive” tourism, perhaps the most accurate term to express the opposite of vacationing.The expression was coined by Vijay Kolinjivadi, an associate professor at Concordia University in Montreal, who in 2021 used it to indicate the ability to identify a place as a resource of tourist value and maximize its economic, symbolic, and infrastructural extraction. Unlike the economic models that dealt with extractive industry in the past, here raw materials are not extracted, but the most appealing elements of the territory such as landscape, culture, cuisine, even its authenticity and the ability not to disappoint a certain imaginary. These are the goods to be consumed and, according to the Canadian professor, these would be the underlying mechanisms of the overtourism phenomenon that is so often discussed. That is, overcrowding would be the consequence of the exploitation of the territory that reorganizes itself to the measure of the tourist and not the resident (who in the worst case ends up being expelled), transforming authenticity into experience (and souvenirs to pack), local traditions into a spectacle, and its natural and architectural beauties into economic rent. Little remains of the journey as a human experience. Relationships, in fact, no longer have citizenship, due to too much haste, too much “completist” tension (there’s the checklist to tick off, let’s not forget!), lack of authenticity (the real one), and opportunities for meeting and exchange. That is, everything that vacationing provided: the long stays in slow, small, decentralized places allowed for at least a bit of understanding through the inhabitants and other vacationers. The holiday community became a small relational universe.Franco La Cecla, who has long been engaged in investigating the geographies of everyday experience, speaks of a re-learning of places, which should not be consumed but rather “learned”. Along this line of thought, small festivals in villages are born or consolidated over time, increasingly widespread and animated throughout the peninsula, but also beyond national borders. They offer playful discovery systems, based on special entertainment that creates belonging. Some call it augmented sociality, to indicate the need among adults to share concrete experiences with others, those that involve physical closeness, shoulder to shoulder, perhaps even a bit rough, sweaty even. Then the experience is “augmented” by the fact of living it and sharing it with those present. Passion for what one is doing is the guiding thread that unites the participants in the festival, whether it is musical, artistic, creative, literary, or meditative.
The examples are truly numerous, from events that bring contemporary art to smaller centers (like the now well-established Una Boccata d’Arte that selects 20 artists for 20 smaller villages along the peninsula as venues for artistic residencies and then open-air museums) to small gems of electronic music, from mountain proposals that combine walking with classical music and literature to those with an environmental theme. The duration is also variable. Selvatica – Art and Nature in Festival, which has made the ancient village of Biella, particularly the Piazzo, a center for reflection on art, nature, and territory, has a particularly extended duration: it starts on April 25 and ends on July 19. Light years away from any extractive temptation, it is a hymn to slowness, to discover the rhythm of a place beloved by its inhabitants, among exhibitions and other events. Resonance, as theorized by sociologist Hartmut Rosa, comes to life. If the German scholar’s research aims to overcome the alienation of contemporary social man and resonance represents a relationship between the individual and the world that involves a mutual transformation based on dialogue, marking the difference with the opposite “zones of mutism,” the Piazzo of Biella could be a suitable place to experiment with them. Even if music is certainly the privileged channel for establishing harmonies. Continuous and constant harmony is not required in the concept of resonance, but certainly, for a situation capable of breaking the silence, it is necessary. And that of music could encourage virtuous encounters in equally special places. Like the Sajeta Festival, small, brief, but now a consolidated appointment with musical experimentation in Slovenia. It was indeed born in 1989 with the intention of promoting the meeting between different artistic practices and experiences that have music as a central element. No labels, no genres, no borders: at Sajeta, one can experiment with anything that has a sound dimension. Electronic, jazz, rock, ethnic music, classical, take the stage in Slovenian venues as long as they focus on experimentation and creativity. Moreover, cinema, multimedia, poetry, sculpture, performance, dance, and graphics animate the festival neighborhoods of Tolmin, the small Slovenian art town, with a slow and relaxed rhythm that hosts, between the river and the woods, Sajeta. This year the event is scheduled between July 16 and 18 for its 27th edition. The program is on the website, but it is just one example of the rich summer festival scene, tailored for those who reduce distances, perhaps not intending to leave Italy or even their own region. The need for proximity – local and human – will be easily satisfied. Because to activate the “vacation” mode, it will be enough to inhabit it.
This is demonstrated by research from World Weather Attribution, which analyzed climate data from 854 cities in 30 European countries.
