The Relational Nature of Cultural Heritage. Cultural Routes and Territorial Identity

The cultural character, linked to the idea of movement along a specific area, integrates perfectly with the patrimonial and specifically cultural meaning that today refers to the concept of landscape and territory. In fact, from an anthropic point of view, it becomes a cultural asset in all respects, and within it contains the plurality of expressions and manifestations that make up the cultural heritage of a territory, the heritage. The itinerary, in fact, regardless of its cultural matrix, takes place within a landscape, and of a route that branches off within it, and along which a movement takes place, which allows you to touch different points of a territory, not necessarily geometrically linear, but distributed and connected over it, based on multiple cultural assumptions and motivations. The itinerary is cultural in the sense that it is an expression of the heritage that lives and manifests itself in the branching of its routes. The paper deals with the theme of cultural itineraries, focusing above all on the double value attributed to them: tools for enhancing cultural heritage and cultural tourism products; this value has a fundamental role, not only in the promotion of cultural heritage, but also has direct implications in the diffusion of values, strategies and intentions, aimed at a development that is cultural, but also economic and social. The cultural itinerary, which is mainly associated with a function of valorisation and promotion of cultural heritage, in this new meaning of cultural tourism, linked to creativity and experiential fruition, offers concrete possibilities to develop as a container of experiments, products and creative experiences.