Gazes on Levanto: a Case Study on How Local Identity Could Become Part of the Touristic Supply - Tourism and Visual Culture: Theories and Concepts - page 119

Fig. 9.1. A beach 'arch'.

Identity 3

Foerster (1984) - are not banal machines but
unforeseeable (Mazzoli, 2001) and unpredictable.
Using the auto-descriptions made by
Levanto's inhabitants, how could we under-
stand the level of commitment to the tourism
policy of their territory?
As we said, qualitative methodology, based
on the use of images as photoelicitation for the
emerging themes and in interviews, takes side
with subjects observed and their refl exive capa-
bility: the communicative life-experience spreads
out thanks to what interviewees wanted to say
about themselves, about the others and about
their ideas and opinions.
That is why the analysis of the life-experience
of the territory and its economic and tourist
aspects starts only from the idea of identity.
Interviewees understood the researchers'
input, stepping into the tourists' shoes, or rather
playing the role of the domestic tourist, the one
able to watch with ever-fresh eyes a well-known
place, as if it were 'elsewhere'.

The fi rst area coming out is the one describing
Levanto as a place connected with identity, hav-
ing an ancient and proud history to which all the
citizens interviewed, without gender and age dis-
tinctions, feel they belonged. The sense of belong-
ing to this land is shared also with those who have
settled in Levanto, choosing it for its quality of life.
The morphological quality of the territory, the
mild weather, the openness to the sea, the strength
of the mountains and the richness of the country-
side make nature the Great Mother, to whom
everybody is bound. But also the town with its
lanes, the streets, the monuments and nearby
hamlets form Levanto's cultural heritage that has
to be watched over and saved, a heritage to be
handed on: so fi rst of all identity forms the mem-
ory of the natives (Herbert, 1995).
But those are also elements that can be
considered particularly with the slow Levanto's
character, which can be recognized as a specifi c

3 This area is visualized by Figs 9.1-9.4.