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 125

Fig. 9.10. A vision.

The touristic dimension 6 policy of tourist development continues to be

problematic. But toughness, a characteristic
recognized to be part of their character by
Levanto's inhabitants, can be melted by those
who show a sincere interest towards this land
that, with its inhabitants, knows how to be very
generous.
That is why also this peculiar character can
be interpreted as a resource, as a possibility, for
the modern tourist, to satisfy that authenticity
demand that nowadays seems to fi ll the col-
umns of the promotional brochures.
The concrete and clear admission of the
importance of tourism, the most important
income of the territory, promotes a sense of
welcoming, also testing it. The visitor is required
to understand that the self-restraint, shown by
Levanto's inhabitants, is the typical style of tour-
istic communication qualifying Levanto, playing
with a relation of mutual faith built across time
and that can be seen as a richness (i.e. an aspect
of authenticity), because Levanto's inhabitants
do not want to show themselves as different
from what they really are.

According to the fi rst two thematic areas, inter-
viewees applied the tourist gaze fi rst to the 'thing
that has to be seen' (Burgelin, 1967) - for Levanto,
that means to recognize its beauties, but not only
this. Levanto offers experiences - the ones that let
it enter in the CittàSlow organization - things to
be done, to be guided through by a special guide,
which could be a Levanto inhabitant himself.
This can be a clear example of the crossing
from imagery regarding travel that can be
described as a representation - i.e. linking an
image of a given reality with its authenticity, that
in Levanto is represented mostly by its visual
quality of the territory - to transfer into the logic
of performing imagery (Gemini, 2008). This
one has to be seen as the whole collective rep-
resentation that gives value to experience, and
that doing so becomes the privileged object of
the territorial communication.
The series of events linked with the effort
of exploiting Levanto's inland, such as for
example the one called Mangialunga, 7 are

6 Area visualized by Figs 9.10-9.13.
7 Mangialunga, that can be unworthily translated as “eating along”, is a trekking path between villages settled
in Levanto's inland; each village offers a typical dish so that one can walk on the hillside paths connecting
different villages and have different and various moments of restoration.