Food and wine tourism and urban local development

Food and wine tourism in Italy is characterized by the reference to natural foods and to the history of the cities. For most of the foods the bond with the territories and especially with the cities was and is crucial. Always food, typically produced in a family business, have the same name of the cities, as if the city was the real corporate brand of taste. This city brand is often copied in many countries of the world to product industrial supplies that have a wide commercial distribution. These products are impossible to reproduce. They are the result of the combination of local products, craft skills, bonds with legendary or real historical events. The reflection on the food and wine tourism and urban development, comes from these assumptions. With a socio-anthropological approach, some methods and qualitative techniques were used, as the historical comparative method, document analysis and participant observation. These methods were applied to investigate three different Italian towns that gave the name to three foods: Marino, with the wine festival, Fabriano with its production of salami and Ascoli Piceno with the production of the Ascoli olive. The Marino Grape Festival is based on legendary events, on the presence of ancient vineyards, on the representation in the style of 1500s square machines. In Fabriano is produced a famous salami dates back to medieval times, reproduced in paintings and frescoes and handed down to us with a disciplinary unchanged. Ascoli Piceno has given its name to a prized food preparation called Oliva Ascolana. Marino has thousands of visitors every year to drink and buy wine and to participate in the grape and wine festivals. Fabriano has a tourism that seeks the history, architecture, art and the taste of his salami. The Ascoli olive stuffed with meat and spices is great tourist vehicle to Ascoli Piceno.