ALBA - Supercolor and modern on the outside but with an ancient heart.
The Barolo Chapel, built in the Langhe at the beginning of the century as a shelter for vineyard workers to escape the elements and then renovated in the late 90s by the contemporary art of Sol LeWitt and David Tremlett, is the symbol of wine tourism, a modern need for slow travel that has its roots in the most millennial past there is.
Wine tourism which was at the center of the VI world conference organized by the UNWTO, a UN agency, and by the Italian tourism ministry and which for three days made Alba, a universally known homeland for white truffles, also an international capital of wine.
These three dense days of exchanges, proposals and initiatives ended with a strong appeal by the governor of Piedmont Alberto Cirio to ask the many ministers present and the governments to defend wine which "is the culture, history and identity of our country and not comparable to alcohol. ".
The governor refers in particular to a WHO document which, if adopted, would provide for a 10% decrease in alcohol consumption, without any distinction between spirits, beer and of course wine.
Tourism Minister Massimo Garavaglia totally agrees: "After the pandemic, we had an explosive growth of tourists in the first part of the year but now we are struggling with bills and expensive energy.
And, given the difficult situation that promises to be, I totally agree with President Cirio not to further complicate the situation with crazy ideas like this one to standardize alcohol with wine, which is really nonsense.
Behind a bottle of wine there are centuries of tradition, culture and industrious human ingenuity. "
How fascinating, complex and millenary the history of wine is is also remembered by the Minister of Moldova Sergio Prodan:" Moldova has been producing wine for 5,000 years, I think only Georgia surpasses us.
We have the world's largest collection of bottles: 10 million in 120 km of underground tunnels.
Wine production is a cultural act! ".
In Alba the managing director of Enit Roberta Garibaldi then presented the tourism agency's campaign focused on food and wine: "We play in an ironic way on the Italian way of life and propose the great chef Massimo Bottura as a national monument, he will be the protagonist as ambassador. The key to the future is to focus on gastronomic hubs and wonderful places such as urban vineyards ".
The Italian minister is then the protagonist of a round table with his counterparts from Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldavia, Portugal, San Marino and Serbia.
"In Italy, the large numbers of tourism - he explains - are made by the beaches and skiing in the mountains.
So why invest in wine tourism?
To connect with other sites and ultimately because tourism has changed.
The new generations want something different, they want environmentally friendly tourism that allows them to understand how to live in a country.
90% of tourists in Italy - he concludes - have a food and wine experience and the offer must be of quality ". Conquer the audience by unleashing smiles and applause, the Minister of Tourism of San Marino Federico Pedini Amati:" Yesterday while I was having lunch and drinking Barolo with my colleagues in one of these magnificent wineries I had the courage to let everyone taste San Marino wine.
After all, try to produce 620,000 bottles in 36 square kilometers ... ".
In closing, the general secretary of the Union, the Georgian Zurab Pololikashvili, thanks the city of Alba to which he wants to award a recognition of his organization (as a leading destination for food and wine tourism and not only) and presents the seventh world conference, which will be held in 2023 in La Rioja: "Spain has become my second homeland - he says closing the sixth edition - and I am proud of this symbolic passage of the amphora from Italy to Spain".
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