Talking about food and wine tourism means recognising the primary role played in Italy by the many agri-food and wine excellences that express the country’s biodiversity and are deeply connected to the know-how of the communities in which they originate.
Food and wine can therefore become, and in many cases have already become, powerful strategic levers for the integrated development of production areas, which almost always coincide with rural territories. They also work as catalysts for the valorisation of the broader agricultural, landscape and cultural heritage.
This development model finds one of its clearest expressions in the system of Geographical Indications, where Italy holds a world-leading position with 860 recognised PDO and PGI products, around 60% of them wines. Because these productions cannot be delocalised, they certify the direct connection between product quality and territory of origin, offering travellers an authentic link between products, places and experience.
Authenticity and rural territories
This search for authenticity finds an ideal response precisely in more remote territories, often characterised by extensive and multifunctional agriculture, strong traditions and landscapes untouched by mass tourism. In these places, local food and wine excellences are almost always accompanied by a deeply experiential dimension, supported by cultural, environmental and landscape attractions such as national and regional parks, natural reserves, FAI sites and UNESCO sites.
The current Common Agricultural Policy dedicates a specific objective to the vitality of rural areas, aiming to promote growth, development and resilience, including through support for youth and female employment. Within rural development policy, the most rural territories can generally benefit from stronger investment aid and higher incentives for young farmers, alongside interventions such as LEADER strategies, support for mountain areas and investment measures for multifunctional diversification like agritourism, educational farms and social farming.
These measures are mainly designed to guarantee the economic sustainability of agriculture through diversification of income sources, but they also contribute to strengthening human and territorial capital.
The role of inland areas
The territories that may benefit most from these policies are Italy’s inland areas, which cover around sixty per cent of the national territory and are supported through a dedicated national strategy. These areas have often experienced long-term marginalisation and deep economic, social and territorial inequalities linked above all to distance from essential services.
Even while recognising that the revival of inland areas requires a complex and integrated institutional effort at both central and local level, it is worth noting that many of these territories contain excellent potential in terms of agricultural biodiversity, traditional knowledge and historical-cultural heritage. These are conditions that make it plausible to imagine a reversal of decline beginning precisely from the relaunch of agriculture and tourism.
If we focus only on the most marginal inland municipalities, classified as peripheral or ultra-peripheral, around 90% of them are also classified as rural. Revitalising agricultural places through tourism, if supported by broader systemic actions, can therefore become a decisive factor in countering depopulation and generating new work opportunities, especially for young people.
Food and wine tourism can help transform distance from urban centres into a factor of value, guaranteeing residents the right to remain and enabling agricultural entrepreneurs to continue acting as custodians of territories and local identity.
Many destinations have already understood this and turned food and wine tourism into a powerful marketing lever capable of supporting both productive systems and high-quality tourism offers. Yet large portions of the national territory still have not completed this transition, and in those places the potential remains largely unrealised.
Where that is the case, change can begin through a cultural shift in how territories see themselves, provided that it is managed through intersectoral cooperation and a sustainability-oriented vision. In that way, rural richness can become a competitive factor while simultaneously supporting agriculture, preserving landscapes and strengthening local communities.
Contribution adapted from the 2025 Italian Food & Wine Tourism Report.
