Every journey you experience it three times: when you dream it, when you live it, and when you remember it
(Anonymous)
In recent years in southern Italy there has been a countercultural trend by some young people who have decided to inherit their grandparents’ fields and pursue careers as agricultural entrepreneurs by cultivating them as they once did.
This is an undoubted trend, marking a return to the land not seen since the industrial revolution. Cultivating the land, is no longer just seen as a “last resort,” nor considered by those with low schooling, but now represents the future of new generations, who in addition to having a college degree, are also driven by the desire to do and change things.
Thanks to manual labor and handicrafts, many young people have found a way out of our country’s labor crisis and secured a future for themselves, thus combining the useful with the enjoyable. In addition, the interest in the environment and ecology allowed them to test their skills and inventiveness by trying to find environmentally friendly and innovative solutions. In fact, young entrepreneurs have not only been involved in cultivating the land, but also in the direct sale of products, the creation of educational farms or kindergartens surrounded by nature.
Last but not least, experiential tourism is also gaining momentum. As the concept of travel and tourism has in fact changed, in recent years we see more and more tourists looking for unique and unrepeatable experiences within their itinerary that will make their stay original and non-standardized.
Thus numerous farms, throughout Italy, now offer a wide range of experiences to be enjoyed and personalized; such as: participating in the grape harvest, olive picking or cheese making.
It is no longer only the destination that matters but also the emotion that the traveler is able to experience and thus cherish forever.
