Underground Heritage Valorization of Camerano’s Caves in Center Italy: A Case of Transition Toward Projects Integrating the Local Community and Landscape

The village of Camerano (Central Italy) is a local heritage and a landmark for its network of connected built underground spaces. This Underground Built Heritage represents an economic leverage for cultural tourism and an occasion to preserve local identity. The self-initiative of the local community, and the determination and far-sightedness of the local authority, allowed to differentiate the local tourism offer leading to success in terms of tourism attractiveness, with more than 25,000 visitors per year. With the occasion of an ongoing EU project (Cost action CA18110) involving a research unit of the Marche Polytechnic University, a collaborative network is being set up, involving actors from the whole territory. Special attention is being given to the digital dimension of Cultural Heritage, an asset for the next decade. Nonetheless, the idea of a cyberization of the thematic tours of Camerano’s Cave sounds attractive if considering, especially, that direct access to the cavities is not always possible given the intrinsic vulnerability of caves.