What it’s about
Since June, in Val Saviore – a mountain area of Val Camonica in Lombardy, between the municipalities of Cevo and Saviore dell’Adamello (province of Brescia) – a new place-based regeneration project has begun, with Sineglossa among the partners. The project, “New Community Itineraries for Valsaviore”, is led by OXA (Base Milano) in collaboration with Avanzi Discover, Casa del Parco Adamello, and Meraki, with the support of the municipalities of Cevo and Saviore, as part of the Montagne in Transizione call promoted by Fondazione Cariplo.
The project is inspired by the Nonturismo methodology for “writing places”, originally developed by Sineglossa. Nonturismo projects combine storytelling workshops and community editorial boards to create shared narratives that capture the spirit of place and go beyond extractive tourism, focusing instead on encounter and care. Usually, these processes result in “non-touristic guides” – such as those already published in the Nonturismo book series by Ediciclo. In Valsaviore, however, the outcome will not be a guidebook but community itineraries designed by those who live in, cross, and care for the valley.
What we’ll do in Val Saviore
Together with Casa del Parco Adamello, Tommaso Sorichetti – who at Sineglossa facilitates community processes – has designed a program of gatherings, taking place between July and October, to engage permanent residents, returning inhabitants, and newcomers in four collective imagination workshops.
The program was first presented on June 2nd during the inaugural edition of Corpo Montagna, a festival dedicated to collective outdoor practices that reimagine the mountain as a space of relationship, experimentation, and transformation, organized by Avanzi and Casa del Parco Adamello.
Across the four workshops – mapping, visioning, creating, and writing – participants will be invited to look at the Valsaviore territory, its unique features, and specific identities, and from there co-create a shared narrative that conveys its deepest spirit.
Mapping: July 16, 6:00–9:00 pm @ Casa del Parco Adamello, Cevo (Via Roma, snc)
Research: July 27, 3:00–6:00 pm
Visioning: September 14, 3:00–6:00 pm, venue TBC
Writing: October 5, 3:00–6:00 pm, and October 6, 10:00 am–1:00 pm, venue TBC
The goal is to build a community of desire: a local alliance capable of imagining and narrating, collectively, the valley we want. Concretely, the process will lead to the mapping and testing of three itineraries and three experiential activities, later made accessible through dedicated information materials, both in print and digital format.
The methodology
How do you design a community process to create non-touristic itineraries in a mountain valley? Much like the community editorial boards behind the Nonturismo guides, the Val Saviore workshops are grounded in listening and symbolic activation. They start from imaginative questions, such as: “How would you draw the valley if it were a living being?” From there, participants become temporary custodians of the places, collecting stories, observations, and connections.
The value of this methodology is twofold: on one hand, it builds lasting local alliances; on the other, it provides replicable tools to design new futures for fragile territories.
