The "Widespread Hotel" : a solution for the recovery of minor historical centers

by Architect Angelo SANGIOVANNI
 translation by Dr Marianna ADDESSO

Newton's first law, also called "law of inertia" stases that a body will continue in its state of rest or uniform motion unless an external  force intervenes to change that state. This external force, on Sunday, November 23, 1980, at 19:34, was an earthquake of magnitude 6.9 on the Richter scale which intervened to change both the rest of the life of urban residents belonging to the territory that extends from Irpinia to Vulture, placed between the provinces of Avellino, Salerno and Potenza and the uniform rectilinear motion of their economy, mainly based on agriculture and pastoralism. I think that what was lost in those few minutes, and in the following years, is priceless and I do not think it just because I am "an insider." I'm afraid that the laudable, but belated endeavor to think about legislation and strategies to prevent the abandonment of the historic centers of the municipalities in Campania is not enought. Otherwise I think that , in a more realistic way, in order to fix the mistakes made, and to overcome the disinterest of the fate of our town centers and their relentless and progressive deterioration, initiatives needed to bring back people to their internal. Not deport them, pay attention, having brainwaves and building tenements in the old centers without first having made them livable, but entice them to come back with equally strong and attractive actions of those used to force them to abandon such as living adjustment as a function of the household. To really get a result in the work of restoration of historical centers, value and dignity must be recognized to the vernacular buildings (houses, for instance), so as to be able to support the recovery of the entire core and not only of the historical architecture (buildings, monasteries, castles, and so on). In second instance, indeed, choices will work according to the existence or not of such architectural emergencies that need to be seen as an added value and not as a single value. This way of thinking, in my opinion, has determinated the irretrievable, at time, loss of a large part of what is now, in hindsight, aims to revive. What follows, more than an historical or worse: a "J'accuse" to the politicians of that period, is an act of love to the relic of our past and an attempt to awaken  interest in these places  in the minds of young people, places which are the places of our history and of our memory and because, as rightly said C. N. Shulze: "Only when we understand our place we will be able to participate creatively to their history". Whta follows is also an invitation to the politicians of today to look at the past mistakes to avoid committing them again and , otherwise, for working seriously to recover the recoverable, before it all goes and be hopelessly lost like tears in rain. These are also the reasons why I wanted to make the recovery of historic centers, the topic of my thesis to the course on "The protection and enhancement of Cultural Heritage and Environment", in the firm conviction that people without a past have no future.

From Cosmos to Chaos: the loss of the identity

                                                    
 "when you get there, there is no more a there, there. "

The ancient Romans believed in the existence of supernatural entity called Genius Loci and it was, according to their beliefs, linked to the places inhabited and frequented by man. The genius loci was then, the patron deity of a particular place and at the same time that of all those who lived or were even just passing through and for this reason it would be found wherever they perceive the presence of a superior entity that protect. 

C.N. Schulz was the first to talk about Genius Loci in Architecture, alluding to the specific character of a place rather than another, that set of characteristics of a specific environment that interact with the man who lives and influences in his way to live it. Architecture, as an act of man in shaping the environment transforms a territory in a place, must operate in its utmost respect, integrating well with the place itself (2) was intended by us as invariants architectural models of the Vallo di Diano and the neighboring towns of Lucania. This was made impossible by the Special Law 219/1981 which triggered a perverse mechanism to reward the demolition and rebuilding from scratch, so going to the expense of possible and desirable intervention on the existing housing stock. Citizens choosing to demolish and rebuild elsewhere, so as to be able to enjoy the benefits of living under the so-called adjustment depending on the family, which included the possibility of more floor space, gave rise to a progressive and inexorable abandonment of historic centers. Another major decision about the smaller towns was taken  with the Law 187/1982, which took away any chance for the Superintendence of safeguarding the assets of smaller privat considering it, too easily, manageable from any person and,at the same time, was given to the local administrators the power to cause more damage to what had survived the earthquake. Shortsighted administrations either by choice or because culturally unprepared, in fact, and unable to grasp the complex value of pre-existing and stratification, further damaged the fabric of many historic centers through demolitions often indiscriminate and perhaps not always dictated by necessity. Solemn spaces,created ad hoc, were essential to leave their mark on the land (3). In Atena Lucana, as well as elsewhere, the directors but also a large part of the population thought that in the end there was nothing that had real value, nothing that is truly "art" and worth saving. "Nothing to invest time and money" ignoring the fact that a community that denies or forgets its past has no future and that tradition is something that goes beyond the aesthetic end in itself: a way of thinking son of our disposable culture, influenced heavily by the fads of the moment and therefore ephemeral. The tradition is however, stratification, persistence and enduring reality that derive from a complex relationship between people and things,  from relationships that develop thanks to the creation of spaces for its size, expanded when needed and as required, never artificially dilated up to dangerously lose control. The tradition was born and has been handed down in places that encourage aggregation and where easily interwoven ties archaic born feelings, emotions, knowledge and solidarity among the different generations. In Athena Lucana as elsewhere, this and much more was forgotten in those years. This and much more was lost with the de-recognition of a historical and architectural heritage of great environmental value and that with his absence, now more then makes us feel a strong feeling that "when you get there, there is no more there, there" (4). After the earthquake of 1980, in fact, Atena Lucana, as for many of the smaller towns affected by the event, began the process that would lead inexorably to its loss of identity.

An announced danger, however, at least for me, since the beginning of 1983, when ingenuous attempt to salvage, I involvedwho was then my professor of Environmental Design and my fellow student at the Faculty of Architecture in Florence in a study aimed to the identification and recovery of the archetype (5) was intended by us as invariants architectural models of the Vallo di Diano and the neighboring towns of Lucania. I tried the identification and recovery of those basic elements that persist throughout the centuries and that interact with the way of life and traditions, but at the same time in order to survive in new contexts, require new interpretations to be passed. At the end of the research, lasted almost two years, what was immediately clear was that the unified framework of real needs and design appropriate responses emerged from the study of the patterns of the past, it was suddenly and dangerously lost and no one was able to understand that what architecture differs from the other arts, is that the architectural structures have a specific use and for this reason, unlike works from artistic expressions that arise for the sole purpose contemplative or decorative, the implementation of an architecture is always and however determined by the need to satisfy a requirement. The architecture, you should not ever forget it, it is an outlet for directors, designers and clients with delusions of grandeur, but it is a consistent technical response to the real needs of man, for housing. After the earthquake of November 1980, it comes a climate in which the most were convinced that the past had to be scrapped and so they rid it as you get rid of an old junk piled up in the attic worthless, sure to have thrown a useless ballast that would have slowed the race for the future. The lack of any connection to the past and therefore the impossibilirty to do this the bridge between this and the future, as well as an idea of urban uniform, was behind the creation of a series of "non-places" (6)

A place is an asset and as such should be used, because like anything else that is not used sooner or later dies and a place dies because it loses its enjoyment, whatever it is, and the life in which it takes place dies too, because is its use to ensure the ongoing maintenance and preservation. The street life, the one lived in the square on the benches rather with the chair on the sidewalk or on the steps of an entrance of a house or a church, however, the one that allowing close contact with the passer-man, that so lively and active in my childhood memories, in Atena Lucana as elsewhere, has now lost almost everything and this because even before we lost the places of these events. Even before we lost the value they had these places and some more than others, because it could stimulate a pattern of life that has been passed down for centuries, which was based mainly on the reports and that prevented the alienation of the individual. 

 

Increasingly, therefore, the cosmos, that is the order that meets the intent and hosting harmony has gradually given way to chaos, to the sense of abandonment and disorder witnessed by the presence of weeds in the alleys, from the wreckage corroded and waste disposed of in the ruins of the abandoned houses. First the earthquake, then men's choices, condemning the alley to the degradation of childhood, breaking down the house, clearing the landmarks and places of social life, without being able at the same time to create other equally valid, even on a symbolic level, they have broken the circle that each community represents and transmits, as the clear sense of belonging to a group with the same history, traditions and cultural heritage. They have convinced us that there was really only one possible future and that this was given by the reconstruction elsewhere and that this altar was worth sacrificing everything else. 

Under the pressure of unexpected and uncontrolled a new building from the architectural composition varied and unlikely mimicking indiscriminately models from other contexts, plagiarized or stolen from magazines with pictures of resorts in other latitudes, new settlements sprang up, now more than then, like sad suburbs. "(7)

These diverse assemblages of forms without substance, yet unable to embody the combination of real need, cultural model and design interpretation with no connection to the environment that hosts them, most of the time to be allowed, were passed off as manufacturing plants, because at Atena Lucana, as elsewhere, this was the only trick possible to build, in the odor of an amnesty announced Building and in the objective inability to wait for it to conclude the process and not the end of a controversial General Plan, which was approved later in 2007. 

It should be stressed that the Law n ° 47 of 28/02/1985, which arose primarily as a provisional framework law on urban planning / construction, building amnesty admitted to all the abuses carried out in Italy until 1/10 / 1983. According to data CRESME, the effect-announcement of the first amnesty resulted in the emergence, in only two years, 1983/84, 230,000 artifacts abusive, out of a total of 970,000 produced between 1982 and 1997 as a whole. (8)

After 30 years of the event, the result of those choices reckless, endorsed by laws / care that over time have proven more lethal harm / event, new settlements, especially those valleys and denounce their they grow without a rule planning. In spite of the attempts that you will want to make it through work so little impact, as late, these amorphous and chaotic urban agglomerations are doomed to preserve the character of neighborhoods of "centers without centrality", together with the satellites of places that have lost their economic also their identity and attachment of most of their inhabitants. 

Especially the younger ones, who were born in the era of the PC and the TV with the remote control and can not conceive of a house without a decent connection to the internet or without a convenient way to get there, also under the weather or without garage a reasonable distance, and comfortable homes away from the danger posed by the possible collapse of the many empty houses from crumbling too and therefore as victims of environmental degradation have persisted for decades.

Looking at these new settlements valley, these "entity without identity" (9) who have had easy game against the increasingly scarce resources to invest in the restoration of existing buildings perched on top, almost in an attempt to anachronistic and useless defense against the "new" that progresses, more and more you feel that sense of physical and psychological loss that only something he knows of unfinished can give. 

The same fate has united many small towns in central and southern Italy, especially those in the areas affected by the earthquake of November 80 that settlements with economies were based on agriculture and pastoralism, as rightly pointed out in his Francesco Arminio "I am a paesologo "have passed from the pre industrial to post-industrial, without enjoying any benefits from an era of half ever lived.

In summary, we could say that what they did the barbarians (as a seismic event), the Barberini did.

Ambiens and Topos: in the past, our future

                                                                "Only when we understand our places we will be able to participate creatively their history. "C. N. Schulz  

Many people tend to indicate in a general way, with the word "environment", everything that surrounds us, but making more or less consciously reference only purely natural aspect and forgetting that it is impossible to talk about the environment at the same time without making reference to 'human being and the influence it exerts on every area of the planet, directly or indirectly, already with just his presence. 

The term "environment" is derived from the Latin ambiens, entis-, present participle of the verb "to aspire", which means "to go around, surround". The environment is therefore something dynamic, even if the term has lost the connotation over time, to the benefit of an anthropocentric view that.

I find deforming, because it puts the man in view of the non-integral component of the biosphere but rather to external who has been granted the right to shape and manage everything for his own use and consumption.

The environment is something that goes beyond the coexistence of nature and culture, wilderness and man-made space, is a place of mutations and processes that move in a common context and thus can not help but influence each other. Take, for example, an element very dear to me: the square.

As I have written elsewhere: "The Square is an urban void, a break in the condensation of the town, which at the same time, however, belongs to the fronts of the buildings that separates itself. E ', together, a" fact "architecture and urban planning, because goes beyond the bond that creates itself as it is also a "fact" anthropology. [...] the square is the place dedicated to the theatrical performance of any act or action that uses as its backdrop [...]. When this is not is the square ceases to be the pause before described, and that is fundamental presence of urban, scene of the biggest events of the social life of the community, the phenomenon of Genius Loci, being reduced to [...] futility set between the vacuum and the fifth nothing without force or non-existent "(10). 

The environment in general and the city in particular, given the intimate and continuous interaction between natural and human components, which are a set of interaction in which every action of one necessarily implies a response of the other, thus triggering a process feedbak of which will be determined on the basis of other choices and their new behaviors. The lack of interest in the aftermath of disasters "and the lack of care for all that the past is" just old "and not a" work of art ", contribute to increase the likelihood that many of these assets should be irretrievably lost. Believe that it is the responsibility of the architect also, within the limits of its possibilities, work to ensure this does not happen, searching and finding renewed interest in the study and the recovery even less known fact "(11). 

The historical centers, as already mentioned, is an architectural, historical and urban intimately and inextricably blends with the natural and scenic values of the territories to which they belong as the result of a long evolutionary process of organisms urban character with color, material and construction complainants a clear unity of purpose (12).

Intervene without the same consistency of a stratified reality over the centuries, is to separate what so traumatic that time and events had combined: man and space, culture and man, man and community man and beauty at a glance: the 'man and his environment. 

In the light of all the foregoing facts, it is clear that the enhancement of Historic Places is a fundamental aspect of recovery is not only in cultural objective pursued by the recovery of those places in which personifies the memory and thus the identity of a community but also socially and economically, precisely because of the potential that can attract investment and varied.

I fantasized at the end of the 90s, with the current Deputy Mayor, Pasquale Iuzzolino, giving a result of my research work and environmental design completed in 1984,  (13) on the possibility of a systematic recovery of the center of Atena. It was the day after the boom of the timeshare, and one thing it became clear: beyond building interventions questionable anarchy of materials and colors used in the new building as well as the renovation of the historic and sad approval interventions restructuring, the inhabitants of the old center, the reconstruction did not obtain any real advantage. After 15 years of the event, nothing was thought or done in a meaningful way and organic to improve the standard of living of the people and halt the understandable exodus . We noticed, for example, the absence of points of convenient access to the various rings, useful to everyone, but designed primarily thinking of the elderly, given that accounted for the vast majority of those most reluctant or unable more, for sentimental reasons and economic, to leave the old house. We also observed that not only were missing, as still missing, covered parking or stopping places organized and in sufficient number for the residents but also lacked a plan under which dislocarli strategically in the vicinity of these access points.

I explained to the Deputy Lerida's Plan, which had come to their knowledge through the publication of a few years earlier. (14)

My idea was to connect in the same way as the lowest ring, the only driveway with the ability to accommodate parking, with two others, and to do so without making any violence at the site, taking advantage of its residential buildings with type in the tower part of the country that faces north, that is, the valley of Serra dell'Arenaccia and Serra of Atena. My solution, in detail, provided the emptying of these parallelepipeds through the removal of the floors, the walls of the device consolidation and integration at the center of an elevator, can also be used as a lift for the disabled and staircases metal that revolved around and landed at the two highest levels, where appropriate, through the use of walkways. The sufficient area of these buildings tower would have paid without any difficulty to this new feature, not to mention that at that time, the use of trucks would make it much easier to transport materials for the "reconstruction" at the highest levels and would have avoided at least in part the havoc that is made of the original pavement, covered in several places with the cement, to allow the passage of the mechanical means. My idea of giving a new function to the tower buildings, was very innovative for its time, especially when you consider that the type of tower parallelepiped has been handed down from the past and that the elevators connecting the various levels of 'town gave excellent results, both in small towns like Pontassieve (Fi), and in those with a larger and architectural heritage of respect, such as Perugia.

Another thing that became clear in the course of our discussion on the problems of the old town after the earthquake and possible solutions, was that it would be increasingly difficult to find sufficient funds for timely recovery of what was even then in obvious neglect and, at the same time to erase all traces of those actions so expensive and unnecessary and disfiguring which were determined over the years (15).

We became immediately aware that, of the enormous scope of the project where we were thinking and new life that only he could give shape to the ideas and the will to tear our past chaos to return it to a cosmos as late as still desirable.

Now and in the absence of a real economic development plan, for which we would have expected even years, help could come from tourism. Then, is now we just went two treasures already on the ground and never properly advertised and promoted: the craft and artistic and natural beauty. In the first case we had a tradition to be recovered, in accordance with the proximity to attractive tourist spots throughout the year, represented by mountain destinations in Basilicata and maritime borders of Campania, which could simultaneously satisfy both the needs of tourism intellectual, through the sites archaeological and historical and artistic interest of both regions, and of that more closely interested in the mass entertainment and relaxation.

The idea, modern for the time, rode the wave of the latest fashion tourism launched by then, he had found a new formula and cheapest way to move around the planet freely. Simple and ingenious, the solution was to take ownership, along with other co-owners and for the minimum period of one week, one or more accommodation in resort resorts in more or less known. The most innovative and interesting of the proposal, however, was represented by its not being inextricably linked forever to the place where he had purchased the timeshare, but, on the contrary, to be even more mobile by virtue of buying a property. Timeshare gave it the opportunity to share the same week with another property in another location of your choice. Also be multiproprietario only one accommodation was enough to join one of the many circuits of mutual exchange of accommodation / holiday scattered throughout the planet.

My intuition was the realization that the Old Town was not to be seen simply as a monument to contemplate, an archaeological excavation removed with the earth that covered just about to apply powder and anonymity protected by a deposit of the museum away from real life and the ability to produce wealth sufficient at least to its survival.

We had to find ideas to revitalize the role of a reality was so heavily impaired in its materials and components not only that he was in obvious decline.

The project or rather, the idea of the recovery of the historical center of Athens Lucana, although immature, as are all the new ideas at the beginning, especially if born out of young minds, was based on the following points:

1. Made safe building, through his recovery in full compliance with the rules in force in the field of environmental safety and structural (now also add energy savings) and the removal of architectural barriers and the recovery of the buildings destroyed as gardens hanging (now also add parking for bikes and electric cars). The work, carried out in full compliance with the Genius Loci and then with an eye to tradition, were made by local craftsmen, creating new job opportunities and at the same time during recovery craft. Interventions that would be of interest in a systematic way many buildings had been possible and would start from the most in good condition and, other things being equal, those with the best exposure, ease of access and beauty of the landscape;

2.Community involvement in the financing of the project in the first place and the owners of the houses of the old town. The owners do not in conditions to shoulder the entire cost of the recovery of their property, they would have the possibility to sell the same and to keep a portion of the property in the form of week / holiday to be exchanged;

3.The economic involvement of the City, a proposal that would still be valid, in exchange for his commitment to urbanize the area, supplying the services needed to respond adequately to the demands resulting from its new function;

4.Creating workshops and gastronomic and dining venues in which to find only local products (now add the condition of traceability) and to organize meetings and conferences focusing on their bidding;

5.The finalization of the work on the recovery of traditions and old trades, open laboratories. The idea was to include in the package the possibility, by the tourist who made the request, to attend courses in which come into direct contact with local crafts and learn the techniques, in the spirit of this type of an alternative holiday;

6.Trekking and excursions to places of natural and cultural interest. By Athena and Vallo di Diano in general, as already mentioned, are accessible and can be visited in a day, both sites of Lucania (eg. Castles of Frederick II in Lagopesole, Venosa Melfi, the Cathedral of Acerenza the Sassi of Matera and the hermits cave, archaeological excavations of the Roman era in Venosa as Grumento, the beautiful coast of Maratea) and Campania (eg. Certosa di Padula, archaeological excavations in Buccino, the Caves in Perth, the area of the temples of Paestum, the caves of Palinuro), and the tourist areas of the south-western coast (the coast and Cilento Coast), both of winter tourism in Lucania (the ski fields on Vulturino). The goals originally designed, you can now add new realities, such as the Park of Cilento and Vallo di Diano, the Parco del Sele and Tanagro and the WWF of Persano, to mention the ones closest, made even closer to the rest of the world, the recent creation of the airport Pontecagnano;

7.Within a strictly local, the recovery and development of the old paths disused and forgotten. One of these is certainly the best known is the so-called Ascent of the breast, used as a shortcut path, mostly by farmers who came to work the fields located in the valley. Other trails recoverable as tourist attractors are all those trails used by shepherds to reach the pastures, some of which are located right in the Walloon dell'Arenaccia and Red Cliff and represent attractive locations for the presence of caves and ravines always used as a shelter by shepherds but certainly frequented by man in prehistoric times. Interestingly, even in this second case, assume trekking routes linking the Village Hotel in these sites.

My other idea that dates back to 2006 and which I think can serve as an attractor is recovering , the old railway line of the Calabro Lucana as a bike path(16).

8. Finally, I would add one more, the old solutions to create interest in our town and, more generally, for all our territory, new but not original. The idea that has proven over time to be a major tourist attraction, although made in a region of Lucania not own center of gravity and can only be reached through a road is not easy or fast, it is known as the "angel flight". Realized for the first and only time in Italy, between the towns of Castelmezzano and Pietra Pertosa, in the lucane Dolomites , is still the "flight" highest and longest in the world. In addition to this there are only three others and everybody in France. Easily manufactured and inexpensive, is to fly over to several meters in height and great speed, sites with a strong impact on the landscape. The overflight is carried out, in complete safety, suspended from a steel rope, along which it slides by means of a pulley to which it is harnessed and covers the distance between a point A and a point B positioned at sites with sufficient height difference. Appearance improvement of the original and that our project marks a radical departure from what already done in Lucania, is not so much the greater length and height from the ground, but rather to place the starting point in a place that is both very scenic and easy access by car but outside the town and instead locate the point of arrival in the Old Town, so that tourists, in the path of returning to their means of locomotion, may come in contact with the local situation and be induced to remain there (17).

From Timeshare to "Widespread Hotel": the evolution of an idea

                                                            "(...) Is not such a good thing if it is not usable. The mere contemplation does not belong to architecture. "

The "Widespread Hotel" is not a hotel from scratch, but a "horizontal structure", an idea with the aim to recover the abandoned buildings within countries and turn them into housing to be inserted in a circuit holidays. Horizontal because it is designed with a central structure, the reception, which serves as a meeting place and meeting clients and a number of units, rooms, located in different buildings in the town center, but not too far from the reception that must be easily accessible. The idea of ?? "Widespread Hotel"  (18) was born in Carnia, after the earthquake of 1976, when it was decided, with foresight, to invest for tourism on the houses and villages deserted and renovated for residential purposes. 

However, the term is used for the first time in 1982 within the "pilot project Comeglians" which proposed as a program for the reversal of the ongoing deterioration. The occasion was particularly favorable since the years when he was carrying out the reconstruction after the earthquake of 1976, a situation that would allow him to convey at least some of those funds in the creation of this innovative project. The projects, however, remained in the drawer and were partly dusted with the arrival of funding from the EU ban called 5b. In the 80s the term  "Widespread Hotel"  spreads, and there is a number of projects and attempts to implement the idea in other areas in the country. The first attempts of  "Widespread Hotel"  in Emilia Romagna there were in 1984 and 1987 in Vitulano, a municipality in the province of Sannio in Benevento. In these first two attempts, the main objective which was pursued to recover empty buildings and abandoned homes in order to animate city centers deserted and enhance a tourist site in a logical marketing call "product-oriented" rather than to respond to the needs of an application interested in doing experiments to some extent still authentic because they are linked to the spirit of the place, the so-called Genius Loci, often mentioned. In those early efforts was therefore still absent the idea of building a model for alternative hospitable distinct and different from the traditional ones, and that they wanted to propose as a model and a culture of hospitality with its roots in the territory, able to look at deepest needs of the application, which consisted precisely in order to interact with a locally unique for its peculiarities. 

Projects designed in the '80s, because of the lack of broader vision and the recovery of the ancient complex reality in a context of modernity, are therefore to be considered the most common of residence, rather than "Widespread Hotel" , included as individual homes scattered in the area that were retrieved and then put in network especially with the intention of making a profit. It was therefore proposed that private enterprise on the market in a spontaneous way, as an offering to the mountain that had a market survey and without that there was then a strategy on how to listen to the question and can offer a service consistent with it. But it is always in the 80s that the idea of ??the "Widespread Hotel"  take sharper edges and begins to be conceived as a horizontal hotel located in a historical center of fascination, with rooms and services located appropriately in different buildings, but always close to each of them. The implementation, although only partial of the first realizations of WH, however, there will be only in the 90s and this is because a few reasons, including the aberrant logic of bureaucracy have delayed implementation. The bureaucratic problem was joined by that of legislation still missing and that was only after 1998 in Sardinia. Not by chance were just models of WH Sardinians to be the subject of several seminars and opportunities to study and at the base of the first legislation in Italy has distinguished the  "Widespread Hotel"  from other forms of hospitality.

In 2008, the popular idea of the hotel has been awarded in Budapest at the conference Helping new talents to grow as a best practice for economic growth to be transferred to developing countries. The idea of a "Widespread Hotel", can be finally defined as a horizontal hotel, located in a historical center, with rooms and services located in different buildings, although close to each other, and is intended as an accommodation unit that caters to an application interested in staying in a particular urban context, in contact with the residents and at the same time taking advantage of the normal hotel services. This formula, which proved to be particularly attractive villages and countries with historical centers of art and architecture, can be revived but also in smaller towns which do not have these same characteristics but who have a strategic position in their territory which allows reach sites of natural and / or cultural, with least cost and time.

It is therefore, a proposal designed to offer guests the experience of living in a historic center of a city or a country, relying on all hotel services, that is, of hospitality, service, food, spaces and services for guests, staying in houses and rooms that are no more than 200 meters from the place in which the reception, common areas and dining area.

But the CEO is also a model of regional development that does not create environmental impact. To give life to a "Widespread Hotel" in fact, you do not need to build anything, since it is limited to recover / restore and put it in a holiday circuit that already exists. WH also serves as a "social defense" and revives soul or, as in the case of Athena Lucana, historical centers, stimulating initiatives and involving local producers considered as a key component of the offer. An WH in fact, thanks to the authenticity of the proposal, the proximity of the structures that compose it and the presence of a community of residents is able to offer more than a living, a way of life. With the WH we can hope to bring life back in the old centers affected by depopulation, such as those in the earthquake of 1980, Irpinia and Salerno and then, even Atena Lucana and you can restore and enhance the many buildings closed and no longer used. This must be done and we must do it quickly, before a piece of cornice fall off or slide a tile hitting one of the residents as innocent or unwitting tourists who sometimes happen to meet in the streets deserted.

The idea of recovering the historical center and bring it back to life through its gradual transformation into WH is based on the consideration that the economic problems worldwide have greatly affected the way of understanding the holidays. More and more often, in recent years prefer the Italian places as tourist destinations, while the same duration of the holiday has progressively and substantially reduced. Unfortunately, however, he goals are almost always the same and this for two main reasons: the lack of adequate facilities and the lack of public awareness of the so-called small towns, maybe located a few kilometers from the sites of greater tourist and yet almost completely unknown. This, in particular, is the case of Atena Lucana that, as mentioned above, is at the center of one of the many Italian sites of great cultural and scenic. Another consideration is that the CEO has the ability to meet the needs of expert users, and therefore tired of the usual formulas hotel, as composed of people who are looking for innovative solutions.

In his study "Leisure Travel" in 1991, S. Plog says that "tourists on holiday wish uniqueness, non-uniformity and, for this, plus the hotel reflects the local architecture, customs and lifestyle of the area, the more it can be chosen as a holiday destination alternatives

But the most important aspect of WH is the respect of the cultural environment, the context in which it is moving directly towards the recovery of the artistic and cultural heritage of the smaller centers, policies pursued by both the Community and the national ones, only more rarely, and far-sightedness, from the locals, who often have no idea of the wealth they have and the possibilities they have to create jobs and perhaps, to maintain or even increase the population and all without touching contaminating the culture, the environment, the identity of places. The  "Widespread Hotel" can then have the role of "facilitator" cultural and economic centers, particularly in small communities and this would be desirable, because each center changed in WH does not become a sort of Disneyland disposable, a sideshow poorly designed and managed worse, that the project is compiled by Cultural Associations and Environmentalist, with the significant participation of the Municipality, the Pro Loco and the owners themselves and that is managed by a cooperative formed by qualified personnel under their direct control. In summary, I believe that tourism is undoubtedly one of the major sources of income and livelihood for the countries and especially for those who, like Italy, are fortunate to have so many interesting places in terms of culture and environmental. Those in tourism in a professional manner, however, knows that it is important in this field, and that these ideas have to generate competitive projects must be innovative. This same idea, that in the 90's was futuristic, it is now only contemporary time has been wasted to seek forms of personal gain limited and with little speculation, instead of investing as a community, so bold and modern. Not without ill-concealed irony, in fact, are usually criticize those who in the past have seen many accommodations of the Vallo, many of which are in the territory of Atena Lucana, as the symptoms of a positive reality: recent structures are certainly questionable eclecticism style that has nothing to do with the models of local but more similar to the Adriatic coast, when they are clearly of industrial buildings with a coating fake in front, but without a doubt, in all cases, structures with for maximum comfort and excellent finishing. However, are "white elephants", almost always underutilized because for years, even strong government incentives, there has been engaged in creating facilities for the reception of tourists without parallel search for ideas to entice tourists to choose our area as a destination . We naively believed that having wealth of great environmental and cultural value as the Certosa di Padula or Caves in Pertosa, to name just two of the many, we could exempt from the need to promote ourselves in the market and do not individually and approximate, but in a professional and choral offering vacation packages stimulants because alternative. The WH itself is proposed in an attractive, alternative under its own unique features, first of all authenticity, a feature that allows visitors to experience a stay in homes and buildings designed to be real homes and have the opportunity to be in contact with the residents, to be immersed in the local community in the first person, to live the village and its reality.

Another aspect that makes a formula WH interesting is the possibility of offering a structured plan in that the tourist would have at its disposal a wide choice, by virtue of differentiated.

In short: my idea of WH is to be understood as a project that has as main objective is not only to revive the local economy but also to recover the artistic and environmental heritage, and in full respect of the cultural environment, being able to transform the abandonment resource.I would like to create an environment in which can be possible for tourists to experience the stay in full compliance with the authenticity of the environment, with the opportunity to come into contact with local traditions and handicraft production and farming.

I think that there is the possibility for the visitor to retrieve the manual's production processes that were generations from him not very far yet unknown and to learn the techniques. Guess visits explanatory mills, mills, laboratories, bakers and confectioners, in the workshops of blacksmiths, farriers, the tinsmiths, in the laboratories of the chairmenders, baskets of weavers, potters. I think in lectures or in sheepfolds stables to understand the production process that leads to the production of cheese from milk, imagine the possibility that they may participate in the olive harvest or fruit or harvest, to teach them the process of wine production. I guess that is to give him the possibility of a varied holiday, which is between the intellectual development of museums and the "living" farm.

So, a project designed with the intention to address through various proposals to different user groups and to do it with a hospitality solution that is played much of his competitiveness, greater visibility resulting originality of the formula.

But I am aware that to achieve this you will have to face and solve another major problem, especially in the reality of the south has difficulties to die and that is the distrust of the new.

Resistance to these initiatives, despite the passage of years, is likely to be of a cultural nature and the danger is to find himself having to convince the goodness of the operation suspicious owners and administrators anchored to their old ideas. (19)

As well as those for the recovery of the paths and rural sites are eligible for the PSR (20).

This could mean that if you have never done anything, it is for lack of interest and when it is done but got hurt, it was also due to the inability to understand their places and the little love for the 'environment in its broadest sense.

I think that is the possibility for the visitor to retrieve the manual's production processes that were generations from him not very far yet unknown and to learn the techniques. Guess visits explanatory mills, mills, laboratories, bakers and confectioners, in the workshops of blacksmiths, farriers, the tinsmiths, in the laboratories of the chairmenders, baskets of weavers, potters. I think in lectures or in sheepfolds stables to understand the production process that leads to the production of cheese from milk, imagine the possibility that they may participate in the olive harvest or fruit or harvest, to teach them the process of wine production. I guess that is to give him the possibility of a varied holiday, which is between the intellectual development of museums and the "living" farm.

CONCLUSIONS

Although it is desirable and even necessary that every region which accomodates a "Widespread Hotel" or enter Villages Hotels inserts within their regional law a clear and precise classification of accommodation facilities in and outside the hotel in charge of this new form of hospitality, well, the Campania Region has not yet done this and although some specialized sites indicate the presence of at least one "Widespread Hotel" and two villages Hotels inside.

Unfortunately the same sites do not give any indication on their location and this is seen even more clearly the confusion that still persists in their unambiguous identification and classification.

The "Widespread Hotels" , in fact, are often confused with the simple renovated apartments available for tourists in the form of private initiative. This management improvised and without a real organization upstream, prevents the product offered meets the quality standards required to be not only attractive but also competitive. The inclusion of the  "Widespread Hotel"  within a regional law, ensure the originality and authenticity of such an innovative and sophisticated form of hospitality and would be much easier for the town to be part of a collaborative program national is concerned with the promotion of large-scale, with more and faster gains, it is easy to imagine.

The product offered through this desirable prudent management might even lead to the creation of a quality that can identify and promote the different local structures in the same region of the host and increase collaboration between the various municipalities.

This type of organization, of course, it can not disregard the presence of highly qualified personnel, whose training should be achieved at specific schools so that they can form handlers, because the staff with the creation of specialist schools, with management courses, training and updating in order to give the opportunity to tour operators to keep always informed.

Useful to point out the aspect that the phenomenon of  "Widespread Hotels"  can not and must not become a new fashion in the banality of tourism, so it must be the realization of a project choral, concrete and coherent birth, developed and run by people who really love and respect the environment and above all its territory and accredited organizations and associations, such as environmental and Pro Loco and subtracted from the control, more or less obvious, schemers of local money buy a few abandoned houses, the restructure with little spending, perhaps at the expense of the state and still no respect for tradition and the very idea of  "Widespread Hotel"  and turn them into the hotel facilities good, that will be short-lived, as often happens, but not before he had damaged further, with their failure, the context in which they arose.

This must not happen.

I firmly believe in this idea and believe, as I said, from the beginning of the 90's, and I started working, even if unwittingly, in 1983. I therefore hope that they really got the time and the right people for its implementation but above all this, it could be a pilot project can give small countries a chance to revive its economy and at the same time to share with other people from all over the world, the beauty of its territory.

At the end I just want to emphasize that funding for the recovery of the Regional Historical Centres have been operating for some years in Campania as well as those for the recovery of the paths and rural sites are eligible for the PSR. This could mean that if you have never done anything, it is for lack of interest and when it is done but got hurt, it was also due to the inability to understand their places and the little love for the 'environment in its broadest sense.

NOTES

2) A Notable example: If you live in a certain environment has proven experience with a certain inclination of the slopes of the roof as sufficient to properly dispose of the rainfall, clearly higher or much lower inclinations are much too large and therefore useless in the first case, as they are unable to solve the problem in the second. In both cases, however, are solutions out of context as dictated by personal and therefore always questionable aesthetic sense. In any case, inadequate responses to the real problems of the environment in which they were entered. The same applies to the colors, the choice of materials, the context of their use, for the processing techniques and use, and even for thickness. The white facades or light colors in general are good for the sea to fend off the sun's rays too bitter but in mountain environments, where it is good to draw them instead to get a natural warming of the house, it is best to use dark colors, which are known instead attract the rays of the sun. Similarly:

thickness too small and too invasive for machining parts in stone, especially limestone, exposed in mountain environments these artifacts to the phenomenon of freezing and consequent rapid degradation.

3. These spaces, after 30 years are before the eyes of all, victims of degradation and abandonment. Worth an inspiration to all who witnessed the havoc made in those years to Atena Lucana: the creation of an unnecessary and costly scale reinforced concrete work that horrible, returning from my trip to Rome did in the early 90's, called ironically "Spanish Steps", alluding to the magnificent tangle of ramps that pompously reported. Daughter of the same absurd logic is also the last horror architectural realized in the historical center and that is the "non-place" wanted the top of the Old Town, close to the remains of the castle walls, in places disgusted. The open space that has been created following the demolition of four houses were seriously damaged by the quake, located in front of a noble building, now home to an expensive and perfectly furnished Multipurpose Center. The share of wear of said open space was maintained, with architectural choice than ever inopportune, at a level higher than a meter compared to that of the entrance of the building. This decision has also relegated to the building entrance in an alley whose width is less than 2 meters, making it impossible to dominate the place, because of the lack of a proper balance between the various elements and adequate depth perspective. What was worse, is that the presence of this wall had been created near the entrance of the building housing a multi-functional deputy, is the cap at the entrance itself, preventing any users to use a quick and easy escape route in case of danger. Do not forget that we are in a highly seismic. The same, users in fact, if they had respected the true relationship between the building and the square, ie those passed in architecture has always, in case of seismic event could find a quick way out in the square in front of the building and not meet, as would happen now, bottled in an alley. Again, even the poor choice of flooring used throughout the environment is likely to endanger the safety of the citizen. Having used the same stone coating all surfaces, horizontal, inclined and vertical seamless and with the same installation, prevents to clearly perceive the differences in height. These become even less visible in unfavorable light conditions, such as at dusk or on a cloudy day or problems to public lighting and are even less with my eyes no longer in good condition, as they could be those of the elderly. Finally, the absence of a drain close to the main facade of the building and the simultaneous choice to realize a flooring discontinuous and totally divorced from the context in form and substance, is another choice decidedly inconvenient. The same fact, realized with river stones of small size and spaced out and placed on absorbent surface, becomes highly permeable to rainwater, inter alia deliberately conveyed in several points of the same via descendants. Obviously this has caused abundant and dangerous infiltration foundations and the obvious rise by capillary action, the same humidity, due to the evident as early deterioration of the walls of a building, although sometimes used for years, it has not been opened yet.In this architectural uselessness in the past and more recent if they are added others, some of which are dilapidated for decades, such as the Public Baths, or never really used, such as the Market Hall and the open space between the sports field and public housing on Avenue Kennedy.

4) The recovery of the original contents of the house "- Sangiovanni Angelo and Giuseppe Di Carlo - Course of Environmental Design, University of Florence, aa 1984/85

5) Archetype is a term that originated in ancient Greek writings and has the meaning of "image to model, brand expression, copy the original" tipos (original) arché. The word was coined by Philo of Alexandria and later used by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, and Lucian of Samosata and this is reflected in the various disciplines. In a philosophical context, the archetype is a pre-existing and original form of a thought (eg. The Platonic idea) in psychoanalysis many authors use it to refer to innate ideas and deep unconscious human mythology indicates the forms the base of the primitive expressions mythical and religious man, and in the study of narrative indicates metaconcetti of a literary expression of its characters and the structure of the narrative, in linguistics Jacques Derrida used to indicate the concept of "archi" and that is the ideal form of writing pre-existing before the creation of man and language from which it originates. The archetype is also present in philology to indicate the creation of an original work or the oldest element and not originated by others. The study therefore archetype is born from the need to seek those original architectural forms generated and create deep human needs: health, beauty, aesthetic, economic and environmental sustainability.

6) Examples of non-places made from those years are never well used indoor market, with a competition of ideas that we tried to recover the so-called public baths made with poor choice, in the immediate vicinity of the Monument to the Fallen of World War I, but two floors below the road, so as to discourage its use even by the more sprightly old man. Again, the Town Hall that has the same shape and position representational capacity and awareness of a condominium in the suburbs, the gym / auditorium, one of many multifunctional spaces (which too often means: I have no idea what to do in this work but I was able to obtain funds and then I realized), a box used in precast because there was a real need, but that soon will be added to a similar Scalo in the country. The above disgusted, a misguided attempt to bring life into a reality, like that of the upper part of the old town, abandoned for twenty years. Finally: the "non-places" of Atena Lucana, that I wrote during the "competition of ideas for the redevelopment Urbanism, Landscape and Architectural area of the municipal market" of http://atenalucana.blogspot.it/2012_08_01_archive.html - Arch Angel Sangiovanni 20/06/2009.

7) Now, next to the palaces of the "gentlemen" of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, many of peasant origin, not far away, houses and villas are springing up that the new emerging class, lower middle-class and peasant, displays as a distinctive sign of prestige, supplanting outgoing middle class, the bicentennial class of rich landowners and professional: "lords" of the past, but imitating the more external codes of conduct ". Dr. Elena D'Alto, Archaeologist," Atena ancient ", under" Recovery the original contents of the house "and brought in - Sangiovanni Angelo and Giuseppe Di Carlo - Course of Environmental Design, University of Florence, academic year 1984/85

8) "The unitary structure is still saved even though building groups, which began on the eastern outskirts of the village (area Braida) begins to hurt the village and the square [...]. This precious heritage that is being lost on Braida, to absurd staff replacements, it could be saved.
 " Dr. Elena D'Alto, Archaeologist, "Atena ancient" in "The recovery of the original contents of the house" and brought in - Sangiovanni Angelo and Giuseppe Di Carlo - Course of Environmental Design, University of Florence, aa 1984/85.

9. For Atena Lucana, the promise of new job opportunities offered by these settlements chaotic, where production facilities have become homes mingle with those who remained such, sometimes causing discomfort and problems of coexistence between neighbors in this time of recession, clashed with the reality of a southern growing slowly because it continues to run empty, but valid strategies and without any real programming that is not petty speculation and the consequent enrichment of a few. That same little speculation that has pushed up land prices unnaturally, with the result that the small business owner, including the grip of a minimum lot size of 20,000 meters, reality divorced from agriculture of our country and the exorbitant prices imposed by bordering on the sale of floor area missing to the realization of enlargement necessary activities, are increasingly looking for sites that you can go, located in the industrial areas of other towns. We are waking up from a long sleep and wake up thirty years we are in an economy that is sluggish and many artifacts started and never finished or finished and never inhabited and offered for rent or put unnecessary even for sale.

10) "Competition for the redevelopment Urbanism, Landscape and Architectural area of the municipal market" ofhttp://atenalucana.blogspot.it/2012_08_01_archive.html - Arch Angel Sangiovanni 20/06/2009

11) "calcarenites and Calciruditi the Flysch Pescopagano" - Arch Angel Sangiovanni - 2000

12) As I pointed out in the concluding part of the report: "Competition for the redevelopment Urbanism, Landscape and Architectural area of the municipal market" of http://atenalucana.blogspot.it/2012_08_01_archive.html - Arch Angel Sangiovanni 20/06/2009

13) Daydreaming is the right term, because after years we are still telling us the same things with the same passion. Things or rather "dreams" that are the basis of this work.

14) To be precise, a number of Casabella in 1985 and who had the idea for the district Cayeret. Basically it was the inclusion of a tower with a triangular base that housed inside elevators and stairs and through walkways, connecting the pedestrian plaza of San Juan at the bottom with the accommodation space in front of the cathedral on the hill of San Leo .

15) An example: the unnecessary and costly layer of cement that disgusted ironically called "Spanish Steps." Call today to hear that, with equal irony now most of my countrymen, I do not proud, though. If anything turns the knife.

16) The draft of this project exists since 2006 and for some time I have briefly reported on the blog that I open athttp://atenalucana.blogspot.it/2012_08_01_archive.html

17) The project is the brainchild of the Municipal Councillor for the Environment, Pasquale Iuzzolino, although still in its infancy is quite clear in our minds and will be completed under the supervision of the same Department and submitted to the opinion of the Administration Hall, the Pro Loco and environmental associations in the area, "Making Environment" in the first place, which has its Atena Lucana in his own workshop. I personally think that the environmental impact of these mechanisms, among other things, not too bulky and the same tightrope, is not very important, especially when compared to the bulky and unnecessary bad things that are made in the remote and recent past and others that are project and to which no one has ever made me feel its weight.

18) The region with the most popular hotels is the Molise, thanks to the work done by the operators of the "Territorial Pact of Matese", followed by the regions of Apulia and Sardinia supported by the work of Local Action Groups and finally thanks to Calabria contribution of some associations.

19) CAMPANIA - Regional Council - Meeting of February 25, 2006 - Resolution No. 264 General Area Coordination N. 16 - Government land, landscape and environmental protection goods and cultural - LR18.10.2002 n. 26. Standards and incentives for the development of historical centers of Campania and classification of environmental quality landscape.
 Changes to L.R. February 19, 1996, n. 3. Evaluation criteria in order to actions and interventions to admit to contribution under Title I. Annuity 2006.Nuovo Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 In summary, the measure provides a support to the recipients identified hereinafter with the aim of: 1. increase the attractiveness of rural areas; 2. enhancing the natural resources, architectural and cultural characteristics of rural areas making tourist attractors; 3. trigger processes of integrated sustainable development; 4. promote awareness of quality products of the territory; 5. promote the tourism of the area nationally and internationally; 6. create information infrastructures to support the promotion and development of the area; 7. encourage the adoption and diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for the promotion and marketing activities.

RDP 2007-2013 - Measure 323 - "development, conservation and upgrading of the rural heritage"

Presentation of Measure In this measure means pursue actions for improvement and development of rural areas, to be implemented through the rehabilitation of cultural heritage in them and this important natural heritage that characterizes it. Regional rural areas, which although characterized by a strong economic and social dependence on agriculture, have strengths that are identified in the consistent presence of local contexts "natural" in the strong bond between the people and the surrounding area, in the presence of traditional crafts related to the culture of the area, of which the nature is a fundamental part. In particular, the measure is intended, through environmental education, aimed at people of all ages, to rebuild the sense of identity of rural people, developing a sense of citizenship, fostering a culture of participation and care of their environment. You can implement interventions aimed at raising awareness on issues of sustainable development, environmental education, environmental protection and better knowledge of the natural and cultural heritage. Are also possible interventions aimed at the promotion of Natura 2000 sites and other sites of high natural value, aimed at conserving the typical elements of the landscape and the cultural, historical / architectural and construction of places and artifacts in the rural landscape.

PSR 2007-2013 - Measure 313 - "Encouragement of tourism activities" Presentation of Measure

The measure has been activated in the knowledge that tourism can be an important opportunity to reverse the negative trend of social and economic decline and depopulation evident in many rural areas. This sector can contribute to a lasting and sustainable socio-economic development of rural areas. In this perspective, the tourist must be primarily oriented to the promotion and enhancement of environmental, architectural, historical, cultural and productive activities in rural areas through the harmonization and integration with other local development programs pursuing common objectives identified development of territorial scale.