Food: the  Italian   truffle   aims  for  UNESCO  recognition

Siena - The Italian truffle aims at UNESCO World Heritage status. The nomination of "Truffle hunting and extraction in Italy; knowledge and traditional practice" was submitted this morning at the World Tourist Event. This world tourism exhibition for Unesco heritage sites will last until Sunday, September 24 in Siena and will exhibit over 130 Unesco sites from all over the world. The nomination comes from the National Association of Truffle Towns, with the technical support of the Alba Truffle Study Centre and the scientific centre of the University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo. Filed today at Unescos central office in Paris, the nomination was accompanied and presented for Italy by the Ministry for cultural heritage and activities and tourism. The request by the Italian truffle world is only one of the numerous activities being held in the Santa Maria della Scala museum in Siena, attended by over 200 tourist operators from the Unesco world heritage sites. 'An event - stresses Marco Citerbo, exhibition director - created precisely because UNESCO lacked an official event to promote and commercialise the tourist side of its heritage sites. Over time, the first edition in Assisi, followed by Padua and now Siena, achieved good results, because there is an increasing number of tour operators attending the exhibition and the UNESCO sites are increasingly included in the tour operators catalogues.' The main topic of the 2017 edition is to reflect on the role of the UNESCO trademark in promoting tourism within a territory and the impact of tourism on the cities of art and heritage sites, 'fully aware that - Citerbo adds - although the authenticity of a territory is an essential value for tourist promotion, the conservation, protection and correct exploitation of UNESCO sites is a must, for which national institutions in particular are responsible, so that world heritage status is, and remains an opportunity, and does not become a problem.