The 9th edition of the Agri and Slow Travel Expo, a show dedicated to the villages and beauties of Italian and international territories, was inaugurated today. Promoberg president Luciano Patelli cut the ribbon from the event (Pavilion A) of the Bergamo fair and opened the fair, a riot of colors, folklore, tastes, joy and beauty, which will spread over more than 13 thousand square meters. It will host more than 200 entities including public and private entities, tour operators, associations and consortia representing 14 Italian regions. Also present were Gianfranco Gafforelli, president of the province of Bergamo, Sandro Galli, vice-mayor of Bergamo, Paolo Franco, councilor of the Lombardy region, Carlo Mazzoleni, president of the Chamber of Commerce, Davide Lenarduzzi from Promoberg and Stefania Pendezza, project manager of Agri and Slow Travel Expo.
The event will be attended by a number of destinations that make the right photo of Italian beauties. In pavilion A you will find the best offers from Trentino, Veneto, Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria, Emilia Romagna, Lazio, Marche, Abruzzo, Sardinia, Sicily, Calabria, Campania, Puglia. Destinations that will come to life and be promoted through nature, culture, art, food and wine, traditions told and offered to visitors through a rich calendar of talks and meetings with free and unreserved admission. The journey can also be experienced thanks to the Ferrovie dello Stato foundation, which will promote Historic Trains and the experience area. To top it all off, there will be a cross-section of slow and sustainable travel experience proposals in the presence of international partners such as Rural Tour, the European rural tourism network that includes 28 professional organizations from 25 countries, as well as 4 associate members in 4 Central Asian countries. It aims to offer the opportunity to enjoy a rural holiday experience among more than 100,000 facilities.
Finally, it is worth mentioning the presence of Sport e Salute, which promotes sport and a healthy lifestyle with its projects in full accordance with the values of Agri and Slow Travel Expo.
Natural paths between culture and beauty
Italy is represented at the fair by various entities that make it possible to discover destinations of extraordinary beauty. From Liguria comes the Riviera dei Fiori with its fascinating paths between culture and beauty: villas and gardens, castles and ancient bridges, Marenche streets, trade routes of the past. And even trips to discover olive groves and oil presses, festivals and traditions.
A sustainable journey for an experience in Romagna: it’s called AmaParco, a circuit of more than 20 archaeological parks and museums, nature reserves and natural oases, offering unique experiences such as a sunset boat trip to Salina di Cervia or cycling with flamingos in Comacchio Valley.
In Sardinia, there is also the Santa Barbara mining route, a 500 km circular route that follows the old paths of the miners. 30 stops to admire the ever-changing landscape, from limestone cliffs to long beaches and sand dunes, from dense forests to rolling hills to a lagoon.
The Cuore di Sicilia Experience presents suggestive itineraries and nature trails that can be combined with visits to farms and places of greatest interest. For example, Via dei Castelli Nisseni allows you to discover a piece of Sicilian history, while with Via dello Sulphur, you follow in the footsteps of the Florio family and other manufacturing companies that made Caltanissetta the sulfur capital of the world in the 19th century.
Bergamo and its territory among the protagonists
The city of Bergamo joins the Agri and Slow Travel Expo and opens up to national and international territories. As? With excellent products, slow destinations and many curiosities to discover, even when arriving by plane on wheels, thanks to the presence of the first airport in Italy (Milan-Bergamo BGY airport). At the Agri and Slow Travel Expo, the Bergamo area will be present with the Chamber of Commerce, which will give space in the event space to excellent products from the entire area with its operators (Visit Bergamo, PromoIsola, Promo Serio, Visit Brembo, In ValCavallina , Plain to Discover, Visit Lake Iseo , Comunità Montana Valle Imagna) under the big umbrella of “Bergamo Slow Destination” there will be a series of meetings, presentations, events, cooking shows and tastings that will promote the beauty of the territory and the products of the flavors of “Bergamo, the city of a thousand…”. It is worth highlighting the important collaboration with the University of Bergamo, which provided significant scientific support for the organization of international conferences and workshops on the 16th. participation and involvement of students and young researchers engaged in study or research in the field of tourism or the valorization of the territory.
Also present and participating is the Diocese of Bergamo – the Pastoral Office for Pilgrimages, Leisure and Tourism, which promotes “paths of faith” that blend harmoniously into the historical and natural wealth of the local area. This ambitious project aims to offer visitors a unique experience that will not only bring them closer to faith, but also lead them to discover the scenic and cultural beauties of the Bergamo area. This initiative integrates faith with the exploration of the territory and offers a unique experience that combines spirituality, culture and nature.
Walking and trekking even for 4 legs
Cammini d’Italia, Italy’s largest tourist community, will lead to the discovery of slow tourism, which represents a segment of a structured offer that is able to get rid of seasonal influences and break down tourist flows and create new job opportunities. Just think that the pedestrian passage resulted in 1 million documented overnight stays in 2022 (latest data available), confirming the trend of continuous growth recorded since 2020. Numerous Cammini d’Italia will be presented at the Agri and Slow Travel Expo to discover the villages , works of art, monuments and landscapes.
The Italian Tourist Association will also be among the protagonists of the Agri and Slow Travel Expo, to illustrate new proposals for the lovers of slow walking to discover lesser-known corners that also contribute to the development of the city. Also not to be overlooked are the travel options (bautrek) offered to accompany their four-legged friends.
In Agri and Slow Travel, the Italian Alpine Club CAI is present with the Bergamo section, which has been active for more than 150 years and brings together more than 10,000 members and 400 volunteers. While Silvia Broseghini, ecological tourist guide and tour leader, presents her tourist taste, the excursion enriched by telling about the peculiarities of this territory and other curiosities.
Lots of sports, folklore and fun with puppets
The intangible heritage of the territories to be protected is folklore, which will be present at the Agri and Slow Travel Expo through the participation of UNPLI, the Italian National Union for Loco, and FITP, the Italian Federation of Folk Traditions.
Music, dances and songs, but also puppets, for the joy of the little ones! Gioppino, the Bergamo mask with three large goiters, can be admired in the company of Arlecchino, Colombina and Brighella at the Agri and Slow Travel Expo thanks to the Benedetto Ravasia Foundation, which for more than three hundred years has been bringing stories of inventions, theaters and palaces of Bergamo to the square, adaptation books and operas, pages of history and narrative close to popular sentiment.
The little ones, but not only them, will be able to engage in various outdoor, sports and adventure activities in the large outdoor area. A cross-country slope, two slopes for young people who want to try skiing, a donut slope for children, a climbing wall, a replica of the base camp and much more. It will be a space where you can experiment and have fun safely and for free. Experts and professionals will be present to enable adults and children to experience new emotions and experiences between nature, sports, activities and entertainment. The focus on the mountains is unmissable, a place to be experienced in every season and rediscovered also with regard to Milan-Cortina 2026 and its economic and social implications. In this regard, the M-Sport Academy will also be present at the Agri and Slow Travel Expo with the ski school of the future, a high-quality proposal aimed at skiers of all ages.
Cycling, accessibility and gastronomy
The protagonist of the Agri and Slow Travel Expo is the most authentic Italy represented by the cycling tourism of those who decide to leave the most famous and popular destinations and let their feet and legs guide them. Just follow the signs between the old mule tracks, the tops of the embankments and enter more than 18,000 kilometers of cycling routes to rediscover the beauty of the smallest realities while finding your own balance. FIAB, the Italian Federation of Environment and Cycling, an organization that promotes the everyday use of bicycles and cycling, will also be talking about cycling at the Agri and Slow Travel Expo.
The accessibility of tourist sites is an increasingly discussed topic that requires attention and concrete solutions that make travel an experience within everyone’s reach. An ethical but also an economic choice, as will be underlined by the presence of ENAT at the Agri and Slow Travel Expo, the Brussels-based European Tourism Authority, which has around 350 members from more than 50 countries in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. , North and South America, Asia and Australia. ENAT will be present at the fair in collaboration with Accessible EU, which includes the main stakeholders in the sector, the Province of Bergamo.
The main theme of the fair will be food and wine, because it is through food that the true identity of a place emerges. Presentations and show cooking will celebrate these territories and invite you to taste their typical recipes. The area will be dedicated to “tasting the territory” through the products of the popular cuisine. On the other hand, the report on Italian gastronomy and wine tourism is also clear: 58% of travelers who made at least one trip in 2023 with food and wine as their main motivation were 58%, a figure 37 percentage points higher than in 2016. In absolute terms, it is estimated to be around 9.6 million.