Coming soon in Florence: The 8 Life Beyond Tourism® Principles – from Theory to Practice

Dear readers,

With a view to the conference The 8 Life Beyond Tourism® Principles-from Theory to Practice to be held in Florence on February 20th, 2011 at the Life Beyond Tourism® Auditorium al Duomo , we are collecting relevant contributions by the Romualdo Del Bianco Foundation‘s Experts, and we are glad to share them with you below.  Also,  please read more about the Life Beyond Tourism® Manifesto.

What: Conference The 8 Life Beyond Tourism® Principles-from Theory to Practice
When: February 20th, 2011; 10.00am – 1.00pm
Where: Life Beyond Tourism® Auditorium al Duomo, Via de’ Cerretani 54r, 50123 Florence, Italy

Contributions:

• New Opportunities of Tourism and Investment in Georgia – by Giuli Alasania, 2011 (Black Sea International University, Tbilisi, Georgia)
• Life beyond Tourism – Tourism belongs to life: Slovak example: Banská Štiavnica, City in UNESCO World Heritage List – by Egon Krák, 2011
• ELAICH – Educational Linkage Approach In Cultural Heritage, Heritage Education and Tourism – by Dr. Anna lobovikov-Katz,2011 (Technion – Israel Institute of Technology and ELAICH Coordinator)

– Post by Alessandra Brignola –

Domes in the World – Call for Paper

ANNOUNCEMENT:
“DOMES IN THE WORLD” CALL FOR PAPERS IS NOW OPEN!!!
International Congress, Florence, November 3-6, 2011
Conceived by the Romualdo Del Bianco Foundation in the context of  Life Beyond Tourism

Abstract submission deadline: July 31, 2010

Congress’ Main Sessions

I. Cultural Identity given by Domes
•    Ancient and Contemporary
•    Landscapes and Skylines

II. The Symbolism of Domes

III. Dome Shapes and their Geometrical Genesis

IV. Construction and Conservation
•    Constitutive Elements: Shells (single or double), Ground Supports, Pendentives, Drums, Openings,  Coverings  and      Protections, Facings, Decoration
•    Building and Conservation Techniques: Materials, Bonds, Structural Systems, Wooden Domes etc.
•    Survey, Analysis and Documentation: Objectives, Instruments, Methods
•    Deterioration and Conservation: Theory, History and Practices of Dome Strengthening

V. Contemporary Domes and Vaults

For more details regarding DOMES IN THE WORLD CLICK HERE
Application Information CLICK HERE

2011 International Conference ICOMOS ISC Theory to be held in Florence, Italy

The Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco – Organizing Secretariat of ICOMOS ISC Theory – is pleasant to inform that the 2011 International Conference ICOMOS ISC Theory will be held in Florence, Italy from 4th to 6th of March 2011 with the title “Intangible in the Tangible: Theory and Practice”.

An Encyclopedic Dictonary for Florentine guides and tourists

Today we would like to inform all of our readers about a new, innovative tool for Florentine guides and tourists. A new dictonary of european artists and writers whose work has been deeply influenced by the city of Florence, both visually and culturally:

Florence in the works of European Writers and Artists: Encyclopedic Dictionary for Guides and Tourists, by Ivanovo State University.

The project has been promoted by the Ivanovo State University and the Romualdo Del Bianco Foundation, and it has been edited by the Ivanovo State University. It is the final work of a series of workshops held in Florence from 2004 to 2009 by Ivanovo State University’s faculty members: Prof. Nina Revyakina and  Prof. Dmitry Polyvyannyi (2004-2006); Prof. Nadezhda Usoltseva (2006), Prof. Olga Karpova (2008-2009).

Please click here to download and read the publication.

ICOMOS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Life Beyond Tourism, together with Vivahotels and

Auditorium al Duomo, is sponsoring

ICOMOS INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

THE IMAGE OF HERITAGE
Changing Perception, Permanent Responsibilities

Project Leader: Prof. Andrzej Tomaszewski
President of the ICOMOS ISC Theory
Email: icomos.theory@fondazione-delbianco.org

Since the beginning of civilization, man’s main form of contact with works of architecture has consisted in visiting them physically(pilgrimages, journeys and recently tourism). Getting to know them indirectly from descriptions or visually was possible only through the media, changing and becoming more powerful with altering technology (printing techniques, graphic techniques, photography, film, television, recently computer technology).

The current rapid development of tourism and the media and their increasing accessibility have in recent years radically changed our perception of the cultural heritage.

These changes require a scientific description and analysis, leading to a diagnosis of the current situation and a prognosis of future developments.
What role should tourism have, and how can it be made into sustainable cultural tourism? What role and responsibility should the media take on? What benefits and threats do the development of tourism and the media bring with them? What kind of approach should the international movement for the conservation of the cultural and natural heritage adopt towards these phenomena?

Experts of the Romualdo Del Bianco Foundation, all members of ICOMOS, member states of ICCROM, the network of the Romualdo Del Bianco Foundation, and anyone interested have the possibility of attending the conference.

Online the proceedings! – CLICK HERE!!

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE LIFE BEYOND TOURISM® ASSOCIATION

FOUNDING PRINCIPLES OF THE ASSOCIATION

“Life Beyond Tourism for Intercultural Dialogue” is an association that proposes to disseminate, both in Italy and abroad, the founding principles of an initiative known as Life Beyond Tourism® originally formulated by Paolo Del Bianco, the promoter and chairman of the Romualdo Del Bianco Foundation in Florence, and designed to promote a form of tourism based on values rather than on the mere offer of services to the traveler.

To date, Life Beyond Tourism® has attracted the patronage of ICCROM, of the Tuscan Regional Authority, of the Florence Provincial Authority and of the Florence Municipal Authority.

Transcending consumer tourism, the cultural initiative known as Life Beyond Tourism® aims to help foster and disseminate such universal values as respect and harmony among peoples through intercultural dialogue and an awareness of, and familiarity with, cultural diversity and traditional knowledge.

Life Beyond Tourism® was officially launched in the Salone dei Duecento, in Florence’s city hall, Palazzo Vecchio, on 15 March 2008 (a practical experiment began on that date at the Vivahotel Pitti Palace al Ponte Vecchio and is still under way) with the participation of

– Deputy Mayor Eugenio Giani

– Antonio Natali, director of the Uffizi Gallery

– Maurizio Bossi, director of the G.P. Vieusseux Literary and Scientific Cabinet’s Center for Romantic Studies

– ICCROM Director General Mounir Bouchenaki, represented for the occasion by Andrzej Tomaszewski, chairman of the ICOMOS International Committee for the Theory and Philosophy of Conservation and Restoration, and by Limburg Cultural Heritage Center Director Marc Laenen, both of whom are Emeritus Director Generals of ICCROM (International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property)

– and in the presence of Maurizio di Stefano, chairman of the Italian National ICOMOS Committee

– along with over 90 experts from 23 countries on three continents, and of an authoritative audience of Florentine citizens.

The launch of the “Life Beyond Tourism for Intercultural Dialogue” Association was designed to provide a framework for the implementation and practical application of a “Declaration of Intent” signed on 16 March 2008 by those who attended the project’s presentation the day before. This declaration acknowledges the importance both of the “Life Beyond Tourism” project per se and of getting it started; it voices the hope that the project’s promotion, development and immediate practical application may take off also at the international level, in harmony with such international and intergovernmental institutions as UNESCO, ICCROM, UNWTO, the Council of Europe, and with such International NGO’s as ICOMOS, IUCN and ICOM. It also aims to promote the development of training curricula in cooperation with UNESCO, ICCROM, UNWTO and the tourist industry in order to further intercultural dialogue.

Life Beyond Tourism® is designed to help as vast a number of tourists as possible impart a quantum leap to the quality of their demand — a demand aimed not only, or not so much, at standard tourist industry services, and more at the world of values which can provide the real motivation behind those services, thus making tourists’ own investment in time and money more fruitful. In keeping with this aim, the Association aims to help to make cultural heritage easier to interpret and more easily comprehensible, as a crucial tool for fostering intercultural dialogue and an awareness of, and familiarity with, cultural diversity and traditional knowledge.

At the same time, “Life Beyond Tourism” hopes to be able to help boost an awareness in the tourist industry itself of the importance not so much of increasing the amount of services offered, as of fostering intercultural dialogue, and of using healthy competition in that field as a yardstick of success. In conclusion, Life Beyond Tourism is designed to change the current cliché “Been there, done that… “ into “I have familiarized with … “, “I have realized …. “, “I have understood that there is a whole world of values out there for me to delve into and embrace”; also, it aims to help boost people’s awareness, limiting or restricting the number of their potential yet inappropriate “certainties”. Thanks to the reversal of perspective proposed by “Life Beyond Tourism”, that very tourism which is helping today to ‘standardize’ the world and to threaten both our tangible and our intangible universal heritage, can help to safeguard and to enhance the diversity of expression that is the very lifeblood of that heritage.