The countryside is often considered to be the opposite of the city- it is an area where changes take place due to different factors – natural, cultural, and anthropogenic. Of great importance is the point that the rural landscape is part of our heritage and an important legacy of the past. Rural areas generally have great tourist potential, but very often lack strategic and long-term planning. Local gastronomy, based on historical and cultural traditions, can be the right way to promote them. Some typical products can be found in each territory: traditional food products, local wines, handmade products, etc. Teaching people to identify the strengths of their region and to support entrepreneurial activities in rural areas is the AGATA project’s goal (Support for Agriculture and Rural Tourism through the Center of Taste). The AGATA Project is co-financed by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ program. An inclusive network of local actors, methodology, and collaborative tools for creating a didactic restaurant and incubator built within the project will help those who are interested to discover products related to regional traditions, use their potential to build a attractive region for tourists, and thus improve services not only for tourists, but also for local people. The project will create the following intellectual outputs:
- IO1 – AGATA Regional Network and Toolkit: The Essential Toolkit to developing a Centre of Taste:
- To establish a Network of local actors that can contribute to the development of a region.
- IO2 – AGATA Actions Plans to develop the Centre of Taste: An innovative methodology for the enhancement of the characterization of the enogastronomy in selected areas:
- To discover of productions linked to territorial agricultural vocations, aiming at quality agriculture and to promote typical crops, food and wine and obtaining brands.
- To adapt Centre of Taste to local vocations by activating Agricultural and Tourism Specializations and enhance services for the local population.
- IO3 – AGATA online course: Multimedia open education resources