Patrimonio Mondiale: la Natura e le Impronte Umane

It is a common perception that the World Heritage is only represented by sites showing monuments and ruins from ancient times. Few people know that other buildings and architecture, natural assets, cultural passages and those "intangible cultural legacies", still present and alive, passed down through generations, which have become identity marks of communities and social groups: oral expressions, performing arts, social practices, rites and festivals, traditional crafts, are also part of that Heritage.

Places and goods, therefore, that bear witness to the traditions and cultures of Man and his creative genius, his interaction with the environment and his architectural constructions, Nature, landscapes and habitats of biodiversity.

Among fortified citadels, urban architecture, historic centres and gardens, cultural and spiritual places, monasteries, temples and churches, desert castles and terraced pyramids, deserts, savannahs and forests, the photos depict 39 World Heritage sites: Ait-Ben-Haddou (Morocco), Alcobaça (Portugal), Alto Douro (Portugal), Central Highlands (Sri Lanka), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Anjar (Lebanon), Antigua (Guatemala), Baalbek (Lebanon), Batalha (Portugal), Brugge (Belgium), Chiloé (Chile), Coimbra (Portugal), Dambulla (Sri Lanka), Echmiatsin and Zvartnots (Armenia), El Jadida (Morocco), Essaouira (Morocco), Fez (Morocco), Galle (Sri Lanka), Haghpat and Sanahin (Armenia), Kandy (Sri Lanka), West Lake (Hangzhou, China), Marrakesh (Morocco), Meknes (Morocco), Ngorongoro (Tanzania), Oporto (Portugal), Ouadi Qadisha (Lebanon), Petra (Jordan), Polonnaruwa (Sri Lanka), Quiriguá (Guatemala), Quseir Amra (Jordan), Rabat (Morocco), Rapa Nui (Chile), Serengeti (Tanzania), Sigiriya (Sri Lanka), Suzhou (China), Tikal (Guatemala), Valparaíso (Chile), Volubilis (Morocco), Wadi Rum (Jordan).

Adding to the exhibition are images of three elements included in the Unesco list of intangible cultural heritage, investigated by Michele Spadafora's lens. These include Portuguese Fado, the sad and nostalgic folk song of the Portuguese soul performed by a voice dialoguing with one or two guitars, sometimes accompanied by one or two violas. Born in Lisbon's Alfama district at the end of the Napoleonic wars, Fado (from 'fatum') is nowadays sung in the taverns and fado houses of the old part of the city: a man or woman sings of loves of misery and death, of pain and despair, of gloomy and inescapable destiny.

And again, the Jemaa el-Fna square, symbol of Marrakesh and of Morocco's popular tradition, located at the entrance to the Medina and meeting point by day and by night, packed with vendors and stalls, musicians and storytellers, dancers and healers, preachers and soothsayers, water carriers and snake charmers.

And finally, Armenia with its 'stone cross' or Khachkar, a commemorative stone stele enclosing a finely carved cross resting on the sun symbol (or eternal wheel), adorned with rosettes, weaves and plant motifs (rarely divine figures or saints), representing the perennial tree of life. Once erected, it is blessed and anointed, and becomes a religious sign.