Take it slow to look around: the Slow Tourism Festival

Choose the tortoise over the leopard: the tortoise travels at a hundred per hour, but over a hundred metres; the leopard at sixty-five per hour, but over sixty-five kilometres. Choose time over space, the eye over the screen, feet over vehicles, legs over engines, water (but also beer and wine) over petrol (but also diesel and coal). Choose slowness over haste. In short, slow is strong. The emphasis is key. That’s all there is to it.

The Slow Tourism Festival stems from this philosophy: zero kilometres, or nearly so; zero kilometres per hour, or nearly so. And looking around. To observe and study, explore and discover, breathe and live, touch and learn, even eat and drink; not to use and throw away but to gather and collect; not to copy and paste but to verify and compare. Everything: first and foremost nature, which is geography, history and science; then culture and art; then entertainment; and always society.

In Bracciano, from Friday 9 to Sunday 11 October. The Slow Tourism Festival is a project by Ti con zero/Cammino dei Vulcani, organised in partnership with Gemal APS (the Upper Lazio Ecological and Mycological Group) and realised with the support and patronage of Bracciano Town Council; it is also sponsored by the Veio Regional Nature Park, the Marturanum Regional Nature Park, the Lake Bracciano Consortium and the Agricultural University of Bracciano, and benefits from the valuable collaboration of the Bracciano Civic Museum.

While the first edition, in 2025, was experimental and even somewhat provocative—a way of secretly seeing, as Enzo Jannacci sang in “Vengo anch’io”, what effect it would have—the second edition is certainly a celebration, but above all a festival, a census and a gathering, a community and a series of collaborations, a sense of belonging and a showcase of local strengths. For example, the participation of five science museums in the Lazio Region (the Natural History Museum in Barbarano Romano, the Archaeological and Natural History Museum in Allumiere, the Energy Museum in Ripi, the River Museum in Nazzano and the Flower Museum in Acquapendente), as well as the Bio Parco Foundation in Rome, the Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at Roma Tre, and the Torre Flavia Nature Reserve – all offering educational materials, exhibits, games and experiments. For example, there are exhibitions and talks on mushrooms and wild herbs organised by Gemal. For example, with day and night excursions into the woods of Bracciano with the WWF, or to the Monterano Nature Reserve with Guido Prola; to Cerveteri in Etruscan territory with Giuseppe Trogu; to Anguillara to the Roman villa of Acqua Claudia with Paolo Lorizzo; or to Tolfa amongst abbeys and temples with Archeonatura. For example, with a guided tour of the medieval village of Bracciano, where three dancers (Anna Paola Bacalov, Eva Paciulli and Aurora Pica) will magically appear, or with a guided tour of Palazzo Ruspoli in Cerveteri, home to an extraordinary ornithological collection.

The Slow Tourism Festival officially begins on Friday at 6.30 pm at the Bracciano Historical Archive with a public interview with Alfredo Di Giovampaolo, who presents his programme “Sulla strada” on Rainews24, followed by a slide show of photographs by Socrate Pontanari, Bracciano’s living history, and the Bossa Lounge Sessions featuring Francesco Gazzara (organ and electric piano), Massimo Sanna (bass) and Mauro “Mirtao” Mirti (drums and percussion). Admission (as everywhere at the Festival) is free. However, this second ‘slow’ edition has actually got off to a flying start, even earlier than planned, with meetings with students and Nico Marziali’s large, painterly photograph on display in Piazza IV Novembre, in front of Bracciano Town Hall. Yes: slow is fast.