Narration of Cultural Heritage as Antifragile Tool

In our contemporary, multicultural and globalizing society, what can help a fragile territory and community in the protection of its cultural heritage? While walking through a territory, you can realize how it offers itself as a story in continuous elaboration, able to give back ancient and authentic memories, but also to build new ones that can generate opportunities. In this sense, the ancient and spontaneous practice of narration can become an innovative antifragile tool: as an inclusive action for marginal individuals; as a new protection practice for small museums; as an opportunity that facilitates local development processes of depopulated territories, for tourists but also for communities themselves. After a discussion on the topic of narration and its antifragile abilities, we will describe the case of VENTO crossing Casale Monferrato, a small town in the Italian region of Piedmont. VENTO is a project for a cycle route that crosses northern Italy and hopes to mend the identity weave of depopulated territories, generating jobs through the narrative ability of the slow line.