A reversal of fortune: highlands in Italian Western Alps (XXth-XXIth centuries)
Un revers de fortune: les hautes terres dans les Alpes italiennes occidentales
Résumé
This paper mainly deals with the changes that have occurred from the twentieth century onward in the relationships between the valley and the highlands in the western Italian Alps. In particular, it will examine the changes that have affected the rapport between lowlands and highlands, mainly after the growing success of winter sports. It has moved from a situation where the valley floor, the place where the factories of the second industrial revolution were built, were crucial from an economic point of view, to one in which gained ground the mountain resorts. This has had, as we shall see, significant consequences on land values in relation to the great growth of the construction of secondary homes. A very intense building activity with serious consequences from environmental and touristic point of view that will be explored in the paper