Following the great success of the previous editions of the project “Saperi e Sapori in cattedra”, promoted by the Honorary Consulat of Czech Republic together with the Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco® – Life Beyond Tourism® and realized mainly thanks to the financial support of Visegrad Fund (http://visegradfund.org/), the fourth edition is being organized for the period 26th February – 3rd March 2012 with the participation of schools from six counties: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Italy.

According to the spirit of Life Beyond Tourism® ethos, conceived by the Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco®, after ove 20years of activity, the project will be organized as an intensive one-week stage in Florence /Italy/. This stage is aimed at promoting cultural and educational exchange with the objective of bringing together 4 students and 1 pedagogue professor from each one of the Hospitality and Tourism Management schools of the 4 Visegrad member states (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary), with the cooperation of one Italian and  one Romanian schools for chefs.

Life Beyond Tourism® aims to worldwide promote intercultural dialogue through the valorisation of our tangible and intangible heritage and through a ‘tourism based on values, not only on consumer services’. Thus, Life Beyond Tourism® promotes the respect and the understanding of the visited place: its culture, and its traditional knowledge such as the cooking and food traditions. As a matter of fact, the symbol of LBT is a flower whose petals stand for ‘encounters’, ‘communication’, ‘knowledge’, ‘conservation’, and ‘economy’. This commitment looks at the young generations through the Web (www.lifebeyondtourism.org; www.lifebeyondtourism.org/photoblog). The aim of the photoblog is to collect pictures from all over the world representing and comparing different interpretations of heritage (such as food heritage), intercultural dialogue, cultural diversity, traditional knowledge, and travelling. The photo contribution of the website will be maintained to an high scientific level thanks to the involvement of also institutional and study groups such as the Italian ICOMOS Youth section and various students/ graduates of those Universities that are part of the Foundation’s network.

Project description

The project focuses on the exchange of cultural, social, political and eno-gastronomic aspects of each participating country.

Together with the possibility of meeting and working in teams in Florence, one of the World’s most important cities of Art, and visit various Florentine and Tuscan sights (always thematically connected with the field of their study), the students will have a chance to share their knowledge of the hospitality field and learn how to react and cooperate in an international work team while using the English language.

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