In recent years Italy has had to deal with its most serious economic crisis since the post-WWII years. A crisis that has radically changed the Italian economic and financial structure, as well as the prospects for future development and employment. In this context, there has been a continuing growth and evolution in the appreciation and promotion of the Designation of Origin agro-food productions, and the enogastronomy has become one of the cornerstones of the Country's tourism strategies. In light of the above, the author wants to bring together and annotate in this book the studies that she conducted during the first decade of this century on the value of Designations of Origin, wine tourism, and the development of Designation of Origin territories, with the aim of understanding and communicating the factors that have come to determine these successful paths. These studies were conducted in collaboration with some of the most important Italian organizations in this field, from the Emilia-Romagna Regional Administration to the Associazione Nazionale Città del Vino (National Association of Wine Cities).

Silvia Gatti, an economist who received her education from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Modena in the 1980s, is currently permanent assistant professor in Economic Policy at the School of Economics, Management, and Statistics of the University of Bologna, where she teaches Health Economics and Environmental Economics. She is a member of the American Economic Association and of the American Association of Wine Economists.