Turismo lento e sentieri del benessere: iniziative per l’Alto Casertano-Matese

The new century has seen a renewed interest in trail-based tourism and small settlements in inner areas, often characterized by isolation, depopulation, and unstable development trajectories, as highlighted by the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI). Despite these fragilities, such territories preserve highly attractive resources, including evocative landscapes, cultural heritage, and deeply rooted traditions. Slow tourism and short walking routes as sources of well-being intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, partly due to restrictions on outbound tourism, as confirmed by ISTAT data. Within this framework, the Alto Casertano–Matese area, in the province of Caserta, rich in landscape, cultural, and spiritual resources and crossed by the Via Francigena del Sud, represents an ideal context to explore how soft mobility, conscious landscape use, and identity-based narratives can foster sustainable attractiveness. Drawing on the scientific literature on walking tourism and inner areas, this paper critically reflects on the potential of well-being trails as tools for territorial enhancement, emphasizing the need for multilevel policies, integrated planning, and collaborative governance to promote sustainable reterritorialization and cultural regeneration.