Valcamonica- Rock Drawings

Date of Inscription:
1979 Valcamonica, situated in the Lombardy plain, has one of the world’s
greatest collections of prehistoric petroglyphs – more than 140,000
symbols and figures carved in the rock over a period of 8,000 years and
depicting themes connected with agriculture, navigation, war and magic.

Milan-Church
of Santa Maria delle Grazie with “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci

Date of Inscription:
1980 The refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie forms an
integral part of this architectural complex, begun in Milan in 1463 and
reworked at the end of the 15th century by Bramante. On the north wall
is
The Last Supper, the unrivalled masterpiece painted between 1495
and 1497 by Leonardo da Vinci, whose work was to herald a new era in the
history of art.

Capriate di S.
Gervasio-Crespi d’Adda

Date of Inscription:
1995 Crespi d’Adda in Capriate San Gervasio in Lombardy is an outstanding
example of the 19th- and early 20th-century ‘company towns’ built in
Europe and North America by enlightened industrialists to meet the
workers’ needs. The site is still remarkably intact and is partly used
for industrial purposes, although changing economic and social
conditions now threaten its survival.

Rhaetian Railway in the
Albula / Bernina Cultural Landscape (Switzerland and Italy)

Rhaetian Railway in the Albula
/ Bernina Landscapes, brings together two historic railway lines that
cross the Swiss Alps through two passes. The Albula was opened in 1904
and it is 67 km long, the Berlina 61 km. They are provided of  an
important set of structures tunnels, covered galleries, viaducts and
bridges.. It constitutes an outstanding technical, architectural and
environmental ensemble that had an important social role: promoting the
exchanges between mountain settlements.

Turin-Residences
of the Royal House of Savoy

Date of Inscription:
1997 When Emmanuel-Philibert, Duke of Savoy, moved his capital to Turin in
1562, he began a vast series of building projects (continued by his
successors) to demonstrate the power of the ruling house. This
outstanding complex of buildings, designed and embellished by the
leading architects and artists of the time, radiates out into the
surrounding countryside from the Royal Palace in the ‘Command Area’ of
Turin to include many country residences and hunting lodges.

Sacri Monti  

Date of Inscription:
2003 The nine Sacri of northern Italy are groups of chapels and other
architectural features created in the late 16th

and 17th

centuries and
dedicated to different aspects of the Christian faith. In addition to
their symbolic spiritual meaning, they are of great beauty by virtue of
the skill with which they have been integrated into the surrounding
natural landscape of hills, forests and lakes. They also house much
important artistic material in the form of wall paintings and statuary.

Dolomiti

The site of the Dolomites comprises a mountain range in the northern
Italian Alps, numbering 18 peaks which rise to above 3,000 meters and
cover 141,903 ha. It features some of the most beautiful mountain
landscapes anywhere, with vertical walls, sheer cliffs and a high
density of narrow, deep and long valleys. A serial property of nine
areas that present a diversity of spectacular landscapes of
international significance for geomorphology marked by steeples,
pinnacles and rock walls, the site also contains glacial landforms. It
is characterized by dynamic processes with frequent landslides, floods
and avalanches. The property also features one of the best examples of
the preservation of Mesozoic carbonate platform systems, with fossil
records.  

Aquileia-Archaeological
Area and the Patriarchal Basilica

Date of Inscription:
1998 Aquileia (in Friuli-Venezia Giulia), one of the largest and
wealthiest cities of the Early Roman Empire, was destroyed by Attila in
the mid-5th century. Most of it still lies unexcavated beneath the
fields, and as such it constitutes the greatest archaeological reserve
of its kind. The patriarchal basilica, an outstanding building with an
exceptional mosaic pavement, played a key role in the evangelization of
a large region of central Europe.

Venice and its Lagoon
Date of Inscription:
1987 Founded in the 5th century and spread over 118 small islands, Venice
became a major maritime power in the 10th century. The whole city is an
extraordinary architectural masterpiece in which even the smallest
building contains works by some of the world’s greatest artists such as
Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese and others.

Vicenza-City of Vicenza
and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto

Date of Inscription:
1994 Founded in the 2nd century B.C. in northern Italy, Vicenza prospered
under Venetian rule from the early 15th to the end of the 18th century.
The work of Andrea Palladio (1508–80), based on a detailed study of
classical Roman architecture, gives the city its unique appearance.
Palladio’s urban buildings, as well as his villas, scattered throughout
the Veneto region, had a decisive influence on the development of
architecture. His work inspired a distinct architectural style known as
Palladian, which spread to England and other European countries, and
also to North America.

Padua-Botanical Garden (Orto
Botanico) 

Date of Inscription:
1997 The world’s first botanical garden was created in Padua in 1545. It
still preserves its original layout – a circular central plot,
symbolizing the world, surrounded by a ring of water. Other elements
were added later, some architectural (ornamental entrances and
balustrades) and some practical (pumping installations and greenhouses).
It continues to serve its original purpose as a centre for scientific
research.  

Verona-City of Verona

Date of Inscription:
2000 The historic city of Verona was founded in the 1st century B.C. It
particularly flourished under the rule of the Scaliger family in the
13th and 14th centuries and as part of the Republic of Venice from the
15th to 18th centuries. Verona has preserved a remarkable number of
monuments from antiquity, the medieval and Renaissance periods, and
represents an outstanding example of a military stronghold.

Portovenere, Cinque Terre,
and the Islands (Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto)

Date of Inscription:
1997 The Ligurian coast between Cinque Terre and Portovenere is a cultural
landscape of great scenic and cultural value. The layout and disposition
of the small towns and the shaping of the surrounding landscape,
overcoming the disadvantages of a steep, uneven terrain, encapsulate the
continuous history of human settlement in this region over the past
millennium.

Ferrara- The City of the
Renaissance, and its Po Delta

Date of Inscription:
1995 Ferrara, which grew up around a ford over the River Po, became an
intellectual and artistic centre that attracted the greatest minds of
the Italian Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries. Here, Piero
della Francesca, Jacopo Bellini and Andrea Mantegna decorated the
palaces of the House of Este. The humanist concept of the ‘ideal city’
came to life here in the neighborhoods built from 1492 onwards by Biagio
Rossetti according to the new principles of perspective. The completion
of this project marked the birth of modern town planning and influenced
its subsequent development.
Ravenna-Early
Christian Monuments

Date of Inscription:
1996 Ravenna was the seat of the Roman Empire in the 5th century and then
of Byzantine Italy until the 8th century. It has a unique collection of
early Christian mosaics and monuments. All eight buildings – the
Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the Neonian Baptistery, the Basilica of
Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, the Arian Baptistery, the Archiepiscopal Chapel,
the Mausoleum of Theodoric, the Church of San Vitale and the Basilica of
Sant’Apollinare in Classe – were constructed in the 5th and 6th
centuries. They show great artistic skill, including a wonderful blend
of Greco-Roman tradition, Christian iconography and oriental and Western
styles.

Modena-Cathedral, Torre
Civica and Piazza Grande

Date of Inscription:
1997 The magnificent 12th-century cathedral at Modena, the work of two
great artists (Lanfranco and Wiligelmus), is a supreme example of early
Romanesque art. With its piazza and soaring tower, it testifies to the
faith of its builders and the power of the Canossa dynasty who
commissioned it.

Urbino-Historic Centre

Date of Inscription:
1998 The small hill town of Urbino, in the Marche, experienced a great
cultural flowering in the 15th century, attracting artists and scholars
from all over Italy and beyond, and influencing cultural developments
elsewhere in Europe. Owing to its economic and cultural stagnation from
the 16th century onwards, it has preserved its Renaissance appearance to
a remarkable extent.

Florence-Historic Centre

Date of Inscription:
1982

Built on
the site of an Etruscan settlement, Florence, the symbol of the
Renaissance, rose to economic and cultural preeminence under the Medici
in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its 600 years of extraordinary artistic
activity can be seen above all in the 13th-century cathedral (Santa
Maria del Fiore), the Church of Santa Croce, the Uffizi and the Pitti
Palace, the work of great masters such as Giotto, Brunelleschi,
Botticelli and Michelangelo.

Pisa-Piazza del Duomo

Date of Inscription:
1987
Standing in a large green expanse, Piazza del Duomo houses a group of
monuments known the world over. These four masterpieces of medieval
architecture – the cathedral, the baptistery, the campanile (the
‘Leaning Tower’) and the cemetery – had a great influence on monumental
art in Italy from the 11th to the 14th century.

San Gimignano-Historic
Centre

Date of Inscription:
1990 ‘San Gimignano delle belle Torri’ is in Tuscany, 56 km south of
Florence. It served as an important relay point for pilgrims traveling
to or from Rome on the Via Francigena. The patrician families who
controlled the town built around 72 tower-houses (some as high as 50 m)
as symbols of their wealth and power. Although only 14 have survived,
San Gimignano has retained its feudal atmosphere and appearance. The
town also has several masterpieces of 14th- and 15th-century Italian
art.  

Pienza-Historic Centre

Date of Inscription:
1996 It was in this Tuscan town that Renaissance town-planning concepts
were first put into practice after Pope Pius II decided, in 1459, to
transform the look of his birthplace. He chose the architect
Bernardo Rossellino, who applied the principles of his mentor, Leon
Battista Alberti. This new vision of urban space was realized in the
superb square known as Piazza Pio II and the buildings around it: the
Piccolomini Palace, the Borgia Palace and the cathedral with its pure
Renaissance exterior and an interior in the late Gothic style of south
German churches.

Siena-Historic Centre

Date of Inscription:
1995 Siena is the embodiment of a medieval city. Its inhabitants pursued
their rivalry with Florence right into the area of urban planning.
Throughout the centuries, they preserved their city’s Gothic appearance,
acquired between the 12th and 15th centuries. During this period the
work of Duccio, the Lorenzetti brothers and Simone Martini was to
influence the course of Italian and, more broadly, European art. The
whole city of Siena, built around the Piazza del Campo, was devised as a
work of art that blends into the surrounding landscape.

Val d’Orcia

Date of Inscription:
2004 The landscape of Val d’Orcia is part of the agricultural hinterland
of Siena, re-drawn and developed when it was integrated in the territory
of the city-state in the 14th and 15th centuries to reflect an idealized
model of good governance and to create an aesthetically pleasing
picture. The landscape’s distinctive aesthetics, flat chalk plains out
of which rise almost conical hills with fortified settlements on top,
inspired many artists. Their images have come to exemplify the beauty of
well-managed Renaissance agricultural landscapes. The inscription
covers: an agrarian and pastoral landscape reflecting innovative land
management systems; towns and villages; farmhouses; and the Roman Via
Francigena 

Assisi
-The Basilica of San Francesco and Other Franciscan Sites

Date of Inscription:
2000 Assisi, a medieval city built on a hill, is the birthplace of Saint
Francis, closely associated with the work of the Franciscan Order. Its
medieval art masterpieces, such as the Basilica of San Francesco and
paintings by Cimabue, Pietro Lorenzetti, Simone Martini and Giotto, have
made Assisi a fundamental reference point for the development of Italian
and European art and architecture.

Rome-Historic
Centre of Rome, the Properties of the Holy See and San Paolo Fuori le
Mura

Date of Inscription:
1980 Founded, according to legend, by Romulus and Remus in 753 B.C., Rome
was first the centre of the Roman Republic, then of the Roman Empire,
and it became the capital of the Christian world in the 4th century. The
World Heritage site, extended in 1990 to the walls of Urban VIII,
includes some of the major monuments of antiquity such as the Forums,
the Mausoleum of Augustus, the Mausoleum of Hadrian, the Pantheon,
Trajan’s Column and the Column of Marcus Aurelius, as well as the
religious and public buildings of papal Rome.

Tivoli-Villa Adriana

Date of Inscription:
1999 The Villa Adriana (at Tivoli, near Rome) is an exceptional complex of
classical buildings created in the 2nd century A.D. by the Roman emperor
Hadrian. It combines the best elements of the architectural heritage of
Egypt, Greece and Rome in the form of an ‘ideal city’.

Cerveteri , Tarquinia-Etruscan
Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia

Date of Inscription:
2004 These two large Etruscan cemeteries reflect different types of burial
practices from the 9th to the 1st century BC, and bear witness to the
achievements of Etruscan culture. The necropolis near Cerveteri, known
as Banditaccia, contains thousands of tombs organized in a city-like
plan, with streets, small squares and neighborhoods. The site contains
very different types of tombs: trenches cut in rock; tumuli; and some,
also carved in rock, in the shape of huts or houses with a wealth of
structural details. These provide the only surviving evidence of
Etruscan
residential architecture. The necropolis of Tarquinia, also known as
Monterozzi, contains 6,000 graves cut in the rock. It is famous for its
200 painted tombs, the earliest of which date from the 7th century BC.

Tivoli-Villa D’Este,
Tivoli

Date of Inscription:
2001 The Villa d’Este in Tivoli, with its palace and garden, is one of the
most remarkable and comprehensive illustrations of Renaissance culture
at its most refined. Its innovative design along with the architectural
components in the garden (fountains, ornamental basins, etc.) makes this
a unique example of an Italian 16th-century garden. The Villa d’Este,
one of the first giardini delle meraviglie, was an early model
for the development of European gardens.  

Naples-Historic Centre

Date of Inscription:
1995 From the Neapolis founded by Greek settlers in 470 B.C. to the city
of today, Naples has retained the imprint of the successive cultures
that emerged in Europe and the Mediterranean basin. This makes it a
unique site, with a wealth of outstanding monuments such as the Church
of Santa Chiara and the Castel Nuovo.

Pompei, Herculanum, Torre
Annunziata – Archaeological Areas

Date of Inscription:
1997 When Vesuvius erupted on 24 August A.D. 79, it engulfed the two
flourishing Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, as well as the many
wealthy villas in the area. These have been progressively excavated and
made accessible to the public since the mid-18th century. The vast
expanse of the commercial town of Pompeii contrasts with the smaller but
better-preserved remains of the holiday resort of Herculaneum, while the
superb wall paintings of the Villa Oplontis at Torre Annunziata give a
vivid impression of the opulent lifestyle enjoyed by the wealthier
citizens of the Early Roman Empire.

Costiera Amalfitana

Date of Inscription:
1997 The Amalfi coast is an area of great physical beauty and natural
diversity. It has been intensively settled by human communities since
the early Middle Ages. There are a number of towns such as Amalfi and
Ravello with architectural and artistic works of great significance. The
rural areas show the versatility of the inhabitants in adapting their
use of the land to the diverse nature of the terrain, which ranges from
terraced vineyards and orchards on the lower slopes to wide upland
pastures.  

Caserta-18th-Century Royal
Palace   with the Park, the Aqueduct of Vanvitelli and the San
Leucio Complex

Date of Inscription:
1997 The monumental complex at Caserta, created by the Bourbon king
Charles III in the mid-18th century to rival Versailles and the Royal
Palace in Madrid, is exceptional for the way in which it brings together
a magnificent palace with its park and gardens, as well as natural
woodland, hunting lodges and a silk factory. It is an eloquent
expression of the Enlightenment in material form, integrated into,
rather than imposed on, its natural setting.

Cilento and Vallo di Diano
– National Park with the Archeological sites of Paestum and Velia, and
the Certosa di Padula

Date of Inscription:
1998 The Cilento is an outstanding cultural landscape. The dramatic groups
of sanctuaries and settlements along its three east– west mountain
ridges vividly portray the area’s historical evolution: it was a major
route not only for trade, but also for cultural and political
interaction during the prehistoric and medieval periods. The Cilento was
also the boundary between the Greek colonies of Magna Graecia and the
indigenous Etruscan and Lucanian peoples. The remains of two major
cities from classical times, Paestum and Velia, are found there.

Matera- I Sassi 

Date of Inscription:
1993 This is the most outstanding, intact example of a troglodyte
settlement in the Mediterranean region, perfectly adapted to its terrain
and ecosystem. The first inhabited zone dates from the Palaeolithic,
while later settlements illustrate a number of significant stages in
human history. Matera is in the southern region of Basilicata.

Castel del Monte The
Castle

Date of Inscription:
1996 When the Emperor Frederick II built this castle near Bari in the 13th
century, he imbued it with symbolic significance, as reflected in the
location, the mathematical and astronomical precision of the layout and
the perfectly regular shape. A unique piece of medieval military
architecture, Castel del Monte is a successful blend of elements from
classical antiquity, the Islamic Orient and north European Cistercian
Gothic.

Alberobello – The Trulli

Date of Inscription:
1996 The trulli, limestone dwellings found in the southern region of
Puglia, are remarkable examples of drywall (mortarless) construction, a
prehistoric building technique still in use in this region. The trulli
are made of roughly worked limestone boulders collected from neighboring
fields. Characteristically, they feature pyramidal, domed or conical
roofs built up of corbelled limestone slabs.

Agrigento
– Archaeological Area

Date of Inscription:
1997 Founded as a Greek colony in the 6th century B.C., Agrigento became
one of the leading cities in the Mediterranean world. Its supremacy and
pride are demonstrated by the remains of the magnificent Doric temples
that dominate the ancient town, much of which still lies intact under
today’s fields and orchards. Selected excavated areas throw light on the
later Hellenistic and Roman town and the burial practices of its early
Christian inhabitants.

Piazza Armerina-Villa
Romana del Casale

Date of Inscription:
1997 Roman exploitation of the countryside is symbolized by the Villa
Romana del Casale (in Sicily), the centre of the large estate upon which
the rural economy of the Western Empire was based. The villa is one of
the most luxurious of its kind. It is especially noteworthy for the
richness and quality of the mosaics which decorate almost every room;
they are the finest mosaics in situ anywhere in the Roman world.

Aeolian Islands

Date of Inscription:
2000 The Aeolian Islands provide an outstanding record of volcanic
island-building and destruction, and ongoing volcanic phenomena. Studied
since at least the 18th century, the islands have provided the science
of vulcanology with examples of two types of eruption (Vulcanian and
Strombolian) and thus have featured prominently in the education of
geologists for more than 200 years. The site continues to enrich the
field of Vulcan logy.

Val di Noto-Late Baroque
Towns 

Date of Inscription:
2002 The eight towns in south-eastern Sicily: Caltagirone, Militello Val
di Catania, Catania, Modica, Noto, Palazzolo, Ragusa and Scicli, were
all rebuilt after 1693 on or beside towns existing at the time of the
earthquake which took place in that year. They represent a considerable
collective undertaking, successfully carried out at a high level of
architectural and artistic achievement. Keeping within the late Baroque
style of the day, they also depict distinctive innovations in town
planning and urban building.

Syracuse – The city and
the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica

Date of Inscription:
2005 The site consists of two separate elements, containing outstanding
vestiges dating back to Greek and Roman times: The Necropolis of
Pantalica contains over 5,000 tombs cut into the rock near open stone
quarries, most of them dating from the 13th to 7th century B.C. Vestiges
of the Byzantine era also remain in the area, notably the foundations of
the Anaktoron (Prince’s Palace). The other part of the property, Ancient
Syracuse, includes the nucleus of the city’s foundation as Ortygia by
Greeks from Corinth in the 8th century B.C.

Barumini- Su Nuraxi

Date of Inscription:
1997 During the late 2nd millennium B.C. in the Bronze Age, a special type
of defensive structure known as nuraghi (for which no parallel
exists anywhere else in the world) developed on the island of Sardinia.
The complex consists of circular defensive towers in the form of
truncated cones built of dressed stone, with corbel-vaulted internal
chambers. The complex at Barumini, which was extended and reinforced in
the first half of the 1st millennium under Carthaginian pressure, is the
finest and most complete example of this remarkable form of prehistoric
architecture.

Intangible heritage

During the last years UNESCO  has
started a plan to emphasize and safeguard among with the tangible
heritage the intangible one too. In fact it was created a Intangible
heritage list where are gathered a lot of particular, interesting
traditions, rituals, events strictly connected with the communities
where these were born.  Italy has, by now, two intangible heritage’s
examples.

Opera dei pupi. Sicily
(2008)

“Opera
dei pupi” is a very seated kinf of Sicilian puppet theatre. It was born
in 19th Century and it is still alive in Sicilian culture. The plot of
the shows is based on the medieval chivalry literature and the dialogs
are often improvised. The most important cities with a tradition of
“pupi” (decorated wooden puppets) are Palermo and Catania.  This
kind of theatre is usually managed by entire families that dedicate
their lives to Opera dei pupi.

 Canto a tenore. Sardinia
(2008)

Canto a
tenore is a kind of singing deeply seated in the pastoral culture of
Sardinia. It is form of polyphonic singing performed by a group of four
men that use four different voices called bassu, contra, boche and mesu
boche. One of its characteristics is the deep and guttural timbre of the
bassu and contra voices. It is performed standing in a close circle.
Canto a tenore is not a phenomenon disconnected from the communities on
the contrast is integral part of them.

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