Paper Title
Proposal for Sustainable Development for small Italian Municipalities for the Benefit of Cultural and Architectural Heritage

Abstract
The paper presents a proposal aims to maintenance and disseminate knowledge of the huge cultural and architectonical Heritage of the small Villages in Italy. Due to the current economic and demographic situation, a lot of these small Villages are progressive leaved. In the small municipalities there is a substantial part of cultural and architectural heritage: there are many historical buildings and operas that risk to decay. The methodology research used is an holistic approach to the all cultural, technical, economic and social aspects of the current situation. The European integrated transport system and the international tourism market have developed the country's most important rail routes and caused the rationalization of the number of stations railways: 1700 have been abandoned. Consequently a important part of the Country was disconnected with all its cultural heritage. The answer to the problem could be to understand and develope the small Villages (and their territories) like nodes of a bigger net. On the one hand the Art Cities with their logic, on the other hand the system of the small Villages with their caractheristics; and the two scenarios must be combained. A slow or open-air tourism, that is a sustainable activity, can become a sustainable engine of development for the promotion of the heritage of small Italian towns. Sustainability becomes a development strategy: with the aim of protecting human, artistic, environment. The concept of cultural and architectural heritage includes all the characteristics of the tradition of the places, which over the centuries give shape not only to the architectural emergency but also to the art, to the craftsmanship, to the enogastronomic tradition; a rediscovery of local territory and its added value: to be at kilometer zero. The research project can fit into the objectives of the European Community strategy Keywords - Architecture, Development, Heritage, Small Villages, Sustainability.